Tag Archives: Terrorist Plot

Three charged with plotting NY attacks for Islamic State: U.S. prosecutors

By Brendan Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Three men have been arrested since May of last year on charges of plotting attacks in New York City for Islamic State in the summer of 2016, U.S. prosecutors said on Friday.

The planned attacks, which were thwarted by law enforcement, included detonating explosives in Manhattan’s Times Square and in the city’s subway, according to the office of Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim in Manhattan.

One of the men, 19-year-old Canadian citizen Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, has been in U.S. custody since May 2016, when he was arrested in New Jersey. He pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in October 2016, the prosecutors said.

Talha Haroon, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen, was arrested in Pakistan, where he lives, around September 2016, and Russell Salic, a 37-year-old citizen of the Philippines, was arrested in that country in April of this year, according to Kim’s office.

Prosecutors said they expected Haroon and Salic to be extradited to the United States to face the charges, which include conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism and to support a terrorist organization. If convicted of the most serious charges, they face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Lawyers for the three men could not immediately be identified.

Prosecutors said El Bahnasawy bought bomb-making materials and helped secure a cabin near New York City from which to stage attacks. They said Haroon planned to travel from Pakistan to help El Bahnasawy carry out attacks, and that Salic helped fund the plot.

According to documents unsealed in federal court in Manhattan on Friday, El Bahnasawy and Haroon planned to carry out attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ran from early June to early July.

El Bahnasawy told an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a supporter of Islamic State that he wanted to “create the next 9/11,” prosecutors said. El Bahnasawy told the officer of plans to detonate a car bomb in Times Square and “shoot up concerts,” according to prosecutors.

Haroon likewise told the officer that Time Square was “a perfect spot to hit them,” prosecutors said.

Salic, who maintained a pro-Islamic State social media presence, told the undercover officer that he had been communicating with El Bahnasawy, and sent the officer about $423 from the Philippines to help pay for the attacks, according to prosecutors.

El Bahnasawy bought bomb-making materials in Canada, and was arrested the same day he came to the United States, the prosecutors said.

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Andrew Hay and Jonathan Oatis)

Florida man found guilty of Islamic State-inspired bomb plot

(Reuters) – A Florida man was convicted on Tuesday of plotting to set off a bomb at a public beach in an act that prosecutors said was inspired by the militant group Islamic State.

Harlem Suarez, 25, was found guilty at trial of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and providing material support to terrorists. He faces up to life in prison at his sentencing.

Federal agents employed a paid informant to communicate with Suarez after he promoted Islamic State on Facebook, according to court documents. Suarez decided he wanted to build a nail-filled bomb that he would bury at a beach in Key West and detonate remotely, prosecutors said.

He gave the informant components, including nails, and was arrested after he took possession of what he believed was an explosive device from the informant in July 2015, authorities said.

His defense lawyer argued that he was goaded into the plot by the informant, and Suarez took the stand to tell jurors he was merely playing along, according to local media reports. The Cuban-born Suarez came to the United States as a young boy with his family.

U.S. prosecutors have charged more than 100 individuals since 2013 with Islamic State-related crimes.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by James Dalgleish)