Doctor who spent time in Rochester charged with attempting to join ISIS
A former Rochester medical researcher is being charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
Muhammad Masood, 28, was arrested at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport on Thursday while trying to get to Syria to “fight on the front line as well as help the wounded brothers,” federal authorities said.
Masood, a licensed doctor from Pakistan, had been working in Rochester for the past two years as a research coordinator in the Mayo Clinic Department of Cardiovascular Diseases.
His time here was covered under a temporary visa, known as a H-1B, that is issued to skilled workers from abroad. A Mayo spokesperson said he was not, however, employed by the Clinic at the time of his arrest.
According to an affidavit, the FBI began investigating Masood in January after he began posting messages on an encrypted social media platform suggesting his intent to support ISIS, also known as the Islamic State.
In the months that followed, he allegedly went on to pledge his allegiance to ISIS and its leader, and expressed his desire to travel to Syria to fight for the terrorist organization. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force said he also indicated a willingness to conduct a “lone wolf” attack in the U.S.
“Sometimes I (want to) attack enemy when I am behind enemy (lines) itself” because “not many people cant even reach here to attack,” Masood wrote, according to the criminal complaint.
Masood had originally booked a flight from Chicago to Jordan; however, those plans changed after Jordan closed its borders to incoming travel due to the coronavirus. Authorities said he then made a new plan to fly from MSP to Los Angeles to “meet up with an individual who he believed would assist him with travel via cargo ship to deliver him to ISIS territory.”
While it is not exactly clear when Masood left his job at Mayo, he did tell an informant in February that his final day would be March 17.
Masood now remains in custody awaiting his first court hearing, set for next Tuesday. The charge he faces carries up to 20 years in prison.
Cover photo: FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.
