msnbc.com staff and news service reports updated 1 hour 57 minutes ago 2010-10-27T18:04:39 WASHINGTON — A Pakistani-born U.S. citizen was arrested Wednesday on charges of planning bombings at Metrorail stations in the Washington, D.C., area after an FBI sting operation, the Justice Department announced.
"Farooque Ahmed, 34, of Ashburn, Va., was arrested today for attempting to assist others whom he believed to be members of al-Qaida," the department said in a statement.
A grand jury returned an indictment against Ahmed on Tuesday, "charging him with attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack on a transit facility, and attempting to provide material support to help carry out multiple bombings," the department added.
If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 50 years in prison.
Instead of real al-Qaida agents, Ahmed was meeting with undercover agents, officials said.
Investigators say that starting in April, Ahmed began meeting with someone he thought was an al-Qaida courier who put him touch with others who asked him if he'd willing to do surveillance of stops on the subway system, known as the Metro.
Court documents say he watched and took picture at four stations, all in Virginia, and made sketches. He suggested putting bombs in rolling suitcases for simultaneous explosions in 2011, the FBI says. The three stations he picked out would help "kill as many military personnel as possible," according to court documents, apparently because of the use of those lines by people going to and from the Pentagon.
