A PAKISTANI-American was arrested overnight for plotting to cause carnage on Washington’s subway system by carrying out bomb attacks.
Farooque Ahmed, 34, had been allegedly observing, video-taping and photographing Metro stations in and around the American capital since April to plan the attacks, which would have been carried out next year.
Ahmed then handed this information to people he believed were tied to al-Qa’ida, officials said.
“Farooque Ahmed is accused of plotting with individuals he believed were terrorists to bomb our transit system, but a coordinated law enforcement and intelligence effort was able to thwart his plans,” David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security told reporters.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Justice Department, the FBI and national security officials had been on “top of this case from the beginning.”
“At no point was the public in any danger,” he added.
Ahmed, a naturalised US citizen who was born in Pakistan, was due to appear in court in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, on Wednesday.
He faces charges of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organisation, collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack, and attempting to provide help to carry out multiple bombings and cause mass casualties in Washington.
If convicted, he could be jailed for up to 50 years.
According to the indictment, Ahmed allegedly spent months doing the groundwork for next year’s attacks.
He allegedly met with a courier he believed to be affiliated with al-Qa’ida, and on several occasions photographed, video-taped and drew diagrams of Metro stations in Washington’s nearby Virginia suburbs.
The indictment says Ahmed allegedly gathered information about security and the busiest times at the Metro stations, and handed the data last month to “an individual he believed to be affiliated with al-Qa’ida.”
He is also alleged to have suggested “where explosives should be placed on trains in Metrorail stations… to kill the most people in simultaneous attacks planned for 2011.”
It was not immediately clear who was given the material by Ahmed, and whether the operation had been an elaborate FBI sting.
The outline of the alleged plot recalls the attacks on London’s public transportation system in 2005, which killed 52 bus and rail passengers, and the simultaneous bombings on commuter trains in Madrid in 2004 that killed more than 190 people.
“It’s chilling that a man from Ashburn is accused of casing rail stations with the goal of killing as many Metro riders as possible through simultaneous bomb attacks,” US Attorney Neil MacBride said.
Ahmed’s arrest added to the list of US homegrown terrorists charged or convicted of terrorism crimes.
They include blond, blue-eyed Colleen LaRose, who took the online name JihadJane and wanted to use her looks to “blend in” in Sweden and kill a cartoonist, and David Headley, the son of a former Pakistani diplomat and a white American woman, who has confessed to plotting the coordinated attacks in Mumbai in 2008, which killed 166.
According to a report issued last month by the Bipartisan Policy Centre’s National Security Preparedness group, US domestic security agencies are ill-prepared to tackle the emerging threat posed by homespun US terrorists, whose numbers have grown from none a few years ago to 43 in 2009.
officials said.
“Farooque Ahmed is accused of plotting with individuals he believed were terrorists to bomb our transit system, but a coordinated law enforcement and intelligence effort was able to thwart his plans,” David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security told reporters.
The White House said the US public was never in danger from the alleged plot, and that President Barack Obama had been aware of it before Ahmed’s arrest.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Justice Department, the FBI and national security officials had been on “top of this case from the beginning.”
“At no point was the public in any danger,” he added.
Ahmed, a naturalised US citizen who was born in Pakistan, was due to appear in court in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, on Wednesday.
He faces charges of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organisation, collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack, and attempting to provide help to carry out multiple bombings and cause mass casualties in Washington.
If convicted, he could be jailed for up to 50 years.
According to the indictment, Ahmed allegedly spent months doing the groundwork for next year’s attacks.
He allegedly met with a courier he believed to be affiliated with al-Qa’ida, and on several occasions photographed, video-taped and drew diagrams of Metro stations in Washington’s nearby Virginia suburbs.
The indictment says Ahmed allegedly gathered information about security and the busiest times at the Metro stations, and handed the data last month to “an individual he believed to be affiliated with al-Qa’ida.”
He is also alleged to have suggested “where explosives should be placed on trains in Metrorail stations… to kill the most people in simultaneous attacks planned for 2011.”
It was not immediately clear who was given the material by Ahmed, and whether the operation had been an elaborate FBI sting.
The outline of the alleged plot recalls the attacks on London’s public transportation system in 2005, which killed 52 bus and rail passengers, and the simultaneous bombings on commuter trains in Madrid in 2004 that killed more than 190 people.
“It’s chilling that a man from Ashburn is accused of casing rail stations with the goal of killing as many Metro riders as possible through simultaneous bomb attacks,” US Attorney Neil MacBride said.
Ahmed’s arrest added to the list of US homegrown terrorists charged or convicted of terrorism crimes.
They include blond, blue-eyed Colleen LaRose, who took the online name JihadJane and wanted to use her looks to “blend in” in Sweden and kill a cartoonist, and David Headley, the son of a former Pakistani diplomat and a white American woman, who has confessed to plotting the coordinated attacks in Mumbai in 2008, which killed 166.
According to a report issued last month by the Bipartisan Policy Centre’s National Security Preparedness group, US domestic security agencies are ill-prepared to tackle the emerging threat posed by homespun US terrorists, whose numbers have grown from none a few years ago to 43 in 2009.
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