A 21-year-old man appeared in federal court in Brooklyn after officials said he was charged with attempting to blow up the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Sarah Irwin reports.
THE FBI has thwarted a plot to detonate a bomb outside the Federal Reserve in Manhattan in a sting operation.
A 21-year-old Bangladeshi man who claims links to Al Qaeda has been arrested in New York after a sting operation in which he believed he was going to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank with a 450kg bomb.
The FBI announced that Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis had been arrested in downtown Manhattan after he allegedly repeatedly attempted to explode the dummy bomb with a mobile phone he believed was rigged as a detonator.
He is facing charges of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to Al Qaeda.
Wearing a brown T-shirt and black jeans, Nafis did not enter a plea during a brief court appearance today in Brooklyn. He was ordered to be held without bail by magistrate Judge Roanne Mann. He did not enter a plea nor was he required to since the charges were in a criminal complaint by the government rather than a grand jury indictment.
His defence attorney had no comment outside court.
"The explosives that he allegedly sought and attempted to use had been rendered inoperable by law enforcement and posed no threat to the public,'' attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement.
Nafis allegedly also talked about killing a high-ranking American official, but the complaint did not name the target.
A picture purporting to show Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis who has been arrested and charged for plotting to blow up the Federal Reserve building in New York, right.
At a meeting on September 27 with an undercover agent, Nafis reportedly said "that he hoped that his attack would disrupt the upcoming presidential elections,'' and even boasted that, "You know what, this election might even stop.''
The New York Post reports Nafis told the agent he wanted "something big".
"I don't want something that's like small. I just want something big,'' he told the agent. "Something very big. Very very very very big, that will shake the whole country, that will make America, not one step ahead, change of policy, and make one step ahead, for the Muslims ... that will make us one step closer to run the whole world.''
Nafis was allegedly prepared to die and recorded a threatening video message for the American public, stating that attacks on America would not cease.
"We will not stop until we attain victory or martyrdom," federal prosecutors reported him as saying.
Undercover agents convinced him, however, that the al-Qaida leadership wanted him to use a remote control.
Authorities said Nafis proposed several spots for his attack, including the New York Stock Exchange - and that in a written letter taking responsibility for the Federal Reserve job he was about to carry out, he said he wanted to "destroy America."
This courtroom sketch shows Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, center, and his attorney Heidi Cesare, left, in Brooklyn Federal Court. Picture: Elizabeth Williams
"All I had in 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,'' he allegedly said.
He allegedly wrote of "our beloved Sheikh Osama bin Laden".
The complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York, in Brooklyn, states that Nafis arrived in the US in January this year with the sole intent of carrying out a terrorist attack and chose the Federal Reserve, which stores the largest stockpile of bullion in the world, 25m below ground level.
The criminal complaint sketched the outlines of a plot that developed over a period of months, including the meeting between Nafis and an undercover operative in Central Park and meetings on at least two occasions in Queens hotel rooms.
The complaint said that those meetings were recorded by the undercover operative.
The FBI said Nafis was arrested in an undercover operation by its New York Field Office's Joint Terrorism Task Force, and said the public was never in any danger.
It said Nafis claimed overseas connections to Al Qaeda and attempted to create a terror cell inside the US and tried to seek out Al Qaeda contacts in America.
Police stand in front of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York City after a Bangladeshi national was arrested by Federal Authorities for allegedly plotting to blow up the building. Picture: Spencer Platt
"Unbeknownst to Nafis, one of the individuals he attempted to recruit was actually a source for the FBI," said a media statement.
"Through the investigation, FBI agents and NYPD detectives working with the JTTF were able to closely monitor Nafis as he attempted to implement his plan."
The FBI alleges Nafis also considered targeting the New York Stock Exchange, in Wall St. Both the Exchange and the Federal Reserve buildings are under constant heavy guard.
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The Federal Reserve is one of the most fortified buildings in the city, smack in the middle of a massive security effort headed by the New York Police Department where a network of thousands of private and police cameras watch for suspicious activity.
Modelled after London's "ring of steel,'' the department uses sophisticated programs that can search for suspicious activity, like an object in one place for a long time. The analytic software also is designed to take video and catalogue it according to movements, shapes and colours, so officers can set parameters to search the system for, say, a suspicious van.
Nafis allegedly sought to obtain 20 bags of explosives from the FBI undercover agent, whom Nafis believed was an al Qaeda facilitator.
"Nafis then allegedly worked to store the material and assemble the explosive device for his attack," said the statement.
A picture purporting to show Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis. Picture: NBC
"Nafis purchased components for the bomb's detonator and conducted surveillance for his attack on multiple occasions in New York City's financial district in lower Manhattan.
"Throughout his interactions with the undercover agent, Nafis repeatedly asserted that the plan was his own and was the reason he had come to the United States."
The FBI said that early this morning that Nafis met the undercover agent and travelled in a van to a warehouse located in the Eastern District of New York.
"While en route, Nafis explained to the undercover agent that he had a 'Plan B' that involved conducting a suicide bombing operation in the event that the attack was about to be thwarted by the police," said the FBI.
"Upon arriving at the warehouse, Nafis assembled what he believed to be a 1000-pound bomb inside the van. Nafis and the undercover agent then drove to the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
"During this drive, Nafis armed the purported bomb by assembling the detonator and attaching it to the explosives.
"Nafis and the undercover agent parked the van next to the New York Federal Reserve Bank, exited the van, and walked to a nearby hotel.
Police stand in front of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York City. Picture: Spencer Platt
"There, Nafis recorded a video statement to the American public that he intended to release in connection with the attack.
"During this video statement, Nafis stated, 'We will not stop until we attain victory or martyrdom.' Nafis then repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, attempted to detonate the bomb, which had been assembled using the inert explosives provided by the undercover agent.
"JTTF agents arrested Nafis immediately after he attempted to detonate the bomb.
"Throughout the morning, federal, state, and local law enforcement officials, working with the JTTF, closely monitored the movements of Nafis as he attempted to implement the attack, including assuring that the van was not stopped by NYPD counterterrorism units active in lower Manhattan."
The FBI said Nafis thought he was working with fellow believers.
New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said: "Al Qaeda operatives and those they have inspired have tried time and again to make New York City their killing field.
"We are up to 15 plots and counting since 9/11, with the Federal Reserve now added to a list of iconic targets that previously included the Brooklyn Bridge, the New York Stock Exchange, and Citicorp Center.
The top of an FBI document submitted to the Southern District of New York County Court.
"After 11 years without a successful attack, it's understandable if the public becomes complacent. But that's a luxury law enforcement can't afford."
Four men were convicted in 2009 in a plot to bomb synagogues and shoot down military planes with missiles - a case that began after an FBI informant was assigned to infiltrate a mosque in Newburgh, about 117 kilometers north of New York City. The federal judge hearing the case said she was not proud of the government's role in nurturing the plot.
In 2004, a Pakistani immigrant was arrested and convicted for a scheme to blow up the subway station at Herald Square in Midtown. His lawyers argued that their client had been set up by a police informant who showed him pictures of Iraq abuse to get him involved in an attack against civilians.
The Federal Reserve Bank in New York City. Picture: Spencer Plat
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