DC Metro Suspect Wanted to Attack US Troops
The Washington Post reports:
The man charged in an alleged plot to blow up Metrorail stations in Northern Virginia came to the FBI's attention because he was asking people about ways to fight American troops in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to court records unsealed Thursday.
Farooque Ahmed, 34, of Loudoun County told undercover FBI operatives who he thought were al-Qaeda terrorists that he was ready to martyr himself in battle, the records say. He had trained himself in martial arts, use of firearms, and knife and gun tactics, according to the documents.
He offered to teach those skills to others and purchase additional firearms for jihad, the papers say.
Ahmed is charged with conspiring to support al-Qaeda in a plot to bomb Metro stations in Arlington. The plot was hatched by authorities, unknown to Ahmed.
The 12-page sworn affidavit in support of a warrant to search Ahmed's Ashburn home and bank accounts suggests that Ahmed was a major part of the plot, providing surveillance and reconnaissance and offering his opinion on how to generate the most casualties.
The affidavit, signed by FBI Special Agent Charles A. Dayoub, details a grim 10-month courtship that began in January, just two months after Army Maj. Nidal Hasan went on a shooting rampage that killed 13 soldiers and contractors at the Army base at Fort Hood, Tex., and weeks after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab sought to blow up an airliner over Detroit .
"AHMED stated that he wanted to kill as many military personnel as possible," Dayoub wrote. He "stated that between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. would be the best time to stage an attack to cause the highest number of casualties."
