The Feds sold a fake bomb to a Muslim, who tried to use it to use it on Christians:
A Somali-born teenager plotted to carry out a car bomb attack at a crowded Christmas tree lighting ceremony in downtown Portland on Friday, but the bomb turned out to be a dud supplied by undercover agents as part of a sting, federal prosecutors said.
Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, was arrested at 5:40 p.m. just after he dialed a cell phone that he thought would blow up a van laden with explosives but instead brought federal agents and Portland police swooping in to take him into custody.
Mohamud yelled “Allahu Akhkbar” and tried to kick agents and police as the arrest came, according to prosecutors.
He was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton released federal court documents Friday that show the sting operation began in June after an undercover agent learned that Mohamud had been in contact with an “unindicted associate” in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier region.
Aside from a pet peeve that car bombs aren’t weapons of mass destruction (a term that everyone but the US Federal Government uses to mean nuclear, chemical, biological, and radiological devices) this looks like more good work by the FBI. They identified a threat, did their leg work to build a case, and captured the guy harmlessly. That the would-be terrorist was likely an imbecile who wouldn’t have been able to get his hands on a real bomb is mere conjecture.
