“The sword is cummin the reign of oppression is about 2 cease,” but not quite yet.
“FBI: Md. bomb plot suspect knew about Oregon sting,” by Ben Nuckols for Associated Press, December 9 (thanks to Ravi):
BALTIMORE – A 21-year-old man charged with trying to blow up a Baltimore-area military recruiting center briefly hesitated when he heard about a federal sting operation that nabbed an alleged terrorist in Oregon last month but decided to keep going with his plan, authorities said.
Antonio Martinez, a naturalized U.S. citizen who goes by the name Muhammad Hussain after recently converting to Islam, faces charges of attempted murder of federal officers and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
A woman who identified herself as Martinez’s mother but refused to give her name told The Associated Press on Thursday that she tried to persuade him not to convert to Islam. She said she’s a “devout American” and is upset and embarrassed over her son’s actions….
Court documents released Wednesday said Martinez told the informant he thought about nothing but jihad and wasn’t deterred even after a Somali-born teenager was arrested in Portland, Ore., the day after Thanksgiving in an FBI sting.
The Oregon suspect intended to bomb a crowded downtown Christmas tree-lighting ceremony. But — like Martinez — the people he’d been communicating with about the plot were with the FBI. Martinez wondered if he was headed down a similar path, documents say.
“I’m not falling for no b.s.,” he told the informant when he heard about the Oregon case. Still he wanted to go ahead with the plan.
In the following days, Martinez reiterated his support for the plan several times, documents show, at one point reassuring the informant that he didn’t feel pressured to carry it out: “I came to you about this, brother.”…
A former girlfriend, Alisha Legrand, said she met him three or four years ago — before he became a Muslim — and described him as quiet. The two last spoke over the summer and Legrand, 20, said Martinez tried to get her to convert.
“He said he tried the Christian thing. He just really didn’t understand it,” she said, adding that he seemed to have his life under control after converting to Islam….
Asked to identify himself during Wednesday’s hearing, Martinez said he was Muhammad Hussain but confirmed that Antonio Martinez is still his legal name. He wore an untucked, white button-down shirt and baggy blue jeans. His curly hair was long and unkempt, and he had sideburns and a goatee….
His commitment to jihad caused strain in his family, the documents show. The FBI informant reported listening to Martinez during a long conversation with his mother.
“She wants me to be like everybody else, being in school, working,” Martinez told the informant. “My wife understands. … I told her I want to fight jihad. … She said she doesn’t want to stop me.”
Martinez’s Facebook page identifies his wife as Naimah Ismail-Hussain, who describes herself as a student and employee at Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Mass. Attempts to reach her were not successful.
According to the court documents, the informant first contacted the FBI on Oct. 8 after communicating with Martinez through Facebook, where he had posted notes that alluded to jihad.
“The sword is cummin the reign of oppression is about 2 cease,” Martinez wrote in one post.
He picked the military recruitment center because he considered enlisting before he converted to Islam and had been inside, the documents showed….