The Federal Reserve may not have been his first choice of a target.
According to a law enforcement official, the Bangladeshi man who's accused of trying to bomb the New York office of the Federal Reserve yesterday had earlier considered targeting President Barack Obama and the New York Stock Exchange.
The official says the possible attack on Obama never got beyond the discussion stage.
FBI agents grabbed 21-year-old Quazi Nafis after he allegedly made several attempts to blow up a fake 1,000-pound bomb inside a vehicle parked next to the Federal Reserve yesterday in lower Manhattan. He appeared later in the day in federal court, and was ordered held without bail.
According to a criminal complaint, Nafis had sought assurances from one undercover agent -- who was posing as an al-Qaida contact -- that the terror group would support what he was doing.
There's no allegation that he actually received training or direction from al-Qaida.
Nafis arrived in the country in January on a student visa, and studied for one semester in Missouri.
His father, a banker in Bangladesh, is expressing disbelief over the charges, saying his son is "very gentle and devoted to his studies."
But a spokesman for a university he attended there says Nafis was a terrible student who eventually stopped showing up. (AP)
