Thaindian News

Washington, Feb 25 (ANI): A Saudi national has been arrested in Texas for allegedly plotting to blow up former President George W Bush’s house and other targets in America in the name of ‘jihad’.

Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari is said to have landed in the US with chemicals and materials specifically to wage jihad on American soil and kill Bush, the Daily Mail reports.

Aldawsari is said to have planned to place a bomb in heart of New York City during rush hour, in a similar manner like the Times Square bomb plotter Faisal Shahzad, who is now serving a life sentence, the paper said.

Aldawsari, who is a chemical engineering student, is being held by FBI agents for allegedly buying chemicals and equipment to make a bomb and researching U.S. targets. He had allegedly planned to destroy dams, nuclear power plants and target three former U.S. soldiers who had worked at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

He has been charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, and if convicted, he could face the death penalty, the paper added.

According to the Department of Justice’s affidavit, Aldawsari’s email clearly states that: “One operation in the land of the infidels is equal to ten operations against occupying forces in the land of the Muslims. Scholarship ‘will help tremendously in providing me with the support I need for Jihad. After mastering the English language, learning how to build explosives and continuous planning to target the infidel Americans, it is time for Jihad.”

His 2009 blog suggested: “Sometimes with all of the work, with the senses, with ambition, emotions, imagination, and everything; you will just be a prisoner of dreams.”

The affidavit also alleged that Aldawsari had studied how to convert a mobile phone into a remote detonator and how to prepare a booby-trapped vehicle using everyday household items. (ANI)