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Mass. man pleads guilty in plot to blow up Pentagon, Capitol
A Massachusetts man has pleaded guilty to plotting to blow up the Pentagon and Capitol using remotely control planes with explosives.
Rezwan Ferdaus pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts to attempting to destroy federal buildings with explosives and attempting to provide material support to terrorists, according to The Associated Press.
Ferdaus, 26, agreed to the guilty plea after reaching a plea deal with the Justice Department earlier this month.
Ferdaus agreed to a recommended sentence of 17 years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, according to the DOJ. As part of the plea deal, the government dismissed several other charges against him.
He gave undercover federal agents step-by-step plans for how he would use remote-controlled aircraft packed with C-4 explosives to fly into the Capitol and Pentagon.
The DOJ said Ferdaus plots revolved around “jihad” against the United States.
“With the goal of terrorizing the United States, decapitating its ‘military center,’ and killing as many ‘kafirs’ (an Arabic term meaning non-believers) as possible, Ferdaus extensively planned and took substantial steps to bomb the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol,” the DOJ said after the plea agreement was reached.
Ferdaus’s sentencing hearing is set for Nov. 1, according to the AP.
