Another “Terror” Arrest; Another Mentally Ill
Man, Armed by the FBI
By Dan Froomkin
July 14, 2015 "Information
Clearing House"
-
"The
Intercept" - U.S. law enforcement
officials announced another terror arrest on Monday, after
arming a mentally ill man and then charging him with having
guns.
ABC News quoted a
“senior federal official briefed on the arrest” as saying: “This
is a very bad person arrested before he could do very bad
things.”
But in a sting reminiscent of so many others
conducted by the FBI since 9/11, Alexander Ciccolo, 23, “aka Ali
Al Amriki,” was apparently a mentally ill man who was doing
nothing more than ranting about violent jihad and talking
(admittedly in frightening ways) about launching attacks—until
he met an FBI informant. At that point, he started making
shopping lists for weapons.
The big twist in this story:
Local media in Massachusetts are saying Ciccolo was turned
in by his father, a Boston Police captain. The
FBI
affidavit says the investigation was launched after a “close
acquaintance … stated that Ciccolo had a long history of mental
illness and in the last 18 months had become obsessed with
Islam.”
According to the affidavit, Ciccolo first
talked to the FBI informant about attacking two bars and a
police station. Later, he spoke of attacking a college campus
with a homemade pressure-cooker bomb like the one used in the
Boston Marathon terror attack; he also talked about using guns
and a lot of ammo. Ciccolo, according to the affidavit, then
“ordered the firearms from a confidential human source (“CHS”)
working with the FBI.”
“You get the rifles, I’ll get the powder,”
Ciccolo allegedly told the informant. “The next time we meet I
want us to have at least those two things.”
The FBI then surveilled Ciccolo as he bought a
pressure cooker at a Walmart. When the informant showed up with
the guns, Ciccolo had no black powder. He was, however, soaking
Styrofoam strips with motor oil in an apparent attempt to make
explosive “Molotov cocktails,” the affidavit alleged.
The Justice Department’s press release
referred to these as “Terrorist Attack Plans,” and alleged that
he was a supporter of the Islamic State. But Ciccolo was notably
not charged with any of the actual terror charges, such as use
of weapons of mass destruction or providing
material support to terrorists, that are most commonly
employed by the Justice Department.
See previous Intercept
coverage of
FBI
terror stings, including:
(This post is from our blog: Unofficial
Sources.)
Photo: Larry W. Smith/Getty Images
