The FBI penetrated and headed off an attempted terrorist bombing in Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square; the explosion was to take place minutes before the city’s annual tree-lighting Friday night, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Oregon.
Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, a Somali-born U.S. citizen, who lived in nearby Corvallis, was arrested at 5:42 p.m., 18 minutes before the tree lighting was to occur, on an accusation of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. His arrest was the culmination of a long-term undercover operation, during which Mohamud had been monitored for months as the bomb plot developed. However, the “bomb” was a dummy provided to Mohamud by FBI operatives.
I am sincerely hoping that there will be significant public outrage from the American Islamic community to voice how evil this attempt was, in the perspective of members of moderate Islam.
