One of the suspects in the Ghafoor-Shamsaldeen-Dzayee case, an ISIS-inspired domestic terror plot, served in the U.S. Navy. President Biden claimed that white supremacy was the number-one threat to U.S. national security. The data, however, demonstrate that there has been a rising tide of domestic ISIS-inspired terrorism and no corresponding rise in white-supremacy-inspired terrorism.
On June 5, 2026, the FBI arrested three U.S. citizens, Bisaam Ghafoor, 21, of Leawood, Kansas; Elias Shamsaldeen, 21, of Porterville, California; and Bereen Dzayee, 25, of Lakeside, California, on charges of conspiring to provide material support to ISIS. The arrests followed a joint terrorism investigation spanning five FBI field offices.
All three names are of Arabic linguistic origin, consistent with Muslim-majority regions of the Middle East and Central Asia, most likely northern Iraq. This conclusion is reinforced by the alleged conduct itself, which included pledging “bayat,” the Islamic oath of allegiance, to ISIS, an explicitly Islamist organization that recruits exclusively within a radical interpretation of Sunni Islam.
“Elias” is the Arabic form of Elijah, while “Shamsaldeen,” from Shams al-Din, means “sun of the faith” and is a traditionally Muslim surname. “Ghafoor” derives from Al-Ghafur (“The Forgiving”), one of the 99 names of Allah in Islam, making it a distinctly Islamic surname common among Kurdish and Arab Muslim populations.
The case originated in early March 2025, when an anonymous tipster flagged a social media account posting pro-ISIS content and claiming to have pledged bayat to ISIS. The FBI traced the account to Ghafoor. By March 2025, agents had also linked Shamsaldeen to the same online network, while Dzayee was identified as a participant in January 2026. A confidential FBI source, working with the bureau since 2017, was subsequently introduced into the group and communicated directly with all three men.
From at least February 2025 through approximately June 2026, the three communicated through Discord chats, voice calls, and other messaging platforms, pledging allegiance to ISIS and its leader and exchanging messages in social media groups promoting violence in furtherance of ISIS. The group discussed weapons, explosives, and encouraged violence in the name of ISIS.
In August 2025, Shamsaldeen told the confidential source he wanted to “do something” and “no longer wanted to just talk about it.” In October 2025, he publicly pledged allegiance to the commander of ISIS. Shamsaldeen also told the group his mother had encouraged her children to grow up and kill Americans.
The alleged conduct of each defendant was distinct. Ghafoor stated it would be “sick” if his name could be written on a drone used in an attack on Americans, said he had always wanted to kill a female soldier by beheading, and added, “I wish I could kill 300,000,000 Americans.” Dzayee suggested U.S. Special Forces should be targeted by drones, while Shamsaldeen expressed a desire to stab and injure a U.S. servicemember.
Ghafoor also asked the confidential source “How many do you hope to kill?” Dzayee suggested the drone transaction be called “charity,” telling the group “In my head it’s charity,” while he and Ghafoor both acknowledged the money transfer amounted to “treason.”
Ghafoor’s name was written on the projectile of one of the rocket-propelled grenades purportedly to be used in an attack overseas to kill U.S. servicemembers. Shamsaldeen provided financial resources for the purpose of purchasing drones to be used to attack and kill U.S. servicemembers deployed overseas.
In May 2026, Shamsaldeen drove more than 90 miles from his home to a cryptocurrency ATM at a petrol station in an attempt to transfer funds without detection, ultimately sending $1,590 through a financial app to an FBI undercover account, believing the money would fund ISIS drone attacks on U.S. military personnel overseas. Collectively the defendants provided over $2,000 to an individual they believed to be an ISIS member, and expressed desires to travel outside the United States to fight on behalf of ISIS, with some communications expressing a willingness to die for the organization.
Dzayee enlisted in the Navy in November 2021 and served until July 2024, reaching the rank of seaman. After completing boot camp and Surface Warfare Engineering School in Illinois, he served on the destroyer USS John S. McCain from March 2022 to July 2024, a service record confirmed by the Navy. The federal complaint does not address his military background. No confirmed military service record exists for Ghafoor or Shamsaldeen.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the subjects “allegedly swore allegiance to ISIS, plotted multiple attacks, and even targeted U.S. service members, but this FBI stopped them cold.” The case is being prosecuted in the District of Kansas. All three defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The Ghafoor-Shamsaldeen-Dzayee case is part of a documented pattern of ISIS-aligned activity inside the United States. According to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, in 2025 alone ISIS supporters perpetrated two successful attacks on U.S. soil, the first in eight years, with an additional five disrupted plots and six arrests for providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, with all but one incident involving perpetrators under the age of 20.
The most deadly came on New Year’s Day 2025, when Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. Army veteran and convert to Islam from Texas, rammed a rented pickup truck into revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans at approximately 3:15 a.m., killing 14 people and injuring 35 more. Jabbar posted videos online proclaiming his support for ISIS before the attack, and an ISIS flag was recovered from his truck. He was shot and killed by New Orleans police at the scene.
In October 2024, the FBI disrupted an ISIS-inspired Election Day mass-casualty plot in Oklahoma. Abdullah Haji Zada, an Afghan citizen and U.S. lawful permanent resident, and his co-conspirator Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, also an Afghan citizen, acquired two AK-47-style rifles and 500 rounds of ammunition knowing the weapons would be used in a terrorist attack on Election Day on behalf of ISIS. Tawhedi had arrived in the U.S. in September 2021 on a special immigration visa shortly after the Taliban captured Kabul.
Zada was sentenced to the statutory maximum of 15 years in federal prison, and both men are subject to removal to Afghanistan upon completion of their sentences. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue concluded that ISIS’s capacity to conduct physical operations in the U.S. remains limited, with the group instead relying on its digital ecosystem to enable self-radicalization and lone-wolf attacks, fueling what analysts describe as a youth-driven mobilization to violence.
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