FBI arrests man plotting to blow up NY Federal Reserve
In a sting operation, the FBI apprehended a Bangladeshi man they say was planning to blow up the New York Federal Reserve Bank. The man had been assembling a 1,000 pound bomb in a New York warehouse.
Pedestrians pass the Federal Reserve Building Wednesday in New York. Federal authorities on Wednesday arrested a Bangladeshi man they said was plotting to blow up the Federal Reserve building in Manhattan, just blocks from the World Trade Center site.
Frank Franklin II/AP
New York
The FBI on Wednesday arrested a Bangladeshi man in a sting operation on charges he attempted to blow up the聽聽with what he believed was a 1,000-pound bomb, federal authorities said.
, 21, faces charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to al Qaeda, the U.S Department of Justice said in a statement. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
The FBI said the public was not in danger because the explosives provided to聽聽were never in working condition and the suspect was closely monitored by the undercover agent - highlighting a script law enforcement has employed several times this year in similar cases, including one in Washington and another in聽.
听蝉辫辞办别蝉尘补苍听聽said President聽聽had been briefed about the arrest.
"Attempting to destroy a landmark building and kill or maim untold numbers of innocent bystanders is about as serious as the imagination can conjure," said聽, FBI acting assistant director-in-charge. "The defendant faces appropriately severe consequences."
In an initial appearance in federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday,聽聽wore a plain brown crew-neck T-shirt, dark-colored jeans and sneakers. He barely spoke during the brief hearing, mumbling answers of "yes" to questions from US Magistrate Judge聽.
According to the criminal complaint,聽聽traveled to the聽聽in January 2012. Once in New York, he claimed to be in contact with al Qaeda members overseas, although federal agents found no evidence that he was working for al Qaeda or that he was directed by the organization, according to a US official who declined to be named.
聽considered several targets for his attack, including the New York Stock Exchange and a high-ranking government official, whom the US official identified as Obama.
In the end, the criminal complaint said,聽聽decided to focus on the Federal Reserve Bank in lower Manhattan, which stands like a limestone and sandstone fortress atop what is believed to be one of the world's largest stockpiles of gold.
To create a cell to help him carry out the bombing,聽聽began to seek out recruits, eventually bringing on board an undercover agent working for the FBI.
The two met on Wednesday morning and traveled by van to a New York warehouse, where聽聽assembled what he thought was a 1,000 pound bomb, before driving to the Federal Reserve Bank, among the most secure and guarded buildings in Manhattan.
After parking near the bank,聽聽walked to a nearby hotel and recorded a video statement in which he said, "We will not stop until we attain victory or martyrdom," according to the FBI.
聽was arrested in the hotel as he repeatedly attempted to detonate the inert bomb, the FBI said.
听颁辞尘尘颈蝉蝉颈辞苍别谤听, whose department was part of the operation, objected to suggestions that聽' plans were crude and bumbling.
"I don't see how you characterize (him as) unsophisticated, I mean he was arrested, but he clearly had the intent to create mayhem here," Kelly told reporters.
Other FBI sting operations this year have netted at least one foreign suspect, as well as some from the聽.
In February, a 29-year-old Moroccan man was arrested near the US Capitol wearing a vest he believed was full of al Qaeda-supplied explosives, and charged in an attempted suicide bombing of聽.
Five self-described anarchists in the聽聽area were arrested in May and accused of plotting to blow up a four-lane highway bridge. An undercover FBI agent had sold the men inoperable detonators and plastic explosives.