US law enforcement on Wednesday arrested a homeless Florida man and charged him with plotting to bomb the New York Stock Exchange after an undercover employee recorded him saying, "I feel like Bin Laden," federal officials allege.
The suspect, Harun Abdul-Malik Yener, took steps to set off a bomb outside the stock exchange on Wall Street in lower Manhattan, according to an FBI affidavit.
The affidavit was filed in support of a criminal complaint charging Yener with attempting to damage or destroy a building used in interstate commerce by means of an explosive.
Yener has been assigned a federal public defender in the Southern District of Florida whose office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for a statement regarding his defense.
Yener's motives remained unclear. The FBI said that besides making the comment about Osama bin Laden, the former al Qaeda leader and mastermind of the 2001 attacks on the United States, Yener also described an attempt to join right-wing militias and expressed general anti-government sentiment, saying, "This country is due for a revolution."