Trust me on this one - this story is legit. Don't even try to debunk it or you will get egg on your face. A terror plot was foiled in progress, without the help of the NSA or the PATRIOT ACT. Repeat (because the Right will use this to attack us) WE DO NOT NEED THE PATRIOT ACT OR ILLEGAL WIRETAPS TO FIGHT TERROR.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/13848954.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jspPa. man accused of terrorist plot
By Alfred Lubrano and John Shiffman
Inquirer Staff Writers
Michael Curtis Reynolds says he's a patriot. Federal authorities say he's a terrorist.
The FBI believes that the unemployed Wilkes-Barre man tried to conspire with al-Qaeda to wreck the American economy. Agents say Reynolds plotted to blow up the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, a Pennsylvania pipeline, and a New Jersey refinery.
The sensational allegations, disclosed in a federal transcript obtained by The Inquirer on Friday, reveal a convoluted plot that includes cyberspace intrigue, an elaborate FBI sting, and a clandestine money-drop on a deserted Idaho road.
The case also involves a municipal judge from Montana who has devoted the last four years to snaring would-be terrorists online.
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In the FBI sting two months ago, Reynolds was drawn to a meeting with a purported al-Qaeda operative about 25 miles from the hotel, where he expected to receive $40,000 to finance the alleged plot.
The al-Qaeda contact was actually Shannen Rossmiller, a 36-year-old judge who lives in Conrad, Mont. She was working for the FBI.
"Yes, that was me in communication with Reynolds," Rossmiller acknowledged in a telephone interview Friday night. "But I can't comment further." This is not Rossmiller's first sting. She regularly monitors extremist Muslim Web sites, searching for potential terrorists. In 2004, she helped win a conviction against a National Guardsman in Tacoma, Wash., whom she met online.
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