A Somali-born Muslim fanatic plotted to carry out a car bomb attack at a crowded Christmas tree lighting ceremony in downtown Portland yesterday, but the bomb turned out to be a dud supplied by undercover agents as part of a sting, federal prosecutors said.
Mohamed Osman Mohamud
Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, was arrested at 5:40 pm just after he dialed a cell phone that he thought would blow up a van laden with explosives but instead brought federal agents and Portland police swooping in to take him into custody.
Mohamud yelled Allahu Akhkbar (“God is Great”) and tried to kick agents and police as he was arrested, according to prosecutors. He was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
US Attorney Dwight Holton released federal court documents that show the sting operation began in June after an undercover agent learned that Mohamud had been in contact with an “unindicted associate” in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier region.
Mohamud is a naturalised US citizen who has been living in Corvallis.
According to a federal complaint, in December 2009 Mohamud and the “unindicted associate” used coded language in an email in which the FBI believes Mohamud discussed traveling to Pakistan to prepare for “violent jihad”.
Last June an FBI agent contacted Mohamud “under the guise of being affiliated with the first associate”. Mohamud and the undercover agent agreed to meet in Portland on July 30. At that meeting, the undercover agent and Mohamud “discussed violent jihad,” according to the court document.
Mohamud told the agent he wanted to set off explosives at the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square.
On Friday, an undercover agent and Mohamud drove to downtown Portland in a white van that carried six 55-gallon drums with detonation cords and plastic caps, but all of them were inert.
They got out of the van and walked to meet another undercover agent, who drove to Union Station, the Portland train station, where Mohamud was given a cell phone that he thought would blow up the van.
Mohamud dialed the phone agents had given him, and was told the bomb did not detonate. The undercover agents suggested he get out of the car and try again to improve the signal, when he did, he was nabbed.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
November 27th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
The only way he should ever leave prison is feet first at whatever age he reaches wheb dies
November 27th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Is there a chance that this idiot could use his youth (19) to cry police entrapment?
November 27th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
They are so cowardly, so utterly gutless and they take the advantages of the relatively democratic West to cause death, misery and grief. I agree with Ex Patriot stick him away for a long, long time. The bravery tends to fade when they are hauled into the limelight and lets see how courageous he is in the slammer.
November 27th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
@ tony e
If you can believe it there are some people over on Richard Dawkins´site talking about “entrapment”. I think they are being put right about the difference between “entapment” and “intent” but you might want to go there and give your ha´penny worth.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
Without knowing any details it is not possible to say if this is entrapment. It may be giving him enough rope to hang himself. Entrapment is “a defense that claims the defendant would not have broken the law if not tricked into doing it by law enforcement officials.” It’s for a jury to decide in this case.
But if he was “entrapped” by law enforcement officials, then he would just as easily been “entrapped” by radical islamists.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
David Anderson/chick-a-boom,
I just have the sneaking suspicion that he will take that route. I think this case will run and run. Don’t get me wrong if he is guilty I hope he fries.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
These people seem to have a rather brainless herd mentality in that they blame a whole bunch of random people for whatever their grudge is against ‘the west’ instead of the people who are actually responsible.
The “God is Great” thing is a bit strange as well, shouldn’t they be shouting something like “God is a murderous psychotic loon”?
November 27th, 2010 at 8:25 pm
Do you all remember John DeLorean? He had a failing automobile manufacturing company. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_DeLorean
He explored the idea of making money to prop up his company by making a huge cocaine buy. Unfortunately, it was a federal sting operation. However, before any money changed hands, DeLorean backed out of the deal. The federal agents posing as drug dealers threatened his life if he didn’t complete the deal. That is the key ingredient that got DeLorean off on the grounds of entrapment.
BDuke’s write up is only one of many on the wires today, and everything I have read indicates that the suspect obtained bomb components on his own and sent them to federal operatives to have them assembled. When he believed he possessed a devastating bomb, he placed it in a crowded area and attempted to detonate it. It is not only hundreds of counts of attempted murder, it is terrorism, and the braindead moron will never see the outside of a cage. Several American states allow the death penalty, but this being a federal investigation and a federal crime, the maximum sentence is life without parole. And that is what he will do unless someone croaks him in prison. Entrapment will not be a viable defense.
NeoWolfe
November 28th, 2010 at 8:17 am
Stonyground: No, they should be shouting “God is an incompetent retard”! If he was so fucking great then why are so many of them living in the most backward, poverty-stricken, disaster prone parts of the globe, and why does so much of what they plan “in his name” go completely tits up! How come the most privileged and prosperous people on the planet are the infidels? God is manifestly NOT great: he either has no power, is totally incompetent, is thoroughly evil, or – heaven forfend – doesn’t actually exist!!
November 28th, 2010 at 8:32 am
Good point Barriejohn but you must know that their is a rationalisation for every occasion.
November 28th, 2010 at 9:47 am
As I understand it, entrapment would mean that the police, or FBI in this case, actually recruited him in the first place, in their guise as conspirators, him having had no thoughts of committing a crime until they put the idea into his head. Clearly not the case here.
November 28th, 2010 at 9:57 am
Don’t suppose the Pakistanis are going to hand over his mentor? That would be like giving away one of their Taliban mates, wouldn’t it?
November 28th, 2010 at 11:40 am
Seems he was arrested and hauled away screaming “God is great” and I suppose the subtext was “I am very angry at not being able to blast to bits lots of innocent people.” As for god being great he seems to have underperformed in the Pike River Mine in New Zealand where 29 miners died. That didn’t stop the Anglican preacher being all over the news saying that they only thing to do was to pray and he was offering comfort to the bereaved.
So, god is wonderful and saves the Chilean Miners. The same god kills the Pike River Miners but – wait there, dear reader – you are ahead of me: he is still wonderful. And not a single interviewer I heard asked the preacher what he had to say on this.
November 28th, 2010 at 11:54 am
And that, Broga, is because most of these interviewers are gutless. As for this fanatic, I’m sure that by the time he ends up as the girlfriend of his celly, he’ll be wondering just why his god planned it this particular way.
November 28th, 2010 at 11:55 am
@broga
One of the many, many things that hacks me off about xianity (no doubt all other religions but I know this one most) is the way they get you coming and going.. and if they really can’t justify something they plead ‘god’s ways are mysterious and xtians are virtuous for not trying to understand them’. Grrrrr.
November 28th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Quite right, Lucy! God had a purpose in the deaths of those New Zealand miners – a purpose which we do not understand. It is just that with our puny minds we are unable to comprehend His vast eternal plan, but, be assured, He is working out His purposes, and one day all will become plain. No tragedy or seemingly accidental occurrence can alter the fact that He loves us with an everlasting love, and that, as The Bible tells us “All things work together for good to them that love God”. I hope and pray that the sceptical and confused Broga can find comfort in these words.
PS A Theology degree must be a doddle!
November 28th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
@ broga, AngieRs – “And that, Broga, is because most of these interviewers are gutless.”
No. There’s a time and a place for everything, and the minehead, surrounded by the grieving relatives of 29 people who have just died horribly is not the time and place for a theological debate. They need all the comfort they can get, whether it has a sound basis or not. Those who don’t subscribe to any particular religious view will ignore the preacher.
November 28th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
I should perhaps add that it’s possible to comfort people without resorting to mumbo-jumbo.
November 28th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Oh, come on! We all know God’s too busy growing limbs back onto devout amputees to spare the time to save a few miners. Just because he’s omnipresent doesn’t mean he can be everywhere at once…
November 28th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Daz: He doesn’t actually do the job himself, but “He guides the hands of the surgeons”. Do you understand nothing?
November 28th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Barriejohn:
Ah, of course. How silly of me. To do it all himself, he’d have to be omnipotent.
November 28th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
I feel like I just got trapped in a Jesus & Mo cartoon…
November 28th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
The whole business seems to be, god speaking, “Heads I win; tails I still win.” The preacher I heard giving the longest interview was phoned by the BBC interviewer. Ah well, no danger to him there. However, another question comes up. Are all the relatives “people of faith” as the BBC requires you to be if you want to appear on Thought for the Day. Isn’t there room for some who might not be. Or what about those who, susbsisting in an unthinking acceptance of belief, thought, “What’s going on here. What kind of god is this. I’m getting out.”
Charles Darwin said the last remnants of his faith were destroyed when his beloved daughter Annie died aged ten. Isn’t it demeaning of this preacher to those relatives to assume that they are all believers. It does seem that a bit of media glory doesn’t go amiss with these preachers. What he says in his sermon to the relatives must make the skin crawl for some of them.
November 28th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
Broga, I was thinking about that re: funerals the other day. Even if you have a civic funeral at the local crem, the default service is still religious. I’d hate to think what they’d do if you asked them to remove the bloody great cross from the front of the room…
November 28th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
@Daz
You got the right phrase there in “default service.” And yet they don’t know themselves what their belief is as is shown by the Anglican Communion coming apart. The African bishops refuse to co-operate because the bible says homosexuality is wicked. (It also says slavery is OK.) If they are so confused, if their contact with their god is so hopeless, then why should the rest of us be subjected to their “default service.”
There was a very excitable religious man on the Sunday programme today insisting on Christian Assemblies in schools. The sane man, a teacher and not agreeing, struggled to get a word in. These Christian have this overweening sense of entitlement: we insist on telling you what to do. Then “Lord” Carey was there with his continuing whine that christianity is being marginalised. Didn’t seem to think that oceans of christian bullshit on the BBC, enelected bishops in the House of Lords, and his own endlessly boring appearances scarcely indicates being marginalised.
November 28th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
Ah, but they use a different dictionary to us ordinary folks. Marginalised, to them, means not being allowed to act like it’s a theocracy.
Incidentally, where on earth do they get all these figures showing huge numbers of church-going christians? I used to live 100 yards from a church, and I don’t recall ever seeing more than a dozen or two people there on a normal Sunday. Oddly, the local B&Q was/is generally packed.
November 28th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
You really have to wonder about religiots – but especially those who cry ‘god is great’ as they attempt to set off a bomb in their deity’s name. I mean, if the fucker really is that great, how come he doesn’t just blow hundreds of innocent people to pieces by the sheer will of his almightiness? Why does he/she/it need earthly accomplices to do the dirty work? If he/she/it can wipe out everything on the face of the earth (except, of course, Noah, his family and two of every living species on the planet (and just how did Noah find polar bears in Palestine, eh?)), then surely a few car bombs would be a piece of cake. Anybody who thinks they are doing ‘god’s work’ should perhaps ask themselves what the boss man is doing while they are taking all the heat.
November 28th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
God seems to have a serious psychological disorder. Against my better judgment I spent a large part of the night watching Downfall again, because, not only of my own interest in World War II, but of its uncannily convincing portrayal of Hitler’s last days, and the masterly performance of Bruno Ganz as The Fuhrer. At the very end Hitler blamed the German people for letting him down due to their “weakness” and “treachery”. Apparently, they “weren’t ready” for National Socialism. Even if all that bollocks had been true, what about the massive error of judgment on his part then, in launching his “European War” when he did? I got sick of the same sort of thing from the religiots. If things went right then “God” was “blessing us”: if they went wrong then that was someone else’s fault! Talk about having your cake and eating it!!
November 28th, 2010 at 7:11 pm
barriejohn
Couldn’t agree more. Religiots have this ‘get out of free’ card which says you can attribute anything good to the sky fairy, but then if it goes bad it’s all our fault because we were given free will. How very convenient!
November 28th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Daz: Here’s the living, breathing proof of what I said above! No doubt the same thing is true of mine rescues, transplant surgery, and other life-saving endeavours, though I do feel that Health & Safety might have something to say about the outfit!!
http://www.artforgod.com/image.....rayer3.jpg
November 28th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
@Barriejohn
I’ve seen Downfall: great film and terrific performances. Something that struck me was the readiness of Hitler, a hypochondriac with his doctor always on hand, to send so many to their deaths. These included misguided boys on bicycles told to launch suicidal attacks on tanks while Hitler remained safe. Remind you of anything contemporary. Hitler’s opinion was that if Germany didn’t win then the Germans deserved to die. He was a total fantasist the way he ordered battalians, with no chance, that they must not retreat.
Anthony Beevor’s book “Berlin” is a monumental and highly readable description of all this. At times, as horror is piled on horror, (the multiple rapes of women by Germans and Russians for example) I felt sickened. Don’t know where god was. He seemed not to be around.
November 28th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
BTW it would seem Christopher Hitcjens kicked, very politely, Tony Blair’s xtian ass all over Toronto in the Munk Debate on Friday. Start watching it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JDCHPF8m7g
November 28th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Anthony Beevor’s book “Berlinâ€
I’m in Oz for a month (december)
I’ll take that with me thanks.
I went to my close friends funeral sometime ago and the first thing the vicar gloated was that he felt sorry for atheists as this was as far as they could go. I was quite pissed off until my mate disappeared through the curtains to the song “Light my fire” (the doors). Brought a smile to my face and I avoided the twat on the way out standing there taking all the handshakes etc.
November 28th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
@chrsbol: “he felt sorry for atheists as this was as far as they could go” – a funeral’s not the time & place for theology.
November 29th, 2010 at 12:51 am
Off topic slightly – that’s a hell of a camp pout. What gives? More ‘man to man massage’ calling card than police mugshot.
November 29th, 2010 at 11:58 am
>how did Noah find polar bears in Palestine, eh?
And where did he put the freshwater fish…?
November 29th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
And where did he find the eucalyptus leaves, their sole diet, to feed the koala bears which he somehow got from Australia which had not yet been discovered? What about all the insects? I tried this on a USA fundie. Answer: “To god, and with faith, all things are possible.”
November 29th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
So now the FBI can be implicated in a plot to blow up Santa?
Oh well, guess Bill O’Reilly has an early Xmas present to kick off his annual ‘Gay Black Atheists declare War on Christmas’ campaign.
Bet he won’t dare use it though.
November 30th, 2010 at 9:38 am
As the subject was brought up, does anyone else suspect that it was the “Health & Safety” Nazis who prevented any attempts at rescue?