FBI: Sting operation foils plot to blow up NY Federal Reserve

One man was arrested on charges that he tried to use what he believed was a 1,000-pound bomb against the Federal Reserve Bank in in Manhattan's financial district.
Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, of Bangladesh, was arrested and charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to al-Qaeda, the Justice Department said.
He allegedly attempted to detonate the explosives remotely from a hotel across the street from the New York branch of the Federal Reserve Bank, which holds large amounts of cash and thousands of tons of gold in a subterranean vault.
The explosives had been rendered inoperable by law enforcement and posed no threat to the public, authorities said.
Nafis arrived in the US in January "intent on conducting a terrorist attack on US soil and worked with single-minded determination to carry out his plan," the Justice Department said.
The arrest was the culmination of an undercover operation under which Nafis was closely monitored by the Joint Terrorism Task Force of the FBI's New York field office.
"The defendant thought he was striking a blow to the American economy. He thought he was directing confederates and fellow believers, "US attorney Loretta Lynch said in a Justice Department release.
"At every turn, he was wrong, and his extensive efforts to strike at the heart of the nation's financial system were foiled by effective law enforcement."//DPA