HOUSTON (Covering Katy News) - A 34-year-old former substitute teacher and resident of Sugar Land admits he's traveled abroad to receive military training from ISIS, a terrorist organization that conducts and inspires deadly attacks worldwide.
U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani says Warren Christopher Clark pleaded guilty to receiving military training from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. Clark was sentenced this week after pleading guilty in 2023. It was not revealed where he served as a substitute teacher.
Clark was part of a group of foreign fighters captured in 2019 on the battlefield in Syria by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces during a raid. He was one of roughly 300 Americans who left or tried to leave the U.S. to assist the Islamic State in its fight in Syria.
NBC News reported that Clark's résumé was found at a house in Iraq. His cover letter said he was hoping to obtain a job teaching English to students in territory seized by ISIS.
Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the George Washington University Program on Extremism, tracks extremists and first identified Clark after his resume and application were found.
According to reports, nearly all of the adults who were foreign fighters for ISIS were disillusioned by their experiences, and many of those who have been convicted have received leniency for offering information on the terrorist organization.
Federal Judge George Hanks sentenced Clark to ten years and a lifetime of supervised release once when he completes his prison term.
Clark crossed into Syria from Turkey in June 2015, aware of the ISIS's reputation for beheadings, he told NBC News. He also told the TV network he wanted to “see what the group was about.” He said he was drawn to ISIS out of curiosity over its ideology.
In handing down the sentence, Judge Hanks noted how Clark's criminal and irresponsible behavior betrayed the values of this country and that he hoped Clark served every second of his sentence.
"In the interests of national security, our laws prohibit Americans from receiving military training from designated foreign terrorist organizations," U.S. Attorney Hamdani said. "Warren Clark ran afoul of those laws when he illegally crossed the border into Syria and underwent military training from ISIS, a brutal terrorist organization. Thanks to international partnerships, Clark was brought back to the United States to face the consequences of his crimes."
Federal prosecutors say Clark admitted that he illegally traveled from Turkey into Syria, where he took mandatory religious and military training. He also told family members that he was living happily abroad and would not return to the United States unless "the Islamic State conquers the U.S.," noting he thought he would be imprisoned here if he did come back.
He later called himself a citizen of the Islamic State and renounced his U.S. citizenship.
The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and police departments in Houston and Sugar Land conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys S. Mark McIntyre and Craig M. Feazel prosecuted the case along with Trial Attorney Michael J. Dittoe of the Department of Justice Counter Terrorism Section.