Video, links, criminal complaint and statement from the FBI.
FBI Statement On Arrest Of NY Fed Bombing Suspect Quazi Nafis
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He met an undercover agent that supplied him with what he thought were explosives on Wednesday morning. After meeting up, they both traveled in a van to a warehouse, the Justice Department said.
That’s apparently when Nafis told the agent he had a "Plan B."
If Nafis felt his attack was about to be thwarted by cops, he would invoke the back-up plan, which involved a suicide bombing operation, the criminal complaint alleges.
When the pair arrived at the warehouse, Nafis began putting together what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb inside the van. Then they drove together to the target: The New York Federal Reserve Bank. As they drove, he armed the purported by putting together the detonator and the explosives, the criminal complaint says.
The van was then parked next to the bank. The pair went to a nearby hotel, where Nafis apparently recorded a video statement meant to be shown to the American public in connection with the attack.
"We will not stop until we attain victory or martyrdom," he said, according to the criminal complaint.
He then tried, several times unsuccessfully, to detonate the device, which was actually inert explosives.
Nafis was then arrested.
A good portion of the sting operation was caught on tape, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
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A suspected terrorist parked a van packed with what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb next to the Federal Reserve building in Lower Manhattan and tried to detonate it Wednesday morning before he was arrested in a terror sting operation, authorities said.
The suspect, 21-year-old Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, is a Bangladeshi national who came to the U.S. in January for the specific purpose of launching a terror attack here, authorities said.
The criminal complaint against Nafis said he wrote a statement claiming responsibility for what he thought would be the Fed attack, saying he wanted to "destroy America" by going after its economy. He referred to "our beloved Sheikh Osama bin Laden" in the statement.
The complaint said he proposed various other targets beyond the Fed building at 33 Liberty St., just blocks from the World Trade Center site. He also considered targeting a "high-ranking U.S. official" as well as the New York Stock Exchange, prosecutors said.
Nafis, who lives in Jamaica, Queens, allegedly sought out al-Qaida contacts to help him, unknowingly recruiting an FBI source in the process. At that point, the FBI and NYPD began monitoring him as he developed the plot, prosecutors said.
An undercover FBI agent posed as an al-Qaida facilitator, supplying him with 20 50-pound bags of what he thought were explosives to use in building his bomb. He also visited the Lower Manhattan site multiple times as he planned the attack, officials said.
Prosecutors say Nafis met the agent Wednesday morning and put the bomb inside a van before driving to the Fed building, assembling the detonator while he drove.
The pair parked the van by the Fed, got out and walked to a hotel, where Nafis recorded a video statement he meant to be released after the attack. He then tried to detonate the bomb, officials said.
Law enforcement officials stress that the plot was a sting operation monitored by the FBI and NYPD and the public was never at risk. The materials he believed were explosives had been rendered inoperable, officials said.
Nafis is expected in court later Wednesday. He is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to al-Qaida.
"Attempting to destroy a landmark building and kill or maim untold numbers of innocent bystanders is about as serious as the imagination can conjure, " said Mary Galligan, FBI acting assistant director in charge.
Nafis was living in Queens at the time of his arrest.
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http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=8850791