Terrorism in the United States

A common definition of terrorism is the systematic use or threatened use of violence to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change.

Actual attacks

1800-1899

• 1831 August: Nat Turner's slave rebellion led to the killing of over 50 people, half of them were children
• 1856 May 21: Sacking of Lawrence Pro-Slavery forces enter Lawrence, Kansas to disarm residents, destroy the press, and destroy the Free State Hotel. This led to the Pottawatomie Massacre.
• 1856 May 24 and 25: John Brown led the Pottawatomie Massacre killing five people to end slavery
• 1865 April 15: John Wilkes Booth assassinates US President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC.
• 1868 The Ku Klux Klan in Georgia engage in many acts including whipping of black women and assassination of Republican Party members. It is impossible to untangle local vigilante violence from political terrorism by the organized Klan, but it is clear that attacks on blacks became common during 1868. The Freedmen's Bureau agents reported 336 cases of murder or assault with intent to kill on freedmen across the state from January 1 through November 15. In the next three years Black churches and schools were burned, teachers were attacked, and freedpeople who refused to show proper deference were beaten and killed.
• 1868 October 22: James M. Hinds, Arkansas congressional representative, assassinated by a member of the Ku Klux Klan
• 1886 Bomb at Haymarket Square, Chicago during a labor rally kills twelve people.
• 1898 November 10: White supremacists overthrow the government of Wilmington, North Carolina, killing at least 22 African Americans, marking the beginning of the Jim Crow era in North Carolina.

1900-1959

• 1901 September 6: President William McKinley assassinated by Michigan Born Russian-Polish anarchist, Leon Czolgosz, in Buffalo, New York.
• 1910 October 1: The Los Angeles Times building in Los Angeles is destroyed by dynamite, killing 21 workers. The bomb was apparently placed due to the paper's opposition to unionization of its employees; the McNamara Brothers were found guilty.
• ,1915 July 2 Frank Holt, (A.K.A. Eric Muenter) a German professor exploded a bomb in the reception room of the U.S. Senate. The next morning he tried to assassinate J.P. Morgan, Jr., son of the financier, at his home on Long Island. In a letter to the Washington Evening Star published after the blast, Muenter writing under an assumed name,said he hoped that the detonation would “make enough noise to be heard above the voices that clamor for war” J.P. Morgan’s company served as Great Britain’s principal U.S. purchasing agent for munitions and other war supplies
• 1916 July 22: The Preparedness Day bombing kills ten people and injures 40 in San Francisco. The identity of the bombers has never been proven.
• 1920 September 16: The Wall Street bombing occurred in the finance district of New York City, killing 38 and injuring 400.
• 1927 The Ku Klux Klan launch a wave of political terror in Alabama.
• 1927 May 17 Bath School Disaster A series of bombings took place in an elementary school, in Bath Township Michigan which killed 45 people and injured 58. Most of the victims were children in second to sixth grades attending the Bath Consolidated School. The perpetrator was school board member Andrew Kehoe who was upset by a property tax that had been levied to fund the construction of the school building. The bombings constituted the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in U.S. history, claiming more than three times as many victims as the Columbine High School massacre.
• 1933 A Boeing 247 is destroyed in midflight by a nitroglycerin bomb. All seven people aboard are killed. This incident is the first proven case of air sabotage in the history of aviation.
• 1940 - 1956 George Metesky The Mad Bomber placed over 30 bombs in New York City in public places such as Grand Central Station and The Paramount Theatre injuring ten during this period in protest of the local electric utility. He also sent many threatining letters.
• 1951: Harry T. Moore, NAACP state director, and his wife are killed by a bomb planted in their home by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
• 1954 March 1: U.S. Capitol shooting incident. Four Puerto Rican nationalists shoot and wound five members of the United States Congress during an immigration debate.
• 1958 October 12: Bombing of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple Atlanta, Georgia suspicion done by white racists.

1960s

• 1963 June 12: NAACP organizer Medgar Evers shot in front of his home by member of the Ku Klux Klan.
• 1963: 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. A member of the Ku Klux Klan bombed a Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four girls.
• 1964: In the Mississippi civil rights worker murders, 3 civil rights workers are murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi.
• 1965: The Ku Klux Klan murders Viola Liuzzo, a Southern-raised white mother of five who was visiting the South from her home in Detroit to attend a civil rights march. At the time of her murder Liuzzo was transporting Civil Rights Marchers.
• 1966 January 10: Vernon Dahmer dies in the firebombing of his own home at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan.
• 1967 April 3: New York City. The Cuban Mission to the United Nations is bombed; U.N. acting chief suffers non-fatal burns in the bombing. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1967 October 16: New York City. Explosions across from the Cuban, Yugoslav, and Finnish missions to the United Nations. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1968 January 25 : Miami. Package en route to Cuba explodes. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1968 Spring: During a student rebellion at Columbia University members of the Students for a Democratic Society and Student Afro-American Society held a Dean hostage demanding an end to both military research on campus and construction of a gymnasium in nearby Harlem.
• 1968 April 18 : New York City. The Mexican mission to the U.S. is bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1968 April 18 : Miami. The Mexican consul general's residence is damaged by a bomb. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1968 June 21 : New York City. Spanish Nationalist Tourist office is bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1968 July 4 : New York City. The Canadian consulate and the tourist office are bombed. The Australian National Tourist Office is bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1968 July 7 : New York City. The Japanese National Tourist Office is bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1968 July 9 : New York City. The Yugoslav and Cuban missions to the United States are bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1968 July 14 : Chicago. Terrorists bomb the Mexican National Tourist Office. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1968 July 16 : New Jersey. A bomb is found and removed from the Mexican consulate by police. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1968 July 19 : Los Angeles. An Air France ticket office is damaged by a bomb. A Mexican National Tourist Office is bombed. A Shell Oil building is bombed. A Japan Air Lines office is bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1968 July 30 : Los Angeles. Terrorists bomb the British consulate. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1968 August 3 : New York City. The Bank of Tokyo Trust Company is bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1968 August 5 : Los Angeles. Terrorists bomb the British consulate for a second time. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1968 August 8 : Miami. An underwater explosion damages a British vessel near Miami. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1968 August 17 : Miami. A Mexican airline office is bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1968 September 16 : Miami. Terrorist fire on a Polish vessel with rifles. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.

1970s

• 1970 August 24: Sterling Hall bombing University of Wisconsin-Madison in protest of the Army Mathematics Research Center unintentionally killing one. The bombers exploded the device in the middle of the night in the mistaken belief nobody would be there.
• 1970 October 22 An antipersonnel time bomb explodes outside a San Francisco church, showering steel shrapnel on mourners of a patrolman slain in a bank holdup; no one is injured. The Black Liberation Army is suspected.
• 1970 November 21: Bombing of the City Hall of Portland, Oregon in an attempt to destroy the state's bronze Liberty Bell replica. The late night explosion destroyed the display foyer, blew out the building doors, damaged the council hall, and blew out windows more than a block away. The night janitor was injured in the blast. The crime remains unsolved, though a number of local anti-war and radical groups of the era remain the primary suspects.
• 1970 Jewish Defense League linked with a bomb explosion outside of Aeroflot's New York City office in protest of treatment of Soviet Jews
• 1971 Jewish Defense League linked to a detonation outside of Soviet cultural offices in Washington and rifle fire into the Soviet mission to the UN
• 1971 During this year The Black Liberation Army is suspected of killing three policemen one at his desk in San Francisco, shooting four others and opening fire on three patrol cars and rolling a grenade which heavily damages a police car and injures two officers. An attempt is made to bomb a police station. These incidents happen in various cities around the country. In August the group runs a one month long guerrilla warfare school in Fayetteville, Georgia Seven are arrested in January 2007 in connection with the San Francisco desk shooting incident.
• 1971 March 1: The Weathermen explode a bomb in the U.S. Capitol to protest the U.S. invasion of Laos.
• 1972 January 22 Two policemen, Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie, are shot in the back by at least three persons; four suspects in the case are members of the Black Liberation Army; one suspect is later killed in a street battle with St. Louis police; the recovered pistol matches Laurie's.
• 1972 March: A group calling themselves "the Secret Cuban Government" bombs a theater in New York and two drug stores in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1972 December : A travel agency in Queens, New York is bombed; the incident is attributed to FIN, a Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro.
• 1972 December 11 : New York City. The VA-Cuba Forwarding Company is bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1972 December 28 A Brooklyn, New York bartender is held for $12000 ransom by the Black Liberation Army.
• 1973 January 7 After shooting a police officer a week earlier Mark Essex a former Black Panther party member shoots nineteen people, ten of them police officers, in retaliation for police killings in and around a Howard Johnsons hotel in New Orleans. He also set fires in the hotel before being killed by police.
• 1973 A New York City transit detective is killed and ten law enforcement personnel are shot four by machine gun during the year mostly in and around New York City by the Black Liberation Army. Also two members of that organization are arrested with a car full of explosives. In the next few years there are a number of violent incidents involving this organization but they are more criminal in nature.
• 1973 March 28: The Center for the Cuban Studies is bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1973 June 1: The Israeli Air Force attache in Washington, D.C., Yosef Allon, was shot and killed outside his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Black September is possibly the culprit, though the case remains unsolved.
• 1973 July 24: New York City. The Martin Luther King, Jr., Labor Center is bombed during exhibition of pro-Fidel Castro material. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1973 December: A business office in the New York City area is bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1973 December 30: Miami. A British freighter is bombed; Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1974 June 13: The 29th floor of the Gulf Tower in Pittsburgh, PA, was bombed with dynamite. The bomb detonated at 9:41 PM and there were no injuries. The Weather Underground took credit but no suspects have ever been identified.
• 1974 November 9 : Washington, D.C. Organization of American States building bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1975 January 24: The Puerto Rican nationalist group the FALN, bombs Fraunces Tavern in New York City, killing four and injuring more than 50.
• 1975 February 1: New York City. The Venezuelan Consulate is bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1975 February 6: Los Angeles. Unidos, a socialist bookstore run by the October League, is bombed; Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1975 February 26: Los Angeles. KCET, a radio station, is bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected because the station had just announced the showing of a Cuban film, "Lucia."
• 1975 March 27: Los Angeles. Panama Government Tourist Bureau and Costa Rican Consulate are damaged slightly by separate bomb blast. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected. Panama and Costa Rica had supported Cuba's readmission to the Organization of American States.
• 1975 April 3: Los Angeles. An attempted bombing of the Communist Party office misfires; Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1975 April 13: Los Angeles. A bomb is dropped through the roof of the Unidos book store. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1975 May 2: Santa Monica. A Socialist Workers Party bookstore is bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1975 May 7: Los Angeles. The leftist-oriented Midnight Special Bookstore is bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1975 July 15: Los Angeles. The Mexican consulate is bombed; four people are injured; $35,000 damage is done; it is suspected that the bombing was a joint action of the Hungarian Peace and Freedom Fighters, the Cuban Action Commandos, and the Nazi Group.
• 1975 July 18: Washington, D.C. A bomb placed outside the Costa Rican embassy does not completely detonate. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1975 October 6: Miami. The Dominican Republic consulate is bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1975 October 10: Ft. Lauderdale. The Broward County courthouse is bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1975 October 17: Miami. A bomb explodes in a luggage locker at Miami International Airport. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1975 October 31: Miami. Bombing-assassination of Rolando Masferrer. The bomb is triggered by the car ignitionCuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1975 November 27: Miami. A time bomb in the restroom of a Bahamas Airlines jet is set to go off as passengers are loading for Nassau; a call indicates the bombing is anti-Castro and that a group called Cuban Power 1976 is responsible. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1975 December 3: Miami. Identical bombs explode on the eve of a visit by William D. Rogers, U.S. Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, at the Social Security building, the Florida State Employment Service office, two Post Office buildings, and the FBI headquarters building. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro suspected.
• 1975 December 4: Miami. The Miami police department and Metropolitan Justice building are bombed. Cuban exile groups opposed to the government of Fidel Castro claim responsibility.
• 1975 December 29 A bomb set off by the Puerto Rican nationalist group FALN in East Harlem,New York permanently disables a police officer while causing him to lose an eye.
• 1975 December 29: A bomb at New York's LaGuardia Airport kills 11 and injures 75. The bombing remains unsolved.
• 1976 September 11 Croatian Freedom Fighters hijack a TWA airliner diverting it to Gander, Newfoundland,and then Paris damanding a manifesto be printed. One police officer was killed and three injured during an attempt to defuse a bomb that contained their communiques in a New York City train station locker.
• 1976 September 21: Orlando Letelier, a former member of the Chilean government, was killed by a car bomb in Washington, D.C. along with his assistant Ronni Moffitt. The killing was carried out by members of the Chilean DINA.
• 1977 March 9: About a dozen Hanafi Muslims, led by Hamas Abdul Khaalis, took over the District Building (the city hall), the B'nai B'rith building, and the Islamic Center, in Washington, D.C. They were apparently seeking revenge for the murder of some of Khaalis' family. They held more than 130 hostages until the next day, killing a radio reporter and shooting and wounding then-councilman Marion Barry. The hostages were freed after negotiations, and the attackers were sent to prison.
• 1977 August 3: FALN bombs exploded on the twenty-first floor of 342 Madison Avenue in New York City, which housed Defense Department security personnel, as well as the Mobil Building at 150 East Forty-Second Street, killing one. In addition the the group warned that bombs were located in thirteen other buildings, including the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center resulting in the evacuation of one hundred thousand. Five days later a bomb attributed to the group was found in the AMEX building.
• 1979 Puerto Rican nationalist organization FALN exploded a bomb outside of the Shubert Theatre in Chicago, injuring five people.
• 1979 November 3: Members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party fire on a protest in Greensboro, North Carolina, killing five. See Greensboro Massacre.

1980s

• 1980 March 15 Armed members of FALN raided the campaign headquarters of President Jimmy Carter in Chicago and the campaign headquarters of George H. W. Bush in New York City. Seven people in Chicago and ten people in New York were tied up as the offices were vandalized before the FALN members fled. A few days later, Carter delegates in Chicago received threatening letters from FALN.
• 1980 June 3: Bombing of the Statue of Liberty. At 7:30 PM, a time delayed explosive device detonated in the Statue of Liberty's Story Room. Detonated after business hours, the bomb did not injure anyone, but cause $18,000 in damage, destroying many of the exhibits. The room was sealed off and left unrepaired until the Statue of Liberty restoration project that began years later. FBI investigators believed the perpetrators were Croatian terrorists seeking independence for Croatia from Yugoslavia, though no arrests were made.
• 1980 July 22: Ali Akbar Tabatabai, an Iranian exile and critic of Ayatollah Khomeni, was shot in his Bethesda, Maryland home. Dawud Salahuddin, an American Muslim convert, was apparently paid by Iranians to kill Tabatabai.
• 1981 May 16 One dead in an explosion in the toilets at thePan Am terminal at New York'sJFK airport. The bombing is claimed by the Puerto Rican Resistance Army .
• 1981: Michael Donald was randomly selected to be lynched by two Ku Klux Klan members. He was beaten, had his throat slit, and was hung.
• 1982 January 28: Kemal Arikan, the Turkish Consul-General in Los Angeles, is killed by members of the Justice Commandos Against Armenian Genocide.
• 1982 May 4: Turkish Honorary Consul Orhan Gunduz was assassinated in his car in Somerville, Massachusetts by the Justice Commandos Against Armenian Genocide.
• 1983 November 7: U.S. Senate bombing. The Armed Resistance Unit, a militant leftist group, bombs the U.S. Capitol in response to the U.S. invasion of Grenada.
• 1984 In what is believed to be the first incident of bioterrorism in the United States the Rajneeshee cult spreads salmonella in salad bars at 10 restaurants in The Dalles, Ore., to influence a local election. Health officials say that 751 people were sickened and more than 40 hospitalized.
• 1985 October 11: Alex Odeh, a prominent Arab-American, was killed by a bomb in his office in Santa Ana, California. The case is unsolved, but it is thought the Jewish Defense League was responsible.

1990s

• 1993 February 26: First World Trade Center bombing killed six and injured 1,000.
• 1995 April 19: Oklahoma City bombing: A truck bomb shattered the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, killing 168 people-including children playing in the building's day care center. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols launched the attack in protest of the US government.
• 1996 July 27: Centennial Olympic Park bombing by Eric Robert Rudolph occurred in Atlanta, Georgia, during the Atlanta Olympics. One person was killed and 111 injured. In a statement released in 2005 Rudolph said the motive was to protest abortion and the "global socialist" Olympic Movement.
• 1997 February 24: An armed man opens fire on tourists at an observation deck atop the Empire State Building killing a Danish national and wounding visitors from the United States, Argentina, Switzerland and France before turning the gun on himself. A handwritten note carried by the gunman claims this was a punishment attack against the "enemies of Palestine". His widow claimed he became suicidal after losing $300,000 in a business venture. In a 2007 interview with the New York Daily News his daughter said her mother's story was a cover crafted by the Palestinian Authority and that her father wanted to punish the United States for its support of Israel

2000-present

• 2001 September 11: September 11, 2001 attacks.
• 2001 September 18: November - 2001 anthrax attacks. Letters tainted with anthrax kill five across the United States. The case remains unsolved.
• 2002 July 4: Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, a 41-year-old Egyptian national, kills 2 Israelis and wounds 4 others at the El Al ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport. The FBI concluded this was terrorism, although they found no evidence linking Hadayet to any terrorist group.
• May 2002 Mailbox Pipe Bomber: Lucas John Helder rigged pipe bombs in private mailboxes to explode when the boxes were opened. He injured 6 people in Nebraska, Colorado, Texas, Illinois, and Iowa.
• October 2002 Beltway Sniper Attacks: During three weeks in October 2002 John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo killed 10 people and critically injured 3 others in Washington D.C, Baltimore, and Virginia. An earlier spree by the pair had resulted in 3 deaths in Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, California, Arizona, and Texas to bring the total to 16 deaths.

Failed attacks

• 1950 November 1: Assassination attempt on President Truman by members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party at the Blair House in Washington, DC.
• 1965 The Monumental Plot - New York Police thwart an attempt to dynamite the Statue of Liberty,Liberty Bell, and the Washington Monument by three members of the pro Castro Black Liberation Front and a Quebec Separatist.
• 1970 March 6 Three members of the Weather Underground are killed when their “bomb factory” located in New York’s Greenwich Village accidentally explodes. WUO members Theodore Gold, Diana Oughton, and Terry Robbins die in this accident. The bomb was intended to be planted at a non-commissioned officer's dance at Fort Dix,New Jersey. The bomb was packed with nails to inflict maximum casualties upon detonation.
• 1972 Two Jewish Defense League members were arrested and charged with bomb possession and burglary in a conspiracy to blow up the Long Island residence of the Soviet Mission to the UN
• 1973 March 6: Explosives found in the trunks of cars were defused at the El Al air terminal at Kennedy Airport, the First Israel Bank and Trust Company, and the Israel Discount Bank, in New York City. Black September was believed responsible, and an Iraqi was arrested for the bombs in 1991.
• 1985 April: The FBI arrested several members of a Sikh terrorist group who were plotting to kill Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi when he visited New York in June.
• 1988 April 12: Yu Kikumura, a member of the Japanese Red Army, is arrested with three pipe bombs on the New Jersey Turnpike. According to prosecutors, Kikumura planned to bomb a military recruitment office in the Veteran's Administration building in lower Manhattan on April 14, the anniversary of the U.S. raid on Libya.
• 1993 June: New York City landmark bomb plot. Followers of radical cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman were arrested while planning to bomb landmarks in New York City, including the UN headquarters.
• 2000 January 1: 2000 millennium attack plots, plan to bomb LAX Airport in Los Angeles, California
• 2001 December 12: Jewish Defense League plot by Chairman Irv Rubin and follower Earl Krugel to blow up the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, California and the office of Lebanese-American Rep. Darrell Issa foiled.
• 2001 December 22: Richard Reid tackled by passengers in a plane destined for Miami when he tried to light explosives concealed in his shoe.
• 2004 Financial buildings plot: Plan to bomb the International Monetary Fund, New York Stock Exchange, Citigroup and Prudential buildings broken up after arrest of computer expert in Pakistan and plotters in Britain.
• 2006 June The Animal Liberation Front targets UCLA researcher Lynn Fairbanks with a firebomb. The bomb was placed on the doorstep of a house occupied by her neighbor and a tenant. According to the FBI, the device was lit but failed to ignite and was powerful enough to have killed the occupants.
• 2006 September 11: A man rammed his car into a women's clinic that he thought was an abortion clinic and set it ablaze in Davenport, Iowa causing $20,000 worth of damage to the building.
• 2007 April 25: A bomb was left in a women's clinic in Austin but failed to explode.

Arrests and detentions

• 2002 May 8: José Padilla (alleged terrorist) accused by John Ashcroft of plotting to attack the United States with a dirty bomb, declared as an enemy combatant, and denied habeas corpus. No material evidence has been produced to support the allegation.
• 2003 April 24: William Krar is charged for his part in the Tyler poison gas plot. A sodium cyanide bomb was seized with at least 100 other bombs, bomb components, machine guns, and 500,000 rounds of ammunition. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
• 2003 May 1: Iyman Faris pleas guilty to providing material support to Al Qaeda and plotting to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge by cutting through cables with blowtorches. He had been working as a double for the FBI since March, but in October was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
• 2005 August 31: Kevin James (alleged terrorist) and three others indicted on charges to wage war against the U.S. government through terrorism in California.
• 2006 February 21: The Toledo terror plot where three men were accused of conspiring to wage a "holy war" against the United States, supply help to the terrorist in Iraq, and threatening to kill the US president.
• 2006 June 23: The Miami bomb plot to attack the Sears Tower where seven men were arrested after an FBI agent infiltrated a group while posing as an al-Qaeda member. No weapons or other materials were found.
• 2006 July 7: Three suspects arrested in Lebanon for plotting to blow up a Hudson River tunnel and flood the New York financial district. The "plot" was talk, and entirely unfeasible because it would require enormous amounts of explosives, and the target was above the water level anyhow.
• 2006 November 29 Demetrius Van Crocker a white supremacist from rural Tennessee was sentenced to 30 years in prison for attempting to acquire Sarin nerve gas and C-4 explosives that he planned to use to destroy government buildings.
• 2006 December 8: Derrick Shareef, 22 a Muslim convert who talked about his desire to wage jihad against civilians was charged in a plot to set off four hand grenades in garbage cans December 22 at the CherryVale Mall in Rockford, Illinois.
• 2007 March 5 A Rikers Island inmate offered to pay an undercover police officer posing as a hit man to behead New York City police commissioner Raymond Kelly and bomb police headquarters in retaliation for the the controversial police shooting of Sean Bell. The suspect wanted the bombing to be considered a terrorist act
• 2007 May 1: Five members of a self styled Birmingham,Alabama area militia were arrested for planning a machine gun attack on Mexicans
• 2007 May 7: Fort Dix attack plot Six men inspired by Jihadist videos arrested in a failed homegrown terrorism plot to kill soldiers. Plot unravels when Circuit City clerk becomes suspicious of the DVDs the men had created and report it to authorities who place an informant in the group.
• 2007 June 3 John F. Kennedy International Airport terror plot Four men indicted in plot to blow up jet-fuel supply tanks at JFK Airport and a 40-mile connecting pipeline. One suspect is a U.S. citizen and one, Abdul Kadir, is former member of parliament in Guyana. All of the suspects are over the age of 50. The airport was targeted because of the popularity of President Kennedy for whom the airport was named because one of the suspects saw arms shipments and missiles being shipped to Israel from that locale. Plot unraveled when a person from law enforcement was recruited,,