By Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times –
LOS ANGELES — Rezwan Ferdaus, an American citizen with a degree in physics, will plead guilty to terrorism charges involving a plan to bomb the Pentagon and the Capitol with remote-controlled model airplanes, according to court documents.
The plea agreement, filed Tuesday in federal court in Boston, calls for a 17-year prison sentence, followed by 10 years of supervision. The deal, agreed to by both prosecutors and defense attorneys, must be approved by U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns, who set July 20 for a hearing.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston, Ferdaus, of Ashland, Mass., has agreed to plead guilty to attempting to damage and destroy a federal building by means of an explosive and of attempting to provide material support to terrorists. Ferdaus, 26, a graduate of Northeastern University, originally faced a six-count indictment.
Ferdaus was arrested in September after federal employees posing as al-Qaida members delivered grenades, machine guns and what he believed was 25 pounds of C-4, a plastic explosive. Officials said Ferdaus planned to fill the remote-controlled aircraft with the C-4 and use them against the federal buildings. He also planned an attack with automatic weapons.
The public was never in any danger, officials stated.
Ferdaus wanted to terrorize the United States and decapitate its “military center” while killing as many nonbelievers of Islam as possible, authorities said.
