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Man accused of plotting bombing at 9/11 memorial
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His communications were conversational and his instructions specific, federal authorities claim.
Here's how to make a pipe bomb, he allegedly wrote. Here's how to make it deadlier, by adding shrapnel dipped in rat poison. And here's where to have it explode -- at a 9/11 commemoration event in Kansas City, Missouri.
None of the above came to be. And the man who federal authorities allege tried to make it happen -- by offering advice online to someone who was actually an FBI informant -- is now behind bars.
Joshua Ryne Goldberg of Orange Park, Florida, has been charged with distribution of information relating to explosive, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction, U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley III of the Middle District of Florida said Thursday in a news release.
According to a criminal complaint, authorities tied the 20-year-old Goldberg to the online pseudonym as "Australi Witness" and "AusWitness," a Muslim living in Australia who was promoting jihad around the world.
The FBI said it became aware of him through Twitter messages under the Australi Witness handle that encouraged attacks "with your weapons, bombs or knives" on the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest in Garland, Texas, before they happened in May. Two men did attack, but didn't get into the building after being shot to death by police.
Authorities tied a June post from "Australi Witness" to an ISIS-related website in which he boasted of "inspiring the attacks in Garland" and having "successfully encouraged (two people in Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia) to carry out jihad in their respective cities."
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