U.S. Army Pvt. Ethan Melzer plead guilty to numerous charges including the attempted murder of American soldiers, divulging national security information, and attempting to provide material support to terrorists.
Melzer, 24, associated himself with the occult group the Order of the Nine Angles, which seeks to speed up and accelerate the collapse of western civilization. Assigned to the 173rd Airborne in Italy, Melter learned of an upcoming deployment to a sensitive military installation and began plotting an insider attack on encrypted forums and comms channels.
The U.S. attorney assigned to the case stated in a press release that, "Ethan Melzer attempted to orchestrate a murderous ambush on his own unit by unlawfully disclosing its location, strength, and armaments to a neo-Nazi, anarchist, white supremacist group.
"The defendant believed he could force the U.S. into prolonged armed conflict while causing the deaths of as many soldiers as possible," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in the release. "Melzer's traitorous conduct was a betrayal of his storied unit and nothing short of an attack against the most essential American values. Thanks to the incredible work of the FBI and the U.S. Army, Melzer's duplicity was revealed and his murderous attack thwarted.”
The Order of the Nine Angles espouses neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, and Satanic beliefs, according to the Department of Justice. The group also expressed admiration both for Nazis, including Adolf Hitler, and Islamic jihadists, like Osama Bin Laden.
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When Melzer, who was assigned to the 173rd Airborne in Italy, learned he would be deployed to a sensitive military base, he began to transmit photographs and information about the size, strength, and disposition of his unit in order to facilitate a "jihad attack" that would lead to a "mass casualty" event.
Melzer's text messages revealed that he knew he may be killed in the attack itself, but was undeterred as he thought it would be a worthwhile death that would plunge America back into another decade-long war in the Middle East.
Melzer won't be sentenced until January, but faces up to 45 years in prison.
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