[Mb-civic] Pa. Man Accused of Plot to Hit Pipelines - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Pa. Man Accused of Plot to Hit Pipelines
FBI Says He Sought To Aid Al Qaeda

Reuters
Monday, February 13, 2006; A10

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 12 -- Federal investigators have accused a 
Pennsylvania man of trying to conspire with al Qaeda to blow up major 
U.S. oil and gas pipelines and wreck the economy, the Philadelphia 
Inquirer reported Sunday.

The FBI said Michael Curtis Reynolds, 47, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., 
attempted to provide material aid to al Qaeda to disrupt the federal 
government, to change its foreign policy and to turn the public against 
the war in Iraq, the newspaper said.

The allegations were disclosed in a federal transcript obtained by the 
Inquirer on Friday.

Reynolds has not been formally charged with terrorist offenses but has 
been held in a Pennsylvania jail since Dec. 5 on the unrelated charge of 
possessing a hand grenade, the paper said.

Reynolds, who is unemployed, was drawn into an FBI sting operation in 
Idaho two months ago in which he met with a purported al Qaeda operative 
who was really a Montana judge who monitors extremist Web sites looking 
for potential terrorist activity, according to the report.

At that meeting, Reynolds expected to receive $40,000 to finance a plot 
to blow up sections of the transcontinental pipeline, which carries 
natural gas from the Gulf Coast to New York City via Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey.

The alleged plot also included a plan to detonate propane trucks along 
the Alaska pipeline and to blow up oil refineries in New Jersey and Wyoming.

The newspaper quoted John Gurganus, a federal prosecutor, as saying 
Reynolds hoped to "disrupt government function," provoke opposition to 
the war in Iraq, drive up fuel prices and "lend to the efforts by 
al-Qaeda to terrorize this nation."

Reynolds was arrested on the hand grenade charge in December. He told 
federal agents he was not a terrorist but a patriot trying to trap al 
Qaeda operatives, the newspaper said. FBI agents obtained search 
warrants for his computers and e-mail accounts, which contained 
information on the alleged plot.

Reynolds, who has lived in many parts of the United States, has a string 
of bad debts and criminal convictions, including one for attempted 
arson, according to the Inquirer.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/12/AR2006021201077.html?nav=hcmodule
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-civic/attachments/20060213/89b902bf/attachment-0001.htm