Two Muslim converts, one with a long rap sheet, are now behind bars after a thwarted terrorist attack at a multi-branch military recruiting station in Seattle this week.
Looking for headlines of their own following the Fort Hood massacre of November 5, 2009, Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, aka Joseph Anthony Davis and Walli Mujahidh, aka Frederick Domingue Jr. wanted to make news.
Being arrested by the FBI wasn’t the way they had it planned.
Abdul-Latif, 33, a family man with a cleaning business and a string of bad credit, comes from a long line of criminal history and apparent mental problems. News sources report at least two suicide attempts and both his father and brother have done prison time.
Abdul-Latif filed for bankruptcy in May of this year.
Walli Mujahidh, 32, of the Los Angeles area, along with Abdul-Latif were tripped up when they went to pick up machine guns from a warehouse in the Seattle area.
Their plan was to attack the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) located at 4735 East Marginal Way in Seattle and wreak as much carnage as possible.
Both Abdul-Latif and Mujahidh are American born and Abdul-Latif aka Joseph Anthony Davis was, for a short period of time, in the U.S. Navy.
KATU News in Seattle reports that originally the homegrown terror plot targeted Joint Base Lewis-McChord but was re-tooled for an attack on the MEPS.
Joint Base Lewis-McChord is a major center of operations for troops deploying to both Afghanistan and Iraq.
It’s not known if the two would-be terrorists’ self-proclaimed admiration for Osama bin Laden, and that terrorist’s recent demise, was a trigger point for the plot.
Abdu Khalid Abdul-Latif and Walli Mujahidh were charged in Federal Court on Thursday with terrorism, conspiracy to murder officers and employees of the U.S. government and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction as well as miscellaneous firearms charges.
Both men, if convicted, could face life in prison.
Examiner’s Note: The November 5, 2009, shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, killed 13 people and wounded 29 others. The sole suspect is Nidal Malik Hasann, a U.S. Army Major serving as a psychiatrist.
A check of the Military Entrance Processing Station’s website did not indicate the presence of an on-site daycare, although a local-market network reported there was one. In light of the Oklahoma City bombing at the AlfredP. Murrah Federal Buildingin 1995, this Examiner was surprised to learn that daycare facilities were still onsite at Federal buildings.
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