US Federal Reserve 'bomb plot' foiled by FBI

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**reds8n**

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19985987

US officials have arrested a man for plotting to detonate what he thought was a massive bomb in front of the Federal Reserve building in New York.

Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, of Bangladesh, travelled to the US with the intent of planning a terrorist attack, the FBI said.

Mr Nafis was arrested after he allegedly attempted to detonate what he thought was a 1,000lb (454kg) bomb.

There was never a threat, the FBI said, as Mr Nafis had been closely watched.

Mr Nafis is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to al-Qaeda.

He entered no plea when brought before a federal court on Wednesday.

Mr Nafis travelled to the US in January 2012 and sought out contacts to help him with the attack, officials said in a complaint filed in New York on Wednesday.

One of the people he contacted turned out to be a source working for the FBI, US federal prosecutors said.

Targets proposed
Mr Nafis was placed under surveillance, and the undercover FBI agent sold him 20 bags of what he said were 50lb of explosives. The suspect then bought and assembled detonators and timing devices.

Officials said there had never been any actual threat.

The arrest is the latest in a series of so-called "sting" operations run by the FBI and anti-terror authorities in the US.

"We have to be vigilant and I can assure you we're going to remain vigilant," New York police commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters, adding the city had not seen a successful attack in 11 years.

Mr Kelly said that Mr Nafis had entered the US on a student visa by purporting to be a college student in Missouri. He also said he had been at least partly motivated by an English-language al-Qaeda magazine called Inspire.

The head of the NYPD said the incident was likely to put the Federal Reserve building on the police department's list of "iconic targets".

The building, housing the US central banking organisation, is located in downtown Manhattan in New York City, just a few blocks from the World Trade Center complex in the city's financial district.

Federal officials say Mr Nafis proposed several targets, including a high-ranking US official and the New York Stock Exchange.

In a statement intended to claim responsibility for the would-be attack, he allegedly said he believed the most efficient way of destroying America was to target the US economy.

Prior to the attempt, Mr Nafis allegedly recorded a video in which he said "We will not stop until we attain victory or martyrdom", according to the complaint against him.

"The defendant thought he was striking a blow to the American economy. He thought he was directing confederates and fellow believers," Loretta Lynch, US Attorney for the eastern district of New York said in a statement.

"At every turn, he was wrong, and his extensive efforts to strike at the heart of the nation's financial system were foiled by effective law enforcement."

The Bangladeshi, who was living in Queens, New York, reportedly told undercover FBI officials that he had overseas connections to al-Qaeda.

Good for them.

"Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis" totally read that as " Quasi" at first which threw me for a moment.

.... " he allegedly said he believed the most efficient way of destroying America was to target the US economy. " -- pithy political comment about political candidates here

**AustonT**

I get tired of hearing the FBI trumpet how awesome they are at catching terrorists that they cultivate.
Hey guys we tricked another guy into a fake terror plot we concocted and now the Alerican people think we actually do something! High fives all around!

**kronk**

Hang him.

**Frazzled**

Even better, we have Old Ironsides hanging out. Time to go old school. KEEL HAUL THE SCURVY DOG.

**sourclams**

AustonT wrote:
I get tired of hearing the FBI trumpet how awesome they are at catching terrorists that they cultivate.
Hey guys we tricked another guy into a fake terror plot we concocted and now the Alerican people think we actually do something! High fives all around!

Much better to just throw people with brown skin in prison for the rest of their lives. AMIRITE??

**KalashnikovMarine**

You know the current crop of Jihadist Fethheads in AQ's international relations team don't seem to be quite as on the ball as they used to...

**AustonT**

sourclams wrote:
AustonT wrote:
I get tired of hearing the FBI trumpet how awesome they are at catching terrorists that they cultivate.
Hey guys we tricked another guy into a fake terror plot we concocted and now the Alerican people think we actually do something! High fives all around!

Much better to just throw people with brown skin in prison for the rest of their lives. AMIRITE??

You'll have to expand.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
I just noticed a typo. United States of Alerica

**kronk**

Alerica sounds like an allergy drug.

**AustonT**

It's a pain medication

Automatically Appended Next Post:
No wait thats Lyrcia...man I am all feckled up today.

**Frazzled**

sourclams wrote:
AustonT wrote:
I get tired of hearing the FBI trumpet how awesome they are at catching terrorists that they cultivate.
Hey guys we tricked another guy into a fake terror plot we concocted and now the Alerican people think we actually do something! High fives all around!

Much better to just throw people with brown skin in prison for the rest of their lives. AMIRITE??

See thats just a lie. Tanning Bed Mom is still free!

**pretre**

AustonT wrote:
I get tired of hearing the FBI trumpet how awesome they are at catching terrorists that they cultivate.
Hey guys we tricked another guy into a fake terror plot we concocted and now the Alerican people think we actually do something! High fives all around!

The idea is that these guys come here to commit terror and we catch them by infiltrating their circle. These aren't innocent guys that we entrap; they are people who want to do harm to the US who picked the wrong parts supplier or terror buddy.

If the FBI had gotten a guy in on the 9/11 team and provided them all with rubber boxcutters, fake bombs and rounded them all up as they boarded the flight things might have been a lot different. Same if they had gotten in with McVeigh and provided inert materials or any number of successful terrorist attacks over the years.

The paradox of this kind of preventative work is that because you prevent it from happening, you get flack for it. The only way people wouldn't give them crap is if there was video of some dashing FBI agent cutting the blue wire while the clock read 00:01 and even then someone would fault them for not cutting it at 00:02.

**AustonT**

pretre wrote:
AustonT wrote:
I get tired of hearing the FBI trumpet how awesome they are at catching terrorists that they cultivate.
Hey guys we tricked another guy into a fake terror plot we concocted and now the Alerican people think we actually do something! High fives all around!

The idea is that these guys come here to commit terror and we catch them by infiltrating their circle. These aren't innocent guys that we entrap; they are people who want to do harm to the US who picked the wrong parts supplier or terror buddy.

If the FBI had gotten a guy in on the 9/11 team and provided them all with rubber boxcutters, fake bombs and rounded them all up as they boarded the flight things might have been a lot different. Same if they had gotten in with McVeigh and provided inert materials or any number of successful terrorist attacks over the years.

The paradox of this kind of preventative work is that because you prevent it from happening, you get flack for it. The only way people wouldn't give them crap is if there was video of some dashing FBI agent cutting the blue wire while the clock read 00:01 and even then someone would fault them for not cutting it at 00:02.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/terrorist-plots-helped-along-by-the-fbi.xml
/go on.

**Easy E**

Oh, do we have to raise the "Terror Alert" level now or lower it?

Do we still even have a Terror Alert level?

**kronk**

It's been raised from Yellow Shorts level to Brown Pants level.

**Ouze**

I'm in agreement with Auston on this one. They seem to find inclined idiots and push them into these things.

**kronk**

There's a difference between entrapment and baiting. This guy wanted to do harm and went for the bait.

Noose time.

**Ouze**

Hey, I didn't say he was entrapped, he clearly wasn't.

The question is, is this a person that would have been a threat to the country if he had never met the FBI?

**pretre**

AustonT wrote:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/terrorist-plots-helped-along-by-the-fbi.xml
/go on.

Your own article has plenty of examples where they didn't need this to catch folks.

Another New York City subway plot, which recently went to trial, needed no help from government. Nor did a bombing attempt in Times Square, the abortive underwear bombing in a jetliner over Detroit, a planned attack on Fort Dix, N.J., and several smaller efforts. Some threats are real, others less so. In terrorism, it's not easy to tell the difference.

As well, this is good:

Of the 22 most frightening plans for attacks since 9/11 on American soil, 14 were developed in sting operations.

These are people who want to do harm and when given the opportunity, gleefully press the button. The Fed guy kept pushing it harder trying to make it work. Just because the FBI was there and provided the tools, doesn't mean that the person isn't guilty. Although there have been cases where they worked a bit too hard to get the guy to go along with it.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Ouze wrote:
The question is, is this a person that would have been a threat to the country if he had never met the FBI?

Mr Nafis travelled to the US in January 2012 and sought out contacts to help him with the attack, officials said in a complaint filed in New York on Wednesday.

One of the people he contacted turned out to be a source working for the FBI, US federal prosecutors said.

If he managed to find contacts who weren't FBI informants? Probably.

**kronk**

I agree with Pretre on this point.

If he hadn't gotten in contact with an informant, then yes, he still would have either found someone else to help him or figured something out on his own.

**AustonT**

kronk wrote:
I agree with Pretre on this point.

If he hadn't gotten in contact with an informant, then yes, he still would have either found someone else to help him or figured something out on his own.

Gotten into contact or contacted by? Considering the FBI pays a cash incentive to informants and there's at least one incident I can think of off the top of my head where a guy was approached multiple times in an attempt to develop a case that did not exist previously. They recruit people, coax them when they decide to back out, chauffeur them to the site and then arrest them. Even the judges see it.

Only the government could have made a ‘terrorist’ out of Mr. Cromitie, whose buffoonery is positively Shakespearean in its scope,” said Judge Colleen McMahon

Lets be honest Kronk, if the FBI came to me and offered me $100,000 for each terrorist I delivered to them, I'd talk you into some sort of plot to use your Prius as a bomb. Then I'd be working on getting Shuma to wage an actual war on reality. Frazz I probably wouldn't even have to convince, just record what he says and wait. Count my money and look for another dangerous terrorist.

**pretre**

The problem is that no matter how much money you offer an informant, he wouldn't convince someone to bomb something if they didn't intend to do it in the first place.

If some guy comes to me with a great idea to bomb the NY Fed, I'm gonna smile, nod and as soon as he leaves the room call the FBI.

**Easy E**

Hmmmm, I'm obviously in the wrong field.

**AustonT**

pretre wrote:
he wouldn't convince someone to bomb something if they didn't intend to do it in the first place.

Except, you know, the part where this has already happened more than once.

**Easy E**

I actually agree with AustonT.

I think the world might be ending per the Mayan predictions.

**Kanluwen**

AustonT wrote:
pretre wrote:
he wouldn't convince someone to bomb something if they didn't intend to do it in the first place.

Except, you know, the part where this has already happened more than once.

Gee.

It's almost like an effective tactic is effective?

**Manchu**

Quasi-Mohammed LOL.

**J-Roc77**

I don't see the issue. This is the same way the gov. catches child pornographers isn't it? They are going to do it anyways, this just makes it easier to convict them while protecting people. This is not entrapment.

**AustonT**

Kanluwen wrote:
AustonT wrote:
pretre wrote:
he wouldn't convince someone to bomb something if they didn't intend to do it in the first place.

Except, you know, the part where this has already happened more than once.

Gee.

It's almost like an effective tactic is effective?

You're right we should expand this program to other areas. Lets go to highschools, talk some teenagers into stealing a car, drive them to the car, hand them a jimmy and when they get the door open arrest them. Or we could have the police grow its own pot, find some dude, convince him to sell it and override his objections, and then arrest him when he makes a sale. You guys are totally on to a new way to approach policing. Make crime happen! To prevent crime.

**Grey Templar**

the idea is that if we give a fake outlet for these terrorists, we can prevent them from getting away with it. We redirect their efforts into a trap that cannot lead to them carrying out their act. And then we can lock them up.

It will also make terrorist candidates much more paranoid. They're contacting a representitive of a terrorist organization who is going to set him up with explosives and intelligence.

However, the contact may actually be an FBI agent. So it makes the person wary of contacting a terrorist organization rep in the first place.

The person doesn't want to get trapped and caught, so he eventually avoids contacting anyone.

And because he's a small timer, he doesn't have a source of explosives or any training on how to do it.

And most people doing these bombings arn't going to be suicide bombers. Most of them will just plant a bomb and detonate it, and later do the same again. These people have extra motivation not to get caught, so the risk that their contact is an FBI agent will deter them from starting the whole thing in the first place.

The more terrorists the FBI traps or deters, the less terrorists make contact with an actual terrorist that will set them up with real explosives.

**Necros**

The FBI just took the credit, we all know this was really Jack Bauer's doing.