Plot to bomb Fed Reserve foiled
THE FBI last night arrested a man after he allegedly planned to blow up the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
Officers swooped on the 21-year-old Bangladeshi national following an elaborate sting operation that involved an undercover agent providing him with a fake 1000-pound bomb.
The FBI say Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis travelled to the United States in January and considered several targets for his attack, including a high-ranking government official and the New York Stock Exchange, but eventually decided to focus on the Federal Reserve Bank in lower Manhattan.
Yesterday afternoon it alleged Nafis left a van containing the supposed explosives outside the building, before retreating to a nearby hotel room and calling multiple mobile phones that were supposed to set off the detonation process.
According to court documents filed by the FBI, he told an informant before the planned attack: “All I had in my mind are how to destroy America… I came up to this conclusion that targeting America’s economy is most efficient way to draw the path of obliteration of America.”
Officials insisted that there was never a credible threat because Nafis was under close surveillance and the bomb materials were not in working condition.
He faces charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to al-Qaeda.