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A US SOLDIER has been arrested after sharing bomb-making instructions and discussing bombing the headquarters of a national television network, the US Department of Justice said.
Jarrett Smith (24) an army private assigned to Fort Riley in Kansas was charged in federal court in Topeka, Kansas, with one count of distributing information related to explosives, US Attorney Stephen McAllister said in a statement.
Along with sharing bomb-making instructions in a Facebook group chat, Smith discussed plans to attack a major TV news network using a car bomb and target members of the leftist group Antifa, the FBI said. The network was not identified in court documents.
Smith also expressed an interest in traveling to Ukraine to fight with a far-right paramilitary group there, the Azov Battalion, according to the FBI.
During his first court appearance on Monday, the magistrate ordered he remain in custody pending a detention hearing on Thursday.
His Facebook chats include conversations with another American who fought with a separate far right group in Ukraine from 2017-2019, the FBI said.
In an interview before his arrest, Smith told investigators he knows how to make improvised explosive devices and that he routinely provides instruction on building them.
He stated he did this to cause “chaos”. He said if chaos results in the death of people as a result of information he provided, it would not affect him, according to the complaint.
In one exchange on Friday with an FBI undercover agent on the encrypted messaging service Telegram, Smith discussed using various household chemicals and commonly available equipment to make a bomb.
“That’s the best way to fight people,” Smith is quoted in the complaint as writing. “Making AK-47s out of expensive parts is cool, but imagine [...] if you were going to Walmart instead of gun store to buy weapons.”
During that same exchange, Smith allegedly sent the agent instructions for building a “Middle East style bomb” that if big enough could destroy U.S. military vehicles. An FBI bomb technician later determined the specific instructions could have constructed a viable device.
Smith also suggested targeting Democrat party presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke during a conversation with an FBI undercover informant, the FBI said.
O’Rourke’s campaign spokeswoman Aleigha Cavalier said they are grateful to the FBI for their diligence in handling this case and for their work to keep the country safe in the face of domestic terror threats.
“We take any threat like this very seriously, and our team is in direct contact with the FBI regarding this case,” Cavalier said. “This isn’t about any one person or one campaign, and we won’t let this scare us or cause us to back down in fighting for what’s right.”
According to the justice department, Smith joined the army in June 2017 and was stationed at Fort Riley since July 2019.
If convicted, Smith could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
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Always questions questions questions, but never any answers!
@Colette Kearns: It’s a hospital, the chances of a virus being there is quite high. I think that answers the question
They’re bacteria?
@Timmy:
Eh, no, hospitals being places where bacteria are likely to be found does not answer why they cut the cleaning budget.
@Timmy: TIMMY!
@Timmy: I also think it answers the question, albeit in a superficial and practically inept fashion. The idea in the hospital is to not endanger the patients (or staff) any further. That specifically includes maintaining the highest of hygiene standards, the hospital failed to do that and cutting the cleaning regime was obviously a factor in that.
@Jon Snow: Livin’ a lie, TIMMY!
Of all the things to be cut in a hospital, hygiene!!! I’m not a doctor, but is cleanliness not vitally important in a hospital of all places??
Never happened when the nuns were in charge, the hospitals were always spick and span.
Cutting costs on cleaning and putting people’s lives in danger. Like why not just reduce the boards massive wage bill instead.
@Darren Cooney: you will probably find the Board are all unpaid volunteers.
Lowest bid cleaning contractors???? Hospitals need qualified in-house cleaning staff 24.7
The answer lies in the fact that there’s an antibiotic culture in this country.
@Darren Bates: No… it doesn’t. In the case of these superbugs it’s more to do with an antibiotic problem… in India.
“Questions need to be asked”
The favourite go to line of many a politician, knowing only too well it’ll all be forgotten and buried in a few days/weeks.
Ridiculous to cut the budget. But very misleading article- cleaning or lack there of does not contribute to carbarpenem resistance, the use of that antibiotic does.
The day of drug resistant staph and enterococcus is fast approaching.
@George Beckett: to be infected by the bacterium requires the bacterium to be presence.
The probability of the presence of the bacterium is increased by reduction in cleaning.
Prevention of infection is better than cure, especially in the case of antibiotuc resistance fir the bacterium.
@George Beckett: Eh… the day is here? It’s called MRSA and CRE or VRE. Nobody is disputing how resistance evoloution happens they’re disputing that proper measures aren’t taken to try and prevent the acquisition of these bugs.
@George Beckett:
Yes but it can be controlled by correct aseptic methodology which include cleaning regimes which is lacking in this case
No accountability,no consequences.
“Penny wise, Pound foolish” the mantra of government.
“Penny wise, Pound foolish” the mantra of government.
It’s been widely reported in the past that this hospital has had issues with bullying and it’s ‘management style’, particularly in it’s Emergency Department, resulting in consultants there becoming whistleblowers. I’ve heard whispers that little has changed, the hospital management hire highly qualified staff to help enact changes. But these are consequently bullied and unable to do their job – a job which had been earmarked for another member of staff belonging to a clique within the hospital. Unwilling to admit they have a problem with bullying, the management then become a reluctant party to it.
The lunatics are running this particular asylum, and have been for quite some time, so it should be no surprise when some questionable decisions are made, but just how much latitude are they going to be given before an adult steps in and takes control is the real question. This isn’t the first time patients lives have been put in danger, or even lost in Tallaght Hospital, particularly in it’s Emergency Department, the issues aren’t being resolved and appear to be getting worse.
It would help tallaght hospital if they got half decent cleaners to clean wards/toilets/main hospital areas. Place is filthy
Why not get prisoners to clean then hospitals at 4am. Problem solved.
Get the nuns in with the Dosco brushes n Dettol
Who I mean who, decided a hospital (any hospital) only needed to be cleaned 6 out of 7 days?
Find the person and let him go….
have your say