Bangladeshi Planned Attack on New Yorkers, Arrested Thursday

One more ‘new American’ Islamic terrorist wannabe would probably not be worth writing about, but because I’ve been telling you about Bangladeshi Muslims lately, first as illegal aliens at the southern border and then as big ‘winners’ in the past of the Diversity Visa Lottery, this man’s nationality jumped out at me when I heard it on the news yesterday.
As a legal permanent resident from Bangladesh he is one of more than 50,000 of his fellow countrymen who have come to live in the US in recent years.
We know it is at least 50,000 because Bangladesh citizens are no longer eligible for the lottery because that number (and more!) entered the US in the previous five years.

Here is the Washington Post version of the news.  Note that the WaPo wants to make it very clear that he was kind of goofy and was plotting with an undercover government agent (perhaps entrapping the poor goofy kid).

New York man accused of plotting Times Square attack, illegally purchasing weapons

Federal authorities have arrested a New York man who they allege praised terrorist organizations and plotted an attack in Times Square, according to charging papers filed Friday.

 
Ashiqul Alam — a 22-year-old Bangladeshi citizen and lawful permanent U.S. resident who lived in Queens — did not know he was scheming with undercover government agents, and he was taken into custody Thursday after he and one of the agents bought weapons to use in a possible attack, according to the charging papers. He is charged in federal court in Brooklyn with a weapons offense, because the guns had their serial numbers removed.
As far back as August 2018, Alam had been planning with an undercover law enforcement agent — professing his admiration for the Islamic State and the deceased al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and musing about carrying out attacks of his own, according to the charging papers. He talked of using a suicide vest in New York City’s Times Square or in Washington, D.C., or perhaps obtaining an AR-15 to kill law enforcement officers, according to the papers.
Alam and the undercover agent conducted reconnaissance in Times Square, and in early 2019, they traveled to a shooting range in Pennsylvania, according to the papers.
“I want to die fighting, man,” Alam told the undercover agent, according to the papers.

 
Here we go, get ready for the defense of the goofy kid!

The charging papers seem to suggest Alam’s ambitions exceeded his abilities and means, and he worried about being perceived as hapless. In April 2019, for example, when the undercover agent asked Alam about an upcoming eye surgery he had scheduled, Alam responded while laughing, “Let’s say we are in an attack, right, say that my glasses fall off. What if I accidentally shoot you?” . . . Imagine what the news channel would call me. The ‘Looney Tunes Terrorist’ or the ‘Blind Terrorist,’” according to the papers.

My first thought on his eye surgery was this—-so did US taxpayers foot the bill for it?
More here.
See also the New York Post (photo) which mentions he wanted to kill politicians in New York and Washington too!
He isn’t alone, a fellow Bangladeshi new American tried to kill New Yorkers in the subway in 2017.
Ho hum, we invite them to America, give them a shot at a good life, even a college education (Alam is a senior at John Jay College of Criminal Justice!) and eye surgery, and they still want to kill Americans for Allah (go figure!).