Just 2 Seconds (63 page)

756.
Date: November 5, 1999
Target: Judges of Jefferson County, Colorado
Location: Tampa, Florida
Details: FBI agents found materials to make a deadly agent, while searching the home of a man arrested for threatening judges. The man had inert ingredients to make ricin, a highly toxic, powdery substance derived from castor beans or rosary peas. He also had test tubes and beakers. The man had reportedly sent a rambling, ten-page note to a Colorado Court of Appeals judge in which he threatened to wage biological warfare on Colorado's Jefferson County justice center. One county judge was mentioned by name, and the man referred to the possible use of ricin. He said he would "be able to do with a briefcase what it took Timothy McVeigh a truckload of explosives to do in Oklahoma City," a reference to the 1995 bombing that killed 168 people. An FBI-led anti-terrorism task force arrested the man.

757.
Date: November 25, 1999
Target: President Mohammad Khatami
Location: Tehran, Iran
Details: Intelligence officials arrested 34 members of a religious extremist group, thwarting plans to assassinate Khatami and other top officials. The group stole weapons and ammunition from militia bases and created overseas networks to provide logistical and financial support for its campaign. Assassination targets included Khatami, former President Rafsanjani, former Tehran judiciary head Ali Razini, and former judiciary head Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi. Razini was badly wounded in a failed assassination attempt in January, and a bystander was killed, with four others wounded.

758.
Date: August 1, 2000
Target: Judge Ricardo Farias and Judge Alberto Banos
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Details: A police bomb unit found two package bombs near a courtroom where a prison corruption case was being tried. One package was found outside the courtroom of Judge Farias, who was hearing the case with Banos. During the investigation, a member of a crime ring confessed to Banos he had been released from prison in order to assassinate him.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

759.
Date: September 7, 2000
Target: Judge Baltasar Garzon
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Details: Armed Basque ETA terrorists planned to kill Garzon, but police received a tip and prevented the attack.

760.
Date: September 20, 2000
Target: Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo
Location: Grozny, Chechnya
Details: Russian security forces foiled several attempts to kill Rushailo during his visit to Chechnya. Explosive devices were found in buildings where he was set to travel, and defused by police.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

761.
Date: October 5, 2000
Target: Tourism Minister S.B. Semasinghe
Location: Medawachchiya, Sri Lanka
Details: Semasinghe had just left an election rally when police approached a suspicious looking rally attendee. The man was a suicide bomber and detonated the device when police attempted to frisk him. The blast killed 10 and injured more than 50.

762.
Date: October 7, 2000
Target: Spanish Army Officer
Location: Cadiz, Spain
Details: While driving on the highway, the army officer heard a strange noise coming from under his seat, and found a bomb stuffed underneath it. Explosives experts carried out a controlled detonation of the device. The Basque separatist group ETA was blamed.

763.
Date: October 19, 2000
Target: Singing group 'N Sync
Location: Gallatin, Tennessee
Details: The mother of a teenage boy became suspicious of her son's behavior and searched his room. She found a folder entitled "Operation Death Strike," which contained a plan to carry out an attack on the 'N Sync band members. The plan included robbing a Nashville gun store to obtain weapons, then driving to Atlanta where the band was scheduled to appear. Police picked up the boy and held him for psychiatric evaluation.

764.
Date: November 24, 2000
Target: Former Town Councilor Miguel Angel Ruiz de Langarica
Location: Pamplona, Spain
Details: Police thwarted an assassination attempt by the Basque separatist group ETA, arresting a gunman who was reportedly about to carry out the attack. A second suspect managed to escape.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

765.
Date: January 4, 2001
Target: Chief Administrator Akhmed Kadyrov
Location: Bachi-Yurt, Chechnya
Details: Kadyrov's bodyguards, in a lead vehicle for his motorcade, noticed a suspicious mound on the side of the road. They stopped the vehicles, approached the mound, found two armed men hiding under the dirt, and killed them in a firefight. Farther along the road, the bodyguards found an anti-tank mine that the attackers apparently intended to trigger with electrical cables.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

766.
Date: March 2001
Target: Governor Gary Locke
Location: Olympia, Washington
Details: An investigation on James D. Brailey Jr. began in March 2001 when an informant told FBI officials that Brailey planned to kill Locke, a Chinese-American. Brailey was a member of the Jural Society, a loosely organized group whose members oppose state and federal government. The society holds its own secret elections for state office, and in 1998 elected Brailey as "governor of Washington." Brailey was arrested for federal weapons violations on January 16, 2003.

767.
Date: June 20, 2001
Target: President George W. Bush
Location: Genoa, Italy
Details: Al-Qaeda terrorists reportedly plotted to assassinate Bush during his attendance at the G-8 Summit. The plot involved crashing small remote-controlled airplanes loaded with explosives into the compound. Security at the summit was very tight, airspace over the event was closed, and agents with anti-aircraft missiles were stationed around the site.

768.
Date: October 2001
Target: Former President Bill Clinton
Location: Harlem, New York
Details: Fifteen vials containing an unknown substance arrived in a package at Clinton's office in Harlem. The package was addressed to Clinton at the White House, where it went through the standard X-ray process before it was forwarded to Clinton's office. The package was postmarked in Japan, and included a note written in Japanese on rice paper. Tests revealed that two of the vials contained salmonella, although it was not cultured and the result of fermentation. Clinton did not open the package and no one was exposed.

769.
Date: December 6, 2001
Target: President George W. Bush
Location: Washington, D.C.
Details: Secret Service officers noticed a man acting in a suspicious manner outside the Southwest Gate of the White House, patted him down, and found a large knife. The man then led officers to his Dodge pickup truck with Idaho license plates parked across from the U.S. Treasury Building. Inside the truck, officers found an assault rifle on the front seat, another rifle with a scope, a bullet-resistant vest, a Kevlar helmet, and a handgun. The man was taken into custody and charged.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

770.
Date: February 28, 2002
Target: Public officials
Location: Kalispell, Montana
Details: A militia group called Project Seven planned to kill enough judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers to force the state to activate the National Guard, and then kill enough National Guard troops to catch the federal government's attention. The group had collected intelligence files on the targeted officials and their families. The files were found, along with weapons, ammunition, survival equipment, booby traps, body armor, explosives, and bomb-making equipment, when police arrested the ringleader after an armed standoff that lasted seven hours. The group's leader had tried to fake his death and go into hiding after a judge ordered him to stand trial for assaulting an officer and obstructing a police officer in November 2001. An informant led police to his safe house.

771.
Date: April 27, 2002
Target: President Pervez Musharraf
Location: Karachi, Pakistan
Details: Five Islamic militants were arrested for plotting to kill Musharraf with assault rifles and hand grenades, at a ceremony to lay the foundation stone for the Lyari Expressway outside a naval base. The plan went awry when Musharraf showed up three hours late for the event. In another case, three militants planned to kill Musharraf with a car bomb on April 26. When that plan was aborted, the same explosives-packed vehicle was detonated outside the U.S. Consulate on June 14, killing 12 Pakistanis.

772.
Date: May 14, 2002
Target: Governor Jane Hull and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Details: A career criminal, a prison chaplain, and a sex offender were arrested and accused of hatching a bizarre jailhouse plot to kill Hull and Arpaio. The plan involved kidnapping Hull and locking her in a trunk until she agreed to sign a pardon that would release one of the plotters from jail. Then they planned to kill and bury her. The scheme also involved paying a sniper $100,000 to shoot Arpaio in retaliation for harsh jail conditions. The plot was foiled when another jail inmate tipped off police. The men were arrested after an undercover sheriff's deputy, posing as a hit man, met the men and recorded their incriminating conversations.