Army soldier wanted to carry out attack in U.S., FBI says

An Army soldier was arrested for allegedly passing on bomb-making instructions to fellow “radicals” and sought to blow up cell towers and news stations, authorities announced on Monday.

Jarrett William Smith, a 24-year-old stationed out of Fort Riley in Kansas, was arrested on Saturday and charged with one count of distributing information related to explosives and weapons of mass destruction, U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said.

In a chat Friday on the cloud-based instant messaging service, Telegram, an undercover agent said he wanted to target a “liberal Texas mayor” for bombing and asked Smith if he had any other suggestions, according to an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Brandon LaMar.

“Outside of Beto?” Smith allegedly responded, in an apparent reference to Democratic presidential candidate and El Paso native, Beto O’Rourke. “I don’t know enough people that would be relevant enough to cause a change if they died.”

Earlier in that same chat, Smith told an undercover agent of his fondness for the AK-47 rifle.

Just a week earlier, O’Rourke threw down the gauntlet in his opposition to high-capacity weapons in the hands of civilians.

“Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” O’Rourke said at a Democratic debate.

The suspect, Smith, had initially wanted to fight overseas for a far-right Ukrainian paramilitary group, according to LaMar.

During his 2018 flirtation with the Ukrainian militia, Smith said passed on instructions on how to make improvised explosive devices (IED)that could be detonated with a cell phone, according to the FBI.

And by this past August, Smith told an FBI source that he also wanted to conduct “an attack within the United States” and that he was “looking for more ‘radicals’ like himself,” according to LeMar.

“Smith talked with the confidential source about killing members of the far left group, Antifa, as well as destroying nearby cell towers or local news station,” the affidavit said.

And on Aug. 21, Smith specifically told an undercover agent that he wanted to build a “large vehicle bomb” to attack a major news outlet, according to the FBI.

Smith said ordinary household chemicals could be used for bomb-making but said it’s important to buy the materials separately so “the randomness will aid you in the case of searches and the materials themselves usually aren’t considered suspicious,” LaMar wrote.

Smith, who enlisted in the Army in June 2017, could face up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 of convicted.