LUBBOCK, Texas — A college student from Saudi Arabia who studied chemical engineering in Texas bought explosive chemicals online as part of a plan to hide bomb materials inside dolls and baby carriages to blow up dams — including ones in Colorado — nuclear plants or the Dallas home of former President George W. Bush, the Justice Department said Thursday.
“After mastering the English language, learning how to build explosives and continuous planning to target the infidel Americans, it is time for jihad,” or holy war, Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari wrote in his private journal, according to court documents.
Aldawsari, 20, wrote that he was planning an attack in the United States for years, even before coming to the U.S. on a scholarship. He said he was influenced by Osama bin Laden’s speeches and that he bemoaned the plight of Muslims.
One of the chemical companies, Carolina Biological Supply of Burlington, N.C., reported $435 in suspicious orders by Aldawsari to the FBI on Feb. 1.
Separately, Con-way Freight, a shipping company, notified Lubbock police and the FBI the same day with similar suspicions because it appeared the order wasn’t intended for commercial use. Within weeks, federal agents had traced Aldawsari’s other online purchases, discovered extremist posts he made on the Internet and secretly searched his off-campus apartment, computer and e-mail accounts and read his diary, according to court records.
TNP, the chemical explosive that Aldawsari was suspected of trying to make, has approximately the same destructive power as TNT. FBI bomb experts said the amounts in the Aldawsari case would have yielded almost 15 pounds of explosive. That’s about the same amount used per bomb in the London subway attacks that killed scores of people in July 2005.
Aldawsari, who was legally in the U.S. on a student visa, was expected to appear in federal court today. He was charged Thursday with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
Aldawsari entered the U.S. in October 2008 from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to study chemical engineering at Texas Tech University. He transferred this year to nearby South Plains College, where he was studying business. A Saudi industrial company, which was not identified in court documents, was paying his tuition and living expenses in the U.S.
“He was quiet. I thought he was a good guy,” said Ahmid Obaidan, a senior at Tennessee State University who also is from Saudi Arabia and met Aldawsari in Nashville when Aldawsari was studying at an English-language center at Vanderbilt University.
It was not clear whether Aldawsari had hired a lawyer.
The terrorism case outlined in court documents was significant because it suggests that radicalized foreigners can live quietly in the U.S. without raising suspicions from neighbors, classmates, teachers or others. But it also showed how quickly U.S. law enforcement can move when tipped that a terrorist plot may be unfolding.
The White House said President Barack Obama was notified about the plot before Aldawsari’s arrest Wednesday.
In e-mails Aldawsari apparently sent to himself, he listed 12 reservoir dams in Colorado and California; the documents did not state their exact locations. He also wrote an e-mail that mentioned “Tyrant’s House” with the address of Bush’s home.
KCNC-Channel 4 in Denver quoted anonymous state authorities as saying Cherry Creek and Aurora Reservoir dams were on the alleged would-be terrorist’s list.
Aldawsari described a plan in his journal that involved leaving car bombs in different places during rush hour in New York City and remotely detonating them.
The FBI sent letters to farm supply stores and other businesses across the country this week to remind them to look out for suspicious purchases of fertilizer and other substances that can be used to make explosives. In Denver, FBI spokesman Dave Joly said the warnings had been planned before Aldawsari’s arrest.
