Prosecutors said today that 20-year-old Raees Alam Qazi of Florida hoped to bomb Times Square, a Broadway theater, or somewhere on Wall Street to avenge drone deaths in Afghanistan, but he couldn’t afford it. Qazi allegedly came to New York last month in hopes of finding a job and saving up for the attack, only to come up empty and instead sleep in public transportation, a mosque, and a restaurant, while his terrorist aspirations remained a pipe dream. Qazi then took a Greyhound back home, where he was promptly arrested.
“He fully intended to do this, and thankfully he didn’t have enough money,” said U.S. Attorney Karen Gilbert today at a bail hearing, according to the Associated Press. “He wants to avenge those deaths and kill people.”
Qazi was charged along with his brother, 30-year-old Sheheryar Alam Qazi, with conspiring to provide support to terrorists and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. According to phone calls reportedly recorded by the FBI, the elder Qazi described his little brother as a potential “lone wolf, like the Times Square bomber” and said he “wasn’t going to be in this world long.”
