He was born in the USA — and wanted a chance to destroy it.
A Long Island high-school student faces up to 30 years in prison for attempting to join a Yemeni branch of al Qaeda so he could wage jihad against America, authorities said yesterday.
Justin Kaliebe, 18, of Babylon, was arrested by NYPD and FBI agents at JFK Airport in January as he prepared to board a flight to Oman, according to a complaint.
He planned to continue by land to Yemen to sign up with an al Qaeda affiliate, officials said.
Kaliebe, who converted to Islam in his early teens, told undercover agents that he wanted to wage war against America and its international interests.
“Kaliebe attempted to turn his back on his country and align with radical terrorists,” Eastern District US Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a written statement. “His goal was to travel overseas to wage violent jihad against Yemeni and US forces opposed to al Qaeda.”
Prosecutors said Kaliebe’s terror aspirations became apparent during the fall of 2011 in conversations with an NYPD Intelligence Division undercover officer.
The agent convinced Kaliebe — who was active in a local mosque — that he was Yemeni and could facilitate Kaliebe’s entry into the country.
The suspicious teen asked the agent on tape to “assure him that he was not going to ‘rat him out’ and after the operative assured him he would not, Kaliebe indicated that he wanted to join a group ‘for the sake of Allah,’ ” according to court papers.
“There is no way out for me. The only way out is martyrdom,” he told the agent, according to court papers.
Wearing a light beard and a khaki prison suit, the Babylon HS student appeared glum and detached at his appearance in Central Islip yesterday. He pleaded guilty to federal charges of attempting to provide material assistance to a terror organization.
Prosecutors agreed to ship him to a facility in North Carolina for mental-health tests.
During one recorded conversation, Kaliebe expressed admiration for Osama bin Laden’s ability to bring America “to its knees.”
In an e-mail, Kaliebe wrote, “I pledge my loyalty, allegiance and fidelity to the Mujahedeen of Al-Qaa’idah in the Arabian Peninsula and its leaders, Shaykh Abu Baseer Nasir Al-Wuhayshi and Shaykh Ayman Al-Zawahiri.”
Born to Christian parents, Kaliebe told members of a chat room in 2010 that he thought he was going to be kicked out of his house because of his interest in Islam.
“My mom found my Qu’ran translation and Islamic pamphlets from the mosque and now she thinks I’m a ‘terrorist’ (I had to go Lowkey on her if after that),” his post states. “If I’m not here for a few days, that means that I’ve been kicked out of my house.”
There was no answer at his parents home yesterday afternoon.
Additional reporting by Natasha Velez