Man Accused of Attempting to Blow Up Dallas High-Rise Appeared in Court

DALLAS, Texas -- A man accused of trying to blow up a downtown Dallas high-rise appeared in a federal court today. Investigators say 19-year-old Hosam Maher Husein Smadi used Internet chat rooms to voice his hatred for the U.S.

According to the FBI, undercover agents fluent in Arabic first intercepted Smadi within an online group of extremists.

The criminal complaint says he "Stood out based on his vehement intention to actually conduct terror attacks in the United States."

Former U.S. attorney Richard Roper says there are many extremist chat lines on the Internet.

"People vent and no question about that," said Roper. "The question is are the people who are venting on these chat lines just people who hate the government, international or domestic or are they people who are going to go further than just venting and commit a terrorist act."

The FBI says its undercover agents gave Smadi several opportunities to not carry out the plot.

"These undercover agents have him the opportunity on several occasions to back out and he said 'no.'" Roper said. "He wanted to go through and at that point that's when they gave him the names to commit the offense."

Smadi is a native of Jordan and was arrested after a six month undercover investigation by the FBI.

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