In this Intelligence Report: a terrorist group that used Chicago as a backdrop in its propaganda may have been the soldier's inspiration.
Federal authorities say they are trying to establish what inspired PFC Naser Abdo to plan an attack on Fort Hood soldiers with several homemade explosives. Investigators found al-Qaida bomb-making instructions in Abdo's Texas motel room published in the same terrorist magazine that has a fixation with Chicago.
Al-Qaida on the Arabian peninsula, currently considered the organization's strongest arm, publishes an online magazine called "Inspire." In a recent edition, an article was entitled: "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom." According to a federal complaint filed against Private Abdo, that terrorist article on home-bomb making was found in the motel where he was staying along with Christmas lights, a pressure cooker and a power drill.
Authorities - who drove Abdo from court under heavy security Friday - charge that the 21-year-old AWOL Army man was concocting two bombs from gunpowder and shrapnel, just as the Al-Qaida manual prescribes.
As the I-Team first reported last fall, Inspire magazine, produced in Yemen, showed part of the Chicago skyline for a holy war story that described the ultimate terror weapon: pick-up trucks with sharp steel blades in front that would be used to mow down crowds of pedestrians. Ten months ago, Chicago's FBI counter-terror chief Bill Monroe was concerned.
"We're certainly worried about any of the articles featured in Inspire magazine, especially all of those articles that are promoting violence," said Monroe.
Abdo's road to violence began July 4th, according to authorities, when he went AWOL from fort Campbell in Kentucky.
Federal agents suspect he headed to Fort Hood in his home state of Texas to stage an attack similar to that of Major Nidal Hassan in November of 2009. That assault ended with 13 dead and wounded. It was the worst-ever mass shooting at a U.S. military installation.
"I can tell you that we would be here today giving a very different briefing if this had not been stopped," said Chief Dennis Baldwin, Killeen, Texas police.
Friday at his court appearance, PFC Abdo yelled the names of a couple of known terrorists, including Anwar al-Awlaki. He is the American-born cleric for al-Qaida in the Arabian peninsula and a leader of the organization that puts out Inspire magazine.
