No attempt made to entrap potential Oregon Islamic bomber: FBI

WASHINGTON - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has dismissed speculation that FBI agents entrapped potential Oregon bomber Mohamed Osman Mohamud.

In comments to reporters, the Christian Science Monitor quoted Holder, as saying that he’d been monitoring the investigation from the start.

“I am confident that there is no entrapment here and no entrapment claim will be found to be successful,” he said.

The comments came as 19-year-old Mohamed Osman Mohamud of Corvallis, Oregon, made his first appearance in federal court in Portland.

He pleaded not guilty to a grand jury indictment returned earlier Monday.

The indictment stems from a 15-month undercover investigation in which federal agents posed as Islamic militants willing to conduct indiscriminate terror attacks within the US.nder surveillance since 2009

According to court documents, the surveillance began in August 2009. Federal agents had apparently identified Mohamud as a potential Al Qaeda recruit by monitoring e-mail between Mohamud and an unidentified individual in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkwa Province, previously known as the Northwest Frontier Province.

Between July 2010 and Nov. 26, the undercover agents met eight times with Mohamud to plan a car bomb attack in downtown Portland.

In an apparent effort to address potential concerns about entrapment, an undercover agent asked Mohamud what he was willing to do for the Islamic cause.

According to court documents, the agent offered five options from praying five times a day, to raising money, to carrying out a suicide mission.

Mohamud told the undercover agent that he wanted to become “operational.” But he added that he did not know how and would need training.

All eight of the undercover meetings were recorded and/or videotaped. But, according to court documents, the audio recorder malfunctioned during that first meeting.

To defeat an entrapment claim, prosecutors must be able to show that Mohamud was willing to engage in the illegal conduct without the support and encouragement of the undercover agents. (ANI)