ISIS Sympathizers Planned to 'Create the Next 9/11' With Attacks on Concerts, Subways & Times Square: Feds
One of the suspects allegedly told an undercover agent posing as ISIS sympathizer that "NY Needs to fall."
By Jonathan Dienst, Checkey Beckford, Mark Schone. David Paredes, Joe Valiquette and R. Darren Price
Three men living outside the U.S. planned to attack concerts, Times Square and crowded subways in 2016 in an ISIS-inspired attack that one of the suspects said he hoped would be "the next 9/11," authorities announced on Friday afternoon.
The FBI said the three men -- Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, a 19-year-old Canadian citizen; Talha Haroon, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen based in Pakistan; and Russell Salic, a 37-year-old orthopedic surgeon in the Phillipines -- allegedly used chat apps to talk about bringing a car bomb into the Crossroads of the World, gunning down subway riders before detonating vests and opening fire on concertgoers in the vein of the Paris terror attacks of 2015.
"NY Needs to fall. This is a must," Haroon allegedly wrote in a message to an undercover agent posing as an ISIS sympathizer.
FBI and NYPD officials told the I-Team the plot was more aspirational than operational. But according to the indictments, Al Bahnasawy, who has already pleaded guilty to multiple charges, traveled to Cranford, New Jersey, in May of 2016 and had designs on carrying out the attacks before he was cuffed by authorities waiting there for him.
According to prosecutors, El Bahnasawy began talking with one another -- and the undercover agent -- in the spring of 2016. Over the month of May, they allegedly plotted pledged to carry out a variety of attacks in the city during the Islamic holy month of Ramadam -- that year, from June 6 to July 5 -- or on Memorial Day. They then reached out to Saric, who they called "The Doctor," in May to help finance their plans.
Prosecutors said that Al Bahnasawy and Haroon identified the 7 and 4/5/6 subway lines and Times Square as ideal targets and talked about trapping people inside the Crossroads of the World “and kill as many people as possible.”
Prosecutors added that Al Bahnasawy also communicated with an undercover agent posing as an ISIS sympathizer about wanting to "shoot up concerts cuz they kill lots of people." He also researched upcoming concerts in the city and talked about picking a show in “a concert hall thats far away from cops.”
"We just need guns in our hands," El Bahnasawy said. "That's how the Paris guys did it."
Haroon, meanwhile, told the undercover agent that he saw the subway as a "perfect" target for the attack, and that they should shoot as many train riders as possible before setting off suicide vests.
"When we run out of bullets we let the vests go off," he said.
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