Awais Younis, also known as Sundullah "Sunny" Ghilzai and Mohannme Khan, allegedly described how to build a pipe bomb that could maximise casualties on the Washington Metrorail, according to a December 6 criminal affidavit.
During a chat last month Younis said the third and fifth cars on the Metro had the highest number of commuters on them and that he could place bombs there without being noticed, according to the affidavit.
"Complainant responded by saying 'You wouldn't do that,' and (Younis) responded by saying 'Watch me,'" the affidavit says, without providing further details on who turned Younis in.
Younis had also allegedly posted pictures from Afghanistan on Facebook in which he holds an AK-47 assault rifle and his uncle stands in front of a tent filled with explosives, with a caption reading "My family business." He had also recently posted a message saying: "Christmas trees were going to go boom."
Younis threatens the complainant in a chat included in the affidavit. "You are sticking your nose where it doesn't belong into something bigger then you and I," he said. "That is the problem with Americans they can't leave well enough alone until something happens then they sit there wondering why we dropped the twin towers like a bad habit hahaha." He goes on to warn the complainant to tell his father not to take the Metro to work.
Younis, who will appear in court on December 21, has been charged with "communicating threats using interstate communications" but not terrorism, the Justice Department said in a statement.
"The public should be reassured that his activities prior to his arrest were carefully monitored and that there is no threat against Metrorail or the general public in the Washington, DC area," spokesman Dean Boyd said.
An FBI spokeswoman said Younis was in his early 20s. News of the arrest comes less than a week after FBI agents used Facebook to nab a young Muslim-American who believed he was about to set off a car bomb at a US military recruitment office north of Washington.
In October a Pakistani-American man was arrested for plotting a series of bomb attacks on Washington's subway system with people he believed were tied to al Qaeda Farooque Ahmed, 34, had been allegedly observing, videotaping and photographing Metro stations in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, including near the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery.
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