American ISIS defector describes life inside a training camp, how he escaped

Lured to Syria by the promise of a pure Islamic state, Mo only lasted a few months before he escaped to Turkey and asked for help at the U.S. consulate.

"I've let my family down, I've let my nation down, and I've let God down, and I have a lot to make up for," he told Richard Engel of NBC News. The 27-year-old American citizen asked to be identified only as Mo, and he shared with Engel what it was like to be part of ISIS in 2014. Mo dropped out of Columbia University and said he became enthralled by ISIS propaganda he found online. After the FBI showed up at his house to discuss his online activities, Mo took his savings and went to Turkey, then slipped into Syria to attend an ISIS training camp.

Mo told Engel his fellow recruits had "madness" in their eyes, and he was horrified to see severed heads on poles. When one ISIS member brought in a suicide vest, trainees were "in awe of it," Mo said, and ran up to get a closer look. Realizing that going to Syria was "obviously the worst decision I've ever made in my life," Mo went back to Turkey, and after going to the consulate, he was brought back to the U.S. by the FBI. He's cooperating with authorities, and pleaded guilty to two charges of providing material support to a terrorist organization and receiving military training from a terrorist organization, the FBI says. He faces 10 to 25 years in prison, but his sentencing is on hold while he works with authorities (this may help him receive a lighter sentence).

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The FBI told NBC News that Mo, who is incarcerated, "has provided reliable information about the identities and activities of other ISIS members." Mo says he never wanted to be a terrorist, and wants people to know ISIS is "not bringing Islam to the world." Ali Soufan, a former FBI agent and head of the security firm The Soufan Group, told NBC News that while in the spring of 2014 "a lot of people were not convinced that ISIS is a bad terrorist organization," that doesn't make Mo an unsuspecting victim. "People go because they have something inside them that makes them attracted to these kinds of groups and these kinds of people. So these people are not innocent 100 percent."