‘I feel like Bin Laden’: Florida man arrested for allegedly planning to bomb NYSE
by GERSHON HARRELL | WPEC
CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. (WPEC) — A South Florida man who wanted to “reboot” the United States by blowing up a New York City building is now behind bars, according to the United States Department of Justice (DOJ).
Harun Abdul-Malik Yener, 30, of Coral Springs was arrested on Wednesday and was charged with an attempt to use an explosive device to damage or destroy a building used in interstate commerce, according to the DOJ.
According to the DOJ, the investigation into Yener began in February after the FBI received a tip that he was storing bomb-making schematics in an unlocked storage unit. The DOJ says, the FBI searched the unit and found bombmaking sketches, numerous watches with timers, electronic circuit boards, and other electronics that could be used for constructing explosive devices. The FBI also found multiple internet searches from Yener’s Google accounts about bomb-making that went back to as early as 2017.
In June, Yener told an FBI confidential source that he wanted to join an antigovernmental militia and construct an explosive device. After meeting an undercover FBI agent, whom Yener thought was part of a militia, he indicated he wanted to target a business located in New York City.
Yener chose the New York Stock Exchange as the ideal spot for his attack.
The plan was to blow it up before the Thanksgiving holiday, the DOJ says.
The DOJ continues that Yener crafted a remote trigger for the explosive device and conducted research on where to plant the bomb. Yener instructed undercover FBI agent employees to obtain the explosive element for the device, conduct surveillance of the building, and obtain photos of the building to identify the precise location for detonating the explosive device.
Yener planned to wear a disguise when he planted the explosive device outside the building and recorded a message to be delivered to the press about why he did it. The DOJ says Yener anticipated the impact of the explosion would be “like a small nuke went off” and “‘[a]nything outside” the building “will be wiped out’” and “anything inside would be killed.”
The undercover FBI employee gave a microphone to Yener for him to record his “demand statement” that he intended to send to NBC News the day of or the day after the planned attack, where he said “I feel like Bin Laden”, according to documents.
Yener first appeared in court on Tuesday afternoon.