The FBI Wednesday (17 October) arrested a Bangladeshi man in a sting operation on charges he attempted to blow up the New York Federal Reserve Bank with what he believed was a 1,000-pound (450-kg) bomb, federal authorities said.

Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, faces charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to al Qaeda, the US Department of Justice said in a statement. If convicted, he faces life in prison.

The FBI said the public was not in danger because the explosives provided to Nafis were never in working condition and the suspect was closely monitored by the undercover agent - highlighting a script law enforcement has employed several times this year in similar cases, including one in Washington and another in Ohio. To create a cell to help him carry out the bombing, Nafis began to seek out recruits, eventually bringing on board an undercover agent working for the FBI. Nafis was arrested in the hotel as he repeatedly attempted to detonate the inert bomb, the FBI said.

According to the FBI, Nafis travelled to the US from Bangladesh in January with the intention of conducting a terrorist attack. Upon arrival he “actively sought out al-Qaida contacts within the US to assist in carrying out an attack”, the FBI said.

In the course of his search he came across an undercover FBI agent posing as an al-Qaida facilitator. The agent supplied Nafis with 20 50lb bags of fake explosives, the FBI said, and drove to the Federal Reserve with Nafis on Wednesday morning.

According to the criminal complaint, Nafis claimed to be in contact with al Qaeda members overseas, although federal agents found no evidence that he was working for al Qaeda or that he was directed by the organization, according to a US official who declined to be named.

Nafis considered several targets for his attack, including the New York Stock Exchange and a high-ranking government official, whom the US official identified as Obama.

The two met on Wednesday morning and traveled by van to a New York warehouse, where Nafis assembled what he thought was a 1,000 pound bomb, before driving to the Federal Reserve Bank, among the most secure and guarded buildings in Manhattan.

FBI mow facing criticism that they framed Nafis by arranging such a plot. Because FBI played main role in the plot. Many accused FBI that they instigated Nafis to do so. Nafis involvement in this plot is subjudiced but FBI’s involvement is proven. So why Only Nafis will be convicted? There are allegations against BBI to do so in the past and New York Times have mentioned such a sting of FBI in 2009. Four people were convicted then. The concerned judge then said “Government made them terrorist” . Because government agents helped them to plan the plot and set bombs. On 19 October Associated Press made a report on Nafis arrest. The Daily Star here in Dhaka published the report as it is on 20 October. Here it is . The AP reports headline was ‘Conflicting images emerge in US’. Lets go through . At the Missouri college where Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis enrolled, a classmate said he often remarked that true Muslims don't believe in violence. That image seemed startlingly at odds with the Bangladesh native's arrest in an FBI sting this week on charges of trying to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank in New York with what he thought was a 1,000-pound car bomb. "I can't imagine being more shocked about somebody doing something like this," said Jim Dow, a 54-year-old Army veteran who rode home from class with Nafis twice a week. "I didn't just meet this kid a couple of times. We talked quite a bit. ... And this doesn't seem to be in character." Nafis, who at the time of his arrest Wednesday was working as a busboy at a restaurant in Manhattan, was jailed without bail. His attorney has not commented on the case, but in other instances where undercover agents and sting operations were used, lawyers have argued entrapment.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, whose department had a role in the arrest as a member of a joint federal-state terrorism task force, said the entrapment argument rarely prevails.
"You have to be otherwise not disposed to do a crime," Kelly said. "And if it's your intent to do a crime, and somehow there are means made available, then generally speaking, the entrapment defence does not succeed." Meanwhile, a law enforcement official said the bomb plot investigation led to the arrest of a San Diego man on child porn charges, reports Associated Press. Howard Willie Carter II was arraigned Thursday in federal court in San Diego on three counts of child pornography. He pleaded not guilty.
Investigators discovered child porn on Carter's computer after he communicated online with Nafis, reports Associated Press. Carter wasn't charged in the bomb plot, but he's listed as an unnamed co-conspirator in the federal complaint against Nafis.
Nafis moved to Missouri, where he studied cybersecurity at Southeast Missouri State University. He also became vice president of the school's Muslim Student Association and began attending a mosque.
In July, as a foreign student, Nafis notified the university he was transferring to ASA College, a computer programming school in Manhattan. That's where he was enrolled when he was arrested Thursday.
Dow, his former classmate at Southeast Missouri State, said Nafis spoke admiringly of bin Laden. At the same time, "he told me he didn't really believe bin Laden was involved in the twin towers because he said bin Laden was a religious man, and a religious man wouldn't have done something like that," Dow said.
He said Nafis gave Dow a copy of the Quran and asked him to read it. But he "didn't rant or rave or say crazy stuff," Dow said.

"What really shocked me the most was he had specifically spoken to me about true Muslims not believing in violence," Dow said. Dion Duncan of St Louis, a fellow student and member of the Muslim organization, said: "Nafis was a good kid. He showed no traces of anti-Americanism, or death to America, or anything like that. He was a trustworthy, honest kid."
"He was polite and courteous. He was helpful. All the things you would expect from a good Muslim kid. He prayed five times a day," Duncan said.

Law enforcement sources said no evidence has emerged suggesting Nafis had revealed his deadly intentions to his old college roommates, reports ABC news. Quazi Nafis came to the US on a student visa in January and led a quiet life, sources said.
At Southeast Missouri State University, he left little impression on students, reports CBS News. Some were struck by how homesick the 21-year-old freshman was.

Bangladeshi students who came with Nafis to Missouri told the FBI last night they became alarmed when his political views slowly turned radical. He began talking about violence and videos recorded by Anwar al Awlaki -- the al Qaeda recruiter killed by a US drone in Yemen last year. The friends described one incident in which Nafis watched an Awlaki video onboard an airplane. His shocked friends told him to shut it off.
Ken Dobbins, the university's president, says FBI agents have been on campus for weeks, and he added the school was never the target Nafis was granted admission without producing his Bangladesh college grades. If he had, school officials would have discovered Nafis has flunked out. "We put him in as a probationary student and he had to prove himself," Dobbins said, adding that he didn't then didn't do well, and "then he left."

A devil's design?
An unprecedented hate campaign against the Buddhist community raged through Ramu, a region known for its communal harmony for centuries until the night of September 29. Eighteen pagodas were damaged and about 50 houses burnt down in six hours of madness by Muslim zealots. Daly Star reporter Julfikar Ali Manik investigated extensively, only to find that the source of the shocking outrage was a faked facebook page.
It was the prologue of 14 October Daily Star’s lead news. The report started saying “It was all faked.”
Then went on “The facebook page with an anti-Islam picture that provoked the September 29 rampage against the Buddhist community in Ramu was photoshopped. Somebody or a group had taken a screenshot of Uttam Kumar Barua's facebook profile page, cut out the address of anti-Islam website “Insult allah” and pasted it on the address bar visible in the image. Once the fabrication was done, it looked like “Insult allah” has shared the anti-Islam image with Uttam and 26 others. The paper has become sure that it was a manipulation done to frame Uttam, who is a local Buddhist, and wreak mayhem that left 12 Buddhist temples burned to ashes and dozens of houses damaged. A very innocent story was also cooked up about how Uttam's so-called facebook page came to public knowledge.

Omar Faruk, a youth of Ramu, claimed his friend Abdul Moktadir alias Alif, student of a private polytechnic institute in Chittagong, came to his mobile repairing shop in the evening of September 29.
According to Faruk, his friend signed in to his facebook account and made a scene finding Uttam's profile page bearing the anti-Islam photo. Moktadir and Faruk claimed they had taken screenshots of the “profile page belonging to Uttam”. The fabrication of screenshot could be the first part of the plan behind the mayhem and bringing rioters from outside Ramu the second part. One thing is evident in the screenshot that someone called “Abdul Muktadir” had entered Uttam's profile though he was not a facebook friend. Uttam's profile was not restricted.

The facebook account of “Abdul Muktadir” is not accessible anymore. Moktadir admitted that he was involved with Islami Chhatra Shibir when he was a student of class IX and X in 2008-09 at Ramu Khizari Adarsha High School, according to a police official.
Moktadir's mother Shajeda Begum also claimed nobody among their close relatives has any involvement in politics. However, one of her brothers-in-law is Naikhangchhari upazila chairman of in Bandarban. His name is Tofail Ahmed, who doesn't hold any official post but locally everyone knows him as a Jamaat leader. MOKTADIR WAS SHIBIR MAN : Md Iltut Mish, additional superintendent of police in Chittagong, who was working in Cox's Bazar on deputation, told The Daily Star on Friday, “According to Moktadir's statement and the information in his personal diary, he was the sports secretary of Ramu thana Islami Chhatra Shibir in 2009.”
Moktadir had told police that since he was good in sports, Shibir men gave him the post, he said.
The Daily Star’s investigation finding is Abdul Muktadir alias Alif is a Shibir activist and he is the main culprit behind the 29 September Ramu rampage. He designed and planned the plot.

Lets see how much Daily Star’s investigation was correct and real. On 15 October The Daily Nayadiganta, a bangla language daily published another investigative report on Ramu rampage. The report claimed local ruling partymen were involved in the rampage and they instigated mass people to attack on Buddhists. In support of their claim the Nayadiganta published a photo of a procession rally led by local ruling party Awami League (AL) leaders. The photo caption said attack on Ratnapal Sudarson Bihar took place from the procession rally. The rally was led by Hamidul Haq Chowdhury, General Secretary, Ukhia Upazilla AL, Nururl Kabir Chowdhury, AL supported Chairman of Ratnapalong UP, Mitu Chowdhury, UP Chairman Haludia Palong UP and Mahmudul Haq Chowdhury, former Upazilla chairman.
Nayadiganta Report said Abdul Muktadit alias Alif is not a Shibir man at all. His mother Shajeda Begum is President of Haludia Union AL. Nayadiganta quoted Shajeda Begum and she admitted it. She said her son is not related with Shibir and their family is related with AL historically.

Quoting Islami Chhatra Shibir’s pulictity Secretary Abu Saleh Mohammam Yahia Nayadiganta said, there is no sports secretary post in thana level of Shibir. Shibir maintain a database of their manpower and there is no Abdul Muktadir in their list. So whose investigation is correct? The Daily Star mentioned one of Shaejeda Begum’s brothers-in-law is Naikhangchhari upazila chairman of in Bandarban. His name is Tofail Ahmed, who doesn't hold any official post but locally everyone knows him as a Jamaat leader. But the interesting matter is Daily Star Did not mention that Abdul Muktadir’s mother is Haludia Union AL chairman. Is it intentional?