FBI Arrests Man in Fake Suicide Vest on His Way to Capitol

Associated Press
Elspeth Reeve 6,637 Views Feb 17, 2012

A man was arrested Friday in another FBI sting operation that involved a fake terrorist ring and fake explosives. A Moroccan man in his thirties, strapped with what he thought were real explosives, was arrested on his way to the U.S. Capitol, Fox News reports. The suicide vest was fake. The al Qaeda terrorists he thought he was plotting with were fake, too. They were really FBI agents.

"The public was never in danger, as he had been under constant surveillance for some time, officials said," Fox reports, noting that the man had been watched for less than a year. There have been several FBI stings involving fake terrorists and fake weapons in recent years. Last fall, Rezwan Ferdaus was arrested by the FBI after plotting with fake terrorists to fly a remote controlled plane with fake explosives into the Pentagon. This American Life devoted a full episode to Hemant Lakhani, who fake imported a fake missile to a fake terrorist in 2005.

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