Karen Kraft
29
- Joined
- May 18, 2002
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/us/28portland.html
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/11/27/us/27portland/27portland-articleInline-v2.jpg
Kind of says it all, doesn't it?
At 19, he stands to serve a life sentence. LOL
I'm sure he and Bubba
will get along great!
From the article:
A Somali-born teenager attempting to detonate what he believed was a car bomb in a packed downtown Portland Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Friday night was arrested by authorities, who had spent nearly six months tracking him and setting up a sting operation, officials in Oregon said.
Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, is pictured in his arrest record photo on Friday in Portland Oregon.
The bomb in a van parked off the Pioneer Courthouse Square was a fake — planted by F.B.I. agents at the culmination of the elaborate sting — but “the threat was very real,” said Arthur Balizan, Special Agent in Charge of the F.B.I. in Oregon, who identified the suspect as Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a 19-year-old naturalized citizen.
“Our investigation shows that Mohamud was absolutely committed to carrying out an attack on a very grand scale,” Mr. Balizan said in a statement released by the Department of Justice.
He added: “At the same time, I want to reassure the people of this community that, at every turn, we denied him the ability to actually carry out the attack.”
The foiled plot was just the latest jarring terrorist attempt aimed at mass gatherings in the United States, including an attempted car bombing in Times Square this past May. In that case, a Pakistani-born American citizen was arrested and pleaded guilty.
“This defendant’s chilling determination is a stark reminder that there are people — even here in Oregon — who are determined to kill Americans,” Dwight C. Holton, U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon said.
The arrest marks another episode in which Somalian-Americans are accused of radicalism. In 2009, after a sweeping federal investigation of more than 20 young Americans believed to have joined a militant Islamist group in Somalia, [not called the iSlammers] authorities charged two of the men with providing material support for terrorism. In 2008, another man under investigation blew himself up in an attack in Somalia, becoming the first known American suicide bomber.
Mr. Mohamud, from Corvallis, Ore., and a sophomore at Oregon State, had been planning for more than a year to cause mass harm to a large and unsuspecting gathering of people — including children — in their own element, according to the affidavit.
“It’s in Oregon; and in Oregon, like, you know, nobody ever thinks about it,” he is quoted as saying.
The authorities arrested Mr. Mohamud at approximately 5:40 p.m. on Friday night, 20 minutes before the ceremony, which was attended by 10,000 people, police said. He was taken into custody, kicking and screaming. He yelled, “Allahu Akhbar,” an Arabic phrase for “God is Great,” the authorities said.
According to the affidavit, Mr. Mohamud was in e-mail contact with an unnamed associate in Pakistan in August 2009, who referred him to another an associate overseas. In June 2010, undercover agents F.B.I. first got into contact with Mr. Mohamud, guiding him toward the Friday night event, but asking him repeatedly if he was prepared to commit the act, which would include the murder of children.
“I want whoever is attending that event to leave, to leave either dead or injured,” Mr. Mohamud said to undercover agents, according to the affidavit.
He referred to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, calling the destruction “awesome.”
At the end of September, Mr. Mohamud mailed bomb components to whom he thought were fellow operatives assembling the device; instead, they were undercover agents. On Nov. 4, the undercover agents traveled with Mr. Mohamud to a remote location in Lincoln County, Ore. where they detonated a bomb as a trial run.
Mr. Mohamud, who had told undercover agents that he had thought about committing jihad since he was 15, taped a statement that was a good-bye to his family and a rationale for his actions, the authorities said. On Friday afternoon, Mr. Mohamud again met with the undercover agents and prepared to detonate the bomb in a parked van. But when he dialed a number from his cell phone, thinking it would activate the bomb, he was instead arrested. Mr. Mohamud will appear in federal court in Portland on Monday, and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Time for the Pro-Terrorist Party to make him into their new hero....
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/11/27/us/27portland/27portland-articleInline-v2.jpg
Kind of says it all, doesn't it?
At 19, he stands to serve a life sentence. LOL
I'm sure he and Bubba
will get along great!
From the article:
A Somali-born teenager attempting to detonate what he believed was a car bomb in a packed downtown Portland Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Friday night was arrested by authorities, who had spent nearly six months tracking him and setting up a sting operation, officials in Oregon said.
Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, is pictured in his arrest record photo on Friday in Portland Oregon.
The bomb in a van parked off the Pioneer Courthouse Square was a fake — planted by F.B.I. agents at the culmination of the elaborate sting — but “the threat was very real,” said Arthur Balizan, Special Agent in Charge of the F.B.I. in Oregon, who identified the suspect as Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a 19-year-old naturalized citizen.
“Our investigation shows that Mohamud was absolutely committed to carrying out an attack on a very grand scale,” Mr. Balizan said in a statement released by the Department of Justice.
He added: “At the same time, I want to reassure the people of this community that, at every turn, we denied him the ability to actually carry out the attack.”
The foiled plot was just the latest jarring terrorist attempt aimed at mass gatherings in the United States, including an attempted car bombing in Times Square this past May. In that case, a Pakistani-born American citizen was arrested and pleaded guilty.
“This defendant’s chilling determination is a stark reminder that there are people — even here in Oregon — who are determined to kill Americans,” Dwight C. Holton, U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon said.
The arrest marks another episode in which Somalian-Americans are accused of radicalism. In 2009, after a sweeping federal investigation of more than 20 young Americans believed to have joined a militant Islamist group in Somalia, [not called the iSlammers] authorities charged two of the men with providing material support for terrorism. In 2008, another man under investigation blew himself up in an attack in Somalia, becoming the first known American suicide bomber.
Mr. Mohamud, from Corvallis, Ore., and a sophomore at Oregon State, had been planning for more than a year to cause mass harm to a large and unsuspecting gathering of people — including children — in their own element, according to the affidavit.
“It’s in Oregon; and in Oregon, like, you know, nobody ever thinks about it,” he is quoted as saying.
The authorities arrested Mr. Mohamud at approximately 5:40 p.m. on Friday night, 20 minutes before the ceremony, which was attended by 10,000 people, police said. He was taken into custody, kicking and screaming. He yelled, “Allahu Akhbar,” an Arabic phrase for “God is Great,” the authorities said.
According to the affidavit, Mr. Mohamud was in e-mail contact with an unnamed associate in Pakistan in August 2009, who referred him to another an associate overseas. In June 2010, undercover agents F.B.I. first got into contact with Mr. Mohamud, guiding him toward the Friday night event, but asking him repeatedly if he was prepared to commit the act, which would include the murder of children.
“I want whoever is attending that event to leave, to leave either dead or injured,” Mr. Mohamud said to undercover agents, according to the affidavit.
He referred to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, calling the destruction “awesome.”
At the end of September, Mr. Mohamud mailed bomb components to whom he thought were fellow operatives assembling the device; instead, they were undercover agents. On Nov. 4, the undercover agents traveled with Mr. Mohamud to a remote location in Lincoln County, Ore. where they detonated a bomb as a trial run.
Mr. Mohamud, who had told undercover agents that he had thought about committing jihad since he was 15, taped a statement that was a good-bye to his family and a rationale for his actions, the authorities said. On Friday afternoon, Mr. Mohamud again met with the undercover agents and prepared to detonate the bomb in a parked van. But when he dialed a number from his cell phone, thinking it would activate the bomb, he was instead arrested. Mr. Mohamud will appear in federal court in Portland on Monday, and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Time for the Pro-Terrorist Party to make him into their new hero....
