FBI: Florida Man Planned 9/11-Related Attack

A 20-year-old Florida man has been arrested on federal terrorism charges, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The arrest of Joshua Ryne Goldberg of Orange Park was announced Thursday.

The justice department says Goldberg used the Internet to communicate with a person law enforcement used as a “Confidential Human Source.”

“Between the months of July and September 2015, Goldberg distributed information to the CHS on how to manufacture a bomb,” a justice department media release stated. “He instructed the CHS to make a pressure cooker bomb and fill it with nails, metal, and other items dipped in rat poison. Goldberg instructed the CHS to place the bomb at an upcoming memorial in Kansas City, Missouri that was commemorating the September 11, 2001 attacks.”

Had it been made, the bomb would have been similar to the ones used during the Boston Marathon two years ago. That attack left 264 people injured and three people dead.

Goldberg, the federal complaint states, also claims responsibility for inspiring the June attack in Garland, Texas, that left two people dead. That attack was staged because the Muslim Prophet Mohammad was going to be depicted at a cartoon convention there.

The 14th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York City, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania is Friday. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks.

The Florida case is being investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, the release said.

Goldberg made his first appearance in federal court Thursday in Jacksonville. The outcome of that hearing is not yet known.

The full complaint can be read here.

Image via Shutterstock