As much as I’d love to relate a tale of my danger, excitement, and bravado, I had no idea it had happened until late last night, and I was never in any danger, because the Feds disarmed the terrorist long before he launched his attack. Still, it is chilling to think that he tried to set off a bomb in a spot were I walk at least weekly.
The FBI thwarted an attempted terrorist bombing in Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square before the city’s annual tree-lighting Friday night, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon.
A Corvallis man, thinking he was going to ignite a bomb, drove a van to the corner of the square at Southwest Yamhill Street and Sixth Avenue and attempted to detonate it.
However, the supposed explosive was a dummy that FBI operatives supplied to him, according to an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint signed Friday night by U.S. Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta.
Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, a Somali-born U.S. citizen, was arrested at 5:42 p.m., 18 minutes before the tree lighting was to occur, on an accusation of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. The felony charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The arrest was the culmination of a long-term undercover operation, during which Mohamud had been monitored for months as his alleged bomb plot developed.
"The device was in fact inert, and the public was never in danger," according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The investigation involved the FBI, Oregon State Police, Portland Police Bureau, Corvallis Police Department and Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
Mohamud will appear in U.S. District Court in Portland on Monday… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <The Oregonian>
Kudos to the FBI, who handled this incident that way we should be defeating terrorism in America, through law enforcement. Nobody was even groped in the process. I’m sure we will hear Republicans trying to spin this success as a failure, but I thank God that Republicans are no longer in charge of National Security. Had they been, it’s far more likely at the beautiful center of my city and the lives of hundreds of my neighbors would have been shattered.
15 Responses to “A Terrorist Attack Seven Blocks From My Door”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
It’s nice to see people who can still do their job well. I saw this guys photo. He looks like a pissed off 19 year old punk. Glad it all went down okay..
Thanks, Tim. Me too. The last thing I would want is to have to walk over there to take pictures to post.
Jebus that’s scary. I’m glad that the FBI was on there toes for this one. We’ve had a lot of attempts under Obama, but very few successes. Of course, the Repubs will try to spin this to their favor….. 😯 😯
The Republicans want us to forget that the attack with mass casualties was on their watch and due to their incompetence, at best.
THIS is the proper way to address terrorism — good intelligence work.
Amen, Ahab.
What would this moron have done without FBI assistance? Explosives don’t grow on trees! The chemicals necessary for their composition aren’t exactly dispensed without any oversight (try buying enough fertilizer for an OKC bomb and watch the black vans assemble in your neighborhood!). One has to wonder when the FBI and other governmental police will branch out Minority Report-like and attempt to catch “criminals” before they commit their crimes? How does one defend against a supposition?
At the time we discovered this fellow, he was in Yemen making contact with AQ. The FBI convinced him that they were his AQ contact. From what I have read since the original post, he took the lead in what he wanted, and the FBI made sure he did not get real materials by providing him with inert ones. This is not entrapment, because nobody convinced him to commit the crime, so your segue to Minority Report does not apply here.
Tom, very glad to learn that it was stopped before it happened, but you are so right, the Rethugs will absolutely refuse to give Obama credit for anything and still chant their mantra that he is soft on terrorism. They are truly one despicable political party.
Charles, sadly a segment of the left is just as bad. I criticize him often, because I believe thet he’s wrong on several issues, but when he’s right, I say so too.
Thank goodness they had their eyes on this guy and were able to thwart him. We had our share of excitement here in NJ awhile back when they arrested a bunch of Russian sleeper spies in our neighboring town of Montclair! Guess there isn’t anywhere that’s really safe these days. Glad no one was hurt in Portland and that they nabbed the guy.
I read about that, Mimi. Are you sure that dawg of yours wasn’t complicit in that? 😉
Hi Tom,
How are you? Pardon the long absence… Was on a self-imposed hiatus and not regularly blogged nor visited my usual blog haunts. PoliticsPlus is the first blog I’ve visited in a long time and what a read… terror threat? Didn’t know that at all.. was not in the news where I sit. Glad they caught the fellow.
I’m afraid what Mauigirl said is true “here isn’t anywhere that’s really safe these days” Europe’s been on high alert too for the last couple of months. Flew to Greece last week of Oct and it took us 4 hours to go through checkpoints at airport. Damn nuissance but decided wouldn’t let these terror threats stop us from going about life. But must be vigilant.
Will be visiting again. Cheers. 😉
Welcome back, HB!! You have been much missed! 🙂 I hope that hiatus is safely behing you.
I’m looking forward to your take on the austerity problems in Greece, Ireland, etc. I agree. The odds against actually being killed through terrorist attcaks here in the US is less than those aganst being struc by lightning twice, but when the threat happens close to home, one takes notice.
Can’t wait!
Hi Tom… Thanks… Glad to be back!
Tom, we are being bled dry here; taxes, left, right, center and more to finance the bailouts. We are worried. But if we don’t bail out Ireland, there’s every chance that Spain and Portugal might fall under as well. To be perfectly honest, we in France, who were basically “des petits épargnants” (frugal, penny savers) were surprised these last 4 years (I believe) when Ireland’s income per capita overtook us. In 2009, theirs was estimated at some 34KEuro while the French some only at 28KEuro. Ireland’s economic boom was astounding — housing development in Ireland was unbelievable.(Don’t know the statistics but I personally knew many Irish who started buying homes left right center on CREDIT!) The Irish were coming in droves in France to holiday. We couldn’t believe how well off the individual Irish was (the salary of your ordinary Irish worker was 30% higher than in France until 2 years ago, something that was completely new.) And of course, we the little people told ourselves, it couldn’t last.
After what happened to the UK where loans were sometimes offered at 100%, we knew the Irish bubble was going to burst. It’s actually the little people like me and many others like me who were apprehensive while the silly buggers of banks and our financial institudions didn’t seem to bloody know.
While in France loans were offered and given piecemeal (just like in Germany), everybody else in Europe was having a heyday and when the bubble burst, we were asked to dig deep into our pockets…Individual households in France are probably less in debt today than their counterparts in Ireland and countries in the Mediterranean region but am plenty worried that we might end up being as poor as the others because we are obligated to bail out these reckless buggers. I’m really bleeding upset.
The bailouts have got to stop. The banks and their managers who had been so incompetent should be hanged from the highest lamp post…
Now, the Greeks are a totally different story — their black market economy was hugely responsible for their problems. Banks and other financial institutions merely gave them the coup de grace.
👿