Massachusetts man charged for plotting Pentagon terror attack

A Massachusetts man was charged with plotting an attack on the US Capitol and Pentagon building using a large, remote controlled aircraft filled with C-4 plastic explosives, reports the Wall Street Journal Online.

The man, Rezwan Ferdaus, was also charged with attempting to provide material support to al Qaeda in the hopes that the militant group would be able to carry out attacks on US soldiers abroad, reports Bloomberg News.

Ferdaus, 26, was arrested in Framingham, Massachusetts. He was a Northeastern University graduate with a degree in physics. According to the Justice Department, he began planning to commit a terrorist act in early 2010. The public was never in any danger, reports the WSJ Online- the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents were monitoring Ferdaus since 2010, when FBI agents posing as al Qaeda members and recruiters received phones that would trigger explosive devices to him.

The WSJ explains:

Mr. Ferdaus believed the devices would be used to kill American soldiers overseas, the Justice Department said. During a June 2011 meeting, he appeared gratified when he was told his first phone detonation device had killed three U.S. soldiers and injured four or five others in Iraq, the Justice Department said. Mr. Ferdaus responded, "That was exactly what I wanted," according to government documents.

He had even made a training video that he gave the undercover agents to show them how to make the cell phone detonators, according to Politico.

A cooperating witness was told during a recorded conversation in January that Ferdaus planned to attack the Pentagon with "small drone airplanes" that were filled with explosives and would be guided by GPS equipment. His plan was expanded in April to include an attack on the US Capitol.

He built the plane by acquiring the necessary parts. He then delivered the aircraft to a storage facility in Framingham, Mass, in August.