Man arrested by FBI for plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange.

 

File photo of the New York Stock Exchange. NBC News.

A man has been arrested by the FBI for a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange. NBC News. Harun Abdul-Malik Yener, a 30 year old man who lived in Florida, was arrested after stockpiling bomb making materials. The man had links to ISIS but decided not to join them overseas as he did not believe they would accomplish their goals. Yener had schematics and was arrested after he picked up bomb making materials. Yener's plan was foiled when the FBI received a tip and undercover FBI officers began to monitor him. 

My Comment:

Yet another incompetent terrorist foiled by his own incompetence. Thankfully these folks never seem to understand that the one thing you can't do as a terrorist is talk to people about your plot. And anyone that is trying to help you is probably FBI.

It's unclear how serious the threat in this case was. From the article it doesn't seem that serious, the man had schematics and a bit of bomb making materials, so there was some threat at least. But I also don't know if he was capable of building one that would actually explode, if he had a way to get it to the NYSE and if he would have avoided security. 

I noticed that there was very little in the article about Yener's motivation, but it seems pretty obvious. He has an Arab sounding name and was considering joining ISIS but I guess he was doing it because he hated the stock exchange or something? Of course this was radical Islam but you can't count on the news media to mention that. 

I am honestly surprised we haven't seen any major terror attacks from Islamic extremists recently. Like I have said, ISIS has made a bit of a resurgence, especially in Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda appears to be a spent force, but ISIS is still out there. They just don't seem to be able to pull anything off in the United States, probably because they just don't have the funding to do so. 

But there is absolutely the threat of lone wolf attackers, as this case proves. Thankfully most of these folks are idiots. Had Mr. Yener been a bit more smart and tried a mass shooting or car ramming attack he might have been able to do something but instead he did a needlessly complicated plot that was never going to accomplish anything. 

As with all cases where the FBI is involved I do wonder if this may have been a bit of entrapment. Yener was a homeless man who was, at the very least, pretty stupid. He may have been mentally ill. I do wonder if he would have done this on his own or if he was pushed there by the FBI. In this case it seems like the former is more likely than the later as he was supposedly making searches on the internet for bomb making materials as far back as 2017, long before the FBI contacted him.