Suspect arrested for Fed Reserve Bank attack plot

Updated 8:00 PM ET

NEW YORK A Bangladeshi man who came to the United States to wage jihad was arrested in an elaborate FBI sting on Wednesday after attempting to blow up a fake car bomb outside the Federal Reserve building in Manhattan, authorities said.

Before trying to carry out the alleged terrorism plot, Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis went to a warehouse to help assemble a 1,000-pound bomb using inert material, according to a criminal complaint. He also asked an undercover agent to videotape him saying, "We will not stop until we attain victory or martyrdom," the complaint said.

Agents grabbed the 21-year-old Nafis -- armed with a cellphone he believed was rigged as a detonator -- after he made several attempts to blow up the bomb inside a vehicle parked next to the Federal Reserve, the complaint said.

CBS News correspondent John Miller reported that it is possible authorities may take other people into custody in this case. They are looking at least five other people who are associates of Nafis. If Nafis is convicted in this case, he could face life in prison.

Authorities emphasized that the plot never posed an actual risk. However, they claimed the case demonstrated the value of using sting operations to neutralize young extremists eager to harm Americans.

"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, acting head of the FBI's New York office. "The defendant faces appropriately severe consequences."

Nafis appeared in federal court in Brooklyn to face charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to al Qaeda. Wearing a brown T-shirt and black jeans, he was ordered held without bail and did not enter a plea. His defense attorney had no comment outside court.

The defendant "reported having connections" to al Qaeda, prosecutors said. But there was no allegation that he received training or direction from the terrorist group. Nafis was living in Queens.

Prosecutors say Nafis traveled to the U.S. in January to carry out an attack. In July, he contacted a confidential informant, telling him he wanted to form a terror cell, the criminal complaint said.

In further conversations, 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." Other communications took place through Facebook, the complaint said.

A source told CBS News' Pat Milton that the arrest was the result of a several-month investigation, and that the suspect is from Jamaica, Queens, in New York. CBS News has also learned that Nafis was enrolled at Southeast Missouri State University for the spring semester earlier this year and that he was pursuing a degree in cyber security; he is not currently enrolled there.

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Nafis came to the U.S. on a student visa. He said the man came under the guise of going to school in Missouri but was really plotting an attack. Kelly said the city remains at the top of the terrorist target list.

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Ray Kelly on Fed Reserve Bank attack plot

The bank in New York, located at 33 Liberty St., is one of 12 branches around the country that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, make up the Federal Reserve System that serves as the central bank of the United States. It sets interest rates.

The Fed is also home to "the world's largest accumulation of gold," according to the bank's website. Dozens of governments and central banks store a portion of their gold reserves in high-security vaults deep beneath the building. In recent years, it held 216 million troy ounces of gold, or more than a fifth of all global monetary gold reserves, making it a bigger bullion depository than Fort Knox.

Kelly said the plot demonstrates the continued threat of terrorism against the city.

"Whether al Qaeda operatives like Iyman Faris or those inspired by them like Jose Pimentel, terrorists have tried time and again to make New York City their killing field," said Kelly in a statement. "We're 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. After 11 years without a successful attack, it's understanding if the public becomes complacent. But that's a luxury law enforcement can't afford."

The FBI has come under criticism for similar sting operations recently. Back in September, Adel Daoud was arrested in a sting operation and charged for trying to blow up a Chicago bar with an explosive. According to the U.S. attorney's office, the device was harmless and that the public was not in danger. In court documents, Daoud told an undercover agent the reason for the attack was that America was at war "with Islam and Muslims." Daoud's attorney said that his client was encouraged by federal agents to take part in terrorism.

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 70 miles 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.

So how often is the FBI do these stings? In the universe of cases since 9/11, there have been about 300 arrests in terrorism cases, reported Miller. Of that, about 100 have involved plots. And of those, about 25 of them or so have involved actual stings where people carried what they believe were real bombs to launch attacks. So a lot more often than the general public is really aware.

[moonwhammer]

No big deal but made big again until and again, we find out, it wasnt like told. Terrorism against America, the biggest joke ever. There are thousand times more true nationalists wanting to destroy establishment than camelriding fanatic idiots capable to switch on a cellphone. Keep telling stories about Santa Claus or 9/11, true terrorism working high tech, chem and frequencies and not cave man techniques without a chance. Lucky we have no true terrorism, are we?
Anyhow that boy needs psychiatric attention and not a terrorist degree. Any angry and starving amercian is more dangerous that this.

[jeannutson]

There is no doubt external and internal terrorism is rapidly increasing despite the efforts to clamp down on them and greatly adds up to the several difficulties facing the American society exposing the public to more threats and danger.

[ammo17]

it seems to me that it is easier to get a visa into this country,then it is to get a photo id for our own citizens.

[westerly1]

It seems to me there is a pattern of young Middle Eastern men coming to this country on student visas to study subjects like chemical engineering, cyber security, et al. There ought to be a red flag here. I think our security folks should be looking at the criteria and process for approving these visas.

[LarryMoe2012]

I guess Al Qaeda is no longer on the run. Is that why Oblamer left that out of his campaign pitch yesterday.

[wherewlf]

I am curious why this suspect was not deported as soon as he dropped out of College in Missouri. He came here on a student visa. Do the colleges have a responsibility to report it when international students drop out?

[whoopdedoo]

We need to deport all the foreigners! Get them out of here! Let's take back America!

[uniwold]

What I don't get is this.

1) None of these news highlight (anonymously ofcourse) the "muslims" that actually worked for the FBI in the covert operations, indirectly trying to make all muslims look bad. It goes without saying that without the help of those muslims this wouldn't be possible.
2) For those who say that the FBI coaxed a disillusioned person with (fake) material help to incriminate them, think about the fact that this person and others have chosen to act given the circumstances, he is 21 years old not a kid anymore who can be misled.
3) Doing Step 1 and Step 2 has advantages, it acts as a deterrent. Anyone who has those has that ideology would be scared to death to take it to the next step for the same reasons that he would just be trapped and never actually get anything done and basically fall into the hands of FBI.

So these cases aren't a witch hunt, a purpose is served here.

[taxchurches]

If half the paranoid fantasies expressed in this comment section were true, you wouldn't be allowed to post them, or you'd be visited by men in lumpy suits with no sense of humor the next day.

Please pardon the previous double-post.

[taxchurches]

I agree that the "War on Terror" was ill-convceived; you can't fight a miltary war against an operating principle. Terrorism is a concept, and concepts are impervious to bullets (when the bullets don't actually strengthen them). That's been proven by thousands of years of war in the Middle East. I said this on September 12, 2001, and nothing has yet to show that I was wrong.

Having said that, it's no coincidence that the voices we hear shouting consipracy theories usually have a paranoid harshness to them: potheads always sound like that. If you go around shrieking "conspiracy!" every time anything occurs, you sound like a deranged parrot. And if you try hard enough, instead of going to work every day and maybe even having a social life, you'll eventually run into some factoid or de-classified document you don't fully grasp, which will seem to support your nutty views.

Politicians, FBI agents and journalists aren't any more corrupt or evil than anyone else. Unfortunately they aren't any brighter or more compentent than anyone else, either. Journalism is dead for all intents and purposes. Half the stories one reads these days are written by bloggers, many of whom can't string together a coherent sentence, and even mainstream news outlets are using Twitter as source material. So just because you read it in "the news" doesn't mean it's true---but that doesn't always imply deliberate falsehood, either.

Remember Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained as stupidity." Or incompetence.

[taxchurches]

I agree that the "War on Terror" was ill-convceived; you can't fight a miltary war against an operating principle. Terrorism is a concept, and concepts are impervious to bullets (when the bullets don't actually strengthen them). That's been proven by thousands of years of war in the Middle East. I said this on September 12, 2001, and nothing has yet to show that I was wrong.

Having said that, it's no coincidence that the voices we hear shouting consipracy theories usually have a paranoid harshness to them: potheads always sound like that. If you go around shrieking "conspiracy!" every time anything occurs, you sound like a deranged parrot. And if you try hard enough, instead of going to work every day and maybe even having a social life, you'll eventually run into some factoid or de-classified document you don't fully grasp, which will seem to support your nutty views.

Politicians, FBI agents and journalists aren't any more corrupt or evil than anyone else. Unfortunately they aren't any brighter or more compentent than anyone else, either. Journalism is dead for all intents and purposes. Half the stories one reads these days are written by bloggers, many of whom can't string together a coherent sentence, and even mainstream news outlets are using Twitter as source material. So just because you read it in "the news" doesn't mean it's true---but that doesn't always imply deliberate falsehood, either.

Remember Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained as stupidity." Or incompetence.