Florida Man Arrested for Plot to Bomb NY Stock Exchange

Florida Man Arrested for Plot to Bomb NY Stock Exchange
Florida Man Arrested for Plot to Bomb NY Stock Exchange. Credit | REUTERS

United States: US police arrested a 34-year-old homeless man from Florida who planned to blow up New York’s stock exchange, according to FBI agents who claim he boasted to an undercover security employee, “I feel like Bin Laden.”

FBI Foils Bomb Plot Near Wall Street

The suspect, Harun Abdul-Malik Yener, attempted to detonate a bomb near the stock exchange in New York’s Wall Street area in lower Manhattan, the FBI said in an affidavit. The affidavit was made in connection with a criminal complaint to which Yener is charged with the offense of using explosives in an attempt to destroy inter alia a building that is used inter alia for interstate commerce, as reported by Reuters.

Yener has a federal public defender in the Southern District of Florida, and her information/office did not respond to a Reuters request about his defense.

Suspect’s Anti-Government Sentiment and Motives

It is, hence, unclear as to what Yener’s motives were. The FBI said that besides making a comment about Osama bin Laden, the former al Qaeda leader and mastermind of the 2001 attacks on the United States, Yener also described an attempt to join right-wing militias and expressed general anti-government sentiment, saying: For us, we knew this country is due for a revolution.

The suspect was identified as an unhoused man living in Coral Gables, Florida, who the FBI had been tracking since February following a tip they found bomb plan drawings in a storage unit, the FBI added.

Tracking the Suspect’s Movements

More than timers, circuit boards, and other electronics, FBI agents discovered other items, such as bomb-making sketches.

From interviews with at least three undercover agents, Yener described the detonation of an IED as achieving a sort of ‘reboot’ or ‘reset’ of the US government, as reported by Reuters.

“The Stock Exchange, we want to hit that, because it will wake people up,” he added, according to the FBI affidavit.

Yener was eager to get a device strong enough to explode the doors and said, “Anything existing in there will be killed,” to two undercover agents who claimed they could procure commercial-grade explosives, the FBI stated.