Amine El Khalifi

Man Charged In U.S. Capitol Terror Sting Switched Target At Least Five Times

Ryan J. Reilly | February 17, 2012, 5:05PM

The man arrested in an FBI terror sting just as he was allegedly about to attempt what he thought would be a suicide attack on the U.S. Capitol had several other targets in mind before he eventually settled on his final plan, according to federal authorities.

An affidavit from an FBI agent filed in federal court Friday says that Amine El Khalifi planned to explode a bomb at an office building in Alexandria that contained military offices, then wanted to attack a synagogue, then decided to target an Army general, then a government building, then a restaurant next to that building because it was frequented by military officials.

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Rezwan Ferdaus

Judge: It Doesn't Matter If The Remote Controlled Plane Plot Would Have Worked

Ryan J. Reilly | November 28, 2011, 1:32PM

The plot Rezwan Ferdaus allegedly developed to fly remote controlled planes carrying C-4 explosives into the Pentagon and the dome of the Capitol might have been far-fetched, but a federal judge has ruled he's still a danger to the community and agreed to the government's request to detain him.

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Manssor Arbabsiar

Friends Say Used Car Dealer Was Too Much Of A Mess To Pull Off Iranian Plot

Ryan J. Reilly | October 13, 2011, 6:00AM

Manssor Arbabsiar

Friends of Manssor Arbabsiar, the man accused of trying to get a man he thought was affiliated with a Mexican drug cartel to arrange for the killing of the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S., aren't exactly painting a picture of a criminal mastermind. In fact, they're saying he's not straight out.

"He's no mastermind," David Tomscha, who once owned a used car lot with Arbabsiar, told the Associated Press. "I can't imagine him thinking up a plan like that. I mean, he didn't seem all that political. He was more of a businessman."

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Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

'Hey, Dude, Your Pants Are On Fire': 'Underwear Bomber' To Plead Guilty

Ryan J. Reilly | October 12, 2011, 10:20AM

Flight 253 bomb attack suspect Umar Abdulmutallab

Updated:Oct. 12, 12:42PM

Some breaking news from the trial of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab: the Nigerian man who allegedly tried to blow up an airplane with a bomb in his underwear plans to plead guilty, according to the Associated Press.

The development came on the second day of the trial. On Monday, witness Mike Zantow testified that he heard another passenger tell Abdulmatallab: "Hey, dude, your pants are on fire."

Jurors were supposed to hear from a flight attendant and other passengers on the December 2009 flight today.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the outcome proved that civilian courts could handle terrorism cases.

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Reed Berry

Michigan Terror Suspect Feeling 'Caged' By Federal Tail Tried To Crash Into FBI Agent's Car

Ryan J. Reilly | October 3, 2011, 2:45PM

Reed S. Berry

A 26-year-old Michigan man the feds suspected of supporting terrorist groups has been ordered held by a federal judge after he crashed into the car of an FBI agent following him around the anniversary of Sept. 11.

Reed S. Berry, 26, of St. Joseph was being tailed by an FBI special agent and a Michigan state police detective on the night of Sept. 9.

Berry, described as "very surveillance-conscious," had spotted an FBI agent earlier in the day and allegedly got out of his car and "ran directly at her parked vehicle while staring directly at her." Around 10:30 p.m., Berry allegedly did the same thing to a Michigan detective who had been trailing him, except he screamed this time.

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FBI

The Five Most Bizarre Terror Plots Hatched Under The FBI's Watch

Ryan J. Reilly and Brian Fung | October 3, 2011, 6:00AM

Undercover FBI agents have helped and informants have watched as alleged wanna-be terrorists form some pretty bizarre and improbable terror plots in the years since Sept. 11. But the plot 26-year-old Rezwan Ferdaus allegedly hatched to fly model airplanes loaded with C-4 into the Pentagon and the dome of the Capitol might be the most unlikely yet.

"I'm hard pressed to think of a case that I looked at that I would describe as more outlandish than this one," Trevor Aaronson, who wrote an extensive report for Mother Jones after studying 508 federal terrorism cases over the past decade, told TPM. "As far as sting operations, this has been one of the more outlandish."

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FBI

FBI Arrests Man For Plotting To Attack Capitol, Pentagon With C-4 Loaded Remote Controlled Planes

Ryan J. Reilly | September 28, 2011, 3:30PM

Updated: 5:55PM

Rezwan Ferdaus, a 26-year-old Massachusetts resident was arrested in an FBI sting on Wednesday after allegedly plotting to use large remote controlled model airplanes packed with C-4 plastic explosives to attack the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol.

Ferdaus allegedly traveled to Washington, D.C. to take photos of his targets in May 2011, all while under FBI surveillance. The Northeastern University graduate allegedly began planning to commit "jihad" against the United States in early 2010 and obtained mobile phones that he modified to act as an electrical switch for an IED.

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Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

Feds Built Their Own Underwear Bomb For Abdulmutallab Case

Ryan J. Reilly | September 12, 2011, 2:10PM

The underwear bomb allegedly worn by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

An expert witness for the federal government in the case against alleged "underwear bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has constructed a version of the bomb the Nigerian 24-year-old allegedly tried to set off on a plane en route to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.

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John McCain

Report: McCain Inserted Provision To Put Terror Suspects Into Military Custody

Ryan J. Reilly | September 6, 2011, 12:50PM

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) inserted a little-noticed provision into the National Defense Authorization Act that would put all terror suspects into immediate military custody, the National Journal reports.

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Roger Stockham

Imam Says Alleged Mosque Attack Plotter, Loughner Should Be Called Terrorists

Ryan J. Reilly | January 31, 2011, 9:45AM

Police and officials informed about the arrest of a man who allegedly threatened to attack mosques and was found with explosives outside of the largest Islamic center in North America last week had planned to keep it quiet. Then the imam of the threatened mosque weighed in.

Imad Sayid Hassan Al-Qazwini informed worshippers about the arrest of Roger Stockham during his sermon on Friday, and a video of his speech was posted to YouTube. That's when the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) decided to put out a press release over the weekend.

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Emerson Begolly

Alleged Nazi Jihadist Blamed Pedophile Pastor For Hatred Of America

Ryan J. Reilly and Melissa Jeltsen | January 17, 2011, 8:54AM

TPM Illustration

Instant messaging conversations allegedly written by Emerson Begolly reveal him as anti-Semitic, extreme, armed and dangerous. But they also reveal what he claimed was the genesis of his extremist views: an interaction with a Christian pastor who was a registered sex offender.

Begolly's is a cautionary tale about the threat of homegrown terrorism: the radicalized 21-year-old college student reportedly obsessed over violence and martyrdom and said he was disgusted by a country where "homosexuality... abortion... assisted suicide, whores, and dru(g)s r all legal."

But it's also the strange story of a loner living on a farm in a small Pennsylvania town who had easy access to weapons and vented his frustrations with his family (a father who dressed him up in Nazi regalia and hit him as a child and an estranged mother with reported mental health issues of her own) in jihadist web forums.

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Emerson Begolly

Alleged Jihadist Joked FBI Was 'Drunk' When He Got His AK-47

Ryan J. Reilly | January 14, 2011, 9:46AM

Nobody was more surprised than 21-year-old Emerson Begolly when he cleared an Federal Bureau of Investigation background check and was allowed to purchase an AK-47 assault rifle last year. After all, he'd been a moderator and contributor on Islamic extremist web forums, posted songs praising suicide bombers, discussed his jihad fantasies in the open and even made an appearance in Newsweek under a pseudonym that his grandmother clipped and saved. He knew for a fact "the man" was onto him.

"i honestly think that the day the[y] ended the hold and sold me the gun someone at the FBI showed up to work drunk," Begolly wrote on a jihadist web forum under the name Abu Nancy (the name of his imaginary daughter), according to transcripts filed by the feds yesterday.

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Emerson Begolly

Gov't: Nazi-Dressing Alleged Jihadist Doesn't Need An AK-47

Ryan J. Reilly | January 13, 2011, 10:55AM

The government doesn't want Emerson Begolly, the 21-year-old former Penn State student who allegedly bit two FBI agents in the parking lot of a Burger King when they tried to question him about apparent pro-jihad messages he posted online, released.

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Emerson Begolly

Nazi-Dressing Alleged Jihadist Charged With Biting Two FBI Agents

Ryan J. Reilly | January 10, 2011, 8:52AM

Emerson Begolly, a 21-year-old Penn State student who allegedly expressed pro-jihad and anti-Semitic sentiments, was arrested in the parking lot of a Burger King in Pennsylvania last week after he allegedly went for a gun in his pocket and then bit two FBI agents when they tried to question him about his online activities.

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FBI

AG Eric Holder On Terrorism Stings: FBI Doesn't Entrap People

Ryan J. Reilly | December 10, 2010, 8:40AM

Muhammad Hussain

On the heels of FBI's arrest this week of a 21-year-old Baltimore man who converted to Islam and allegedly tried to set off a fake car bomb outside of a military recruitment center, Attorney General Eric Holder defended the federal government's undercover operations to prevent terror plots before they further develop.

"I think that we are on an appropriate course," Holder said at a news conference Thursday in response to a question from TPM. "I'm comfortable with the way that we've been conducting ourselves with regard to these investigations."

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Antonio Martinez

Wannabe Terrorist Caught In 'Facebook Sting' Feared An FBI Trap

Ryan J. Reilly | December 8, 2010, 5:02PM

Antonio Martinez, a 21-year-old from Baltimore who recently converted to Islam, went to his Facebook page on Sept. 29 and reportedly fired off a public posting calling for violence to stop the oppression of Muslims.

"The sword is cummin the reign of oppression is about 2 cease inshallah ta'ala YA muslimeen! don't execept the free world we are slaves of the Most High and never forget it!" Martinez wrote, according to an FBI affidavit.

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Department of Homeland Security

Janet Napolitano: DHS Report On Right-Wing Extremists Is 'Ancient History'

Ryan J. Reilly | September 17, 2010, 4:42PM

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Friday referred to a controversial report issued by DHS in April 2009 on the potential for an increased in right-wing extremism as "ancient history."

TPMDC asked Napolitano at a lunch hosted by the Christian Science Monitor if she thought the report DHS was criticized for issuing on the potential for a rise in right-wing extremism due to the election of Barack Obama has been vindicated in the year and a half since it came out.

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Faisal Shahzad

Times Square Bomb Suspect Jogged, Slammed Bush, Defaulted On Mortgage

Zachary Roth | May 5, 2010, 2:03PM

Faisal Shahzad

A day and a half after his arrest, a portrait is starting to emerge of Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-born American citizen who was pulled off a flight to Dubai at JFK Airport Monday night and arrested in connection with Saturday's attempted Times Square bombing.

That portrait, compiled based on accounts in several news outlets, is notable for the way in which Shahzad -- like so many of the young men behind Islamic terror attacks on the U.S. and Europe -- seems to have been simultaneously alien from, and embedded within, western culture. Born in Pakistan's remote and tribal Northwest Frontier Province, Shahzad, 30, grew up in a country that banned alcohol and taught Islam in school, and he maintained close ties to family members in the region. But he also went jogging in his suburban Connecticut neighborhood, and perused used car websites to find the Nissan Pathfinder that he's charged with using in the bomb plot. And he seems to have gone over the edge not long after participating in that archetypal American ritual of recent years -- defaulting on his mortgage.

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Barack Obama

Obama First Briefed On Attempted Bomb At 10:50 Saturday Night

Rachel Slajda | May 4, 2010, 6:50PM

John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, briefs President Obama on the attempted Times Square car bombing in the Oval Office on May 3, 2010

President Obama was first briefed on the attempted Times Square bombing -- which was discovered about 6:30 p.m. Saturday -- at 10:50 that night, according to a White House official.

Administration officials, who today detailed the president's involvement in the attempted attack over the past few days, said White House officials, National Security Staff and the NYPD were in touch before the president was notified.

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Northwest Flight 253

Three Senate Panels Kick Off Flight 253 Hearings Today

Justin Elliott | January 20, 2010, 9:13AM

As three separate Senate committees today hold hearings on the failed Christmas attack over Detroit, watch for Republicans to take the opportunity to ramp up their criticism of the Obama Administration.

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Northwest Flight 253

Flight 253 Intel: What Did They Know And When Did They Know It?

Justin Elliott | January 7, 2010, 2:19PM

Later today President Obama is scheduled to talk about the latest details from the security review of the failed Flight 253 attack.

National Security Adviser James Jones is predicting that Americans will feel "a certain shock" by the results of the review.

But in the meantime, as Josh noted on the Editors Blog, we thought it would be worthwhile to compile what has been publicly reported about what U.S. government agencies knew about Abdulmutallab, including the supposed "warning signs" that were missed.

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Anthrax

2001 Redux? Anthrax Scares Follow Terror Plot

Zachary Roth | January 5, 2010, 10:06AM

Yesterday -- ten days after the failed Christmas bombing attempt -- there were anthrax scares in both Alabama and California.

Envelopes containing white powder were sent to the district offices of senators and congressmen, as well as to a federal courthouse, in five different Alabama cities, and were believed to come from the same source. None of the letters tested positive for anthrax or any other harmful substance.

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Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

Bond On Detroit Case: Obama Didn't Learn From Bush's Mistakes

Justin Elliott | January 4, 2010, 12:47PM

Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO)

In a statement to TPMmuckraker, Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) elaborates on his position that the Bush Administration made a mistake in not classifying shoebomber Richard Reid as an "enemy combatant" -- and that President Obama is now repeating that mistake in handling Umar Abdulmutallab.

But Bond, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, does not explain why he did not speak out against Bush's handling of Reid at the time.

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Roundup

2009's Muckiest: Our Top Ten Most Popular Stories Of The Year

Justin Elliott | December 31, 2009, 3:19PM

It's been a dirty, scandalous, generally muck-drenched year here at TPMmuckraker.

2009 began with "black and bitter" and ends with Hooters. We'll always look back with fondness on Tom DeLay's tall tale of quadriplegic protesters and Mark Sanford's painfully awkward love e-mails ("I love ... the erotic beauty of you holding yourself"). And that's not even mentioning the ongoing sagas of John Murtha, Bernie Madoff, and John Ensign.

In past years, we've compiled grand lists of scandalized officials, but the Obama Administration isn't there yet.

We have our own favorite stories of the year, but more important are the posts that you, our readers, loved. So without further ado, here's our countdown of TPMmuckraker's top 10 most popular posts of the year.

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FBI

NYPD Official Transferred After Misstep With Imam Disrupted Terror Probe

Zachary Roth | September 24, 2009, 10:18AM

Najibullah Zazi

Fallout from that New York City terror probe...

The New York Times reports:

The New York Police Department has removed a senior official from one of its two sometimes competing antiterrorism units, after it played a role in disrupting a sensitive federal terrorism investigation, current and former police officials said on Wednesday. He was replaced by a top official from the other unit.

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