Another Savage Just Tried to Cause Mass Casualties in the Town Where I Work

Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis (a marauding methodist for sure) just tried to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with 1,000 pounds of explosives in a van by using a cellphone detonator. And when I say "just" I mean this very morning. Luckily this was all part of a sting operating and the explosives were inert. 

According to the criminal complaint filed today in the Eastern District of New York, defendant Nafis, a Bangladeshi national, traveled to the United States in January 2012 for the purpose of conducting a terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

Nafis, who reported having overseas connections to al-Qaeda, attempted to recruit individuals to form a terrorist cell inside the United States. Nafis also actively sought out al-Qaeda contacts within the United States to assist him in carrying out an attack. Unbeknownst to Nafis, one of the individuals he attempted to recruit was actually a source for the FBI.

"Attempting to destroy a landmark building and kill or maim untold numbers of innocent bystanders is about as serious as the imagination can conjure. The defendant faces appropriately severe consequences. It is important to emphasize that the public was never at risk in this case, because two of the defendant's 'accomplices' were actually an FBI source and an FBI undercover agent. The FBI continues to place the highest priority on preventing acts of terrorism," said FBI Acting Assistant Director Mary Galligan.

The complaint alleges that Nafis proposed several targets for his attack, including a highranking U.S. official and the New York Stock Exchange.

Ultimately, Nafis decided to conduct a bombing operation against the New York Federal Reserve Bank. In a written statement intended to claim responsibility for the terrorist bombing of the Federal Reserve Bank on behalf of al- Qaeda, Nafis wrote that he wanted to "destroy America" and that he believed the most efficient way to accomplish this goal was to target America's economy.

In this statement, Nafis also included quotations from "our beloved Sheikh Osama bin Laden" to justify the fact that Nafis expected that the attack would involve the killing of women and children.

According to the court filing, government agents checked that the cellphone detonator on the fake explosives was activated before arresting Quazi Mohammad (does that mean he wasn't a real Mohammad, only quasi?).  That's a pretty crappy job.  You'd really have to know with 100% certainty that the explosives were fake not to be schvitzing like Lindsey Lohan at a traffic stop.