Details of the government’s case against the alleged would-be Springfield, Illinois, federal courthouse bomber emerged March 7 in a motion seeking to bar the man from using an entrapment defense.
The suspect allegedly proposed using two bombs — the second to kill emergency responders — and more than once expressed his willingness to die a martyr, the prosecution motion said.The man allegedly bought electronics components after being told Al Qaida would use them to kill U.S. soldiers and said he would leave the country after the bombing with the hope of returning in a couple of years to “do it again.”
The motion, filed March 7 in U.S. Court in East St. Louis, indicates the government’s evidence includes video and audio recordings of the suspect, 30, planning and carrying out what he thought would be the destruction of the Paul Findley Federal Building in Springfield on September 23, 2009.
The suspect was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against U.S. property and with attempting to murder a federal officer or employee.
The government alleges the man thought he was detonating a van loaded with a ton of explosives parked near the federal courthouse.
He did not know he was working with the FBI and not al-Qaida agents, and the van contained no real explosives.