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A Middle Eastern man tried to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank in Lower Manhattan this morning, law-enforcement sources told the Post.
The terrorist parked a van filled with what he thought were explosives outside of the Liberty Street building, sources said, then tried to set them off using a cell phone detonator.
The suspect, who was not immediately identified, was provided the explosives from an undercover FBI agent that he met on the Internet and believed to be an accomplice, the sources said.
The suspect raised red flags after posting about Jihad online, they said.
“Attempting to destroy a landmark building and kill or maim untold numbers of innocent bystanders is about as serious as the imagination can conjure,” Acting Assistant Director Mary Galligan said in a statement. “It is important to emphasize that the public was never at risk in this case, because two of the defendant?s ?accomplices? were actually an FBI source and an FBI undercover agent. The FBI continues to place the highest priority on preventing acts of terrorism.”
The agent made contact with the jihadist about three months ago. The suspect told him that he wanted to blow up the bank, the sources said.
The suspect and the FBI agent planned the fake attack for months, sources said.
This morning, after parking the van, he went to the Millennium Hotel near the World Trade Center, where he called the cell phone in the van.
It did not explode, and he was arrested by federal agents.
The terrorist was the only one arrested, sources said.
The FBI?s Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York is the oldest in the FBI and is the largest in the country.
