A teenager plotted “a spectacular show” of terrorism for months, saying he didn’t mind that children would die if he bombed a crowded Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, according to a law-enforcement official and court documents.
He never got the chance. Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, was arrested on Friday in Portland after using a cellphone to try to detonate what he thought were explosives in a van, prosecutors said. It turned out to be a dummy bomb put together by FBI agents.
Mohamud believed he was receiving help from a ring of jihadists as he communicated with undercover agents, but a law-enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that no foreign terrorist organization was directing him. The official said Mohamud was committed to the plot and planned details alone.
“I want whoever is attending that event to leave, to leave dead or injured,” Somali-born Mohamud said, according to the affidavit.
“It’s in Oregon, and Oregon, like you know, nobody ever thinks about it,” the suspect told an agent.
Thousands gathered on Friday for the event at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Just 10 minutes before Mohamud’s arrest, the lighting ceremony began.
Agents began investigating Mohamud after receiving a tip from someone concerned about him. The FBI monitored Mohamud’s e-mail and found he was in contact with people overseas, asking how he could join the fight for jihad, according to an FBI affidavit.
Mohamud e-mailed a friend living in Pakistan who had been in Yemen as well. The e-mail exchanges led the FBI to believe that Mohamud’s friend “had joined others involved in terrorist activities” and was inviting Mohamud to join him, according to the affidavit.
For reasons unexplained, Mohamud tried to board a flight to Kodiak, Alaska, from Portland on June 14, wasn’t allowed to board and was interviewed by the FBI, the affidavit states.
Mohamud told the FBI he wanted to earn money fishing, then travel to join “the brothers.”
On June 23, an agent e-mailed Mohamud, pretending to be affiliated with the “unindicted associate.” The FBI’s affidavit said the friend in Pakistan referred him to another associate, but gave him an address Mohamud repeatedly tried e-mailing unsuccessfully. The official said FBI agents saw that as an opportunity and e-mailed in response, claiming to be associates of Mohamud’s friend.
The affidavit said Mohamud was warned about the seriousness of his plan, that women and children could die, and that he could back out. However, he told agents: “Since I was 15 I thought about all this,” and “It’s gonna be a fireworks show ... a spectacular show.”
Mohamud was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
Authorities allowed the plot to proceed in order to build up enough evidence to charge the suspect, and White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said on Saturday that US President Barack Obama was aware of the FBI operation before Friday’s arrest.
Authorities said Mohamud sent bomb components to undercover FBI agents who he believed were assembling the explosive device, but the agents supplied the fake bomb that Mohamud tried to detonate twice via his phone.
The FBI affidavit said the undercover agent first met Mohamud on July 30 and asked what he would do for the cause of jihad. Mohamud responded that he wanted to become “operational,” but needed training, the affidavit said.
When Mohamud was asked what he meant by “operational,” he responded that he wanted to put together an explosion, the affidavit state. The undercover agent said he could introduce him to an explosive expert and asked Mohamud to research potential targets.
At a second meeting on Aug. 19, the agent brought a second undercover agent, the documents said, and Mohamud told them he had selected Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square for the bombing.
On Nov. 4, the court documents say, Mohamud made a video in the presence of one of the undercover agents, putting on clothes he described as “Sheik Osama style.” He read a statement speaking of his dream of bringing “a dark day” on Americans, according to the court documents.
On Friday an agent and Mohamud drove to Portland in a van that carried six drums with detonation cords and plastic caps, all of them inert, the complaint states.
They left the van near the downtown ceremony site and went to a train station where Mohamud was given a cellphone that he thought would blow up the vehicle, according to the complaint. There was no detonation when he dialed, and when he tried again federal agents and police made their move.
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