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Another terrorist suspect arrested in Dallas
TweetBy Associated Press
CHICAGO - Federal prosecutors arrested a 19-year-old Jordanian national and charged him with trying to bomb a downtown Dallas skyscraper. He was the second suspect to be arrested this week on charges they intended to blow up buildings.
According to a statement issued today by the U.S. attorney's office in Dallas, Hosam Maher Husein Smadi is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.
He was arrested Thursday after placing a decoy car bomb at Fountain Place, a 60-story glass office tower in Dallas.
FBI agents have been keeping watch over the man, who lived in the small North Texas town of Italy. Court documents did not show whether Smadi had an attorney.
In earlier developments, a 29-year-old Illinois man who idolized American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh was arrested after attempting to detonate what he thought was a bomb inside a van outside a federal courthouse, officials said.
It was unknown whether the two were involved in plot or if they had worked in conjunction.
Michael C. Finton, also known as Talib Islam, was arrested Wednesday and charged in a criminal complaint with one count of attempting to murder federal officers or employees and trying to detonate a weapon of mass destruction. Federal officials said the case has no connections with the major terrorism investigation under way in Colorado and New York.
"This alleged plot drives home the stark reality that we must avoid complacency and remain ever vigilant to the threats that violent extremists may pose to the public safety," Acting U.S. Attorney Jeffrey B. Lang said.
Finton appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Byron G. Cudmore in Springfield and said he was an unmarried, part-time cook at a fish and chicken restaurant in the central Illinois city of Decatur. He was ordered held in jail pending action by a grand jury.
An FBI affidavit said that in the months leading up to the arrest, Finton had been closely monitored by agents including a special officer who posed as a low-level operative of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network.
It said Finton was arrested after using a cell phone in an attempt to detonate a van filled with material that he had been told was explosive but was actually harmless. It was not immediately clear what the material was.
The affidavit traced two years of activities by Finton leading up to the alleged bomb plot and arrest. It said that in March 2008 Finton received funds from Saudi Arabia and used them to travel to the kingdom for a monthlong visit. No other details were immediately available.
Finton was introduced to the FBI special officer posing as an al-Qaida operative in February, according to the affidavit.
Finton expressed a desire to receive military training and fight in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia or elsewhere, agents said. In the months that followed, he talked about an attack within the United States and ultimately settled on the Paul Findley courthouse.
He also took an interest in the nearby office of Republican U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock as well, the affidavit said.
The maximum penalty for attempted murder of federal officers and detonation of a weapon of mass destruction is life in prison.
For the full story, read Friday's Vindicator or Vindy.com.
Comments
If they had only joined ACORN they would not had been hindered in their efforts by the law .
The solution here is simple and it involves profiling . We should bar certain regions of the world entry into the USA . Homegrown terrorists should be executed for treason or jailed for life . Imported terrorists should not be imprisoned in the lower forty eight or Hawaii but should be shipped to a detention facility at Prudehoe Bay Alaska to minimize escape . They could be of use in a prisoner exchange at some future time if need be .
Now we will have the bleeding heart liberals making excuses and supporting these terrorists .
jesus christ......
Stan The Man Unusual....I believe you are the one that said on many occasions that we should give up the fight of going after Al Qaida. As you know they are the terrorist behind 9/11, the bombings in London, the train station in Spain, the Cole, the barracks in Libya and who knows how many other bombings.
If you have been following the news at all you know that since Obama stepped up the fight against Al Qaida in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other places throughout the world we have killed more of their top leaders in the past eight months than we did in the previous eight years.
In the past two weeks we have arrested terrorist and stopped plots here in America and have to didn't torture anyone to do it. We now have a President that knows how to fight the war on terror and how to reestablish relations and get help in that cause from other countries.
The evil empire is invisable but here. If these nuts get a start who knows what we are going into. Marshal Law, anarchy, truely scary stuff. I beleive this is great work by the agents and agency's invovled. Kinda sprung a trap but these enemies should pay extremely hard punishment, this is war.
UnAmerican....."Obama wanted to step up the fight in Afghanistan when the Taliban and Al Qaeda were being slaughtered by the US military in Iran. He wanted to fight our enemies where they didn't exist."
I have no idea what you are talking about any more than you do but your always good for a laugh.
Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridge . . . ..
You are like the guy who starts the fires and then beams at the credit given for putting them out . Perhaps if we didn't allow these fellows entry into the USA they would not be able to do their dirty deeds here ? You should be asking what is Obama doing in keeping them out . Of course the answer is . . .. Hey, he is doing nothing .
Several months ago when I said that Obama was going to get more of our soldiers killed and less of the enemy in Afghanistan has happened . We should anihilate the enemy and leave diplomacy to the dimplomats . Politics has no place on the battlefield . We either do what it takes to win or pull out . General Stanley McChrystal, commander of Nato-forces in Afghanistan wants more troops to crush the enemy . Obama doesn't want the enemy crushed and the enemy picking off our troops is OK with him .
Stan the Man Unusual....."Obama doesn't want the enemy crushed and the enemy picking off our troops is OK with him."
You need to get home quick, ProMerkin has broken into you house and is using your computer to post rambling incoherent statements.
Maybe you can enlighten me on how you can know what a person mental state is when they enter the country.
Like I said, Obama has killed more of the top Al Qaeda leaders throughout the world in eight months than Bush (the guy you voted for) did in eight years. I said it before, it takes more than a pair of pajamas that looks like a pilot suit to be the "Commander in Chief".
Well Cambridge, perhaps you should ask Obama if he is giving the enemy a fair shake at the expense of our troops ?
All Obama has done is up the kill ratio for the enemy at the expense of our troops . There is a difference between a pin prick to the enemy and a crushing blow .
Perhaps you should hire a secretary to do your posting ? Some are quite capable of thinking for themselves .
This was a set up all the way. I watched channel 8's hyped up broadcast of this last night here in DFW. They interviewed several of his friends which had some rather odd and interesting things to say. One, that this guy was very out going and very likeable but "never talked to anyone about his faith" and "never missed out on any parties going on around town with friends" Wow, sounds like a hardcore Islamist Jihadist to me. The just doesn't jive at all. Also, the fbi guys provided him with just about everything he needed and "tried to talk him out of it", I'm sure they did.
wes23:
Perhaps this fellow was going to bleach his hair with all that peroxide that he was buying ? So putting down sixty stories in Dallas would have been cool ?
The FBI did a fine job and let's hope that anyone involved gets jailed until they become too old and feeble to do us any harm .
Stan, did you see the broadcast? Have you actually read anything about it? It's the FBI that gave him everything he needed to try and pull this off. It's one thing to be hot on the trail of some "terrorist" whom are ploting all these things on their very own. It's a totally different thing when they are invovled in setting him up with all the stuff that he needs. I'm sure you believe that the FBI, CIA, police or BATF...all those guys are squeeky clean Jack Blowhard types that you see on 24 and would NEVER set someone up or plant anything just to make a headline grabbing arrest. Naw, could never happen.
wes23:
I see nothing wrong with a sting operation . So you advocate his blowing the building up and then arresting him ? That is mighty liberal of you .