Thread: Krusty Muppets try to blow up an Ohio bridge.

FBI: 5 men charged in Ohio bridge bomb plot

CLEVELAND (AP) — Five men described by federal authorities as anarchists angry with corporate America and the government were charged Tuesday with plotting to bomb an Ohio bridge linking two wealthy Cleveland suburbs.

The men were arrested Monday night after unknowingly working with an FBI informant for months, a strategy that federal investigators have used repeatedly in recent years to nab alleged terrorists.

"They talked about making a statement against corporate America and the government as some of the motivations for their actions," U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach said in announcing the arrests with the head of the FBI in Cleveland, Stephen Anthony.

The alleged plotters researched explosives and obtained what they thought was C-4 explosives. The material, in fact, was harmless and the public was never at risk, because the men got it from the informant, officials said.

The men planted the fake explosives at the base of the bridge, armed them, went to a remote spot and "entered the codes that they thought would blow up the bridge with innocent people traveling over it," Dettelbach said.

Court documents detail several conversations the FBI secretly recorded in which its informant discussed the bomb plans with some of the suspects.

In one, Brandon L. Baxter, 20, of Lakewood allegedly said "Taking out a bridge in the business district would cost the ... corporate big wigs a lot of money" because it would cause structural damage and prevent people from going to work.

He and another suspect, Douglas L. Wright, 26, of Indianapolis, favored targeting a bridge because it would limit "the number of casualties and the potential for killing possible supporters," court documents said.

The men were charged with conspiracy and trying to bomb property used in interstate commerce. All five appeared Tuesday in U.S. District Court, where Magistrate Judge Greg White ordered them jailed without bond pending a hearing Monday.

In addition to Baxter and Wright, the suspects were identified as Joshua S. Stafford, 23, and Anthony Hayne, 35, both of Cleveland, and Connor Stevens, 20, of suburban Berea. The charges carry possible penalties of more than 20 years in prison.

At the hearing, the men, with wrist manacles chained to the waist, sat in the jury box with their attorneys and acknowledged receiving copies of the complaint against them and an understanding of their rights.

At the end of the hearing, Stevens' father, James, shouted, "Love you, Connor." The father left court without commenting.

The target of the plot was a bridge that carries a state highway over part of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and a picturesque scenic rail line and canal towpath in the Brecksville area, about 15 miles south of downtown Cleveland.

More from source


Look at the heads on these fuking soap dodgers.

^ What a bunch of palookas

Poor Zippy, wonder what drove him over the edge.

#5 looks like he's just been rescued Robinson Cruso style.

Probably not much fear of them being raped at least.

Unless US Federal Prison soap actually works. In which case they might have a tough couple of decades ahead of them.

Sounds like entrapment with the FBI devising the scheme and luring in a few naive people they knew were angry with the US government.

Originally Posted by Begbie

Sounds like entrapment with the FBI devising the scheme and luring in a few naive people they knew were angry with the US government.

Amazing how many times the FBI does this.

No doubt it will be bonuses and promotions for all involved.

That is one stupid, sad-ass looking bunch of inbred retards.

They should have targeted something bigger... Like the internet.

Just looked at the photos again. They really do look like the ugly younger brothers of the guys in Deliverance - but none looks bright enough to play a banjo.........

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

Just looked at the photos again. They really do look like the ugly younger brothers of the guys in Deliverance - but none looks bright enough to play a banjo.........

Or plot and attempt to carry through blowing up a large bridge without outside help.

Wonder just how big a role the FBI played. I doubt these guys were so dangerous that the FBI set a mole to infiltrate them without some sort of plan of entrapment.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

Just looked at the photos again. They really do look like the ugly younger brothers of the guys in Deliverance - but none looks bright enough to play a banjo.........

Charley Boorman was the child star

Originally Posted by Begbie

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

Just looked at the photos again. They really do look like the ugly younger brothers of the guys in Deliverance - but none looks bright enough to play a banjo.........

Charley Boorman was the child star

Which he got due to his acting talent.... Nothing to do with his dad being the director.....

An other 'FBI agent gives fake bomb' to 'unsuspecting terrorist'.

Teen charged with trying to blow up Chicago bar - Yahoo! News

Undercover FBI agents arrested an 18-year-old American man who tried to detonate what he believed was a car bomb outside a downtown Chicago bar, federal prosecutors said Saturday.

Adel Daoud, a U.S. citizen from the Chicago suburb of Hillside, was arrested Friday night in an undercover operation in which an agent pretending to be a terrorist provided him with a phony car bomb and watched him press the trigger, prosecutors said.

The FBI began monitoring Daoud after he started using an email account to get and distribute material about violent jihad and the killing of Americans, prosecutors said.

In May, two undercover FBI agents contacted Daoud in response to the material and exchanged electronic messages with him in which he expressed an interest in violent jihad in the United States or abroad, according to an affidavit by an FBI special agent.

Prosecutors say one of those agents introduced Daoud to a third undercover agent who claimed to be a terrorist living in New York.

Over the summer, the third agent and Daoud met six times in the suburb of Villa Park and exchanged messages, the affidavit said. Daoud then set about identifying 29 potential targets, including military recruiting centers, bars, malls and tourist attractions in Chicago, the document said.

He is accused of settling on a downtown bar and conducting surveillance on it using Google Street View and visiting the area in person to take photographs.

The FBI has used similar tactics in other counterterrorism investigations, deploying undercover agents to engage suspects in talk of terror plots and then provide fake explosive devices.

I wonder what sort of manipulative psychological training these FBI agents who engage young people who read about such things, then over time introduce them to other FBI agents who pretend to be actual terrorists providing materials.

And in a follow up to the OP.

AKRON, Ohio—Three more men charged with planning to bomb a highway bridge in Ohio admitted their roles in the plot Wednesday in a move meant to avoid life prison sentences.

The device was a dud provided by an FBI informant and no one was hurt.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has said the public was never in danger even though the target was a highway bridge over the Cuyahoga Valley National Park between Cleveland and Akron.

Two 20-year-old suburban Cleveland men, Connor Stevens of Berea and Brandon Baxter of Lakewood, and Douglas Wright, 26, of Indianapolis, pleaded guilty to three-count indictments in back-to-back appearances in U.S. District Court. A fourth man pleaded guilty earlier, and the fifth defendant faces trial after a defense-requested psychiatric exam.

Prosecutors said they calculated the three men could face 30 years to life in prison, based on the seriousness of the crimes. There was no plea deal, and U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach said a sentence recommendation would be made later.

Defense attorneys proposed what Judge David Dowd repeatedly described as a "vastly different" calculation of possible prison time under federal guidelines: in the range of five years for each man.

The defense claims the men never meant to hurt anyone and were goaded into the plot by an ex-convict who was working as an FBI informant.

The judge expects to sentence the men in early November.

Guilty Pleas in Ohio Bridge-Bomb Plot - WSJ.com

I bet the bomb looked like this - anything else would be too complicated for an American.