19-year-old Jordanian arrested in Dallas bomb plot

He said he wanted to attack on 9-11, but chose to wait until Ramadan was finished.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6636003.html

19-year-old Jordanian arrested in Dallas bomb plot
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sept. 24, 2009, 7:29PM

DALLAS - A 19-year-old Jordanian was arrested on Thursday on charges he intended to bomb a downtown Dallas skyscraper, federal officials said.

Hosam Maher Husein Smadi was arrested after allegedly placing what he believed to be a car bomb outside the 60-story Fountain Place office tower on Thursday, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Dallas. The decoy device was given to him by an undercover FBI agent, the statement said.

Smadi is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Federal officials said the case has no connection with the major terrorism investigation under way in Colorado and New York or the Thursday arrest of a man facing the same charge in Springfield, Ill.

Smadi was in federal custody in Dallas without bail, said Special Agent Mark White, spokesman for the Dallas FBI office. Legal representation is usually addressed at initial court appearances like the one scheduled for Smadi on Friday, White said.

The case is unrelated to that against Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old shuttle driver at the Denver airport indicted in New York on charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. It was also unrelated to the case against Michael Finton, who was accused of planning to bomb the federal courthouse in Springfield, Ill, White said.

White declined to comment on the specifics of the Dallas case.

The FBI has been monitoring Smadi, who lived in the small North Texas town of Italy, and an undercover agent discovered him in an online group of extremists, according to an FBI affidavit that did not specify a date.

“He stood out based on his vehement intention to actually conduct terror attacks in the United States,” FBI supervisory special agent Thomas Petrowski wrote in the affidavit.

Three undercover agents who are native Arabic speakers eventually communicated and met with Smadi over several months, posing as members of an al-Qaida sleeper cell, according to the court documents. They allege he discussed targeting military recruiting centers, credit card companies, the airport or an armory before settling on a building containing a bank branch.

Smadi also allegedly said he wanted to attack on Sept. 11 but chose to wait until after Ramadan.

Agents provided Smadi with what he believed was a car bomb but was actually an inert device, according to Petrowski's affidavit.

Smadi drove to Dallas on Thursday, met one of the undercover agents and then drove to the targeted building, the FBI agent wrote. Smadi then allegedly drove a vehicle with the device inside into the parking garage beneath the building, parked it and attempted to detonate the bomb by setting the device's timer and flipping its power switch.

Smadi met again with the undercover agent, who drove several blocks away, and Smadi dialed a cell phone he was led to believe would detonate the car bomb, according to the affidavit.

 

You cannot say that with 100% certainty. How did we find out about the chat rooms?

 

If that's entrapment, then I'm all for it. Lock that piece of **** up and throw away the key.

 

I suppose that's a true statement, but it has nothing to do with anything that has gone on here.

In a similarly profound statement, if we had surrenered to Japan in WWII, then that would have been a victory for them.