An Ashburn man said in court documents that he’s sorry for planning a bombing attack with what he thought were al Qaeda operatives but were actually undercover federal agents. Farooque Ahmed pleaded guilty to planning the attack on Monday and was immediately sentenced to 23 years in prison. He was arrested in October after spending six months observing several Northern Virginia Metro stations so he could help people whom he believed were al Qaeda members plan a terrorist attack that would “cause the most casualties,” authorities said.
On Monday, Ahmed issued an apology.
“I know that my conduct could have endangered many people, and I am happy that nobody was actually injured,” Ahmed wrote in court documents. “I am truly sorry for my conduct, and I especially regret that I have let down my family (particularly my wife and young son), my faith, and my country.”
No one was injured because the supposed al Qaeda plotters were actually federal agents. In April 2010, the agents responded to an inquiry by Ahmed and an unnamed associate about their wish to participate in jihad by traveling overseas to fight U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Ahmed had his first meeting on April 18, 2010, at a hotel near Washington Dulles International Airport with a courier “believed to be affiliated with a terrorist organization,” Ahmed’s guilty plea says. The courier passed Ahmed a Koran containing a document that provided details on the locations of future meetings and code words to be used for those meetings.
At a May 15, 2010, meeting, Ahmed was told by another supposed al Qaeda operative that before he could travel overseas, he’d have to gather information for attacks on Metrorail stations, court documents said. Over the coming months, he and an unnamed associate photographed and took video of the Metro stations, with a focus on the Arlington Cemetery station. The associate would hold up a cell phone as though he were talking on it to hide that he was using it as a video camera, Ahmed reportedly told an undercover agent.
Ahmed also pushed to expand the operation to include the Crystal City Metro station so the attack could kill more soldiers, he reportedly told the investigators. He admitted in his guilty plea that he hoped to train terrorists overseas in martial arts and weapons.
