Thread: Man tries to blow up military recruiting center

Man tries to blow up military recruiting center

Antonio MartinezMaryland jihadMuhammad HussainScott McCabe
Comments (0) Share Print By: Scott McCabe 12/08/10 8:05 PM
Examiner Staff Writer

.Federal authorities on Wednesday said they arrested a 21-year-old Baltimore man after he tried to blow up an armed forces recruiting station in Catonsville.

Antonio Martinez, who called himself Muhammad Hussain after recently converting to Islam, was caught in a federal sting. Although the bomb he used was fake, provided by the feds, authorities said the danger Martinez posed was very real.

Prosecutors said Martinez went so far as to park a vehicle that he thought was full of explosives in front of the Armed Services Career Center before pushing the bomb detonator to destroy the building.

White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said President Obama was informed about the bomb plot and said the arrest underscores the need for vigilance against "domestic radicalization."

Martinez was on a one-man jihad to attack and kill military personnel on U.S. soil, partly because he could not afford to travel to Afghanistan, prosecutors said.

"Every person Mr. Martinez asked to join in his scheme either declined to participate, tried to talk him out of it or reported him to the FBI, and there is no evidence that Mr. Martinez received direction or support from any other person," said Rod Rosenstein, the U.S. attorney for Maryland.

The arrest of Martinez comes a month after a Virginia man was caught in a federal sting in a plot to blow up Metro train stations. Prosecutors said Martinez is not connected to the sniper who has taken potshots at several military buildings in Northern Virginia.

According to his Facebook page, Martinez graduated from Laurel High School in 2005. He was charged Wednesday with attempted murder of federal employees and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction against U.S. property. He faces up to life in prison, if convicted.

According to charging documents, Martinez, 21, struck up a conversation with an FBI source in October and said he was seeking to attack and kill military personnel on United States soil and had picked out a target: the armed forces recruiting station on Route 40 in Catonsville.

Many of the conversations were recorded, FBI officials said.

"No one is stepping up to do anything, we have to be the ones that pull the trigger," Martinez allegedly said.

Federal authorities gave the following account:

After several days of planning, undercover agents supplied Martinez with a sport utility vehicle and the bomb device. On Wednesday morning, Martinez inspected the bomb components as instructed and drove and parked to the SUV in front of the recruiting center. He got into a vehicle driven by an FBI confidential source, and drove off to a vantage point to watch the planned carnage.

An undercover agent called Martinez to let him know there were soldiers inside the building, and Martinez tried to detonate the device.

FBI agents swooped in and slapped the cuffs on him.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

smccabe@washingtonexaminer.com

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Officials: Man who spoke of jihad arrested in plot

Share AP foreign, Wednesday December 8 2010 BEN NUCKOLS

Associated Press= BALTIMORE (AP) — A 21-year-old construction worker who had recently converted to Islam and told an FBI informant he thought about nothing but jihad was arrested Wednesday when he tried to detonate what he thought was a bomb at a military recruitment center, authorities said.

Antonio Martinez, a naturalized U.S. citizen also known as Muhammad Hussain, faces charges of attempted murder of federal officers and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

The bomb he is accused of trying to detonate was fake and had been provided by an undercover FBI agent. It was loaded into an SUV that Martinez parked in front of the recruiting center, authorities said, and an FBI informant picked him up and drove him to a nearby vantage point where he tried to set it off.

It was the second time in less than two weeks that a young man was arrested trying to detonate what he thought was a bomb during a sting operation.

"There was never any actual danger to the public during this operation this morning," U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said Wednesday after a hearing in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. "That's because the FBI was controlling the situation."

Martinez appeared in court Wednesday afternoon and was ordered held until a hearing Monday.

According to court documents, he has been on the FBI's radar screen since October, when he told a confidential FBI source he wanted to attack and kill military personnel. Investigators believed Martinez posed a genuine threat and that he came up with the plan by himself.

"The investigation was undertaken only because experts had made the determination that there was a real risk," Rosenstein said.

The case is similar to one in Portland, Ore., where authorities said they arrested a Somali-born teenager the day after Thanksgiving when he used a cell phone to try to detonate what he thought were explosives in a van. He intended to bomb a crowded downtown Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, but the people he had been communicating with about the plot were in fact FBI agents.

After Martinez found out about that case, he called the FBI informant he had been plotting with and expressed reservations about their plan, according to court documents.

"I'm not falling for no b.s.," court documents quote him as saying.

But he ultimately decided to continue with the plot. On Wednesday he drove an SUV with the dummy bomb to the recruiting center and parked outside the building, authorities said. When he attempted to detonate the device, he was arrested.

During Wednesday's hearing, Martinez told the judge he could not afford an attorney. He said he works in construction, is married and understood the charges against him.

Asked to identify himself, he said he was Muhammad Hussain but confirmed Antonio Martinez is still his legal name.

Afterward, Joseph Balter, the public defender assigned to represent him, cautioned against a rush to judgment.

"It's very, very early in this case," he said.

Authorities did not say where Martinez was born or what prompted his conversion to Islam. According to court documents, he explained to the FBI informant that his mother did not approve of how he had chosen to live. His wife, he said, accepted his lifestyle.

"I told her I want to fight jihad ... and she said she doesn't want to stop me," he said, adding that he was glad he was not like other people his age, going out or going to school. "That's not me ... that not what Allah has in mind for me."

Martinez lives in a working-class northwest Baltimore neighborhood in a tidy, three-story yellow house that's been divided into apartments. No one answered the door Wednesday afternoon.

George Jackson, 77, a retired truck driver who lives in the neighborhood and works part-time at a church across the street, said he did not know Martinez.

"Unbelievable, right here in the neighborhood, living next to us. It's a shame," Jackson said.

A man who identified himself as Martinez's brother-in-law responded to a Facebook message from The Associated Press by referring questions to Balter.

White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said the arrest underscores the need for vigilance against terrorism and illustrates why the Obama administration is focused on addressing "domestic radicalization."

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9398240

Associated Press writers Pete Yost and Jessica Gresko in Washington and Alex Dominguez in Baltimore contributed to this report.

did you notice this was another sting operation by our federal agents? how many of these people would actually do this if it wasn't for federal agents going in and entrapping them?