FBI foiled New York City terror attacks court told
FBI foiled New York City terror attacks court told:- A federal court in Manhattan on Friday unsealed terrorism charges against three alleged Isis supporters who are accused of plotting several bomb attacks in New York, including against the city’s subway, Times Square and multiple concert venues.
The defendants conspired to carry out the attacks during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in 2016, which ended on July 5 last year, according to court documents. But an undercover FBI agent posing as a collaborator broke up the plot, which was designed to mimic the high casualty tolls of earlier terror strikes in Brussels and Paris.
Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, 19, a Canadian citizen, was arrested in New Jersey on May 21, 2016, after travelling to the US to stage the attacks. He pleaded guilty on October 13 to seven terrorism-related charges, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.
Mr El Bahnasawy told the undercover FBI agent at one point that he aspired to “create the next 9/11”, prosecutors said. In early May 2016, he purchased on the internet about 40 pounds of hydrogen peroxide, a critical ingredient in the explosive TATP, which is frequently used by Isis, and shipped it to the undercover agent, court documents said.
“But if ur a cop then arrest me now [.],” he wrote the undercover agent. “I already gave material support By Buying bomb making materials.”
Mr El Bahnasawy is scheduled to be sentenced on December 12.
Two other men — Talha Haroon, 19, a US citizen living in Pakistan, and Russell Salic, 37, a Philippine citizen — are in custody overseas awaiting planned extradition to the US.
Mr Haroon, who communicated with Mr El Bahnasawy and the undercover operative via electronic messaging applications, allegedly called the subway a “perfect” target, suggested placing a car bomb in Times Square and wrote that “NY Needs to fall. It’s a must,” according to court documents.
If convicted on the most serious charges, all three men could spend the rest of their lives in prison.
The court filings unsealed on Friday make for chilling reading.
Mr Salic, known as “the doctor”, an apparent reference to his training as an orthopaedic surgeon, wired Mr El Bahnasawy $423 via Western Union to buy ammunition and bomb-making materials for the planned attacks, prosecutors said.
In messages to the undercover agent, whom he believed was an ally, Mr Salic boasted that he had financed Isis actions elsewhere and, referring to Jewish people in New York, said “it would be a great pleasure if we can slaughter them”, FBI agent Cody Haven said in a criminal complaint.
The FBI concluded that Mr Salic also had provided the funding for a June 28, 2016, grenade attack in a nightclub in Malaysia, which injured eight people, according to Mr Haven.
A confidential informant gave the FBI access to a Facebook account Mr Salic maintained using the alias “James Klein”, which included pro-Isis posts such as a photograph “depicting what appears to be an executioner holding up a human head”, the agent said.
Mr El Bahnasawy planned to assemble multiple bombs and practice shooting at a rural cabin within easy driving distance of New York, court documents said. In Pakistan, Mr Haroon met with explosives experts for advice and planned to fly to New York to join in the attacks, prosecutors said.
Mr Haroon enthusiastically endorsed an attack on the subway. “We kill all in the train regardless of who and remember do not stop shooting even if u see women or kids,” he wrote the undercover agent. “No mercy is rule one.”
Source:- https://www.ft.com/content/19e59a0e-aae7-11e7-ab55-27219df83c97?mhq5j=e5
