US Arrests NYC College Student for ‘ISIS-Inspired’ Plot Because He Read About Bombs

20-Year-Old Had Been Under Surveillance for Some Time

The latest in an ever-growing array of flimsy arrests based on even flimsier evidence, federal officials have revealed that over the weekend they arrested 20-year-old college student Munther Saleh and are charging him with “plotting to set off a pressure cooker bomb,” even though he does not appear to have been in possession of explosives, or a pressure cooker for that matter.

Saleh was arrested Saturday, after three months of intense surveillance, when he “took several steps” toward an unmarked police car that was spying on him, a move officials later termed as “lunging at law enforcement.”

The sum total of the evidence against Saleh was a Tweet in which he expressed concern al-Qaeda was getting too moderate. He had also reportedly done internet searches about pressure cooker bombs and read an article which warns it is unIslamic to kill innocent people.

Saleh denied being pro-ISIS, though officials are still presenting him as an ISIS sympathizer, and his arrest as the foiling of a potential ISIS-inspired plot, irrespective of the lack of actual stuff involved in a plot. He was also accused of having pictures of New York City on his computer, which since he lives there wouldn’t seem so shocking.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.