It is interesting now though that the word is out that the Bangladeshi Muslim man arrested had actually planned to assassinate the Muslim appeaser in the White House. Hmmmm. If Barack Obama was assassinated by a Muslim terrorist, would Janet Napolitano be willing to call it an act of Islamic terror? Or just a workplace incident?
The story comes from The Telegraph.
Federal Reserve terror suspect had 'discussed plot to kill Barack Obama'
Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, was arrested on Wednesday after an FBI sting operation thwarted his alleged attempt to detonate a 1,000 lbs car bomb in Manhattan in what could have been the worst attack since 9/11.
The alleged al Qaeda acolyte had hoped to cause carnage, damage the US economy and even halt the US presidential election, the FBI said.
On Thursday however, it was claimed that Nafis' initial plan had been to assassinate Mr Obama. His wish to "attack and kill a high ranking government official" was aimed at the US president, it was alleged. However, the plan never got beyond the discussion stage.
Details also emerged of Nafis' comfortable, middle class background. His family home is a five storey house in an affluent area of North Dhaka. His father is a branch manager at Bangladesh's national bank while his elder sister is a doctor and lecturer at a medical college.
They expressed astonishment at news of his arrest yesterday, insisting Nafis was innocent and the victim of a conspiracy.
"My son can't do it," Nafis's father Quazi Ahsanullah, said: He is very gentle and devoted to his studies."
Nafis's sister Fariel Bilkis, a doctor, added: "My brother may have been the victim of a conspiracy."
Last night several of his relatives were being questioned by police who are attempting to discover was in contact with Jihadi militants and terrorist suspects in the country.
Nafis studied at Dhaka's respected Ideal school, but failed to get into his dream college – the Institute of business Administration at Dhaka University, Instead he enrolled at the private North South University in Dhaka where he studied at the electronics and telecommunications department.
However, he was expelled in December 2011 because of poor exam results. A spokesman for the university told The Daily Telegraph: "In his exams he got 1.95 [out of a possible 5]. If any student got 2 or below he is not allowed to study here. Due to the poor result we have dismissed him."
Nafis is said to have then convinced his father to send him to study in the US, saying that he would have a better chance of success in America. He moved to the US in January – a trip friends said was his first abroad – and later enrolled at Southeast Missouri State University and took a Bachelor of Business Administration course.
Fellow students said he became the vice president of the school's Muslim Student Association and was deeply religious.
However, he then dropped out of university and enrolled at the ASA Institute in New York telling his parents that moving to the city would be of more use to his country.
He lived in Queens and used Facebook to contact men he thought were al Qaeda leaders to plot his alleged attack,. In fact they turned out to be FBI agents.
After his arrest, the US authorities alleged that Nafis had been inspired by videos of sermons by hate preacher Anwar al-Awlaki and that his sole purpose in moving to America was to "wage jihad".
The 21-year-old's family however, struggled to reconcile that description yesterday with what they remembered of Nafis.
His brother-in-law, who gave his name only as Arik, said: "We heard the news this morning. Everyone is crying here.
"Nafis never showed any form of radicalisation when he was in Bangladesh. He said prayers five times a day and used to read the holy Koran every day."
His Facebook page also showed little sign of radicalisation until after his arrival in the US. Posts from last year speak of his love of the children's cartoon series Swat Cats, his passion for Monopoly and his admiration of M.A Mohit, the first Bangladeshi mountaineer to climb Everest.
He also spoke listed the American rapper Eminem as one of favourite musicians.
Between January 24 and October 3 this year, however, after his arrival in America and as he allegedly set out to make contact with fellow extremists in New York, he answered a series of questions in which he hailed the prophet Mohammed as "the greatest man ever" and predicted that the "future of Bangladesh" would be in a "Khalifa" – an Islamic caliphate under Sharia law.
After hearing of his arrest, Yusuf Gulzari, an Imam at the family's local mosque said Nafis had prayed there regularly during his 20 years tenure but he had never had cause for concern. "[He was] very polite and I never saw the boy with any bad people, I am really astonished that such a good boy could be arrested in connection to this. I don't know what exactly happened," he said.
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