The FBI affidavit alleges that Mohamud stated to undercover agents that he had wanted to take part in violent jihad since he was 15, and that he told FBI agents that he had written four articles since 2009 for two different on-line jihadist magazines edited and distributed by Samir Khan.

Khan, 24, is the Saudi-born, New York-raised editor behind Inspire magazine, the English language online publication of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. Khan, who has said he is currently hiding in Yemen, has become a rising figure in jihadist propaganda and an “aspiring” Anwar Awlaqi, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

Under the pen name “Ibn al-Mubarak,” alleges the FBI, Mohamud wrote three articles “discussing violent jihad” that appeared in 2009 in Jihad Recollections, the web magazine edited that Khan edited from his parents’ North Carolina basement before relocating to Yemen.

One of the articles published under the name Ibn al-Mubarak was titled, “Getting in shape without weights,” which appeared in the first issue of Jihad Recollections, urged aspiring jihadists to stay fit for God.