Excerpts from KMBC.com:
A 20-year-old Florida man has been arrested on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack using explosives at a Kansas City 9/11 memorial event this weekend.The FBI raided Joshua Ryne Goldberg’s home near Jacksonville and took him into custody. He’s accused of sending instructions on how to make a pressure cooker bomb. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison.
According to court documents, the target was Sunday’s Kansas City Stair Climb, a 9/11 memorial event [that] is very popular with firefighters who take part or watch in honor of the firefighters killed during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Goldberg is accused of telling a confidential informant [what to pack into a pressure cooker bomb, hoping to kill as many people as possible. The informant told Goldberg that Kansas City was within close driving distance and the two men discussed the Stair Climb as a potential target.
“Have you decided what kind of attack to carry out on 9/11?” he asked. “We could make pipe bombs and detonate them at a large public event.”
“It’s very troubling and very disturbing,” said retired FBI agent Michael Tabman, who read over the criminal complaint.
He said he believes the FBI directed the informant to mislead Goldberg into thinking he would participate.
According to the complaint, Goldberg suggested the informant put the backpack near the crowd. Tabman said there’s a science to these sorts of conversations.
“They do it in such a way to keep the subject engaged so he doesn’t go elsewhere looking for someone else that we may not know about,” Tabman said.
He said timing is everything, which is why agents moved in and arrested Goldberg at the home he shared with his parents and siblings.
“If we didn’t get control of it, he might have gone to someone else that we didn’t know about, and might have gotten someone who had the wherewithal to pull it off,” Tabman said.
Tabman said he believes the Stair Climb should absolutely go on. Police are expected to have a large presence at Sunday’s event.
