East Bay man accused of plot to kill thousands

Bombs, poisoning part of plan, prosecutors say

An East Bay man indicted on terrorismrelated charges last week told an undercover FBI agent he was planning to kill 10,000 people in the Bay Area with bombs and cocaine laced with rat poison before fleeing the country and joining the Islamic State, prosecutors said.

Amer Alhaggagi, 22, met with an undercover agent twice, pointing out potential targets while discussing plans to bomb the UC Berkeley campus, Assistant U.S. Attorney S. Waqar Hasib told a federal judge in Oakland during a Dec. 14 hearing, according to an audio recording unsealed this week.

But family members and an attorney for the defendant, who was indicted Friday, said his actions have been misconstrued. They characterized interactions between Alhaggagi and federal authorities as loose boasts and empty online chatter involving a “peaceful and kind” young man who loves his country.

“I think it is a case of a young guy who is completely culturally American, and who loves the country, being curious and naive and immature,” said defense attorney Mary McNamara.

Alhaggagi was born in Lodi, graduated from Berkeley High School and lived in West Oakland. He was a security guard with a California

state license, but it’s unclear whether he was working in that field. He spent seven years of his childhood in his family’s homeland of Yemen, according to the government.

Alhaggagi was charged Friday with attempting to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, months after he was first arrested in November on identity-theft charges related to online orders of clothing.

According to prosecutors, Alhaggagi had communicated in chat rooms with an undercover agent over several days between July 24 and Nov. 29 of last year, detailing plans to attack San Francisco and Berkeley.

“The whole Bay Area is going to be up in flames. My ideas are genius. Lmao,” Alhaggagi allegedly wrote, using Internet slang for “Laughing my ass off.”

Authorities said Alhaggagi’s purported goal was to kill 10,000 people with bombs in San Francisco’s Chinatown, downtown and Mission District. He focused on gay clubs in the city, Hasib said.

“I live close to San Francisco, that’s like the gay capital of the world,” Hasib said in court, reading from Alhaggagi’s alleged chats. “I’m going to handle them right lol. I’m going to place a bomb in a gay club. By God, I’m going to tear up the city.”

Prosecutors said they found a bomb-making manual on Alhaggagi’s computer with instructions in Arabic on how to construct crude explosives. Alhaggagi also said he was planning to mix strychnine with cocaine and distribute the lethal drugs in nightclubs in the Bay Area, officials said.

“On the first day, I’m pretty sure I can get up to 20,” Alhaggagi allegedly wrote. “On Halloween, I could get about 100 more, and then on New Year’s ... countless.”

Prosecutors said Alhaggagi told the undercover agent online that he had applied to be a police officer in the Bay Area so he could acquire weapons for an attack, allowing the FBI to identify him from an application he submitted to the Oakland Police Department.

His final act, Alhaggagi told the undercover agent, would be to kill his non-Muslim friends before fleeing to Mexico and then on to the Middle East to join the Islamic State, Hasib said.

“Do you think I should kill my non-believer friends? Alhaggagi allegedly asked. “That’s like sending a statement that no one is safe. I’ll just call them over, tie them up and execute them.”

An undercover agent posing as an Islamic State sympathizer and bomb expert from Salt Lake City met with Alhaggagi on July 29 in Oakland, during which the defendant pointed out locations for terrorist attacks, Hasib said.

Alhaggagi said he planned to set fires in Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley and pointed out buildings at the UC Berkeley campus where he would plant backpack bombs, officials said.

The two met again in midAugust, with Alhaggagi bringing three backpacks to a storage locker for later use in an attack, Hasib said.

Shortly after the last meeting, though, Alhaggagi broke off communications with the undercover agents. He remained under surveillance until he was arrested Nov. 28 for allegedly attempting to purchase clothing online with a fraudulent credit card and is being held without bail.

Alhaggagi’s family members, who declined interview requests, said in a statement they were “shocked” to learn of the accusations against the young man.

“Amer is not and has never been radicalized in any way,” the family said. “He grew up in this country and loves it here. He is peaceful and kind. He was very young and immature when he got involved in the online conversations that are the basis for these accusations.

“He did not think those conversation were serious,” the statement said, “and he never had any intent to harm anyone. We love him and continue to fully support him.”