AFP, Washington :
Authorities in the US state of Georgia have arrested a 21-year-old man who sought to buy explosives and an anti-tank rocket for a “jihad” suicide attack on the White House planned for Thursday.
Byung Pak, the US attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, announced the arrest of Hasher Taheb of Cumming, Georgia late Wednesday after a monthslong FBI investigation sparked by a tip from the local community “that Taheb had become radicalized.”
According to the indictment, Taheb tried to recruit an informant and an undercover FBI agent into a plan to attack the White House and other targets in Washington, including the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and an unnamed synagogue.
Wanting to fulfil his “duty” to conduct jihad and expecting to become a “martyr,” Taheb originally hoped to travel to Islamic State-held territory in the Middle East, he told the FBI source, the indictment said.
But because he had lost his passport, Taheb told the informant it would be better to launch attacks inside the United States.
On December 7, 2018, he met the undercover agent and revealed a hand-drawn diagram of the White House West Wing, where the president’s office is located.
In the subsequent weeks, Taheb detailed what weapons he wanted to acquire for the plot, and assigned the FBI agent to obtain them: semi-automatic weapons, grenades and an AT-4 shoulder-mounted anti-tank weapon.
His plan was for the trio to jointly launch the attack on what he referred to as “game day,” eventually pinpointed as January 17.
“Specifically, he described his plan to use the AT-4 to blow a hole in the White House so that the group could enter,” the indictment said.
Taheb advised the source “that jihad was the best deed in Islam and the peak of Islam,” the indictment said.
On Wednesday, the three met in the parking lot of a store in Buford, Georgia where the FBI agent was to hand over the explosives and weapons, all of which had been rendered inert.
When Taheb took delivery of the weapons, he was arrested.
Officials and the indictment provided no background on Taheb or whether he had made any contact with terrorist groups abroad.
But Pak said no targets in Washington or Georgia were ever truly threatened by the plot.
In a separate case, on Thursday a 49-year-old man, Demetrius Nathaniel Pitts or Abdur Raheem Rafeeq, was arrested in a Cleveland, Ohio suburb and charged with planning a terror attack on the city on July 4, the US Independence Day holiday.Undercover FBI agents communicated with Pitts for months on the plot before arresting him.
“Pitts, a US citizen living in Ohio, pledged his allegiance to Al-Qaeda,” a Justice Department statement said. Taheb’s alleged attack on the White House was supposed to take place around Thursday and involve various explosives and firearms, though even days before he claimed he had still never fired a gun in his life, according to the criminal complaint. He said he could learn fast, the document said. Authorities also said he planned to travel to the Islamic State territory but acknowledged he didn’t have a passport.
“All potential threats have been neutralized and were under control from the inception of this case,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak, who added that authorities would take no questions on the investigation, which is ongoing.
The criminal complaint accuses Taheb of plotting to destroy a government building, which is punishable by five to 20 years. The document said a community member contacted law enforcement in March 2018 about him.
On Wednesday night, agents were searching the home south of Cumming where Taheb is believed to live with his mother.
A few days later, there was another meeting in Alpharetta, during which Taheb allegedly showed the FBI worker a composition notebook with a hand-drawn map of the ground floor of the West Wing in the White House. Taheb seemed to believe the informant and FBI worker would join his plot if they could find weapons, according to the document.
By mid-December, Taheb had allegedly broadened the scope of places he wanted to attack to include the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and a synagogue. He said he wanted to use handguns, IEDs, an AT-4 anti-armor weapon and hand grenades.
The conversations continued into this month with Taheb allegedly discussing growing the group, disdain for the U.S. and Israel and various angles of the plot. He also expressed worry that his family would catch on to the plans.
The attack on the White House was supposed to involve driving on a road behind the building, creating a diversion and shooting a hole through the building to gain entry and kill people, the complaint said.
On Wednesday, Taheb went to a Buford store parking lot for the purpose of him and the FBI worker exchanging their vehicles for semi-automatic rifles, explosive devices and an AT-4, the complaint said. A second informant inspected the vehicles and told Taheb the money was in the ashtray of one of them.
A second FBI worker drove up with a tractor trailer, which had the weapons inside, though the FBI had rendered them useless. Taheb took the weapons in a backpack and was arrested by agents.
Authorities in the US state of Georgia have arrested a 21-year-old man who sought to buy explosives and an anti-tank rocket for a “jihad” suicide attack on the White House planned for Thursday.
Byung Pak, the US attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, announced the arrest of Hasher Taheb of Cumming, Georgia late Wednesday after a monthslong FBI investigation sparked by a tip from the local community “that Taheb had become radicalized.”
According to the indictment, Taheb tried to recruit an informant and an undercover FBI agent into a plan to attack the White House and other targets in Washington, including the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and an unnamed synagogue.
Wanting to fulfil his “duty” to conduct jihad and expecting to become a “martyr,” Taheb originally hoped to travel to Islamic State-held territory in the Middle East, he told the FBI source, the indictment said.
But because he had lost his passport, Taheb told the informant it would be better to launch attacks inside the United States.
On December 7, 2018, he met the undercover agent and revealed a hand-drawn diagram of the White House West Wing, where the president’s office is located.
In the subsequent weeks, Taheb detailed what weapons he wanted to acquire for the plot, and assigned the FBI agent to obtain them: semi-automatic weapons, grenades and an AT-4 shoulder-mounted anti-tank weapon.
His plan was for the trio to jointly launch the attack on what he referred to as “game day,” eventually pinpointed as January 17.
“Specifically, he described his plan to use the AT-4 to blow a hole in the White House so that the group could enter,” the indictment said.
Taheb advised the source “that jihad was the best deed in Islam and the peak of Islam,” the indictment said.
On Wednesday, the three met in the parking lot of a store in Buford, Georgia where the FBI agent was to hand over the explosives and weapons, all of which had been rendered inert.
When Taheb took delivery of the weapons, he was arrested.
Officials and the indictment provided no background on Taheb or whether he had made any contact with terrorist groups abroad.
But Pak said no targets in Washington or Georgia were ever truly threatened by the plot.
In a separate case, on Thursday a 49-year-old man, Demetrius Nathaniel Pitts or Abdur Raheem Rafeeq, was arrested in a Cleveland, Ohio suburb and charged with planning a terror attack on the city on July 4, the US Independence Day holiday.Undercover FBI agents communicated with Pitts for months on the plot before arresting him.
“Pitts, a US citizen living in Ohio, pledged his allegiance to Al-Qaeda,” a Justice Department statement said. Taheb’s alleged attack on the White House was supposed to take place around Thursday and involve various explosives and firearms, though even days before he claimed he had still never fired a gun in his life, according to the criminal complaint. He said he could learn fast, the document said. Authorities also said he planned to travel to the Islamic State territory but acknowledged he didn’t have a passport.
“All potential threats have been neutralized and were under control from the inception of this case,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak, who added that authorities would take no questions on the investigation, which is ongoing.
The criminal complaint accuses Taheb of plotting to destroy a government building, which is punishable by five to 20 years. The document said a community member contacted law enforcement in March 2018 about him.
On Wednesday night, agents were searching the home south of Cumming where Taheb is believed to live with his mother.
A few days later, there was another meeting in Alpharetta, during which Taheb allegedly showed the FBI worker a composition notebook with a hand-drawn map of the ground floor of the West Wing in the White House. Taheb seemed to believe the informant and FBI worker would join his plot if they could find weapons, according to the document.
By mid-December, Taheb had allegedly broadened the scope of places he wanted to attack to include the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and a synagogue. He said he wanted to use handguns, IEDs, an AT-4 anti-armor weapon and hand grenades.
The conversations continued into this month with Taheb allegedly discussing growing the group, disdain for the U.S. and Israel and various angles of the plot. He also expressed worry that his family would catch on to the plans.
The attack on the White House was supposed to involve driving on a road behind the building, creating a diversion and shooting a hole through the building to gain entry and kill people, the complaint said.
On Wednesday, Taheb went to a Buford store parking lot for the purpose of him and the FBI worker exchanging their vehicles for semi-automatic rifles, explosive devices and an AT-4, the complaint said. A second informant inspected the vehicles and told Taheb the money was in the ashtray of one of them.
A second FBI worker drove up with a tractor trailer, which had the weapons inside, though the FBI had rendered them useless. Taheb took the weapons in a backpack and was arrested by agents.
