Man pleads guilty in terror plot at military recruiting station
SEATTLE (AP) - A man pleaded guilty Thursday to plotting an attack on a Seattle military complex with machine guns and grenades.
Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, 35, agreed to a prison sentence between 17 and 19 years, the U.S. attorney's office in Seattle said. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder U.S. officers and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and is scheduled to be sentenced in March.
Abdul-Latif was arrested June 22, 2011, along with an acquaintance from Los Angeles, when authorities said they arrived at a Seattle warehouse garage to pick up machine guns and grenades to use in the attack. Investigators had set up the buy after a confidential informant alerted authorities of the men's plan.
In conversations the FBI recorded with the help of the informant, Abdul-Latif and his co-defendant, Walli Mujahidh, discussed how they wanted to gun down people in the Military Entrance Processing Station in south Seattle as revenge for atrocities by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, prosecutors said. The military complex houses a federal daycare center.
Mujahidh, 33, pleaded guilty in the case in December 2011.
"This defendant plotted to kill American servicemen and women, and other innocent people in furtherance of his extremist views," U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan said of Abdul-Latif in a statement. "The continued vigilance of the community and the work of law enforcement ensured that we were able to successfully disrupt his deadly plan and bring Mr. Abdul-Latif to justice."
Emails to Abdul-Latif's defense attorneys were not immediately returned.
In June, the defense lawyers filed motions seeking to get some of the prosecution's evidence thrown out, saying the government should not have been able to obtain a secret warrant because there was no indication Abdul-Latif was involved in international terrorism. That motion was denied by a federal judge, who said investigators followed proper procedures.
That filing also showed that Abdul-Latif was being monitored by the FBI long before an acquaintance was recruited to take part in the plot reported it to investigators. In late January 2011, an agent ran a records search on Abdul-Latif and his wife, and by the following month, agents were watching Abdul-Latif while he worked as a janitor and while he attended a mosque with his wife and son.
The FBI monitoring occurred just a few months after Abdul-Latif began posting YouTube videos in which he expressed support for Islamist fighters.
Federal authorities and Seattle police have credited the informant with bringing the plot to light. The informant, a repeat felon and convicted sex offender, was paid $90,400 for his cooperation.
Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, 35, agreed to a prison sentence between 17 and 19 years, the U.S. attorney's office in Seattle said. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder U.S. officers and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and is scheduled to be sentenced in March.
Abdul-Latif was arrested June 22, 2011, along with an acquaintance from Los Angeles, when authorities said they arrived at a Seattle warehouse garage to pick up machine guns and grenades to use in the attack. Investigators had set up the buy after a confidential informant alerted authorities of the men's plan.
In conversations the FBI recorded with the help of the informant, Abdul-Latif and his co-defendant, Walli Mujahidh, discussed how they wanted to gun down people in the Military Entrance Processing Station in south Seattle as revenge for atrocities by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, prosecutors said. The military complex houses a federal daycare center.
Mujahidh, 33, pleaded guilty in the case in December 2011.
"This defendant plotted to kill American servicemen and women, and other innocent people in furtherance of his extremist views," U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan said of Abdul-Latif in a statement. "The continued vigilance of the community and the work of law enforcement ensured that we were able to successfully disrupt his deadly plan and bring Mr. Abdul-Latif to justice."
Emails to Abdul-Latif's defense attorneys were not immediately returned.
In June, the defense lawyers filed motions seeking to get some of the prosecution's evidence thrown out, saying the government should not have been able to obtain a secret warrant because there was no indication Abdul-Latif was involved in international terrorism. That motion was denied by a federal judge, who said investigators followed proper procedures.
That filing also showed that Abdul-Latif was being monitored by the FBI long before an acquaintance was recruited to take part in the plot reported it to investigators. In late January 2011, an agent ran a records search on Abdul-Latif and his wife, and by the following month, agents were watching Abdul-Latif while he worked as a janitor and while he attended a mosque with his wife and son.
The FBI monitoring occurred just a few months after Abdul-Latif began posting YouTube videos in which he expressed support for Islamist fighters.
Federal authorities and Seattle police have credited the informant with bringing the plot to light. The informant, a repeat felon and convicted sex offender, was paid $90,400 for his cooperation.
Yep, the religion of peace and tolerance. I wonder if his ideas were part of his mosques tenets? If not, how many people in his mosque knew about his plans and did nothing, after all, this isn't something a radical would keep mum about amongst his fellow muslims.
I still can't get over that the government gave 90,4000$$ to a repeat felon and sex offender. Glad the d-bag was caught, but...that's an awful lot of money given to another d-bag.
 @SouthofSeattle Meh, he put his life on the line and did his duty as an informant.  I'm sure the families of any possible lost loved one would pay that amount. Â
 @SureHandz Good point.
Wrap him in bacon, waterboard him until he gurgles Merry Christmas, dump him at the Space Needle for asphyxiation by second hand marijuana smoke. God is great!
Yet more evidence of peace, luv and understanding from every Liberal's fav-o-rite "religion of peeeeaace".
Â
Â
Â
"Federal authorities and Seattle police have credited the informant with bringing the plot to light. The informant, a repeat felon and convicted sex offender, was paid $90,400 for his cooperation."
Â
This is all you need to know why the War on Terrorism has been lost. But for the entrapment and railroad job, there is absolutely no evidence that any conspiracy in which Abdul-Latif was involved would have ever come to fruition. His only even theoretical source for hardware to carry out this plot was the Federal government.
Â
I guess that I should feel fortunate that the FBI didn't screw this up and inadvertently give him the weapons instead of busting him.
Somebody want to do a case study on it? I would like to video document it? let me know
Do you suppose, had this Dirt Bag been successful, this would have been labeled "workplace violence" as it was at Ft. Hood... barring the wounded from getting Purple Heart and the service associate with them.
Ahhhhhhhhhh!!! Thanks KOMO for yet another image to take with me to the range this weekend!!!! Double tap!!!
They should take this man's wife and throw her butt in jail too. She is just as bad as he is.
 @agatha How do you know that?
They are both turncoats and should be executed as traitors to their country.
Â
Firing squad at dawn.Â