Man Arrested For Waging Jihad Outside Federal Reserve Building

Man Arrested For Waging Jihad Outside Federal Reserve Building

Authorities immediately arrested a Bangladeshi man as he posed threat for waging jihad on Wednesday attempting to blow up a fake car bomb outside the Federal Reserve building in Manhattan.

Before carrying out his terroristic plans, Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis went to a warehouse to help assemble a 1,000-pound bomb using inert material, confirmed by a criminal complaint.  He also asked an undercover agent to videotape him saying, "We will not stop until we attain victory or martyrdom," the complaint said.

Agents seized the 21-year old Nafis, carrying with in him a cellphone which he believed was the detonator, after attempting several times to blow up the bomb inside a vehicle parked next to the Federal Reserve , the complaint said.

Authorities emphasized that the plot never posed an actual risk. However, they claimed the case demonstrated the value of using sting operations to neutralize young extremists eager to harm Americans.

"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 Mary Galligan, acting head of the FBI's New York office. "The defendant faces appropriately severe consequences."

"The thing that I want to do, ask you about is that, the thing I'm doing, it's under al-Qaida?" he was recorded saying during a meeting in bugged hotel room in Queens, according to the complaint.

In a September meeting in the same hotel room, Nafis "confirmed he was ready to kill himself during the course of the attack, but indicated he wanted to return to Bangladesh to see his family one last time to set his affairs in order," the complaint said.

Nafis appeared in federal court in Brooklyn to face the charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to al-Qaida. He was ordered held without a bail and was not given a chance to enter a plea. Moreover, the Nafis’s defence attorney had no comment outside court.

Posted by James Fried on Friday October 19 2012, 4:58 AM EST. Ref: Reuters. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0