Dallas Terror Plot Focuses on Recruitment of Illegals From Arab States

Jordan and the United States are cooperating in an investigation of a bombing plot suspected of being tied to Al Qaida.

Officials the FBI and other agencies of the U.S. intelligence community have been discussing with the Hashemite kingdom the arrest of a Jordanian national. The Jordanian, identified as Hosam Smadi, has been indicted on charges of plotting to bomb an office tower in Dallas, Texas.

“For the last several years, we have picked up intelligence that Al Qaida has made a concerted effort to recruit Europeans and Westerners understanding that they can fly under the radar in terms of passing through border controls,” FBI director Robert Mueller said.

Officials said the arrest of the 19-year-old Jordanian, who had overstayed his visa, marked an FBI sting operation. But they said the investigation pointed to a growing number of illegal immigrants from Arab and Muslim countries prepared to participate in attacks in the United States.

Hosam “Sam” Smadi will come before a federal judge in two weeks after being indicted Oct. 8 charging him with trying to blow up a Dallas skyscraper in an FBI sting.

A federal grand jury in Dallas indicted Smadi on the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and bombing of a place of public use.

Each count carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, and up to a $250,000 fine if he is convicted.

The Justice Department said Smadi had been under FBI surveillance for months. The department said Smadi acquired and planted what he thought was a weapon of mass destruction that would destroy a 60-story building.

“These episodes have shown that the threat of terrorism can come from people in many different areas of the country with a broad range of backgrounds,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Sept. 30.

Smadi was said to have been searching for car bombs to attack facilities in Dallas since June 2009. A month later, officials said, Smadi told an undercover FBI agent that he would blow up the Fountain Place office tower after the Muslim fast month of Ramadan, which ended on Sept. 20.

“At the conclusion of the meeting, Smadi decided that a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device [VBIED] would be placed at the foundation of the Fountain Place office tower,” the Justice Department said.

“Unbeknownst to Smadi, the FBI ensured the VBIED contained only an inert/inactive explosive device which contained no explosive materials.”

Officials said Jordan, itself said to contain an Al Qaida presence linked to the network in neighboring Iraq, has been cooperating in the U.S. investigation. They said the FBI has maintained a presence in Jordan as part of counter-insurgency efforts to track potential attackers destined for the United States.

“Over the past several years, travel of Westerners, particularly U.S. citizens, to either Pakistan or Somalia has been our single biggest concern,” National Counterterrorism Center director Michael Leiter said.

Smadi was arrested on Sept. 24 after dialing a cellphone “he thought would detonate a bomb in a Ford Explorer he had parked under Fountain Place in downtown Dallas”, the Dallas Morning News reported.

FBI operatives, who spoke Arabic, had been meeting Smadi since January, when one of them met him in an Islamic extremist forum that was being monitored.

The FBI used GPS to track Smadi’s cellphone and placed tracking devices on his car. He was also placed on a terrorist watch list in the event he attempted to leave the country.

While meeting an FBI operative at a hotel in July, Smadi taped a message to Osama bin Laden “about his desired and planned attack on the United States,” the News reported, citing a search warrant affidavit.