In the United States, a common definition of terrorism is the systematic or threatened use of violence in order to create a general climate of fear to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change.[2][3] This article serves as a list and a compilation of acts of terrorism, attempts to commit acts of terrorism, and other such items which pertain to terrorist activities which are engaged in by non-state actors or spies who are acting in the interests of state actors or persons who are acting without the approval of foreign governments within the domestic borders of the United States.
Map of 2,872 terrorist incidents in the contiguous United States from 1970 to 2017. KEY: Orange: 2001–2017; Green: 1970–2000Terrorism deaths in the United States
On November 19, 2019, according to remarks which were made by Matthew Alcoke, Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division, Alcoke defines domestic terrorists as "individuals who commit violent criminal acts in furtherance of ideological goals stemming from domestic issues."[15] Although acts of violence by domestic extremists consistently meet the definition, no US criminal charge for domestic terror exists. Rather, the phrase is an FBI investigative category which is used to classify four types of extremism: "racially motivated violent extremism, anti-government/anti-authority extremism, animal rights/environmental extremism, and abortion extremism."[15] A 2017 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that out of the 85 deadly extremist incidents which had occurred since September 11, 2001, white supremacist extremist groups were responsible for 73%, while radical Islamist extremists were responsible for 27%. The total number of deaths which was caused by each group was about the same. However, 41% of the deaths were attributable to radical Islamists and they all occurred in a single event — the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting in which 49 people were killed by a lone gunman. No deaths were attributed to left-wing groups.[16][17] A 2017 report by Type Media Center and The Center for Investigative Reporting analyzed a list of the terrorist incidents which occurred in the US between 2008 and 2016 and included the 2014 killings of NYPD officers and the 2016 shooting of Dallas police officers (a total of seven deaths saying that they could "plausibly be attributed to a perpetrator with such sympathies").[18]
In 2018, most ideologically motivated murders in the United States of America were linked to right-wing extremism.[19] As of 2020, right-wing extremist terrorism accounted for the majority of terrorist attacks and plots in the US[20][21] and has killed more people in the continental United States since the September 11 attacks than Islamic terrorism.[22] The United States Department of Homeland Security reported in October 2020 that white supremacists posed the top domestic terrorism threat, which FBI director Christopher Wray confirmed in March 2021, noting that the bureau had elevated the threat to the same level as ISIS.[23][24][25]
115far-right inspired terrorist incidents. 35% of these incidents were foiled (this number means that no terrorist attacks occurred) and 29% of them resulted in fatalities. These incidents caused 79 deaths.
63Islamist inspired terrorist incidents. 76% of these terrorist incidents were foiled (this number means that no terrorist attacks occurred) and 13% of them resulted in fatalities. These incidents caused 90 deaths.
19far-left inspired terrorist incidents. 20% of these terrorist incidents were foiled (this number means that no terrorist attacks occurred) and 10% of them resulted in fatalities. Two of these incidents were described as "plausibly" attributed to a perpetrator with left-wing sympathies and caused 7 deaths. These are not included in the official government database.[30]
According to a report which is based on Justice Department figures which were released by the U.S. government in January 2018, about three out of four people who were convicted on charges of international terrorism between September 11, 2001, to December 31, 2016, were foreign-born. According to the Justice Department, 549 people were convicted on charges of international terrorism, including 254 people who were citizens of other countries, 148 people were naturalized citizens and 148 people were natural-born-citizens.[31] In a speech which he made before a joint session of Congress on February 28, 2017, President Donald Trump incorrectly attributed these findings to domestic terrorism, in actuality, these findings were based on cases in which international terrorists may have been brought to the United States for prosecution.[32]
In 2015, the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security and the Police Executive Research Forum conducted a nationwide survey of 382 police and sheriff departments. Nearly 74% of respondents stated that anti-government violence was their top concern with regard to threats from violent extremists, while about 39% of respondents stated that "Al Qaeda-inspired" violence was their top concern.[33][34]
For the past decade, the national conversation on terrorism has largely focused on Islamic extremist acts, however, law enforcement groups have made it clear that Muslim extremists perpetrate a minute percentage of the ideologically based terrorist attacks which are perpetrated in the United States.[35] Since November 9, 2001, only about 9 American Muslims per year have taken part in terrorist plots in the United States, in total, 20 incidents resulted in about 50 deaths. A 2012 study showed that in about the same time period right-wing extremists were responsible for about 337 attacks per year, in total, they killed more than 5 times the number of people killed by Muslims in the United States.[36]
The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism maintains Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States, a database which contains over 1,800 profiles of individuals who have been radicalized by ideologies since 1948.[37] The database shows that from 1948 through 2016, 40.0% of identified extremists were far-right, 24.5% of identified extremists were Islamist and 17.4% of identified extremists were far-left, while 18.2% of identified extremists were "single issue" individuals.[38]
In May 2019 and for the first time in its history, the FBI identified fringeconspiracy theories as a potential source of domestic terrorism, it specifically cited QAnon.[39]
A June 2020 study of domestic terrorist incidents by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reported that during the previous 25 years, the majority of attacks and plots were perpetrated and hatched by far-right attackers. This trend has accelerated in recent years, with this sector being responsible for about 66% of all of the attacks and plots which were perpetrated in 2019, and it was also responsible for 90% of all of those attacks which were perpetrated in 2020. The next most potentially dangerous group has been "religious extremists", the majority "Salafi jihadists inspired by the Islamic State and al-Qaeda", while the number planned by the far left has reduced to a minute fraction since the mid-2000s.[40][41]
In October 2020, the Department of Homeland Security released the Homeland Threat Assessment, a report detailing various domestic threats to US national security. It states that, out of all domestic terror attacks resulting in lethal threats to life between 2018 and 2019, "WSEs [white supremacist extremists] conducted half of all lethal attacks (8 of 16), resulting in the majority of deaths (39 of 48)".[42]
Since 1997, there have been 8 murders, 17 attempted murders, 42 bombings, and 186 arson attacks aimed at abortion clinics and multiple providers across the US. In some cases small groups of clinics have been attacked multiple times.[43]
1993: David Gunn was murdered by anti-abortion activist Michael F. Griffin
1994: Abortion provider John Britton and James Barrett (both killed) and his wife June (shot but not killed) became victims of Reverend Paul Jennings Hill.
1996–1998: anti-abortion extremist Eric Rudolph cited biblical passages as his motivation for a series of bombings, including Atlanta's Olympic Centennial Park, a lesbian bar, and several abortion clinics. Rudolph acknowledges his attacks were religiously motivated, but denies that his brief association with the racist Christian Identity movement was a motivation for his attacks.
1996: Dr. Calvin Jackson of New Orleans, Louisiana was stabbed 15 times, losing 4 pints of blood. Donald Cooper was charged with second degree attempted murder and was sentenced to 20 years. "Donald Cooper's Day of Violence", by Kara Lowentheil, Choice! Magazine, December 21, 2004
1998: James Kopp killed at least one and went on a series of anti-abortion shooting sprees, both in the U.S. and Canada.
2006: David McMenemy of Rochester Hills, Michigan, crashed his car into the Edgerton Women's Care Center in Davenport, Iowa. He then doused the lobby in gasoline and started a fire. McMenemy committed these acts in the belief that the center was performing abortions; however, Edgerton is not an abortion clinic. Time magazine listed the incident in a "Top 10 Inept Terrorist Plots" list.
2015: Robert Lewis Dear killed three people in a shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado. At his court hearings Dear declared himself a "warrior for the babies".[45]
June 18, 1984: Alan Berg, a Jewish lawyer-talk show host was shot and killed in the driveway of his home on Capitol Hill, Denver, Colorado, by members of a neo-Nazi group called The Order. Earlier and on the show, Berg had stridently argued with a member of the group who was later convicted of his murder.
August 10, 1999: Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting in Granada Hills, California of Los Angeles. 5 people were wounded in the Jewish community center and its daycare facility. The gunman, Buford O. Furrow had antisemitic and anti-government views. Shortly thereafter, Furrow murdered a mail carrier, fled the state, and finally surrendered to authorities.[46]
June 10, 2009: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting: 88-year-old James Wenneker von Brunn, a white supremacist and neo-Nazi, walked into the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., shooting and mortally wounding Stephen Tyrone Johns, a security guard. Von Brunn was wounded when other museum guards immediately returned fire and on January 6, 2010, while he was awaiting trial, von Brunn died of natural causes in a hospital which was located near the prison where he was being held.[47][48][49] During the investigation it was discovered that von Brunn had planned to target White House senior adviser David Axelrod leading to increased protection for Axelrod and other steps.[50]
April 27, 2019: Poway synagogue shooting: A 19 year old nursing student, inspired by the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the Christchurch mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, announced his plans to shoot up the synagogue on 8chan by posting an open letter. One woman was killed, and three were injured.[57]
December 10, 2019: Jersey City Kosher Grocery Shooting: Three people were shot and killed in a kosher grocery store in Jersey City by two heavily armed assailants, David N. Anderson and Francine Graham. The assailants wounded another customer and two police officers before being killed by police. It was determined in the subsequent investigation that the Anderson and Francine had planned a much larger attack on the Jewish community.[58]
(New York City): Hijackers take control of two commercial jets containing passengers and fuel, flying them into the World Trade Center, killing hundreds on impact and an additional 2,606 when the towers subsequently collapsed. More than 6,000 people were injured.
(Arlington County, Virginia): 5 Hijackers fly a Boeing 757-223 containing 53 passengers and 6 crew into the Pentagon, killing all 64 aboard and an additional 125 people on the ground.
(Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania): 33 passengers and 7 crew are killed after attempting to regain control from four hijackers that planned to fly the Boeing 757 into either the U.S. Capitol building or the White House. All 44 occupants died on impact after hijackers forced the plane into a nose dive.
November 5, 2009: Fort Hood shooting, Ft. Hood, Texas: A Muslim psychiatrist guns down thirteen unarmed soldiers while yelling praises to Allah.
April 15, 2013: Boston Marathon bombing (Boston, MA): Foreign-born Muslims detonate two bombs packed with ball bearings at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and causing several more to lose limbs.
September 25, 2014: Vaughan Foods beheading incident, (Moore, OK): A Sharia advocate beheads a woman after calling for Islamic terror and posting an Islamist beheading photo.
July 16, 2015: Chattanooga shootings, Chattanooga, Tennessee: A Muslim commits a shooting spree at a recruiting center at a strip mall and a naval center, leaving five soldiers dead at the latter location.
June 12, 2016: Orlando nightclub shooting, Orlando, Florida: Omar Mateen shoots and kills 49 people and injures 58 more at a gay bar, the largest mass shooting in U.S. history at the time.
November 28, 2016: Ohio State University attack, Columbus, Ohio: A Somali student, Abdul Artan, who came to the U.S. as a refugee, intentionally rammed a car into pedestrians on a busy campus sidewalk on Monday morning and then began slashing passers-by with a butcher knife, the authorities said, injuring 11 students and faculty and staff members.
October 31, 2017: 2017 New York City truck attack, New York City: 29-year-old Sayfullo Habibullaevich Saipov rented a Home Depot pickup truck and intentionally drove it through a bicycle path. He crashed into a school bus and then exited the vehicle wielding look-a-like weapons. He was shot by NYPD. 8 people were killed and 12 were injured.
December 6, 2019: Naval Air Station Pensacola shooting, Pensacola, Florida: A second lieutenant of the Saudi Royal Air Force training at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola opened fire in one of the classroom buildings killing 3 and wounding 8 others before being shot dead by responding police officers.
May 21, 2020: Corpus Christi, Texas: At the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Adam Alsahi crashed through a northern perimeter gate at NAS Corpus Christi, activating vehicle barriers. The driver then got out and opened fire before being shot and killed. A Navy police officer was shot but was protected by a ballistic vest. Alsahi had expressed support for terrorist networks including ISIS. The FBI announced the incident as terrorism-related.[59]
April through June 1919: A series of bombings and attempted bombings by Galleanist anarchists from . Targets included anti-immigration politicians, anti-anarchist officials, prominent businessmen, a journalist and a church.
September 16, 1920: Wall Street bombing: The explosion killed 30 people, and another 10 later died of wounds from the blast. 143 were seriously injured.
September 18, 1969: The Federal Building in New York City was bombed by radical leftist Jane Alpert.[63]
October 7, 1969: Fifth floor of the Armed Forces Induction Center in New York City was devastated by explosion attributed to radical leftist Jane Alpert.
August 24, 1970: Sterling Hall bombing by anti-war activists, making 1 dead and 3 wounded.
1971–1975: The New World Liberation Front was a radical left-wing group in the San Francisco area in the 1970s that conducted multiple bombings in the Bay area over a 3-year period. They claim nearly 50 successful bombings.[65]
January 2–4, 1973: A bomb exploded at a United States Navy recruiting center in Portland, Oregon and two days later an Army recruiting center in the same city was dynamited[67] by a group of anti-war activists in a conspiracy which included academic and bookseller Frank Stearns Giese.[68][69][70]
June 13, 1974: The 29th floor of the Gulf Tower in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was bombed with dynamite at 9:41pm resulting in no injuries. The radical leftist group Weather Underground took credit, but no suspects have ever been identified.[71]
January 26, 1980: The home and car of Nguyen Thanh Hoang, a Vietnamese anti-communist journalist, were firebombed in Arlington County, Virginia. No one was injured. Hoang had received letters urging him to stop his anti-communist propaganda. After the event, two letters which claimed responsibility for the bombings were signed by a group calling itself the 'Action Squad'.[72]
May and June 1984: Earl Steven Karr planted over 20 pipe-bombs all around Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin.[73] He was arrested in Mason City, Iowa after a pipe-bomb he was transporting detonated in the trunk of his car. Karr suffered second degree burns in the explosion.[74] Only one person is known to have been injured by his explosives. Karr, a man with mental problems who stated he was a "former homosexual",[75] left notes near the bombs which named the "North Central Gay Strike Force Against Public and Police Oppression" as the responsible party.[74][75][76] A motive could not be determined other than a dislike of the towns the bombs were placed in.[75]
19 May 2012: Three men were arrested after a raid an apartment, seized pipe bomb instructions, an improvised mortar made of PVC piping, a crossbow, knives, shurikens, a map of Chicago and four fire bombs, authorities confirmed.[77][78] On April 25, 2014, the three men were sentenced to eight to five years in prison, considerably reducing initial penalties of up to thirty years.[79][80][81]
June 5, 1968: Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship, assassinated Democratic presidential nominee, Robert F. Kennedy, in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, because of Kennedy's strong support of Israel. Some scholars believe the assassination was one of the first major incidents of political violence in the United States stemming from the Arab–Israeli conflict in the Middle East.[84]
June 1, 1973: Yosef Alon, the Israeli Air Force attache in Washington, D.C., was shot and killed outside his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Palestinian militant group Black September is suspected, though the case remains unsolved.[85]
July 1, 1973: In Montgomery County, Maryland, an Israeli diplomat is gunned down in his driveway by Palestinian activist.[86]
February 26, 1993 World Trade Center bombing, (New York City): Ramzi Yousef detonates a massive truck bomb under the World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring over 1,000 in an effort to collapse the towers.
February 23, 1997: A Palestinian teacher, Ali Hassan Abu Kamal traveled to the top of the Empire State building where he shot seven people before killing himself.[87]
January 5, 2002: Charlie J. Bishop stole a Cessna 172, and crashed into the Bank of America Tower in downtown Tampa, Florida. Bishop was the sole fatality and no one else was injured. Bishop wrote a letter, saying that he was inspired by Osama bin Laden and 9/11 and praised the attacks as a "justified response to actions against Palestinians and Iraqis", and was acting on behalf of Al-Qaeda
January 24, 1975: FALN bombs Fraunces Tavern in New York City, killing four and injuring more than 50.
December 29, 1975: A bomb set off by FALN in East Harlem, New York, permanently disables a police officer while causing him to lose an eye.[88]
August 3, 1977: FALN bombs exploded on the twenty-first floor of 342 Madison Avenue in New York City, which housed United States Department of Defense security personnel, as well as the Mobil Building at 150 East Forty-Second Street, killing one. In addition the group warned that bombs were located in thirteen other buildings, including the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center resulting in the evacuation of one hundred thousand people. Five days later a bomb attributed to the group was found in the AMEX building.[89]
May 3, 1979: FALN exploded a bomb outside of the Shubert Theatre in Chicago, injuring five people.[90]
March 15, 1980: Armed members of FALN raided the campaign headquarters of President Jimmy Carter in Chicago and the campaign headquarters of George H. W. Bush in New York City. Seven people in Chicago and ten people in New York were tied up as the offices were vandalized before the FALN members fled. A few days later, Carter delegates in Chicago received threatening letters from FALN.[91]
May 16, 1981: One was killed in an explosion in the toilets at the Pan Am terminal at New York's JFK airport. The bombing is claimed by the Puerto Rican Resistance Army.[92]
July 27, 1996: Centennial Olympic Park bombing by Eric Robert Rudolph occurred in Atlanta, Georgia, during the Atlanta Olympics. One person was killed and 111 injured. In a statement released in 2005 Rudolph said the motive was to protest abortion and the "global socialist" Olympic Movement.
July 27, 2008: Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church shooting: Jim David Adkisson enters the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee with a shotgun, killing two and injuring several congregants before being tackled to the ground. Adkisson stated to the police and in a manifesto that he desired to kill Democrats, liberals, African Americans and homosexuals. Adkisson pleaded guilty to the crime in February 2009 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.[96][97]
March 14, 2014: Robert James Talbot Jr, from Katy, Texas was arrested, after a nearly eight-month operation by the FBI, Secret Service, Houston Police and Harris Sheriff's Office, investigated after creating a Facebook page called "American Insurgent Movement", with the aim of recruiting five of six persons for tried to theft of a stock car and banks, and start a ring of attacks against government buildings and law enforcements in the Greater Houston zone.[99][100][101]
June 8, 2014: 2014 Las Vegas shootings: Two Las Vegas police officers while eating pizza in a restaurant and one civilian were shot to death by Jerad and Amanda Miller, a married couple, in a suicide attack. A Gadsden flag, swastika and a note promising "revolution," was placed on the deceased officers bodies. The couple were thrown out of a patriot group defending rancher Cliven Bundy. The Millers were both killed in a shootout with police on the same day.[102][103]
* January 6, 2021: January 6 United States Capitol attack. A mob of right-wing extremists stormed and subsequently attempted a coup d'état to prevent the counting of electoral college votes following Donald Trump's loss in the 2020 United States presidential election. The belligerents, which include a myriad of far-right organizations such as QAnon, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, among many others, were following a seven-part plan proposed by Trump so that he could remain in office, and overturn the election's results. The insurrection resulted in the death of 2 people and 174 injured, with the injured mainly police officers on peacekeeping duties. Four officers committed suicide in the weeks following the incident. Over 1,200 people have been charged in connection to the attack, making it one of the largest criminal trials in United States history.
June 1, 1921: The Tulsa race massacre, the destruction of the city's prosperous African-American community by white supremacists. The European-American authorities tolerated and frequently participated in the destruction of the Greenwood District, the wealthy area of Black-owned businesses which was known as "Black Wall Street". Airplanes were reported to have dropped incendiary devices on the city, contributing to a firestorm.[11]
1951: Wave of hate related terrorist attacks in Florida. As well as Black people being dragged and beaten to death, there were 11 race related bombings, dynamiting of synagogues and a Jewish School in Miami. Explosives were found outside Catholic churches in Miami.[107][108]
1988: Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. a Vietnam War veteran and the founder of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan/White Patriot Party in the early 1980s served three years in Federal penitentiary for trying to assassinate Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The FBI found a cache of weapons in his home after they used tear gas to drive him out and arrest him. He testified against 14 White Supremacists as part of a plea bargain deal.[51]
August 5, 2012: Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting: Wade Michael Page killed six people at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin before being killed by police officers. During the investigation of the crime, police found out that Page was a member of white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations such as the Hammerskin Nation/Hammerskins. The police concluded that racism and ethnic hatred was the main cause of the murders.
June 17, 2015: Charleston church shooting: Dylann Roof carried out a mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. The church is one of the United States' oldest black churches and has long been a site for community organization around civil rights. Nine people were killed, including the senior pastor, Clementa C. Pinckney, a state senator. A tenth victim was also shot, but survived. The FBI has not officially classified the act as terrorism, which was met with controversy.[112]
March 20, 2017: Murder of Timothy Caughman: James Harris Jackson, a 28-year-old War in Afghanistanveteran, traveled to New York City from his hometown of Baltimore with the intention of killing black men there. Three days after arriving at New York City, Jackson stabbed Caughman, a black man, to death with an 18-inch sword. He then turned himself in to authorities. Jackson was charged with one count each of murder in the first and second degrees as an act of terrorism, second-degree murder as a hate crime, and three counts of criminal possession of a weapon.
August 3, 2019: 2019 El Paso shooting: Patrick Crusius committed a violent domestic terrorist attack/mass shooting targeting Latinos at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, killing 23 people and injuring 22 others.
Over 3,000 Freedmen and their Republican Party allies were killed by a combination of the Ku Klux Klan and well-organized campaigns of violence by local whites in a campaign of terrorist violence that overthrew Reconstructionist governments in the south and established segregationist regimes that lasted until the mid-20th century.[117][118]
In the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, white supremacists overthrew the biracial Republican government of Wilmington, North Carolina, killing at least 22 African Americans, and marking the beginning of the Jim Crow era in North Carolina.
Harry T. Moore, state co-coordinator of the Florida NAACP, and his wife were killed by a dynamite bomb in his Mims, Florida home. Despite an extensive FBI investigation, no one was arrested, but the Orlando KKK was suspected.[107][108]
The Ku Klux Klan murdered Viola Liuzzo, a Southern-raised white mother of five who was visiting Alabama from her home in Detroit to attend a civil rights march. At the time of her murder, Liuzzo was transporting civil rights marchers.
Greensboro massacre: Members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party jumped out of vehicles and fired on an anti-Klan demonstration.[119] The demonstration was led by members of a Communist group who were trying to organize local African American workers in Greensboro, North Carolina. Five demonstration participants were killed.
Michael Donald was randomly selected to be lynched by two Ku Klux Klan members near his Alabama home. He was beaten, had his throat slit, and was hanged.
Close
The following is a list of the deadliest known single-day terrorist attacks in the United States to date. Only incidents with ten or more deaths, excluding those of the perpetrators, are included.
November 25, 1864: Confederate Army of Manhattan Fires were set at 19 New York City hotels, P.T. Barnum's Museum, and 2 hay barges resulting in minor damage. Plot to burn down New York City organized by Confederate Lieutenant Colonel Robert Martin failed because the Greek fire incendiary devices were defective and the Lincoln Administration had been tipped off by a double agent and intercepted telegraph messages. After the conspirators found out the plot had been discovered they escaped to Canada. Confederate Captain Robert C. Kennedy became the only conspirator apprehended when he was arrested following his return to the U.S. Kennedy was tried by a military tribunal and hanged.[120][121]
March 6, 1970: Three members of the Weather Underground were killed when their "bomb factory" located in New York's Greenwich Village accidentally exploded. WUO members Theodore Gold, Diana Oughton, and Terry Robbins died in this accident. The bomb was intended to be planted at a non-commissioned officer's dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey. The bomb was packed with nails to inflict maximum casualties upon detonation. See Greenwich Village townhouse explosion.
April 1971: Pipe bombs found at the embassies of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in Washington, D.C.[124]
1972: Two Jewish Defense League members were arrested and charged with bomb possession and burglary in a conspiracy to blow up the Long Island residence of the Soviet mission to the United Nations.[125]
March 6, 1973: 1973 New York bomb plot Explosives found in the trunks of cars were defused at the El Al air terminal at Kennedy Airport, the First Israel Bank and Trust Company, and the Israel Discount Bank, in New York City. The plot was foiled when the National Security Agency intercepted an encrypted message sent to the Iraqi foreign ministry in Baghdad to the Palestine Liberation Organization's office. The attacks were meant to coincide with visit of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. Khalid Duhham al-Jawary of the Black September was convicted on charges relating to the attacks in 1993 and was released to immigration authorities in 2009.[126][127]
September 22, 1975: Sarah Jane Moore tries to assassinate President Gerald Ford outside of the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. The attempt fails when a bystander grabs her arm and deflects the shot. Moore has stated the motive was to create chaos to bring "the winds of change" because the government had declared war on the left wing.[128][129][130]
April 1985: The FBI arrested several members of a Sikh terrorist group who were plotting to kill Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi when he visited New York in June.[133]
February 26, 1993: 1993 World Trade Center bombing: Ramzi Yousef, a member of Al Qaeda, masterminds the truck-bombing of the World Trade Center. The bomb is meant to destabilize the foundation of the building, causing it to collapse and destroy surrounding buildings, leading to mass casualties. It failed to do so, but the detonation killed 6 people and injured more than 1000.
March 1995: Charles Ray Polk is arrested while attempting to buy plastic explosives and machine guns in order to assassinate four police officers and a female judge, and to bomb the IRS offices in Tyler, Texas.[135]
April 1996: Anti-government activist & survivalist Ray Hamblin is arrested after authorities find 460 pounds of the high explosive Tovex, 746 pounds of ANFO blasting agent, and 15 homemade hand grenades on his property in Hood River, Oregon during an investigation into a series of explosions in his storage sheds.[138]
July 1996: Twelve members of an Arizonamilitia group called the Viper Team are arrested on federal conspiracy, weapons and explosive charges after planning to bomb a number of Federal office buildings, including one that houses the office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI.[139]
July 1996: Washington State Militia leader John Pitner and seven others are arrested on weapons and explosives charges in connection with a plot to build pipe bombs for a confrontation with the federal government. Pitner and four others will be convicted on weapons charges, while conspiracy charges against all eight will end in a mistrial.[140] Pitner will later be retried on that charge, convicted and sentenced to four years in prison.[141]
March 17, 1997: anti-abortion extremist Peter Howard puts 13 gas cans and three propane tanks in his truck, and drives it through the door of a California women's clinic in a failed attempt to fire bomb the clinic.[143]
September 1999: anti-abortion extremist Clayton Lee Waagner was pulled over by the Pennsylvania State Police, but fled into the woods and evaded capture, leaving behind a stolen car that contained firearms, explosives, fake ID, and a list of abortion clinics. Later in September 1999, while on a self-described "Mission from God", he took his wife and their nine children on a cross-country road trip headed west in a stolen Winnebago, planning to murder various abortion doctors, beginning with one in Seattle, Washington. However, after crossing into Illinois his vehicle broke down, and Waagner was arrested when Illinois State Police stopped to investigate. Waagner was convicted on charges of interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle and for being a convicted felon in possession of firearms. Waagner later escaped and used a cross country crime spree to continue to fund his anti-abortion mission.
December 22, 2001: British citizen and self-proclaimed Al Qaeda member Richard Reid attempted to detonate the C-4 explosive PETN concealed in his shoes while on a flight from Paris to Miami. He was subdued by crew and passengers with the plane landing safely in Boston.
2004 Columbus Shopping Mall bombing plot: A loosely organized group of young men planned to carry out an attack on an unnamed shopping mall.
September 11, 2006: A man rammed his car into a women's clinic that he thought was an abortion clinic and set it ablaze in Davenport, Iowa causing $20,000 worth of damage to the building.[144]
April 25, 2007: A bomb was left in a women's clinic in Austin, Texas but failed to explode.[145][146]
December 25, 2009: British and Nigerian citizen and self-described Al-Qaeda member Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in flight over Detroit by igniting his underpants which were filled with the C-4 explosive PETN.[147][148] He has been indicted in a U.S. federal court; charges include the attempted murder of 289 people.[149] Several days later, Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen and Saudi Arabia claimed responsibility for the attempted attack. Addressing America, the group threatened to "come for you to slaughter."[150] On January 24, 2010, an audio tape that US intelligence believes is authentic was broadcast in which Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing. The intelligence officials expressed doubt about the veracity of bin Laden's claim.[151] On October 12, 2011, Abdulmutallab pled guilty to all counts against him and read a statement to the court saying "I attempted to use an explosive device which in the U.S. law is a weapon of mass destruction, which I call a blessed weapon to save the lives of innocent Muslims, for U.S. use of weapons of mass destruction on Muslim populations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and beyond".[152]
May 1, 2010 2010 Times Square car bomb attempt and plot: An attempted evening car bombing in crowded Times Square in New York City failed when a street vendor saw smoke emanating from an SUV and called police. The White House has blamed Tehrik-e-Taliban the Pakistani Taliban for the failed attack and said Faisal Shahzad aged 30, an American of Pakistani origin who has been arrested in relation to the incident was working for the group.[153] In July 2010, the Pakistani Taliban released a video featuring Shahzad in which he urged other Muslims in the West to follow his example and to wage similar attacks.[154] On May 3, Shahzad was arrested at Kennedy Airport as he was preparing to fly to Dubai.[155] The device was described as crude and amateurish but potent enough to cause casualties.[156] On May 13 the F.B.I. raided several locations in the Northeast and arrested 3 on alleged immigration violations.[157] Several suspects were arrested in Pakistan including the co-owner of a prominent catering firm used by the US embassy.[158] On June 21 Shahzad pled guilty to 10 counts saying he created the bomb to force the US military to withdraw troops and stop drone attacks in a number of Muslim countries. Shahzad said he chose the location to cause mass civilian casualties because the civilians elected the government that carried out the allegedly anti Muslim policies.[159] On October 4, 2010, Shahzad was sentenced to life in prison.[160] During his sentencing, he threatened that "the defeat of the U.S. is imminent" and that "we will keep on terrorizing you until you leave our lands."[154] Shahzad planned on detonating a second bomb in Times Square two weeks later.[161]
January 17, 2011: Spokane bombing attempt: A small pipe bomb in a backpack designed to be detonated by remote control and spread shrapnel in a specific direction was discovered during a Martin Luther King Day parade in Spokane, Washington. White supremacist Kevin Harpham is convicted and sentenced to 32 years in federal prison.[163][164]
April 8, 2013: Letters believed to contain the poison Ricin were sent to President Barack Obama and Mississippi Republican Senator Roger Wicker and a Mississippi Justice official. Tests on the granular substance found in the letters tested positive for "low grade" ricin.
April 25, 2013: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, told investigators that he and his brother discussed using leftover explosives to attack Times Square.[165] According to NYC Police commissioner Raymond Kelly the plan was conceived after they attacked Boston and was foiled when their SUV ran out of gas as they tried to escape from the Boston marathon bombing manhunt.[166]
January 15, 2015: Washington, DC. A 20-year-old Ohio man was arrested by the FBI for wanting to set off pipe bombs at the U.S. Capitol as a way of supporting ISIS. Federal authorities identified the man as Christopher Lee Cornell, also known as Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah. Cornell, who lived in the Cincinnati area, allegedly told an FBI informant they should "wage jihad," and showed his plans for bombing the Capitol and shooting people, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court. The FBI said Cornell expressed his desire to support the Islamic State.[167] Authorities say Cornell was arrested Wednesday after buying two semi-automatic rifles and about 600 rounds of ammunition, but an FBI agent says the public was never in danger.
May 3, 2015: Garland, Texas. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, roommates from North Phoenix, Arizona, were killed by a security guard when they started shooting at a building holding a Mohammad cartoon contest sponsored by Stop Islamization of America. A school security officer helping with security at the event was shot in the leg.[168]
October 14, 2016: Three men were arrested in Garden City, Kansas, for plotting a car bomb attack against an apartment complex were Somali and Muslim migrants live. The three attackers were part of a group called "The Crusaders".[169][170]
May 22, 2023: A Missouri man allegedly attempted to crash a U-Haul truck into the White House, but instead hit a nearby security barrier. Sai Varshith Kandula, 19, who had a Nazi flag with him and made verbal threats against President Biden and Vice President Harris, was arrested. He told police he wanted to "seize power" and kill the president, and that he admired Nazi authoritarianism and eugenics. Conspiracy theorists on Twitter began labeling the attack a false flag, in part due to Kandula's ethnicity, which reportedly is Telugu. Kandula is not a U.S. citizen but he does have a green card; if convicted, he will likely be deported.[171][172][173][174][175]
November 1864: Plan by Confederate Lieutenant Colonel Robert Martin and the Copperheads organization Sons of Liberty to attack New York City and disrupt elections collapsed when the Sons of Liberty backed out upon seeing large numbers of Union troops.[120]
February 28, 1865 Dahlgren Affair: Alleged plot by Union General Judson Kilpatrick to burn down Richmond, Virginia and kill Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet. Allegations based on papers recovered by a 13-year-old member of the Confederate home guard. The authenticity of the papers have been a matter of dispute.[176]
January 1940: The FBI shuts down the Christian Front after discovering that its members were arming themselves for a plot to "murder Jews, communists, and 'a dozen Congressmen'" and establishing a government modeled after Nazi Germany.[177][178]
March 31, 1943: Clarence Cull arrested and charged with attempting to assassinate President Franklin D. Roosevelt by suicide bombing. Cull blamed Roosevelt for lost convoys of merchant ships.
November 9, 1995: Oklahoma Constitutional Militia members arrested while in the planning stages for bombings of Southern Poverty Law Center, gay bars and abortion clinics.[179][180]
January 1, 1996: Members of the Viper Militia are arrested after they caught surveying government buildings in Arizona.[179]
July 13, 1996: John J. Ford, 47, of Bellport, Long Island, a former court officer and president of the Long Island U.F.O. Network, and Joseph Mazzachelli plotted to poison local politicians with radium and shoot them if that did not work. They believed the government was covering up knowledge of UFO landings.[181][182]
July 4, 1997: Members of the splinter militia group the Third Continental Congress are arrested while planning attacks on military bases which they believed were being used to train United Nations troops to attack U.S. citizens.[179]
July 30, 1997: Two men who were planning to bomb the New York City subway the next day were arrested. A resident of their apartment informed police after he overheard the men discussing the plot.[183]
March 18, 1998: Members of the North American Militia are arrested in plot to bomb Federal Buildings in Michigan, a television station and an interstate highway intersection.[179][184]
December 5, 1999: Members of the San Joaquin Militia are arrested on charges of plotting to bomb critical infrastructure locations in hopes of sparking an insurrection. The leaders of the group pled guilty to charges of plotting to kill a Federal judge.[179]
December 8, 1999: The leader of the Southeastern States Alliance militia group is arrested in plot to bomb energy faculties with the goal of causing power outages in Florida and Georgia.[179]
March 9, 2000: The former leader of the Texas Militia is arrested in a plot to attack the Federal Building in Houston.[179]
February 8, 2002: Two members of Project 7 are arrested plotting to kill judges and law enforcement officials in order to kick off a revolution.[179]
September 3, 2002: An Idaho Mountain Militia Boys plot to kill a judge and a police officer and break a friend out of jail is uncovered.[179]
April 24, 2003: William Krar is charged for his part in the Tyler poison gas plot, a white supremacist related plan. A sodium cyanide bomb was seized with at least 100 other bombs, bomb components, machine guns, and 500,000 rounds of ammunition. He faces up to 10 years in prison.[186][187]
May 1, 2003: Iyman Faris pleads guilty to providing material support to al-Qaeda and plotting to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge by cutting through cables with blowtorches. He had been working as a double for the FBI since March, but in October was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
August 31, 2005 2005 Los Angeles bomb plot: Kevin James, Hammad Samana, Gregory Patterson, and Levar Washington were indicted on charges to wage war against the U.S. government through terrorism in California. The men planned attacks against Jewish institutions and American military locations in Los Angeles during the Yom Kippur holiday.[188]
February 21, 2006: The Toledo terror plot where three men were accused of conspiring to wage a "holy war" against the United States, supply help to the terrorist in Iraq, and threatening to kill the US president.
June 23, 2006: The Miami bomb plot to attack the Sears Tower where seven men were arrested after an FBI agent infiltrated a group while posing as an al-Qaeda member. No weapons or other materials were found. On May 12, 2009, after two mistrials due to hung juries five men were convicted and one acquitted on charges related to the plot. Narseal Batiste, the group's ringleader, was convicted on four charges, the only defendant to be convicted on all four charges brought against the defendants.[189]
November 29, 2006: Demetrius Van Crocker a white supremacist from rural Tennessee was sentenced to 30 years in prison for attempting to acquire Sarin nerve gas and C-4 explosives that he planned to use to destroy government buildings.[190]
March 5, 2007: A Rikers Island inmate offered to pay an undercover police officer posing as a hit man to behead New York City police commissioner Raymond Kelly and bomb police headquarters in retaliation for the controversial police shooting of Sean Bell. The suspect wanted the bombing to be considered a terrorist act.[192]
May 1, 2007: Five members of a self-styled Birmingham, Alabama area anti-immigration militia were arrested for planning a machine gun attack on Mexicans.[193]
May 7, 2007: Fort Dix attack plot. Six men inspired by Jihadist videos arrested in a failed homegrown terrorism plot to kill soldiers. Plot unravels when Circuit City clerk becomes suspicious of the DVDs the men had created and report it to authorities who place an informant in the group. In October 2008 one man pleaded guilty to charges related to the plot. On December 22, 2008, five other men were convicted with conspiracy to kill American soldiers but were acquitted of attempted murder.[194] Dritan, Shain and Eljvir Duka were sentenced to life in prison.[195]
June 3, 2007: John F. Kennedy International Airport terror plot. Four men indicted in plot to blow up jet-fuel supply tanks at JFK Airport and a 40-mile (64km) connecting pipeline. One suspect is a U.S. citizen and one, Abdul Kadir, a former member of parliament in Guyana. The airport was targeted because one of the suspects saw arms shipments and missiles being shipped to Israel from that locale. In a recorded conversation one of the suspects allegedly told an informant that "Anytime you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States. To hit John F. Kennedy, wow.... They love JFK – he's like the man". Plot unraveled when a person from law enforcement was recruited.[196][197][198] On June 29, 2010, Abdel Nur pled guilty to material support charges. Due to health reasons Kareem Ibrahim was removed from the case and will be tried separately.[199] On August 2 Russell M. Defreitas and Abdul Kadir were convicted for their role in the plot.[200]
March 26, 2008: Michael S. Gorbey who was detained in January 2008 for carrying a loaded shotgun two blocks from the Capitol Building has been charged planning to set off a bomb after a device containing can of gunpowder duct-taped to a box of shotgun shells and a bottle containing buckshot or BB pellets was found in the pickup truck he was driving. The pickup truck was moved to a government parking lot where for a three-week period the device inside it went unnoticed.[201] Michael Gorbey gets 22 years prison, but he insisted that police planted weapons.[202]
October 27, 2008: Federal agents claim to thwarted a plot by two white power skinheads to target an African American High School and kill 88 blacks and decapitate 14 more (the numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic to white supremacists) and although expecting to fail try to assassinate Barack Obama.[203][204]
May 20, 2009: 2009 New York City bomb plot Three U.S. citizens and one Haitian from Newburgh, New York were arrested in a plot to bomb a Riverdale Temple and a Riverdale Jewish Center in The Bronx, New York City in an alleged homegrown terrorist plot. It was also alleged that they planned to shoot down military planes operating out of Stewart Air National Guard Base also in Newburgh. One of the suspects whose parents are from Afghanistan was said to be "unhappy that many Muslim people were being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by the United States Military forces."[205][206][207] On October 18, 2010, the four were convicted on most of the charges brought against them.[208] On June 29, 2011, three of the men were sentenced to 25 years imprisonment by a judge who criticized the governments handling of the case.[209][210] A 2014 award-winning HBO documentary about the four, The Newburgh Sting, claimed that it was a clear case of entrapment and an egregious miscarriage of justice.[211][212]
September: 2009 New York City Subway and United Kingdom plot: Najibullah Zazi of Denver was indicted on charges of trying to build and detonate a weapon of mass destruction by purchasing hydrogen peroxide, acetone and other chemicals. He and two others allegedly planned to detonate the homemade explosives on the New York City subway system.[213] On February 22, 2010, Zazi pled guilty to conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support for a terrorist organization. Zazi said he was recruited by al-Qaeda as part of a "martyrdom plan".[214] Zazi agreed to cooperate with authorities and has told them that the groups planned to walk into the Times Square and Grand Central stations with backpack bombs at rush hour and then choose which subway lines to attack.[215] Several days later Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay high school classmates of Zazi were indicted and pled not guilty to charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support for a terrorist organization.[216] On April 12 a fourth man was arrested in Pakistan.[215] On April 23 Prosecutors said that two Senior Al Queda officials who were reportedly later killed in drone attacks ordered the attacks and Zarein Ahmedzay pleaded guilty to plot related charges.[217] On July 7 five others were indicted including al-Qaeda leader Adnan Shukrijumah, and it was alleged the United Kingdom was also a target of the plot.[218] While in Pakistan, Zazi, Ahmedzay and Medunjanin were allegedly recruited and directed by Shukrijumah, a former Florida student who is designated as one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists, to conduct a terrorist attack in the U.S.[219] On August 6 new charges were brought against Medunjanin and 4 others including Shukrijumah. Medunjanin pleaded not guilty.[220]
August – September 2009: On September 24, William Boyd and Hysen Sherifi charged with "conducting reconnaissance of the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia and obtaining armor-piercing ammunition with the intent to attack Americans". Boyd, two of his sons and several other suspects had been charged on international terrorism charges in August, but at the time there was no indication that they wanted to plot a United States attack. An audio tape of Boyd decrying the U.S. military, discussing the honor of martyrdom, and bemoaning the struggle of Muslims was played at an August hearing. It is the first case of a ring of homegrown terrorists having specific targets.[221][222]
January 7, 2010: Adis Medunjanin, an alleged 2009 New York City Subway plotter, attempts a suicide attack by intentionally crashing his car on the Whitestone Bridge in New York City. He is indicted for this on July 7.[224] Medunjanin has since been charged for his role in an Al Qaeda plot to conduct coordinated suicide bombings on New York's subway system.[225]
May 2010: Paul Rockwood Jr. a meteorologist who took official weather observations and his pregnant wife Nancy from King Salmon, Alaska compiled a list of 20 targets, including members of the military and media and had moved to the operational phase of their plan pled guilty to lying to FBI about the list and making false statements to the FBI. Under a plea agreement Mr. Rockwood will serve eight years in prison and three years probation while Ms. Rockwood will serve probation. Motive was revenge for alleged descecration of Islam.[226][227]
September 20, 2010: Sami Samir Hassoun, 22, a Lebanese citizen living in Chicago, was charged with one count each of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted use of an explosive device after placing a backpack with what he thought was a bomb near Wrigley Field. Alleged plot was foiled by FBI informant. Hassoun discussed other ideas for mass destruction attacks with informant.[228][229]
October 27, 2010: Farooque Ahmed, 34, a naturalized U.S. citizen indicted for conspiracy to bomb four Washington Metro stations with people he thought were al-Qaeda.[230]
December 8, 2010: Antonio Martinez, also known as Muhammad Hussain, was arrested after a sting operation in an alleged plot to bomb a military recruiting center in Catonsville, Maryland. The 21-year-old suspect is an American who converted to Islam. The suspect was reported to be upset that the military continues to kill Muslims.[234]
December 21, 2010: Internet radio broadcaster Hal Turner sentenced to 33 months in prison after he published the work addresses and photographs of three judges who had upheld gun control laws and advocated for their assassination.[235]
February 24, 2011: Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, a 20-year-old Saudi Arabian student, was arrested for building bombs to use in alleged terrorist attacks. Targets allegedly were the home of George W. Bush, hydroelectric dams, nuclear power plants, nightclubs and the homes of soldiers who were formerly stationed at the Abu Ghraib prison. In Aldawsari's journal he wrote he was inspired by the speeches of Osama bin Laden. Alleged plot uncovered when a supplier noticed suspicious purchases.[236]
May 11, 2011: In the 2011 Manhattan terrorism plot, Ahmed Ferhani, a resident of Queens, New York and native of Algeria, and Mohamed Mamdouh, aged 20, also from Queens and a Moroccan native, were arrested in a Lone Wolf plot against a New York Synagogue that had yet to be chosen. It also alleged that they hoped to attack the Empire State Building. The pair were arrested after buying two Browning semi-automatic pistols, one Smith & Wesson revolver, ammunition and one grenade. The pair disguised themselves as Jewish temple goers and pretended to pray. The suspects were said to be "committed to violent jihad".[237]
June 23, 2011: Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif and Walli Mujahidh of Long Beach, California are arrested on charges of buying machine guns and grenades and conspiring to attack a federal building housing a Military Entrance Processing Station in Seattle, Washington. The plot was uncovered by an informant. His motive was to send a message in protest of US action abroad. On April 8, 2013, Walli Mujahidh apologized and was sentenced to 17 years for his role in the plot.[238][239]
July 27, 2011: AWOL U.S. Army Private, and conscientious objector, Naser Jason Abdo from Garland, Texas was arrested in an alleged plot against Fort Hood, Texas. Materials for up to two bombs were found with jihadist materials in Abdo's motel room. An investigation began when the owner of a local gun store called police after becoming suspicious when Abdo asked questions indicating he did not know about the items he was purchasing.[240][241]
September 28, 2011: Rezwan Ferdaus, a US citizen, was indicted for allegedly plotting to use remote-controlled aircraft carrying explosives to bomb the Pentagon and the US Capitol. He also allegedly planned to hire people to shoot at people fleeing the Pentagon. Ferdaus was said to be motivated by Al Queada videos and the alleged plot was uncovered by an FBI sting operation.[242] In July 2012 he pleaded guilty to plotting an attack on the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. Under a plea bargain, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison and then 10 years of supervised release.[243]
October 11, 2011: Operation Red Coalition. Alleged plot that was "conceived, sponsored and was directed from Iran" to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, with a bomb and bomb the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, D.C. It is not known if Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei or President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had knowledge of the plot. The alleged plot was disrupted by an FBI and DEA investigation. The investigation began in May 2011 when an Iranian-American approached a DEA informant seeking the help of a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi ambassador. Iran has denied the allegations.[244]
October–November 2011: Georgia terrorist plot. Four elderly men from a Georgia militia arrested for plotting to buy ricin in preparation for an attack they claimed would "save the Constitution". They allegedly discussed blowing up IRS and ATF buildings, dispensing ricin from a plane over Atlanta and other cities, and assassinating "un-American" politicians. Informant used to break up alleged plot.[245]
November 20, 2011: Jose Pimentel, aged 27, an American citizen and a convert to Islam from New York City, is arrested and accused of being in the process of building pipe bombs (and one hour away from building his first bomb) to target Post Offices, police cars and U.S. military personnel returning from abroad in New York City and Bayonne, New Jersey. He was said to be a follower of the late al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki. The FBI did not consider Pimentel, who was said to be radicalized via the internet, enough of a threat to investigate, but NYC police considered him a 2 on a threat scale of 1 to 5.[246][247][248]
January 7, 2012: Sami Osmakac, a naturalized American from Kosovo, was arrested in a plot to create mayhem in Tampa, Florida by car bombing, hostage taking and exploding a suicide belt. Alleged bomb targets included nightclubs in Ybor City, a bar, the operations center of the sheriff's office and South Tampa businesses. Osmakac allegedly told an FBI undercover agent "We all have to die, so why not die the Islamic way?". Osmakac pled not guilty on February 8.[249]
February 17, 2012: Amine El Khalifi a Moroccan man from Alexandria, Virginia was arrested in an alleged suicide bombing plot of the U.S. Capitol. He was arrested as a result of an FBI sting operation.[250] As a result of a plea agreement El Khalifi was sentenced to 30 years in prison on September 14.[251]
May 1, 2012: Five self-described anarchists were arrested in an alleged plot to blow up a bridge in Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Brecksville, Ohio. The group was being monitored as part of an FBI undercover operation and had considered other plots previously. One of the suspects expressed a desire to cause financial damage to companies while avoiding casualties.[252][253]
August 27, 2012: Four non-commissioned officers from Fort Stewart in Georgia, along with five other men, were charged in an alleged plot to poison an apple orchard and blow up a dam in Washington State, seize control of Fort Stewart, set off explosives in a park in Savannah, Georgia, and assassinate President Barack Obama. The alleged plot was on behalf of the "FEAR" militia for the long term purpose of overthrowing the government.[254][255]
October 17, 2012: Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, aged 21, was arrested in a plot to bomb the Manhattan office of the Federal Reserve Bank on behalf of "our beloved Sheikh Osama bin Laden". His motive was to destroy the economy and possibly force the cancellation of the Presidential election. The suspect, who had a student visa, was a Bangladeshi national who came to the U.S. to launch a terrorist attack. His arrest was the result of a joint FBI-New York City Police sting operation. The suspect was pulling the detonator on a disabled 1000-pound van bomb when he was arrested.[256] On August 9, 2013, Nafis was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Prior to his sentencing Nafis wrote a letter apologizing to the people of America and New York for his actions, which he said were caused by personal and family problems and said he is now pro-American.[257][258]
November 29, 2012: Raees Alam Qazi and his brother Sheheryar Alam Qazi of Florida, naturalized citizens of Pakistani descent, were arrested for being in the aspirational stages of a plot to attack New York City. Raees Alam Qazi is alleged to be inspired by Al Queda and of trying to contact terrorists abroad.[259] On June 11, 2015, Raees and Sheheryar were sentenced to 35 and 20 years respectively for the plot and attacking federal officials while in custody.[260]
June 19, 2013: Two middle aged upstate New York men, Scott Crawford and Eric J. Feight, were arrested by the FBI in an alleged plot to target a political figure, reported to be President Obama, and a Muslim group deemed enemies of Israel, by constructing and using an X-Ray Gun that was described by the FBI as "useful and "functional". Obama was believed by the pair to be allowing Muslims into the country without background checks. An investigation was launched when a synagogue and the Ku Klux Klan, whom Crawford was a member of, told authorities that Crawford tried to recruit them to take part in the alleged plot.[261]
March 26, 2015: Hasan R. Edmonds, an Illinois National Guardsman, and his cousin, Jonas M. Edmonds, arrested in an alleged terrorist plot against a Northern Illinois military base. The alleged plot involved Hasan leaving the country and Jones using Hasan's uniform to gain access. The motive was to bring "the flames of war to the heart" of America. Alleged plot broken up by sting operation.[267]
April 2, 2015: Two women from Queens, New York, 28-year-old Noelle Velentzas and 31-year-old Asia Siddiqui, arrested on charges of trying to detonate explosives in the US. They had purchased propane tanks. It is believed to be first case of a women-only conceived terror plot in the US. Suspects caught in a sting operation. Siddiqui was alleged to have Al-Qaeda contact.[268] On May 7, the two pled not guilty.[269]
April 10, 2015: The FBI arrested 20 year old John Booker Jr. (aka Mohammad Abdullah Hassan) and a co-conspirator, 28 year old Alexander Evan Blair, after Booker made the final connections to arm a 1,000 pound bomb inside a mini-van near Fort Riley, Kansas.[270] Booker intended the inert device, built by undercover FBI agents that Booker had solicited to assist him with his attack, to be detonated at the base hospital. Prior to his attack, Booker made several martyrdom videos in which he stated that he was conducting the suicide attack against a military target in support of the Islamic State. Booker received a 30-year sentence as part of a plea agreement in which he pled guilty to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to destroy government property by an explosive device.[271] His accomplice, Alexander Blair, pled guilty to Conspiracy and was sentenced to 15 months, admitting to providing Booker with money to fund the attack knowing what was planned.[271]
April 10, 2015: the FBI arrested 63-year old Robert Rankin Doggart, of Signal Mountain, Tennessee, who ran as a congressional candidate in 2014. He was wiretapped explaining plans to raise a militia to burn down a mosque, school and cafeteria and gun down Muslims in an enclave called Islamberg in New York. He planned to amass M4 carbines, pistols, Molotov cocktails and machetes, saying "We will offer [our] lives as collateral to prove our commitment to our God," and "We shall be Warriors who inflict horrible numbers of casualties upon the enemies," and "If it gets down to the machete, we will cut them to shreds."[272] He has a Ph.D. from a diploma mill and an ordination from an ordination mill.[273] He pled guilty on May 15, 2015.[274]
June 17, 2015: Fareed Mumuni, 21 of Staten Island and Munther Omar Saleh, 20 of Queens arrested for allegedly trying to conspire to assist ISIS in committing an attack in the New York area. Both suspects allegedly charged at law enforcement trying to arrest them with a knife.[275]
July 3–5, 2015: FBI Director James Comey said his agency disrupted multiple July 4 weekend terror plots.[276]
July 13, 2015: Alexander Ciccolo, 23, of Adams, Massachusetts, the son of a Boston Police Captain, is arrested in a plot to attack a state college and broadcast executions of students on the internet. The suspect, who was turned in by his father, was said to be inspired by ISIS and reportedly characterized America as "Satan" and "disgusting". Ciccolo had guns and possible bomb making equipment.[277]
August 22, 2015: Kevin Norton, 18, and James Stumbo, 27 of Iowa were arrested in a plot to shoot up the 2015 Pokémon World Championships. The two posted status updates and images of their weaponry on social media, which were noticed by various Pokémon fans who treated them as supposed threats against the tournament. The two were arrested on charges of unlicensed possession of firearms and ammunition.[278] The weapons recovered were a recently purchased Remingtonshotgun, an AR-15, a hunting knife and several hundred rounds of ammunition.[279][280][281]
November 11, 2015: Robert Curtis Doyle, Ronald Beasley Chaney III and Charles Daniel Halderman from Virginia were arrested trying to buy weapons and explosives from an undercover agent, The attackers plot assault and kill a silver and coin dealer and use the money to finance a ring of attacks against black churches and synagogues.[282][283][284] In June 2016, Ronald Chaney was sentenced to 105 months in prison, Robert Curtis Doyle to 17 ½ years and Charles Halrderman was sentenced the following month to 7 years.[285][286]
October 14, 2016: Curtis Wayne Allen, 49; Patrick Eugene Stein, 47; and Gavin Wayne Wright, 49 are arrested in Garden City, Kansas after an eight month long investigation conducted by the FBI finds that the men were plotting to use explosives to kill an estimated 120 persons at an apartment complex inhabited by Somali immigrants. The men claimed allegiance to a far right nationalist group called "The Crusaders".[287] Stein was sentenced to 30 years, Wright to 26 years, and Allen to 25 years for conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.[288]
March 2020: Timothy Wilson, a member of the Atomwaffen Division was planning on bombing a COVID-19 hospital with a car bomb. He was killed in a shootout with the FBI on the March 24.[289]
January 2024: Two brothers from Astoria, Queens, Andrew and Angelo Hatziagelis, were arrested and charged on over 130 counts after allegedly hoarding explosives and ghost guns and maintaining a “hit list” that targeted celebrities and authority figures. The brothers, who police described as having “evil intent” and “anti-society” views with an admiration for Charles Manson, reportedly had eight fully operable bombs.[290]
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Keerdoja, Eileen (November 8, 1976). "Squeaky and Sara Jane". Newsweek. Archived from the original on January 18, 2007. Retrieved January 3, 2007.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
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Wilmington, North Carolina
Mims, Florida
Jackson, Mississippi
Birmingham, Alabama
