The Somali-born man charged with pulling the trigger on what he thought was a bomb at a Christmas tree event in Portland, Ore., first attracted attention from authorities by discussing martyrdom in email exchanges with Islamist extremists, according to opening testimony Monday in the trial, Reuters reports.
Supervisor of the FBI sting, Miltiadis Trousas, testified that agents intercepted communication between Mohamed Osman Mohamud and Islamist militants.
But under cross-examination from a defense that wants to show that Mohamud was entrapped, Trousas acknowledge there’s no evidence that the defendant sought bomb material until after he met undercover FBI agents, Reuters reported.
Mohamud faces up to life in prison on a charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction to blow up a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Portland in November 2010 when he was 19.
Mohamud is a naturalized U.S. citizens and former Oregon State University student, Reuters wrote.
The second day of testimony begins today.
January 15, 2013
A groundbreaking work of investigative journalism, The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism exposes how the FBI has, under the guise of engaging in counterterrorism since 9/11, built a network of more than 15,000 informants whose primary purpose is to infiltrate Muslim communities to create and facilitate phony terrorist plots so that the Bureau can then claim it is winning the war on terror.
An outgrowth of Trevor Aaronson’s work as an investigative reporting fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, which culminated in an award-winning cover story in Mother Jones magazine, The Terror Factory reveals shocking information about the criminals, con men, and liars the FBI uses as paid informants–including the story of an accused murderer who has become one of the Bureau’s most prolific terrorism snitches–as well as documenting the extreme methods the FBI uses to ensnare Muslims in terrorist plots, which are in reality conceived and financed by the FBI.
The book also offers unprecedented detail into how the FBI has transformed from a reactive law enforcement agency to a proactive counterterrorism organization that traps hapless individuals in manufactured terrorist plots in order to justify the $3 billion it spends every year fighting terrorism.