Alleged terror plot aimed at 911 anniversary foiled

A Florida man is charged with plotting to set off an explosion at a 9/11 event. The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested 20-year-old Joshua Ryne Goldberg Thursday in Florida. Prosecutors say he told an online informant how to make the bomb he wanted.
Investigators originally thought the suspect was recruiting people to carry out attacks from a location in Australia, reports CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues.
It turns out Goldberg was in the U.S., in a home near Jacksonville, where he was taken into custody. He shares the home in Orange Park with his parents.
According to court documents, he had set his sights on bombing a 9/11 memorial event -- the Kansas City Stair Climb.
Investigators said he was communicating online with someone he thought was sympathetic to his cause but who was actually an FBI informant, and the online conversations were being monitored. According to investigators, Goldberg encouraged the informant to build a pressure cooker bomb similar to what was used in the Boston Marathon bombing.
He allegedly wrote, "Put as much sharp stuff as you can in there" and "use shards of metal and nails."
It was enough for police to make the arrest.
If convicted, Goldberg could get up to 20 years behind bars.
According to court documents, online, Goldberg presented himself as a Muslim living in Australia who supported ISIS. But ultimately, a bomb was never built and Goldberg was doing his planning using his mother's computer at the family home.

US Marks 14th Anniversary of September 11 Attacks

The United States marks the 14th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks on Friday.

Observances are planned across the country in remembrance of the day when four airplanes carried out suicide attacks on the U.S.  Two of the planes were flown into the World Trade Center in New York, another hit the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, before reaching its likely target of Washington.

Families of victims in New York will gather Friday for a tolling of bells and the reading of the names of those killed in the terrorist attack.

Russia lifts UN hold on Syria chemical attacks probe: diplomats

UNITED NATIONS, United States: Russia has lifted its objections to a UN investigation into chemical attacks in Syria, clearing the way for the probe to begin, diplomats said Thursday.
The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution August 7 approving a joint investigation by the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had followed up by proposing that the mission be entrusted to three independent experts, and asked the Security Council for the go ahead to recruit them.
But Russia, which heads the council in September, delayed in responding.
According to diplomats, Moscow wanted guarantees on several points, notably that the sovereignty of its Syrian ally would be respected and on the mission's financing.
On Wednesday, Ban addressed a letter to Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin giving assurances that the United Nations would "expeditiously consult" with Damascus on an agreement governing how the mission will function and that there be "reasonable grounds" for its demands for access.
The Syrian government is supposed to cooperate fully with the investigators.
In a statement Thursday, Ban said he would "without delay, undertake all steps, measures and arrangements necessary for the speedy establishment and full functioning of the (joint investigative mechanism)".
He did not say when the investigation would begin, but called "on all parties in the Syrian Arab Republic to cooperate fully".
The Russians also wanted the investigators to weigh in on the use of chemical weapons in Iraq by Islamic State militants. But that would require a new resolution and the agreement of the Iraqi government.
IS is suspected of having attacked Kurdish fighters with sarin gas last month in Iraq and in northern Syria.
The United States, Britain and France accuse the Syrian army of carrying out chemical attacks, including several with chlorine gas.
Russia, which has always protected its Syrian ally from its permanent, veto-wielding seat on the Security Council, contends there is no proof against Syria.
Investigators will be charged with determining who is responsible for the attacks, which could lead to their being sanctioned by the Security Council. But any such sanctions would require a new resolution, which Russia could veto. – AFP

Florida man plotted Sept. 11 attack in Kansas City, FBI says

Almost a decade-and-a-half after the Sept. 11 attacks, the anniversary has receded in the minds of many.

Not so for one man in Florida, authorities say. A criminal complaint filed in federal court alleges that Joshua Ryne Goldberg, a 20-year-old living with his parents in Jacksonville, posed as an Australian jihadist and encouraged an attack in Kansas City on Friday — the 14th anniversary of Sept. 11. He was charged with distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction.

“Hopefully there will be some jihad on the anniversary of 9/11,” Goldberg reportedly told an FBI informant in a direct message.

How Goldberg allegedly came to be radicalized — and adopt the personality of an extremist on the other side of the world — is not clear. But the complaint includes quite disturbing,lengthy exchanges between Goldberg, who authorities said went online under variations of the handle “AusWitness,” and the informant, identified only as “CHS.”

The FBI became interested in AusWitness after someone using that name claimed responsibility for the attack at a “prophet Muhammad cartoon contest” in Garland, Tex., in May on a Web site.

[Pamela Geller, the incendiary organizer of Texas “prophet Muhammad cartoon contest”]

“You might know me for inspiring the attacks in Garland … where two