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View Full Version : Portland Bomb Terror Attempt



Kathianne
11-28-2010, 10:00 AM
I haven't seen a thread on this, though it happened a couple days ago:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-portland-bomb-plot-20101128,0,7641294.story


Teen held in alleged Portland bomb plot
FBI agents say Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Somalia, planned to detonate explosives during a tree lighting downtown. But he'd been working all along with undercover agents, an affidavit says.

By Bob Drogin and April Choi, Los Angeles Times

November 28, 2010

Reporting from Washington and Corvallis, Ore.
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In August, the FBI says, 19-year-old Mohamed Osman Mohamud told two men who claimed to be Al Qaeda operatives that he had considered violent jihad since he was 15, and that he now was ready to commit mass slaughter.

Mohamud, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Somalia, said he wanted to set off a bomb during the lighting of a giant Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving in an outdoor plaza in downtown Portland, Ore. The festive ceremony on the busiest shopping day of the year normally draws thousands of people.

"You know, the streets are packed," said Mohamud, at the time a student at Oregon State University in Corvallis. When one of the men responded that "a lot of children" would attend, according to an FBI affidavit, he replied, "Yeah, I mean, that's what I'm looking for."

Mohamud — tall, thin and known for enjoying rap music and pickup basketball — reportedly shrugged off concerns about security at the event, explaining: "They don't see it as a place where anything will happen.... It's on the West Coast, it's in Oregon, and Oregon's like you know, nobody ever thinks about it."

But the two men were undercover FBI agents, and audio and video recorders captured that conversation and many others like it. Mohamud now sits in federal custody — the latest alleged domestic terrorist to fall for an elaborate FBI sting — after months of secret surveillance and a grisly plot worthy of Jack Bauer...

Here's the affidavit:

http://media.oregonlive.com/portland...SAFFIDAVIT.pdf

There are many things to this story that reminded me of another attempt, here in Chicago earlier this year:

Man Charged in Wrigleyville Bomb Plot: FBI | NBC Chicago (http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/wrigleyville-bomb-plot--103324574.html)


Man Charged in Wrigleyville Bomb Plot: FBI
Lebanese man also wanted to poison Lake Michigan, assassinate mayor, feds say
By NATALIE MARTINEZ and BJ ****
Updated 10:33 PM CST, Mon, Sep 20, 2010

A 22-year-old Lebanese medical student who regards Sept. 11 as a "beautiful day" is in custody after placing a backpack containing what he thought was an explosive device into a Wrigleyville trash can, federal authorities said Monday.

Sami Samir Hassoun, of the 4700 block of North Kedzie, has been charged with one count each of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted use of an explosive device, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Chicago office said.

Hassoun's arrest after midnight Saturday comes after a months-long investigation during which he unknowingly worked with an informant and an undercover FBI agent, officials said.

In the past year, Hassoun, who neighbors say moved to Chicago with his family two to three years ago, became increasingly unhappy with how the city was being managed. According to the criminal complaint, Hassoun said on occassion that he wanted to spark a "revolution" in Chicago and "kill the nightlife."

Terror Suspect Described as Hardworking, Ambitious, Normal

"He claimed that he was trying to force enough embarrassment on the city of Chicago to cause Mayor Daley to resign," said the FBI's Ross Rice.

"I will f*** Chicago. I will shake Chicago," the criminal complaint quotes Hassoun as saying.

Hassoun, who is a permanent resident alien, in June began expressing to an "associate" the desire to commit acts of violence in the city for financial gain and to cause "political transformation in Chicago."...

and as blue as Chicago may be politically, it has never been as idiotic as Portland appears to have been:

Politically correct Portland rejected feds who saved city from terrorist attack | Washington Examiner (http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2010/11/politically-correct-portland-rejected-feds-who-saved-city-terrori)


Politically correct Portland rejected feds who saved city from terrorist attack

Comments (0)
By: Byron York 11/28/10 7:29 AM
Chief Political Correspondent

In 2005, leaders in Portland, Oregon, angry at the Bush administration's conduct of the war on terror, voted not to allow city law enforcement officers to participate in a key anti-terror initiative, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. On Friday, that task force helped prevent what could have been a horrific terrorist attack in Portland. Now city officials say they might re-think their participation in the task force -- because Barack Obama is in the White House.

...