by the CNN Wire Staff
The man accused of plotting to use model airplanes loaded with explosives to attack the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol agreed Tuesday to a plea deal.
Rezwan Ferdaus, a 26-year-old from Ashland, Massachusetts, will plead guilty to two of the six charges against him and faces 17 years in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release, according to a statement from the Justice Department.
Ferdaus, a U.S. citizen, will plead guilty to attempting to damage and destroy a federal building by means of an explosive and attempting to provide material support and resources to al Qaeda for attacks on U.S. troops overseas, authorities said.
A change-of-plea hearing was scheduled for July 20 in Boston.
Ferdaus planned to use large, remote-controlled model aircraft filled with C-4 plastic explosive against the targets, officials said. He was arrested in September as a result of an undercover FBI investigation.
A law enforcement official said in October that Ferdaus posed no immediate danger to the public because undercover operatives kept in close contact with him.
There is no information suggesting he was connected to a foreign terrorist organization, the source said, adding he was apparently radicalized by watching videos on the Internet.
The investigation also involved a cooperating witness, and authorities began recording conversations between that witness and Ferdaus in January 2011, officials said.
Ferdaus began planning a violent "jihad" against America in early 2010, according to the federal indictment against him, and he began supplying the FBI undercover agents with cell phones rigged to act as electric switches for improved explosive devices, intended to be used to kill U.S. soldiers overseas.
Undercover federal agents gave Ferdaus, who has a physics degree from Northeastern University in Boston, 25 pounds of fake C-4 explosives. Only a very small amount of it was real, the source said.
FBI agents also gave Ferdaus six AK-47 assault rifles and three grenades, but they weren't functional, the source said.
Between May and September, Ferdaus also ordered and acquired a $6,500 remote-controlled aircraft, an F-86 Sabre, that he kept under a false name in a rented storage facility in Framingham, Massachusetts, the indictment said. He also planned to use other remote-controlled models of military aircraft, the indictment said.
The models he planned to use are about one-tenth the size of the actual aircraft.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertise with us | About us | Help | Advertising Practices
There was virtually NO threat from this plot at that time. Unless he recruited someone to set up, operate and fly the plane, it would have only one, very short flight! Model aircraft are not "easy" for a novice to fly. For most people, it takes several sessions with what is called a buddy box, where an instructor takes off and then switches control to the student. I have met several full scale pilots who thought it would be a snap since they were "real pilots". They were humbled in a few short seconds! The trainers we use are very stable and allow the student time to gain the necessary hand-eye coordination before going solo. That plane would have been impossible for the so-called terrorist to operate.
The F4 pictured would have been impossible I agree, but thats not to say he couldn't have just bought a top wing trainer and flown it across the lawn into the dome hoping to collapse it. I doubt it would have carried enough explosives to even punch a hole in it, let alone collapse it, but thats beside the point. Landing is the hardest part of model flying, but he didn't really have to worry about that I suppose.
Well perhaps he should take collision avoidence training as the walls may jump out at him now & than .
I hope he gets shanked in prison we dont need anymore terrorists got that al queda
pakistanis r cray
Why didn't we kill this guy instead?
"Set up like a bowling pin"
so basically this is another false flag operation, where the FBI "recruited" a terrorist, then foiled their own plot, to report that they foiled another terrorist attack.... sick
So true! Just like the latest underwear bomber who was recruited by the CIA and pressured to make the bomb. Then the CIA agent mysteriously disappeared!
Bakistanis at there best ..awsome keep the gd work
abu gandu ammi rand
dil dil pakistan