The FBI arrested a California ex-convict early
Friday as he allegedly tried to blow up a Bank of America branch in Oakland,
hoping to start a civil war.
Matthew Aaron Llaneza, 28, of San Jose, was
detained after he tried using a cellphone to detonate an explosives-packed
SUV at a BofA branch near the Oakland Airport, the FBI said. Agents had
created a dummy bomb, however.
Llaneza was charged with attempted use of a
weapon of mass destruction against property used in an activity that affects
interstate or foreign commerce. He is being held without bail.
The FBI said that Llaneza had declared his
support for the Taliban and that he wanted to engage in violent jihad and
conduct a terrorist attack inside the United States. He discussed plans to
take a ship to Pakistan after the bombing and then travel to Afghanistan to
train fighters, the FBI stated in an affidavit.
In November 2011, Llaneza was released from a
state prison after serving a one-year sentence for transportation of an
assault weapon — an AK-47 — and possession of a high-capacity magazine.
According to the criminal complaint, Llaneza
met Nov. 30 with a man he believed to be connected with the Taliban and the
Afghan mujaheddin, but who actually was an undercover FBI agent.
At this initial meeting, Llaneza proposed
conducting a car-bomb attack against a bank in the San Francisco Bay Area. He
proposed structuring the attack to make it appear that the responsible party
was an umbrella organization for a loose collection of anti-government
militias and their sympathizers. Llaneza’s stated goal was to trigger a
governmental crackdown, which he expected would trigger a right-wing
counter-response against the government followed by, he hoped, civil war.
Llaneza originally targeted the Federal
Reserve Bank in downtown San Francisco but rejected it because he figured
there would be too much security, FBI Special Agent Christopher Monika wrote.
In a Dec. 7 follow-up meeting with the undercover agent, he settled on the
BofA branch on Hegenberger Road, “reasoning that the name of the bank and
Oakland’s location as a center of protests made it an appropriate target,”
the complaint stated.
“He stated he would dance with joy when the
bomb exploded,” said Monika, who previously worked as a Pentagon
counter-intelligence officer in Iraq and Afghanistan.
On Jan. 26, Llaneza and the undercover agent
met at a rented storage unit in Hayward, south of Oakland. They loaded the
back of the SUV with 12 5-gallon buckets of chemicals the FBI bought to
simulate an “explosive mixture.” Llaneza then bought two cellphones, and the
FBI made the phony trigger mechanisms.
Llaneza drove the SUV to the bank early
Friday, parked it under an overhang and walked a “safe distance,” where he
met the undercover agent, the affidavit states. He was arrested after two
attempts to trigger the explosion failed.
Llaneza is due back in federal court Wednesday
for a bail hearing. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.
http://fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/fbi-calif-ex-con-tried-to-bomb-bank-to-start-civil-war/34434/
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