Chicago Man Arrested in Plot to Bomb Courthouse

[seemslikeadream]

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A convicted counterfeiter who had a grudge against the government was arrested on Thursday for plotting with undercover U.S. agents to blow up the building housing federal offices in Chicago, prosecutors said.
Gale Nettles, 66, told a fellow inmate of his desire to use a fertilizer truck bomb to blow up the Dirksen federal building, authorities said. The inmate told authorities, and undercover FBI agents and other informants contacted Nettles after he was released from prison last year.

"The only people he dealt with were FBI agents and informants ... this had nothing to do with any terrorist group," U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald told a news conference in the building Nettles was suspected of targeting.

"Today's action is not related to the nation's current terrorism threat level. Nettles was always acting alone and had no connections to any terrorist organization," Fitzgerald said.

He said the Dirksen building, a glass and steel skyscraper that houses courtrooms as well as the offices of the FBI and federal prosecutors, was never in jeopardy.

more
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=5888437

[xray s]

1. anyone want to guess about this man's brand of politics?

I bet he doesn't have a Kerry sticker on his bumper,

[CaTeacher]

2. he sounds like another angry white male to me.

When are we going to wake up and realize that most "terra-ists" in the world are these good fundie Christian people who are HATERS.

I wonder what their problem is? Do you think that they hate our "freedoms"? I know they sure don't want us to have more freedoms--they want to take away abortion, and keep gays from being married, and punish people for using drugs.

These people are the face of evil and the sooner we wake up to this the better.

[goclark]

3. Sure sounds like a terrorist to me!

He is a Muslim? Is he WASP?

If he is WASP then we need to raise the level of the alerts.
We need to racial profile all others that fit his general description.

In my mind, Timothy McVeigh was a terrorist! He was not working alone.

Is may be my imagination but this sounds like " Case closed, let's move on ."

[seemslikeadream]

4. Man Accused of Courthouse Bomb Plot

Nettles told the undercover agent he could make a 3,000-pound fertilizer bomb.

``He had a rational plan to build a bomb. We weren't going to wait to see if it would work,'' Fitzgerald said.

Timothy McVeigh used a bomb made of 4,800 pounds of ammonium nitrate to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, killing 168 people.

Nettles was arrested at a park early Thursday with the pickup truck when he met the undercover agents who he thought were terrorists, according to the criminal complaint. The fertilizer he obtained in the sting does not have the explosive potential of ammonium nitrate.

According to the complaint, Nettles met July 26 with an undercover agent he thought was a member of a terrorist group. In a recorded meeting, Nettles said he had a half ton of ammonium nitrate in New Orleans that he could have in Chicago in two days and that he had a target in mind - the U.S. courthouse downtown, the complaint said.

A court appearance for Nettles was scheduled Thursday afternoon.

Nettles was released from prison in 2003 after serving time for counterfeiting and apparently retained a grudge against the court system, Fitzgerald said. The Dirksen federal building in downtown Chicago houses federal criminal and civil courts and the U.S. attorney's office

more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4390698,00.html

US man arrested over court bomb plot

Witnesses also said Nettles knew the courthouse well enough to sketch it for them and could describe its occupants, police said.

The building houses the US attorney's offices, as well as those of the FBI and other federal offices.


"At no time were the occupants of the Dirksen courthouse or the adjacent federal buildings in any jeopardy as a result of the defendant's activities," the statement said.

Nettles also sold counterfeit currency to an undercover agent, according to police.
more
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/06/1091732048614.html?oneclick=true


Chicago man arrested in plot to blow up Dirksen Building

According to the complaint, Nettles wanted to bring down the Dirkson building around 10 a.m. or 11 a.m., when judges would be present, and destroy two city blocks of downtown.

"Nettles explained that he sees this like a 'combat strike' in which Nettles said there are always friendly casualties," said the complaint, signed by an FBI agent. He told one undercover agent that more people would pay attention if there were injuries, the complaint said.

On Wednesday, an undercover agent delivered 500 pounds of the inert fertilizer to Nettles at a storage warehouse, the complaint said. The following morning, it said, the agent drove the pickup with an additional 1,500 pounds of fertilizer to the Chicago park and met Nettles.

Nettles was arrested at that park shortly afterward when he met the undercover agents posing as terrorists and accepted $10,000 from them, according to the complaint.

Nettles had been released from prison in 2003 after serving time for counterfeiting and apparently retained a grudge against the court system, Fitzgerald said. Nettles also had a previous conviction for armed robbery in Cook County and was on parole at the time of his counterfeiting arrest. He had claimed in 2001 court documents that he had mental disabilities.
more
http://www.suntimes.com/output/terror/nettles05.html

[goclark]

5. Sounds like McVeight's Twin Brother

Why are they so quick to tell us..."No story here, let's move on."

It sounds like a huge story to me. It is the same shit that McVeight did.

These are the real terrorists because they are our own people.

They hate us for our freedom.

[seemslikeadream]

6. U.S. District Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald - Plame Grand Jury

Chicago Federal Courthouse

Someone might think He was the target.

[goclark]

7. Wow!

That would not surprise me at all!

Was Fitzgerald in the building at the time?

[Sivafae]

8. oh!

"Prosecutors said Nettles asked an informant last month to put him in contact with someone affiliated with al Qaeda or Hamas whom he planned to enlist to carry out the bombing"
-Reuters
What a naughty boy!

[KeepItReal]

9. Can I kick this?

I have seen *ZERO* coverage of this!

They caught a real-life terrorist who wanted to destroy a Federal Building, and this is not a lead story??

[Norquist Nemesis]

10. Hey...I'm here in the Chicago burbs and

I heard it only in passing! You would think it would make the front pages big time. :shrug: Chicago just doesn't seem to be on anyone's radar except for Daley.

Today, we had a pipe bomb found out in one of the suburbs right in the heart of the main street shopping district. No one hurt (thankfully) and they don't have a clue how long it had been there. It was local news only, but AQ supposedly has known ties in Chicago a la Jose Padilla, so yea...what gives after this Fed Bldg catch?