A 30-year-old Houston resident has pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges after admitting to supporting terror attacks in the name of ISIS and spreading the organization’s propaganda on social media, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on July 27.
Anas Said was arrested at his Houston apartment on Nov. 14, 2024, and has remained in custody. Said will be detained until his sentencing in October, according to the Department of Justice.
“We stopped a potential terrorist attack from happening right here in Houston,” the FBI announced on X the day of the arrest. “Any day we can publicly say that is a good day.”
U.S. District Judge David Hittner accepted the plea on July 24 and is expected to sentence Said on Oct. 16. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison and five years for making false statements, and could also be ordered to pay up to a $250,000 maximum fine on each count.
Federal agents had been tracking Said since 2017 as he had become increasingly violent in his messaging, according to authorities.
“He admitted wanting to use explosives to commit a mass killing here in Houston,” FBI Special Agent Doug Williams said on Nov. 21, 2024, at a press conference.
“He offered his home as a safe sanctuary to ISIS operatives. He bragged he would commit a 9/11 style act if he only had the resources.”
Said’s case was later sealed by the district court judge at the request of federal prosecutors for national security purposes, because evidence included classified information.
Federal prosecutors said Said was a pledged supporter of ISIS and used various social media accounts to post, share, or disseminate the organization’s propaganda.
They said he also allegedly discussed ISIS propaganda using Telegram, an anonymous messaging app, where he received feedback on media he created.
In one message, Said apparently talked about sending a video clip he designed to the Sarh al-Khilafah Institution, which agreed to publish it on their channel. The institution, also known as Tower of the Caliphate, is a cloud-based repository for the ISIS terrorist group.
Before publishing his media, Said concealed his support of ISIS by removing his name as the video designer, according to federal prosecutors.
Said also pleaded guilty to lying to law enforcement about a weapon he possessed and discussed on social media, prosecutors said.
As part of the plea, Said admitted to saying he was “thinking and hoping to kill infidels with a weapon and as many people as possible in order to heal my heart,” according to prosecutors.
Said’s lead attorney Sufia Khalid, with the National Security Criminal Defense Center of the Muslim Legal Fund of America, didn’t return The Epoch Times’ request for comment before publication time.
