this morning on world news now, home grown terror. an air force veteran arrested for trying to join isis. how he travelled to the middle east allegedly after viewing those gruesome beheadings. full details ahead. cyanide scare, mail laced with the poison intercepted by the screen facility before it could make its way to the white house. more testing done to confirm the substance. new developments in the case against robert durst. investigators searching for clues at his houston condo. this as he faces more drug and gun charges. we ll have the latest. madonna s rebel heart has taken the top spot as best-selling album of the week but which kept it off the top of the billboard 200. that s ahead in the skinny. it s wednesday, march 18th.
reporter: a man who claims to be a former roommate said he had no idea how radical pugh was becoming. shock but then when you hear stuff like that, you say to yourself, do you really know people? reporter: 47-year-old tairod pugh was living in egypt and fired from a job as an aviation engineer there. the feds say his plan was to travel from egypt to turkey and cross the border in to syria to join up with isis. pugh converted to islam in 1998 and became increasingly radical. as the years went by. in 2001 co-workers told the fbi he defended the bombings of the embassies in west africa. when he was detained in egypt, his cell phones an computers contained isis videos and images and maps that showed crossing points in to syria. in a letter to his wife, pugh allegedly wrote, i m mujahid. i am a sword against the
stories on this wednesday, march 18th. announcer: from abc news this is world news now. welcome to you all. hope you had a good st. patrick s day. think some people are out still doing their thing. or recovering from their thing. whatever your thing was, hope you had a good one. we have to start with u.s. air force vet facing charges he was trying to join isis. his name is tairod pugh. we re seeing him there. 47 years old. he will be in court today. expected to plead not guilty. he lived overseas for years, mostly in egypt. authorities sent him back to the u.s. in january. for more here s pierre thomas. the fbi claims pugh was headed to the dark side. an air force veteran and one time american airlines mechanic trying to join isis. he was recently arrested after flying to turkey attempting to get to
never intended to go to syria. he is expected to plead not got guilty to terror charges today. syria s claiming it shot down a u.s. drone. video from syrian tv purports to show pieces of the u.s. unmanned aircraft which went down along the syrian coast. officials are saying they are trying to determine why the drone s operator lost control of it. if confirmed it would be the first u.s. aircraft to go down over syria since the u.s. expanded its air campaign. against isis in september. accused boston marathon bomber dzhokhar sahr testify borrowed a gun months before the attack. a close friend has testified. prosecutors say the weapon was used by the tsarnaev brothers to kill a police officer. tom llamas on the story for us from boston. in court jurors seen the photo for the first time. boston mayor ton bombing defendant dzhokhar tsarnaev posing under a black islamic flag, similar to the ones used by jihadi groups like al qaeda. his former best friend stephen
positive for the substance. it was found in a screening facility where white house mail is monitored. it wasn t inside the white house itself. sources say the sender is known to the secret service and charges depend whether the material is hazardous. more embarrassing revelations about lapses in the secret service. the new chief admitted to congress he did not learn until days later the two senior about agents were supposedly drunk when they drove in to a barrier at the white house and only then from an anonymous e-mail. joseph clancey says changing the culture at the service will take time. a u.s. veteran will be in federal court in new york today to face charges he allegedly tried to join isis in syria. authorities say tairod pugh had been living overseas mostly in egypt the last year and a half. he traveled from egypt to turkey in january with hopes of slipping in to syria to join isis but never made it. he was sent back to egypt, detained. he was flown back to the u.s. in mid j