DC Metro Bomb Threat: Man Arrested For Facebook Post

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A Virginia man accused of threatening on Facebook to detonate pipe bombs on the D.C. subway system was ordered Tuesday to undergo a mental evaluation.

Awais Younis, a native of Afghanistan, was arrested last week and charged with communicating threats across state lines. Younis, 25, who lives in Arlington, described to a friend last month during a Facebook chat how he could build a pipe bomb with specific types of shrapnel to cause maximum damage on the Metro system, according to a sworn statement from an FBI agent. He also discussed planting pipe bombs underneath a sewer head in D.C.'s Georgetown neighborhood.

When the friend suggested he was not serious, Younis responded "Watch me."

The friend alerted the FBI. In a subsequent Facebook chat, Younis threatened the unidentified tipster and told her that "the problem with Americans they cant leave well enough alone until something happends then they sit there wondering why we dropped the twin towers like a bad habit."

Authorities arrested Younis, who also used the name Sundullah "Sunny" Ghilzai, on Dec. 7, two days after the second chat. The arrest was first reported by The Washington Examiner.

Younis' attorney, federal public defender Todd Richman, declined comment Tuesday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Ivan Davis has ordered Younis remain jailed pending a mental health evaluation. Another hearing is scheduled for Dec. 21.

The case against Younis differs from the recent arrest of Farooque Ahmed, who was charged in October with conspiring with people he thought were al-Qaida members to bomb the D.C. Metro system. In the Ahmed case, prosecutors brought terrorism charges against Ahmed after a monthslong investigation in which Ahmed met with undercover operatives to advance what he thought was an al-Qaida plot.

Younis was not charged under terrorism statutes and never conspired with undercover operatives.

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said in a statement that Younis has not been charged with any federal terrorism violation.

"The public should be reassured that his activities prior to his arrest were carefully monitored and that there is no threat against Metrorail or the general public in the Washington, D.C. area," he said.

Comments

[MikeyJaii]

02:57 AM on 12/25/2010

Stupid people ....

[Mary Pat]

10:36 AM on 12/20/2010

I take him very seriously. I'm glad they arrested him. I understand his frustration at the world situation but he's going at it in the wrong way.
He's lucky that he lives in the US, in another country they would have shot him and asked questions later.

[WaPoFan]

07:24 PM on 12/14/2010

If you can't trust your Facebook friend with your most intimate terrorist plots, who can you trust?

[HarmNone]

07:16 PM on 12/14/2010

Another incident avoided by actual law enforcement investigation processes and without scanning, doing pat downs or terrorizing other citizens.

[OxamsRazor]

08:31 PM on 12/14/2010

AND another incident avoided because people close to the accused ratted him out. I love it when people keep saying that the Muslim community isn't doing enough. They have been consistently turning people in for 10 years now.

[cybersense]

06:55 AM on 12/15/2010

Yes they have, even their own family members. There are plenty of peace loving muslims.

[Mary Pat]

10:39 AM on 12/20/2010

Absolutely, the Muslims I've met in the US just want a peaceful life, a home, a family, education etc. There's a mosque in Silver Spring MD that offers health care to anyone who needs it on Friday nights and they only ask for five bucks!
You never read about those Muslims in the newspapers, do you?

[FTracy3]

06:50 PM on 12/14/2010

Awanis Younis...another Tim McVeigh wannabe, right?

[IndependentBadger]

09:59 PM on 12/14/2010

Probably not even.

Just a dumb kid trying to impress a girl, from the looks of it.

A REALLY dumb kid.

[cybersense]

06:59 AM on 12/15/2010

I don't know - I have read the court papers. Doesn't sound like it to me. Remember that some of those kids that have gone into school and killed others had these same red flags. Better to be sure. I would have to question anyone making this kind of threat so openly on facebook, and his statements about how he would make a bomb isn't something to be taken lightly. He had pointed to area's of which would do the greatest harm as well. Picking him up right away was a good thing.

[MarkinNM]

06:46 PM on 12/14/2010

Given our criminal justice system, they will probably evaluate him and let him go with a slap on the wrist. Sort of wish the FBI allowed this guy to move forward with his plans (I assume by the "just watch" comment) so they could charge him with attempting terrorism. Well, justice was served here in any case.

Too bad he can't be jailed for being stupid. He would be looking at life.

[hottingers]

06:37 PM on 12/14/2010

Sounds like a second ammendment solution to me.

[danusgram]

06:31 PM on 12/14/2010

why oh why do we keep letting these people in the country?

[Paul Andrews]

01:52 AM on 12/15/2010

That is a very good question

[Zanubiyah]

05:46 PM on 12/14/2010

Ahh...

Turned in by another chatter on the internet, because she was 'concerned' that this charater was dangerous. His crime was that he made threats to make a terrorist act.

Notice how his anger was not nurtured, notice that he was not aided, supplied, paid, or any other act of conspiricy to make a bomb, or carry out an act he thought would kill, harm, or destroy property.

Perhaps this is an intervention for this man, and he will get help. This is the way I expect law enforcement to act when I call them...to stop crime before it gets worse, rather than create a criminal through nurturing his anger.

[cybersense]

07:08 AM on 12/15/2010

"rather than create a criminal through nurturing his anger".
 
Zanubiyah, I suspect you making a reference to the Oregon man that followed through on trying to blow up people at a christmas tree celebration?
 
First, I am glad this person turned this man in to the FBI and that he was picked up so that they can actually try and prevent something terrible from happening.
 
However, what most do not understand about the Oregon attempt was that He had already been writting articles for the jihad movement. He actually was seeking out to become involved more directly. His parents turned him in, and it stopped his plans to go to Yemen. His retaliation for this was to continue with his mission here in the US instead. I bit different, right?

[Zanubiyah]

06:18 PM on 12/15/2010

cybersense...

Whenever you nurture someone's anger to the point where he commits a crime, rather than intervene to calm him, or take him out of a situation before something happens, you are complict in the act...simply because you dont know how he would have reacted if left alone.


Whenever you aid, fund, support, educate, encourage, or condone a criminal act BEYOND THE MEANS of the offender to act on his own, you become a conspiritor.

Now tell me...how does a person who is pretending to be a terrorist 'give a man a chance to back down' without blowing his cover. Tell me, if someone was paying your rent because you could not, how can you refuse him even if you wanted to.

In other words, the FBI created a criminal by nurturing his anger, and became a conspiritor because they funded, supplied, and educated him beyound the means to act on his own.

Now, if you can convince me that they did not conspire with him, even in role play, or provide him with the fake tools he needed to commit his crime (saying that he would have done it anyway by another way isnt an excuse, simply because had the law STOPPED him instead of encouraging him, we dont know) Then I will see your point.

Convince me.

[cybersense]

05:28 PM on 12/14/2010

Glad this kid is someplace where he can be looked after. anyone that makes statements like he did should be taken seriously.

[Regenleif Ali]

02:44 AM on 12/15/2010

the mental evaluation test was a good idea... even though I myself belong to the region... it would be stupid of me to call this a mere attempt to impress a girl or just showing off... go to the northern side and you will find many who have sworn to get back at the US for killing their families.... this kid may be one of those and maybe he lost someone he cared for, in the war... keeping anger bottled in like that isn't healthy, and he may have been serious....

[cybersense]

07:13 AM on 12/15/2010

I hope what ever happens to him, he gets some serious help and that it prevents further problems. The muslim communities are mostly peace loving people. Even if he did not have anyone harmed as you suggested, there are plenty of kids thinking the answer to their problems is by hurting others, and that isn't just a Muslim community problem.

[Jim Biggs]

05:26 PM on 12/14/2010

we must do something about all those grannies trying to blow stuff up..............wait maybe its all those 3 yr olds and their stuffed animals....................or maybe all those violent Buddhists ............

how will we ever figure out who is trying to blow all these people up ?

[IndependentBadger]

09:56 PM on 12/14/2010

I see your point. I just wish you could train that eye on ALL hateful religions, instead of pretending islam is the only one we have to worry about...

[Dellany Hall]

11:51 PM on 12/14/2010

All religons have their zealots although it seems that only one of them is highlighted or worried about right now, which is not right but happening all the same.

[nothing4nothing]

05:16 PM on 12/14/2010

maybe they should listen in on Glenn Beck once in awhile!! the stuff he is putting out on the airwaves is dangerous to this country. Oh I forgot, he's white, so it o.k.!!!

[Regenleif Ali]

02:46 AM on 12/15/2010

wasn't he the one who got burned by Fareed Zakaria??? =P

[cybersense]

07:15 AM on 12/15/2010

Yes, he was. Very well done too. Good for Fareed.

[silentknight65]

05:01 PM on 12/14/2010

Should have saved it for the Republican Congress. He'd be a national hero!

[Dellany Hall]

10:16 PM on 12/14/2010

He// he's a legend in his own mind he does not need the congress, but as you said the republican congress would see him as a national hero. God help this country. Illogical BS is now the norm here in the U.S.A. common sense and logic died a horrible death a decade or two back and now the norm is no common sense about anything and illogical solutions to any and all problems and our government is the main culprit in all of it.

[silentknight65]

05:55 PM on 12/15/2010

I meant he should have set it off inside the building after the Republicans take over Congress!!!

[johnny g locker]

04:50 PM on 12/14/2010

And people still claim that profiling for terrorists in airports is a bad thing to do.

[The Cause Endures]

11:18 PM on 12/14/2010

Yes, and those people are law enforcement. But hey - what are facts?

[The Cause Endures]

04:49 PM on 12/14/2010

God, people are just plain stupid.

[Dellany Hall]

11:54 PM on 12/14/2010

Yes they are some more than others.