A U.S. Army private who read Islamic State and neo-Nazi propaganda shared his own unit’s details to an extremist group to orchestrate an attack.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York indicted Ethan Phelan Melzer, who went by Etil Reggad, after he worked with the extremist group Order of the Nine Angles (O9A) to carry out an attack on his Army unit. The 14-page indictment details how Melzer read O9A and ISIS propaganda before reaching out to the neo-Nazi group to orchestrate the attack.
“For example, in connection with the investigation, the FBI seized from an iCloud account maintained by MELZER an ISIS-issued document with a title that included the phrase ‘HARVEST OF THE SOLDIERS’ and described attacks and murders of U.S. personnel in or about April 2020,” the indictment reads.
The indictment accuses Melzer of reaching out to O9A “and a related group known as the ‘RapeWaffen Division’” after he and his unit were informed they would be deployed to a another foreign country. The unit was currently assigned to a U.S. military facility in Europe.
“After MELZER was notified of the assignment, he used an encrypted messaging application to send messages to members and associates of O9A and a related group known as the ‘RapeWaffen Division,’ including communications regarding MELZER’s commitment to O9A and sensitive information related to his unit’s anticipated deployment such as the unit’s locations, movements, and security, for the purpose of facilitating an attack on the unit,” the indictment says.
The indictment describes members and associates of O9A as having “espoused violent, neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, and Satanic beliefs, and have expressed admiration for, among others, Nazis, such as Adolf Hitler, and Islamic jihadists, such as Usama Bin Laden, the now-deceased former leader of al Qaeda, which the U.S. Department of State designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on or about October 8, 1999.”
Melzer allegedly worked on the attack with the group since 2019. The indictment alleges he worked with at least one person outside the United States, as well as other people.
On May 17, Melzer allegedly exchanged communications with a purported member of al Qaeda regarding his Army unit and its deployment. Around May 23, the indictment says, Melzer sent messages to an O9A-related group chat that explain he was “risking [his] literal free life” by disclosing information about his unit and was “expecting results.” He added that his “life would be absolutely meaningless in the amount of s**t it [i.e., the attack] would cause.” He also used the word “mascal,” which apparently means “mass casualty.”
Melzer told another participant on May 24 that he didn’t care if another 10-year war started or if he died in the attack. Melzer was charged with one count of conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, one count of attempted murder of U.S. nationals, one count of conspiracy to murder U.S. service members, one count of attempted murder of U.S. service members, among other charges.
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