WASHINGTON – A U.S. woman charged with plotting bomb attacks in the U.S. and training an all-female battalion to fight for the Islamic State was ordered detained Monday at her initial federal court appearance in Virginia.
Allison Elizabeth Fluke-Ekren, 42, a former teacher and resident of Kansas, was charged May 15, 2019, with providing support to a known terrorist organization, according to court records. The case remained sealed until she was caught and transferred to federal authorities in Virginia.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Ivan Davis ordered her held, pending a detention hearing Thursday. She was also assigned a defense lawyer, Joseph King, who declined comment.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh had argued in a court filing that Fluke-Ekren should be detained pending trial because she is a firm believer in radical ideology. A witness who interacted with her in Syria said she was radicalized "off the charts," rating an "11 or 12" on a scale of one to 10, Parekh said.
Counterterrorism experts said it is extremely unusual for a woman – especially an American citizen – to participate in an international Islamic terrorist organization, which traditionally subjugate females to little more than sex workers whose job it is to raise children and tend to domestic duties.
“The charges against Allison Fluke-Ekren are a disturbing reminder of how ISIS was able to inspire and radicalize thousands of foreign extremists to travel to its strongholds in Iraq and Syria and engage in a variety of activities,” Javed Ali, a former senior U.S. counterterrorism official at the FBI, White House and National Security Council in the Trump administration, told USA TODAY. “Fluke-Ekren and other women were able to assume roles in combat units and provide ideas for attacks abroad, which made them different since women in al-Qaida and its associated groups had more traditional family responsibilities.”
Fluke-Ekren left the U.S. in 2008 for Egypt, where she lived until 2011, before spending a year in Libya, according to court records. By 2012, a witness said she was smuggled into Syria because she allegedly wanted to engage in violent holy war, according to court records.
Fluke-Ekren was allegedly engaged in terrorism-related activities from 2014 to 2017, based on interviews with six witnesses who interacted with her there, according to FBI Special Agent David Robins.
She allegedly recruited others for a potential terror attack on a U.S. college campus, Robins said in the criminal complaint. Rather than a suicide attack, her alleged plan was to drop off a backpack filled with explosives, in revenge for an airstrike on a market area near al-Bab, Syria, according to Robins. A witness said Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in 2019, approved funding for the attack, according to the FBI.
Fluke-Ekren also allegedly explained to one witness that she could go to a shopping mall, park a vehicle packed with explosives and detonate it with a cellphone, and that she would consider the attack a waste of resources if it didn’t kill a large number of people, according to Robins. But she didn't pursue the attack because her husband objected, Robins said.
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She crossed the border from Turkey into Syria in 2014, one witness told the FBI. Her former husband was a leader of snipers for the Islamic State, Robins said. Fluke-Ekren and her former husband allegedly brought $15,000 to Syria to buy AK-47 rifles, grenades and other military-style items, Robins said. A witness saw rifles at her home often and one of her sons was seen holding a machine gun at age 5 or 6, Robins said.
Fluke-Ekren also allegedly organized a military battalion in 2016 called Khatiba Nusaybah, which trained women and children how to use AK-47 rifles, grenades and suicide belts, according to prosecutors. Fluke-Ekren, who speaks English, Arabic, Turkish and Spanish, allegedly provided lodging and translated speeches made by Islamic State leaders, according to prosecutors.
The female fighters were wives of male Islamic State fighters, according to prosecutors. A witness told investigators Fluke-Ekren wanted to train women how to protect themselves, such as when Raqqa, Syria, was under siege in 2017. The location of Islamic State’s headquarters was under siege from June to October 2017 by Syrian Democratic Forces, which reclaimed control of the city, according to prosecutors.
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One of Fluke-Ekren's former husbands was killed in an airstrike in Tell Abyad, Syria, in 2016, according to Robins. Another former husband, who specialized in drones, died in late 2016 or 2017, according to Robins. A third husband was a prominent Islamic State military leader who was responsible for defending Raqqa, according to Robins.
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