Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Boston Business Journal:

Feds: Ashland man plotted to blow up Pentagon, Capitol

A 26-year-old Ashland, Mass., physicist thought he was working with Al Qaeda and planned to pack remote-controlled aircraft with C-4 plastic explosives and use them to blow up the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol, federal prosecutors alleged Wednesday.

Rezwan Ferdaus was charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization.

Ferdaus is a U.S. citizen and was graduated from Northeastern University .

As the plot evolved over the past year, prosecutors said, Ferdaus thought he was working with terrorist conspirators when in reality he was dealing with undercover FBI agents.

As recently as this morning, prosecutors said, Ferdaus received what he thought was explosives and AK-47 submachine guns. He had been storing other supplies for a planned attack at a storage facility in Framingham, Mass., prosecutors said.

U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Carmen Ortiz's office said the public was never in danger because the explosives Ferdaus sought to use never left the FBI's control.

"The defendant was closely monitored as his alleged plot developed and the UCs were in frequent contact with him," Ortiz's office said in a prepared statement.

Richard DesLauriers, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division said in a prepared statement: “Today’s arrest was the culmination of an investigation forged through strong relationships among various Massachusetts law enforcement agencies to detect, deter, and prevent terrorism. Each of the more than 30 federal, state, and local agencies on the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) worked together to protect the community from this threat." ...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wonder if this had anything to do with islam?