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Shingen Takeda
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'Bomb plotter' arrested in Baltimore
A Baltimore man was arrested on Wednesday on charges he plotted to detonate a vehicle bomb at a U.S. Armed Forces recruitment centre in Maryland, a plot that was a sting operation, the U.S. Justice Department said.
Attorney General Eric Holder has defended such sting operationsPhoto: AP
5:18PM GMT 08 Dec 2010
"There was no actual danger to the public as the explosives were inert and the suspect had been carefully monitored by law enforcement for months," said Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd. He declined to identify the individual arrested.
A law enforcement official said the individual arrested was a 21-year-old male who is an American citizen and converted to be a Muslim. A court hearing is set for later on Wednesday.
The case is the latest in a series of sting operations by law enforcement agencies involving terrorism plots, including one case in which an Oregon man was arrested last month on charges he tried to detonate a car bomb near a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has defended such sting operations, saying that they are integral to finding people who are on a path to attack the United States and Americans. Some defence lawyers have questioned whether they were entrapment.
"These investigations are extremely important, it is part of a forward-leaning way in which the Justice Department, the FBI, our law enforcement partners at the state and local level are trying to find people who are bound and determined to harm Americans and American interests around the world," Mr Holder said last month.
In October, a Jordanian national was sentenced to 24 years in prison for a plot to blow up a Dallas skyscraper using a fake bomb as part of an FBI undercover operation. The Justice Department spokesman said the arrest in Baltimore was not believed to be connected to a string of shootings in Virginia, one of which included an incident at a Coast Guard recruiting station.
