Texas terror suspect pleads not guilty

Dallas, Texas : A terrorist suspect accused of two counts of plotting to bomb a skyscraper in Dallas, Texas, pleaded not guilty Monday in federal court.

Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian, entered the United States illegally and lived in Texas, where he tried to set off an explosive attached to a vehicle at the base of the 60-story Fountain Place office tower, federal officials contend.

Smadi initially drew authorities' scrutiny because of his violent posts on an extremist chat site, court papers say. He was arrested last month in a sting operation.

"Smadi was discovered by the FBI within an online group of extremists," the affidavit says. "Among many others in the group who espoused and endorsed violence, Smadi stood out based on his vehement intention to actually conduct terror attacks in the United States."

Undercover officers posing as members of an al Qaeda sleeper cell contacted Smadi and, after months of conversations, considered him to be a legitimate threat, according to the affidavit.

Smadi picked several potential targets, including the Dallas/Forth Worth International Airport, before deciding on the skyscraper, which houses Wells Fargo Bank, the affidavit says.

It details a conversation that Smadi had with authorities in which he allegedly said: "I have decided to change the target. God willing, the strike will be certain and strong. It will shake the currently weak economy in the state and the American nation, because this bank is one of the largest banks in the city."

Smadi said many times that he wanted to commit violent jihad and that he was a soldier of Osama bin Laden, the affidavit says.

Undercover agents tried to get Smadi to "re-evaluate his interpretation of jihad," saying there were nonviolent ways to commit the act, the affidavit says, but "Smadi again communicated his continuing commitment for violent jihad."

After casing the bank in July, Smadi told an undercover agent he would target it, according to authorities. Initially, Smadi told the agent he wanted to bomb the bank on September 11, but decided to wait until the Islamic holy month of Ramadan ended on September 20, authorities said.

After receiving what he thought was an explosive from an undercover agent, Smadi drove a car carrying the fake bomb into a parking garage under the skyscraper, authorities said. Smadi thought he could detonate the bomb by dialing his cell phone.

When he dialed, the number rang a phone in authorities' possession, the affidavit says.

Smadi is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, which carries a potential sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine upon conviction.

Authorities said they have found no tie between Smadi and any terrorist group.

CNN

"Backlash" after Dallas Jihad Terror Plot?

By Robert Spencer

Late in September, a Muslim named Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, was arrested after placing an inert car bomb at a 60-story office tower in downtown Dallas. In March 2009, according to his indictment in U.S. District Court, Smadi declared his intention to wage war in the name of Islam. Yet characteristically, if dispiritingly, Muslims in the Dallas area are now expressing fears of a “backlash,” rather than taking the hard steps necessary to make sure there are no more jihad plotters who are inspired by Islamic teachings, as was Hosam Smadi.

Smadi was very clear about the Islamic motivation for his plot: “I truly say it that [sic] my dream is to be among God’s soldiers, first for the support of Islam and my beloved Sheik Usama, may God give him long life.” He decried the “world plan to destroy Islam, Muslims, and to seize their lands for the benefit of the Jews and for the love of infidelity.” He swore: “In the name of God, the Gracious and Merciful, this is my vow to you, my brother, that I am ready. And if you were a lover of Jihad as I am, then, by God, I am ready for the Jihadi life.” And he affirmed: “The reign is only for the living and powerful God.” Read more ...

Source: FPM

Hosam Maher Husein Smadi
Latest recipients of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award

Still Not Tired

Thomas L. Friedman

He didn’t want to wear earplugs. Apparently, he wanted to enjoy the blast.That is what The Dallas Morning News reported about Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, the 19-year-old Jordanian accused of trying to blow up a downtown Dallas skyscraper.

He was caught by an F.B.I. sting operation that culminated in his arrest nearly two weeks ago — after Smadi parked a 2001 Ford Explorer Sport Trac, supplied by the F.B.I., in the garage of a Dallas office tower.

“Inside the S.U.V. was a fake bomb, designed to appear similar to one used by Timothy McVeigh in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing,” The News wrote. “Authorities say Smadi thought he could detonate it with a cellphone.

After parking the vehicle, he got into another vehicle with one of the agents, and they drove several blocks away. An agent offered Smadi earplugs, but he declined, ‘indicating that he wanted to hear the blast,’ authorities said. He then dialed the phone, thinking it would trigger the bomb. ... Instead, the agents took him into custody.”

If that doesn’t send a little shiver down your spine, how about this one? BBC.com reported that “it has emerged that an Al Qaeda bomber who died last month while trying to blow up a Saudi prince in Jeddah had hidden the explosives inside his body.” He reportedly inserted the bomb and detonator in his rectum to elude metal detectors. My God.

Or how about this? Two weeks ago in Denver, the F.B.I. arrested Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old Afghan immigrant, and indicted him on charges of planning to set off a bomb made of the same home-brewed explosives used in the 2005 London transit bombings. He allegedly learned how to do so on a training visit to Pakistan.

The Times reported that Zazi “had bought some bomb ingredients in beauty supply stores, the authorities said, after viewing instructions on his laptop on how to build such a bomb. When an employee of the Beauty Supply Warehouse asked about the volume of materials he was buying, he remembered Mr. Zazi answering, ‘I have a lot of girlfriends.’ ”

These incidents are worth reflecting on. They tell us some important things. First, we may be tired of this “war on terrorism,” but the bad guys are not. They are getting even more “creative.”

Read more here,,,,

Source: NYT

Suspect 'planned September 11 bomb'

By Robert Boczkiewicz in Denver

THE Afghani male at the center of an anti-terrorism probe was determined to make a bomb and perhaps detonate it in New York City on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, before he was thwarted by authorities, a US prosecutor says.

Assistant US Attorney Tim Neff summed up the Government's case against Najibullah Zazi, 24, in a Denver courtroom before the suspect was flown in federal custody to New York to face a charge of plotting bomb attacks in the United States.

Zazi, linked by authorities to al-Qaeda, was making his third appearance before a federal judge in Denver. He was ordered to remain held without bail, then put aboard a US Marshals Service jet for the cross-country flight.

His first New York court appearance is set for Tuesday.

Zazi has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in media interviews and through his lawyers.

"There was and is no plot," defense attorney Arthur Folsom said.

Zazi is accused of receiving bomb-making instructions during a trip to Pakistan last year, then buying and preparing chemicals for use in home-made explosives like those used in the deadly London mass transit bombings in 2005.

A grand jury in New York has charged Zazi, a legal US resident born in Afghanistan, under federal anti-terrorism laws with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, an offense outlined in an indictment unsealed on Thursday.

He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.

Law enforcement experts have called the suspected conspiracy, if proven, one of the most significant security threats in the United States since the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Authorities say the case is unrelated to two other security arrests this week in Dallas and Springfield, Illinois.

The investigation came to light earlier this month after Zazi drove across the country from Colorado, arriving in New York City on September 10 in a rental car in which authorities say he carried a laptop computer with detailed bomb-making notes.

Source: The Australian

Sting operations thwarted terror bomb plots across America, says FBI

Tim Reid in Washington

A series of undercover sting operations in the US has resulted in arrests in four unrelated terror bomb plots across America, raising concerns of another attack on US soil.

While the FBI continues to question Najibullah Zazi, an Afghan-born Denver resident accused of plotting the biggest terror attack since the September 11 atrocity, arrests were also made in Illinois and Dallas, and an investigation was widened in North Carolina.

A 19-year-old Jordanian, Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, was arrested after allegedly placing what he thought was a bomb at a Dallas skyscraper. The decoy device was provided by an undercover FBI agent.

In Springfield, Illinois, Michael Finton, 29, was arrested after allegedly trying to detonate what he thought was a bomb outside a federal courthouse. The FBI had infiltrated the plot months ago.

Mr Zazi is accused of planning to make bombs similar to those used in the July 7 attacks in London, and has been charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. Close-circuit video footage emerged yesterday allegedly showing him buying hydrogen peroxide — a key ingredient in such bombs — from beauty supply shops in the Denver area.

Two North Carolina men under arrest since July on international terrorism charges have also been accused of plotting to kill US military personnel in America.

Source: Times Online

Man arrested in alleged attempt to bomb Dallas skyscraper

Federal authorities arrested a 19-year-old Jordanian citizen whom they said placed an inactive car bomb today at Fountain Place, a 60-story skyscraper in downtown Dallas.

Hosam Maher Husein Smadi has repeatedly voiced his intent to serve Osama bin Laden and al-Qa’ida and commit “violent Jihad,” authorities said in a prepared statement.

“Today’s arrest of Hosam Maher Husein Smadi underscores the FBI’s unwavering commitment to bring to justice persons who attempt to bring harm to citizens of this country and significant danger to this community,” special FBI agent in charge Robert E. Casey, Jr. said in the statement. “Smadi made a decision to act to commit a significant conspicuous act of violence under his banner of ‘self Jihad.’”

Authorities said that Smadi was under continuous FBI surveillance.

Federal agents posed as members of an al-Qa’ida sleeper cell. Smadi, who was in the U.S. illegally, allegedly told them that he came to the country specifically to commit “Jihad for the sake of God.”

According to authorities, Smadi identified potential Dallas targets in June and allegedly scoped out Fountain Place in July. Authorities said that Smadi lived and worked in Italy, Texas, about 45 miles south of Dallas.

Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert said city officials were notified of the impending arrest beforehand.

“We were clearly communicated to that there was not going to be a danger to anybody,” Leppert said. “There’s a good working relationship between the police and the FBI. This is an example of that.”

Leppert mentioned that there was another terrorism arrest in Springfield today.

Regarding the arrests in Dallas, Denver, New York City and Springfield, he said, “It’s a comment on the world we live in. All of us need to be vigilant.”

Source: Dallas Morning News

Islamists Attempt to Quash Free Speech that Unmasks their Radical Agenda

On October 14, 2007 Joe Kaufman, a chairman of American Against Hate, organized a protest against the Islamic Circle of North America. ICNA has well documented ties to Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood and should really be called the ISLAMIST Circle of North America, especially, since it openly advocates for establishment of Sharia in the United States.

During the protest, Mr. Kaufman was served with temporary restraining order filed by Islamic Society of Arlington, Al Hedayah Islamic Center, Dar Elsalam Islamic Center, DFW Islamic Educational Center, Inc., Islamic Association of Tarrant County, Islamic Center of Irving, and Muslim American Society of Dallas.

The TRO restraints Joe Kaufman from the following:

- Threatening Plaintiffs in person, by telephone, or in writing to take unlawful action against any person, intending by this action to annoy or alarm Plaintiffs.
- Intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causing bodily injury to Plaintiffs or Plaintiffs' associates or members.
- Threatening Plaintiffs or Plaintiffs' associates or members with imminent bodily injury.
- Inciting violence against Plaintiffs, their members or associates.

The Plaintiffs claim that Mr. Kaufman "operates a website ... that tries to foment hate and anger against law abiding United States citizens who practice their religion (Islam) freely as guaranteed by the United States Constitution. ... He wishes to stir up anger, resentment, bias, and hatred of peaceful, law abiding citizens, solely because of their religion. To this end, Defendant Kaufman organizes protests of all things Islamic, attempting to paint them in one broad swath as being allied with Hamas, Al Qaeda, and terrorists. ... To this end, Defendant has painted the Plaintiffs as terrorists."

Several members of Muslims Against Sharia went through multiple statements posted on Mr. Kaufman's website, www.AmericansAgainstHate.org. We have not found a single instance of Islam-bashing or Muslim-bashing that the Plaintiffs are complaining about. However, we found plenty of information that link ICNA and Muslim American Society (MAS) to Islamist groups both at home and abroad.

This is a despicable act of American Islamist establishment (which IS associated with terrorists) to quash any attempt to unmask its extremist agenda.

Muslims Against Sharia call on every American Muslim to condemn Islamism in general and Plaintiffs in particular and voice their support for Mr. Kaufman.