Man accused of D.C. threat to be evaluated

December 15, 2010|Associated Press

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A Virginia man accused of threatening on Facebook to detonate pipe bombs on the Washington, D.C., subway system was ordered yesterday to undergo a mental evaluation.

Awais Younis, a native of Afghanistan, was arrested last week and charged with communicating threats across state lines. Younis, 25, described to a friend last month during a Facebook chat how he could build a pipe bomb with specific types of shrapnel to cause maximum damage on the Metro system, according to a sworn statement from an FBI agent. He also discussed planting pipe bombs underneath a sewer head in D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood.

When the friend suggested he was not serious, Younis responded “Watch me.’’

The friend alerted the FBI. In a subsequent Facebook chat, Younis threatened the unidentified tipster and told her that “the problem with Americans they cant leave well enough alone until something happends then they sit there wondering why we dropped the twin towers like a bad habit.’’

Authorities arrested Younis, who also used the name Sundullah “Sunny’’ Ghilzai, on Dec. 7, two days after the second chat. The arrest was first reported by The Washington Examiner.

A phone call to Younis’s lawyer was not immediately returned.

US Magistrate Judge Ivan Davis has ordered that Younis remain jailed pending a mental health evaluation. Another hearing is scheduled for Dec. 21.

The case against Younis differs from the arrest of Farooque Ahmed, who was charged in October with conspiring with people he thought were Al Qaeda members to bomb the D.C. Metro system. In the Ahmed case, prosecutors brought terrorism charges against Ahmed after an investigation in which Ahmed met with undercover operatives to advance what he thought was an Al Qaeda plot.