CRISISBOOM

A 20-year-old Saudi student arrested in Texas on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack with explosive chemicals had looked at New York City as a possible target.

Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, attending college near Lubbock, Texas, was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

“It is war … until the infidels leave defeated,” the chemical engineering student wrote in online postings.

Federal prosecutors said he had researched online how to construct an improvised explosive device using several chemicals as ingredients.

Court papers said Aldawsari had been researching New York City, including viewing real-time traffic cameras online that showed the city.

The FBI said he also had looked up the Dallas home of former President George W. Bush.

Federal authorities said Aldawsari’s diary indicated the young man had been plotting an attack for years and obtained a scholarship so he could come directly to the United States to carry out jihad.

The Justice Department said he purchased explosive chemicals over the internet as part of a plan to hide bomb materials inside dolls and baby carriages. He had also considered dams in Colorado and California as possible targets.

One chemical company, Carolina Biological Supply of Burlington, N.C., reported suspicious purchases by Aldawsari to the FBI on Feb. 1.

Within weeks, federal agents had traced his other online purchases, discovered extremist posts he made on the Internet and secretly searched his apartment, computer and e-mail accounts and read his diary, according to court records.

Aldawsari, who was legally in the U.S. on a student visa, was expected to appear in federal court on Friday.

He was charged Thursday with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Aldawsari entered the U.S. in October 2008 from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to study chemical engineering at Texas Tech University, then transferred earlier this year to nearby South Plains College.

The terrorism case against Aldawsari was significant because it demonstrated that radicalized foreigners can live quietly in the U.S. heartland without raising suspicions from neighbors, classmates, teachers or others. But it also showed how quickly U.S. law enforcement can move when tipped that a terrorist plot may be unfolding.

The White House said President Barack Obama was notified about the plot prior to Aldawsari’s arrest Wednesday.

“This arrest once again underscores the necessity of remaining vigilant against terrorism here and abroad,” White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said in a statement Thursday.