Federal authorities on Friday charged a 26-year-old Modesto man with planning a terror attack on San Francisco’s Pier 39 after an undercover investigation that unfolded in recent weeks.
Everitt Aaron Jameson, a tow-truck driver and discharged Marine, was charged in a criminal complaint filed at the U.S. District Court in Sacramento with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization — in this case the Islamic State, SFGate.com reports.
“Jameson has espoused radical jihadi beliefs, including authoring social media posts that are supportive of terrorism, communicating with people he believes share his jihadi views and offering to provide services to such people, including in the form of his presumably employer-provided tow truck in service of the ‘cause,’” wrote FBI Agent Christopher McKinney in an affidavit.
Jameson named Pier 39 as a possible target for a terrorist attack because he “knew that it was a heavily crowded area,” according to the complaint.
“Jameson explained that he also desired to use explosives and described a play in which explosives could ‘tunnel’ or ‘funnel’ people into a location where Jameson could inflict casualties,” McKinney wrote.
Jameson was discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps for fraudulent enlistment after it was discovered he failed to disclose a latent asthma history, the FBI said. In June 2009, while in the Marines, he earned a sharpshooter rifle qualification, McKinney wrote.