Former U.S. Navy Sailor Plotted Jihadist Attack on Training Center

 

A former U.S. Navy sailor has pleaded guilty to charges of planning an attack on the U.S. Navy's main training center for enlisted personnel, according to the U.S. Justice Department. The plea agreement occurred in November, but remained sealed and was only publicly announced last week.

Illinois resident Xuanyu Harry Pang, 38, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to injure and destroy national defense material, with intent to harm the national defense. The plea was entered on November 5th at a federal court in Chicago.  

In mid-2021, Pang began communicating with an unnamed person in Colombia about a plan to carry out a jihadist attack in the United States. The motive for the conspiracy was to avenge the death of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian paramilitary leader who was assassinated by U.S. forces in 2020. Soleimani led Iran's IRGC Quds Force, the organization responsible for Iran's covert operations and proxy forces. 

U.S. investigators inserted themselves into this conspiracy and got Pang to meet with undercover agents who posed as Quds Force affiliates. In the fall of 2022, undercover agents met up with Pang in Chicago and in Lake Bluff, a suburb next to Naval Station Great Lakes. As the "conspirators" developed their plan to attack the naval station, Pang provided them with material assistance, according to the Justice Department: he admitted that he gave them photos and videos of key locations inside the base, as well as two military uniforms and a cell phone to be used to test a detonator. 

Pang has been held without bail and will soon be sentenced. The maximum penalty for his offense is up to 20 years in prison. 

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service worked with the FBI's Chicago counterterrorism task force to pursue the case, and called it "a shining example of outstanding proactive investigative work" with multiple agency partners.