Cebu_4_2
28th November 2010, 05:37 PM
Here we go...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-11-29-bombplot29_ST_N.htm
According to an FBI affidavit, Mohamed Osman Mohamud targeted this Christmas tree lightng ceremony Friday at Pioneer Square in Portland, Ore.
Enlarge image Enlarge By Torsten Kjellstrand, AP
By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY
Americans should expect more homegrown terrorist plots such as the foiled attempt by a Somalia-born university student to bomb downtown Portland, Ore., security analysts say.
So far, "we keep getting lucky," says retired Air Force colonel Randall Larsen, the chief executive officer of the WMD Terrorism Research Center. However, he says, sooner or later, that luck will run out.
"We just can't get them all," Larsen says.
The arrest Friday of Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, a U.S. citizen living in Corvallis, Ore., 90 minutes south of Portland, is another in a series of alleged terrorist plots by American citizens or residents. Mohamud is expected to make his first court appearance today on charges of attempting to blow up a van full of explosives at an annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland.
TERROR PLOT:Ore. bomb-plot suspect wanted 'spectacular show'
The teen, who until Oct. 6 was a student at Oregon State in Corvallis, was the focus of a five-month federal undercover investigation, according to an federal affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Oregon.
The investigation found Mohamud regularly e-mailing an unidentified person in Pakistan about traveling to that country to prepare for violent jihad, the court document says. Two undercover FBI employees met with Mohamud over the summer pretending to be associates of the Pakistani contact.
In one such meeting, Mohamud said he had wanted to commit violent jihad since he was 15, although the affidavit gives no reason why he became radicalized. The affidavit says Mohamud thought the Christmas tree lighting ceremony was the perfect target. "It's in Oregon; and Oregon like you know, nobody ever thinks about it," Mohamud said, according to the affidavit.
The undercover FBI employees provided a phony bomb that Mohamud was supposed to detonate, the affidavit says. The youth was arrested before the tree lighting as he tried to set it off.
Corvallis authorities also investigated a fire Sunday morning at a mosque that Mohamud frequented. No one was hurt. Fire investigator Carla Pusateri says the fire was deliberately set, but she doesn't know if it was set in retaliation to the Mohamud case. She says it is one possibility police are considering.
Mohamud's arrest is the latest in a number of foiled plots in which the FBI has used informants and stings to build cases against people who have made overtures about launching a jihad.
Undercover stings were used in the October arrest of Pakistan-born U.S. citizen Farooque Ahmed, who is charged with plotting to bomb the Washington, D.C. subway system, and the September 2009 arrest of Jordanian Hosam Smadi for trying to blow up a 60-story Dallas skyscraper. Ahmed, 34, is awaiting trial. Smadi 19, pleaded guilty to attempted use of weapon of mass destruction and was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Michael Finton, 30, a former fry cook who converted to Islam while in prison, is scheduled for trial in March on charges he tried to blow up a federal courthouse in Springfield, Ill.
Another homegrown attack was averted in May when Pakistan-born U.S. citizen Faisal Shahzad was arrested for trying to detonate a car bomb in New York's Times Square. The bomb fizzled. He was sentenced to life in prison in October.
John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a military information site, says Mohamud's arrest seems to be the result of "1% his inspiration and 99% FBI perspiration." He says the FBI's effort to disrupt and deter attacks seems to be working. However, he cautions that there will be another attack.
"Most of those they are catching, their main crime is stupidity," he says. "But we can't depend on the stupidity of the enemy forever."
Contributing: Kevin Johnson, Associated Press
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-11-29-bombplot29_ST_N.htm
According to an FBI affidavit, Mohamed Osman Mohamud targeted this Christmas tree lightng ceremony Friday at Pioneer Square in Portland, Ore.
Enlarge image Enlarge By Torsten Kjellstrand, AP
By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY
Americans should expect more homegrown terrorist plots such as the foiled attempt by a Somalia-born university student to bomb downtown Portland, Ore., security analysts say.
So far, "we keep getting lucky," says retired Air Force colonel Randall Larsen, the chief executive officer of the WMD Terrorism Research Center. However, he says, sooner or later, that luck will run out.
"We just can't get them all," Larsen says.
The arrest Friday of Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, a U.S. citizen living in Corvallis, Ore., 90 minutes south of Portland, is another in a series of alleged terrorist plots by American citizens or residents. Mohamud is expected to make his first court appearance today on charges of attempting to blow up a van full of explosives at an annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland.
TERROR PLOT:Ore. bomb-plot suspect wanted 'spectacular show'
The teen, who until Oct. 6 was a student at Oregon State in Corvallis, was the focus of a five-month federal undercover investigation, according to an federal affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Oregon.
The investigation found Mohamud regularly e-mailing an unidentified person in Pakistan about traveling to that country to prepare for violent jihad, the court document says. Two undercover FBI employees met with Mohamud over the summer pretending to be associates of the Pakistani contact.
In one such meeting, Mohamud said he had wanted to commit violent jihad since he was 15, although the affidavit gives no reason why he became radicalized. The affidavit says Mohamud thought the Christmas tree lighting ceremony was the perfect target. "It's in Oregon; and Oregon like you know, nobody ever thinks about it," Mohamud said, according to the affidavit.
The undercover FBI employees provided a phony bomb that Mohamud was supposed to detonate, the affidavit says. The youth was arrested before the tree lighting as he tried to set it off.
Corvallis authorities also investigated a fire Sunday morning at a mosque that Mohamud frequented. No one was hurt. Fire investigator Carla Pusateri says the fire was deliberately set, but she doesn't know if it was set in retaliation to the Mohamud case. She says it is one possibility police are considering.
Mohamud's arrest is the latest in a number of foiled plots in which the FBI has used informants and stings to build cases against people who have made overtures about launching a jihad.
Undercover stings were used in the October arrest of Pakistan-born U.S. citizen Farooque Ahmed, who is charged with plotting to bomb the Washington, D.C. subway system, and the September 2009 arrest of Jordanian Hosam Smadi for trying to blow up a 60-story Dallas skyscraper. Ahmed, 34, is awaiting trial. Smadi 19, pleaded guilty to attempted use of weapon of mass destruction and was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Michael Finton, 30, a former fry cook who converted to Islam while in prison, is scheduled for trial in March on charges he tried to blow up a federal courthouse in Springfield, Ill.
Another homegrown attack was averted in May when Pakistan-born U.S. citizen Faisal Shahzad was arrested for trying to detonate a car bomb in New York's Times Square. The bomb fizzled. He was sentenced to life in prison in October.
John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a military information site, says Mohamud's arrest seems to be the result of "1% his inspiration and 99% FBI perspiration." He says the FBI's effort to disrupt and deter attacks seems to be working. However, he cautions that there will be another attack.
"Most of those they are catching, their main crime is stupidity," he says. "But we can't depend on the stupidity of the enemy forever."
Contributing: Kevin Johnson, Associated Press