Former US Navy Member Pleads Guilty to Plotting Iranian Terror Attack Against America

A former Navy sailor has pleaded guilty to charges he sought to attack Great Lakes Naval Station in North Chicago, Illinois, as part of an Iranian terror attack.

Xuanyu Harry Pang, 38, of North Chicago, Illinois, pleaded guilty to “conspiring to and attempting to willfully injure and destroy national defense material, national defense premises, and national defense utilities, with the intent to injure, interfere with, and obstruct the national defense of the United States,” according to a news release from the Justice Department.

The plea was unsealed Thursday after being made on Nov. 5, the release said.

The Justice Department said that Pang was working with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which was seeking revenge for the assassination of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who was killed by the U.S. military in 2020.

Pang began working with a Colombian-based individual in 2021, the news release said.

A covert FBI employee was inserted into the plot, and connected to Pang by the individual in Colombia.

Naval Station Great Lakes and other locations in and around Chicago were considered as targets.

During one meeting as the plot moved forward, Pang showed informants photos and videos on his phone of multiple locations inside the Naval Station.

Pang later provided the FBI’s covert agent with two U.S. military uniforms to wear inside the base during an attack and a cell phone to use as a detonator test.

Pang could be sentenced to as many as 20 years in prison.

According to an affidavit in support of the charges against Pang, during the discussions between “Pang and Individual A, they discussed a variety of criminal activities, including, as discussed below, a plot to smuggle radioactive polonium into the United States to further an Iranian plan to conduct an attack in the United States to avenge the death of IRGC General Soleimani.”

The affidavit further said, “Pang and Individual A discussed a plan to smuggle weapons on behalf of Iranian buyers and to also smuggle and/or give payment in gold.”

Pang was recorded at one meeting showing photos of Michigan Avenue and telling them, “You guys are looking for max damage, right?”

Elsewhere, he was recorded as having said, “So think about it like if you have one guy just walking down the street, all of a sudden” and then making a noise resembling a gun firing rapidly.

The affidavit said Pang had been assigned to the Great Lakes Naval Station in February 2022 as a new recruit. The affidavit in support of Pang’s arrest came in October of that year.

Iran has been behind other efforts to attack the United States.

Last year, the Justice Department announced that Iran sought to have President Donald Trump assassinated last fall.

Three people were arrested in connection with Iranian-backed assassination efforts: Farhad Shakeri, 51, of Iran; Carlisle Rivera, also known as Pop, 49, of Brooklyn, New York; and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island, New York, according to a Justice Department release.

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