all right. new in the last hour cnn learned a second suspect has been arrested in connection with a kansas man s plot to bomb a u.s. army base. the justice department says alexander blair, 28 knew about 20-year-old john booker s plan to detonate a car bomb at ft. riley, but didn t report it. meanwhile, booker also known as muhammad abdela hasan is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to damage property by means of an explosive, and attempting to provide material support to isis. the fbi says it was booker s facebook posts that first got their attention last year. cnn s evan perez has more. reporter: a 20-year-old american man was arrested as he prepared to carry out what he thought was a suicide bombing at ft. riley army base in kansas. john t. booker enlisted last year in the army. but the army cancelled his enlistment before he showed up for basic training. that s after the fbi says it found facebook postings claiming he wanted to carry out jihad
when the army learned and the fbi notified the army of what this was about they terminated his entry a month ago. so once that happened he decided that s it i m going to assemble a bomb and put it in the trunk of my car and be a suicide bomber and crash the gate and blow it up. the other subject arrested in connection with it knew that s what he wanted to do helped him rent a garage space where he could store the explosive that he was going to acquire and provided significant help to him. it was more than just he knew about it and didn t inform the authorities. he knew about it and was helping him go forward with this even though he wasn t going to be a bomber himself. this 20-year-old john booker arrested second arrest of 28-year-old alexander blair, in your view might there be others? not that i know of. i think this had gone and i m not aware or they would have probably already been arrested.
attacks. booker also goes by the name muhammad abdallah hasan. the fbi says he wanted to carry out friday s attack for isis. two undercover fbi informants helped orchestrate a sting operation, helping him buy components what he thought were explosives. booker was interviewed last year by the fbi about the facebook posts. one read i will soon be leaving you forever. so goodbye. i m going to wage jihad in hopes i die. the fbi says he told agents he wanted to carry out an inside terrorist attack like the one on ft. hood in 2009 that killed 13 people. thanks so much evan perez. and according to reports, a muslim muslim cleric says john booker was mentally ill and was acting strangely days before his arrest. this is the 21st terror related arrest on u.s. soil this year. joining me now, lieutenant general mark hurling, cnn military analyst. okay 21 arrests. that s pretty significant. that s up to john booker. now i wonder whether this
alexander blair will be the 22nd considered american arrested for any potential isis activity. is that a big number to you? i don t think it is fredricka. you know when you re talking about 20 people in a population of 300 million in the united states there are going to be strange actors out there. and this individual seemed to fit in that category. what concerns me more about him is his background and some of the things he participated in before he actually thought of this plot. so this alexander blair, the second person arrested you know charged with failing to report booker s plans to authorities. so the complaint alleges that blair and booker shared extremist views and that blair loaned booker money to rent space to build and store a bomb. so what kind of message in your view might these charges be sending? the message being that you may be you know allegedly
complicit and anyone aware of your plan may be facing charges as well. well yeah. mr. i would suggest though fred mr. blair was a lot more than just being complicit. early indicators in this case and when they were booked suggest that mr. blair was actually providing money, helping with the plan. so he s an accomplice. and even though booker was the guy that was going to do these things blair was certainly supporting his activity. the third person involved was mr. booker s imam in the local topeka area who attempted to talk him down. he saw him as a troubled and disturbed young man and trying to lead him toward the right path to islam, and he just said he got in contact with mr. booker a little bit too late to help him out. and then after his comments about jihad and facebook the fbi questioned booker and he was apparently pretty candid about his desire to kill american