Post by LS on Aug 5, 2004 21:48:55 GMT -5
Man Arrested In Plot To Bomb Federal Courthouse
By Nathaniel Hernandez
Associated Press Writer
August 5, 2004
A convicted felon with an apparent grudge against the courts was arrested Thursday on charges of plotting to blow up a federal courthouse, but agents involved in the elaborate sting operation made sure he never actually had materials to make a truck bomb.
Prosecutors said Gale William Nettles, 66, was arrested with a pickup truck containing 1,500 pounds of fertilizer that he allegedly thought was volatile ammonium nitrate, the farm chemical used to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building.
Nettles had planned to sell the chemical to terrorists who he wanted to carry out a plot to blow up the Dirksen federal building, U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in announcing the charges Thursday. But everyone else involved, including the "terrorists'' and the people who sold him the fertilizer, were cooperating witnesses or federal agents, Fitzgerald said.
Authorities were tipped to the alleged plot by a felon who had been incarcerated with Nettles at a federal prison in Mississippi.
"He had a rational plan to build a bomb and we weren't going to wait for him to start wiring the bomb up to find out if it would work or not,'' Fitzgerald said.
Federal agents set up a sting. Undercover agents on one end posed as terrorists intending to buy the bomb and carry out the plot, while undercover agents on the other end delivered the non-dangerous fertilizer to Nettles in place of the ammonium nitrate he thought he was getting.
Nettles, released from prison late last year after serving time for counterfeiting, had asked cooperating witnesses about contacting Al-Qaida or Hamas, Fitzgerald said.
According to the complaint, Nettles met July 25 with an undercover agent he thought was a member of a terrorist group.
In a recorded meeting, Nettles said he had a half ton of ammonium nitrate in New Orleans that he could have in Chicago in two days and that he had a target in mind -- the U.S. courthouse downtown, the complaint said.
Nettles told one undercover agent he could make a 3,000-pound fertilizer bomb and explained how to detonate it at a courthouse loading dock, according to the criminal complaint. In comparison, Timothy McVeigh used 4,800 pounds of ammonium nitrate to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, killing 168 people.
According to the complaint, Nettles wanted to bring down the Dirksen building around 10 a.m. or 11 a.m., when judges would be present, and destroy two city blocks of downtown.
"Nettles explained that he sees this like a 'combat strike' in which Nettles said there are always friendly casualties,'' said the complaint, signed by an FBI agent. He told one undercover agent that more people would pay attention if there were injuries, the complaint said.
On Wednesday, an undercover agent delivered 500 pounds of the inert fertilizer to Nettles at a storage warehouse, the complaint said. The following morning, it said, the agent drove the pickup with an additional 1,500 pounds of fertilizer to the Chicago park and met Nettles.
Nettles was arrested at that park shortly afterward when he met the undercover agents posing as terrorists and accepted $10,000 from them, according to the complaint.
A court appearance for Nettles was scheduled Thursday afternoon.
Nettles had been released from prison in 2003 after serving time for counterfeiting and apparently retained a grudge gainst the court system, Fitzgerald said. Nettles also had a previous conviction for armed robbery in Cook County and was on parole at the time of his counterfeiting arrest. He had claimed in 2001 court documents that he had mental disabilities.
"He's 66 and he's spent -- probably conservatively -- 45 of those years in prison,'' said attorney Ronald J. Clark, who represented Nettles in his previous counterfeiting case.
"It surprises me that Gale would seriously be involved in something of this magnitude,'' Clark said. He described Nettles' counterfeiting as a "fairly pathetic attempt.''
Nettles had been living out of a transient hotel in Chicago since his release following the counterfeiting sentence, authorities said. Sam Gelles, 35, who lives in the hotel, said Nettles was a whiz with computers and went by the nickname "Pops.''
He was quiet and introverted, "but you couldn't really read him,'' Gelles said.
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press
By Nathaniel Hernandez
Associated Press Writer
August 5, 2004
A convicted felon with an apparent grudge against the courts was arrested Thursday on charges of plotting to blow up a federal courthouse, but agents involved in the elaborate sting operation made sure he never actually had materials to make a truck bomb.
Prosecutors said Gale William Nettles, 66, was arrested with a pickup truck containing 1,500 pounds of fertilizer that he allegedly thought was volatile ammonium nitrate, the farm chemical used to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building.
Nettles had planned to sell the chemical to terrorists who he wanted to carry out a plot to blow up the Dirksen federal building, U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in announcing the charges Thursday. But everyone else involved, including the "terrorists'' and the people who sold him the fertilizer, were cooperating witnesses or federal agents, Fitzgerald said.
Authorities were tipped to the alleged plot by a felon who had been incarcerated with Nettles at a federal prison in Mississippi.
"He had a rational plan to build a bomb and we weren't going to wait for him to start wiring the bomb up to find out if it would work or not,'' Fitzgerald said.
Federal agents set up a sting. Undercover agents on one end posed as terrorists intending to buy the bomb and carry out the plot, while undercover agents on the other end delivered the non-dangerous fertilizer to Nettles in place of the ammonium nitrate he thought he was getting.
Nettles, released from prison late last year after serving time for counterfeiting, had asked cooperating witnesses about contacting Al-Qaida or Hamas, Fitzgerald said.
According to the complaint, Nettles met July 25 with an undercover agent he thought was a member of a terrorist group.
In a recorded meeting, Nettles said he had a half ton of ammonium nitrate in New Orleans that he could have in Chicago in two days and that he had a target in mind -- the U.S. courthouse downtown, the complaint said.
Nettles told one undercover agent he could make a 3,000-pound fertilizer bomb and explained how to detonate it at a courthouse loading dock, according to the criminal complaint. In comparison, Timothy McVeigh used 4,800 pounds of ammonium nitrate to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, killing 168 people.
According to the complaint, Nettles wanted to bring down the Dirksen building around 10 a.m. or 11 a.m., when judges would be present, and destroy two city blocks of downtown.
"Nettles explained that he sees this like a 'combat strike' in which Nettles said there are always friendly casualties,'' said the complaint, signed by an FBI agent. He told one undercover agent that more people would pay attention if there were injuries, the complaint said.
On Wednesday, an undercover agent delivered 500 pounds of the inert fertilizer to Nettles at a storage warehouse, the complaint said. The following morning, it said, the agent drove the pickup with an additional 1,500 pounds of fertilizer to the Chicago park and met Nettles.
Nettles was arrested at that park shortly afterward when he met the undercover agents posing as terrorists and accepted $10,000 from them, according to the complaint.
A court appearance for Nettles was scheduled Thursday afternoon.
Nettles had been released from prison in 2003 after serving time for counterfeiting and apparently retained a grudge gainst the court system, Fitzgerald said. Nettles also had a previous conviction for armed robbery in Cook County and was on parole at the time of his counterfeiting arrest. He had claimed in 2001 court documents that he had mental disabilities.
"He's 66 and he's spent -- probably conservatively -- 45 of those years in prison,'' said attorney Ronald J. Clark, who represented Nettles in his previous counterfeiting case.
"It surprises me that Gale would seriously be involved in something of this magnitude,'' Clark said. He described Nettles' counterfeiting as a "fairly pathetic attempt.''
Nettles had been living out of a transient hotel in Chicago since his release following the counterfeiting sentence, authorities said. Sam Gelles, 35, who lives in the hotel, said Nettles was a whiz with computers and went by the nickname "Pops.''
He was quiet and introverted, "but you couldn't really read him,'' Gelles said.
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press
I saw this story online, but yesterday morning, one of my papers didn't carry the story at all and the other made mention in a very small 3 paragraph story buried on page 36. 
I didn't pick up the Times, I imagine they carried it but I can't say where it landed in there.