DALLAS -- The Jordanian teenager accused of trying to blow up a Dallas skyscraper created a seven-minute video that he believed would be given to 9-11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, an FBI special agent testified during a probable cause hearing Monday.
Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, 19, is being held on a charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in connection with a planned Sept. 24 terror strike on the 60-story Fountain Place.
Federal Magistrate Irma C. Ramirez ruled after the 40-minute hearing that there was sufficient evidence to hold Smadi for further proceedings.
The lone witness was FBI Supervisory Special Agent Thomas D. Petrowski, who runs the counterterrorism squad at the Dallas office of the FBI.
Petrowski said the FBI first became aware of Smadi in January 2009 among a group of extremists online.
Smadi landed on the FBI’s radar, Petrowski testified, because “he was here on U.S. soil and wished to carry out an attack that lacked only the tools.”
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