Feds lay out their case against the man set to plea in 2012 Loop bomb plot

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Adel Daoud | U.S. Marshal’s office photo via AP

U.S. Marshal’s office

For six years, the feds have kept a young Hillside man locked up after he allegedly pressed the detonator on what turned out to be a fake car bomb in the Loop, while his attorneys have accused the feds of entrapment.

Adel Daoud’s lawyers say the feds targeted an impressionable teen back in 2012. But prosecutors have said public confidence in the case would rise if Daoud went to trial and the “overwhelming” evidence against him was revealed.

Now, it appears that’s not going to happen. So the feds have instead laid out their case in a 19-page document that includes new details about a man also accused of trying to have an undercover FBI agent killed for $20,000 before trying to murder a fellow inmate.

The feds say Daoud wrote, months before undercover agents intervened, about his wish to become a martyr and his anger with the U.S. government. They say he asked if he could “press the button” on a 1,000-pound bomb that turned out to be inert. And they say he suggested stabbing, shooting or even beheading an FBI agent.

“Get rid of him,” Daoud allegedly said. “You know what I mean, throw out the trash.”

Thomas Anthony Durkin, one of Daoud’s attorneys, said Wednesday he had yet to carefully read the prosecutors’ unusual filing. However, he said, “there is simply another side of the story” — one that he plans to lay out when Daoud is sentenced.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman has said she will accept a specialized guilty plea from Daoud, 25. Known as an Alford plea, it would let Daoud admit that enough evidence exists to convict him while still maintaining his innocence. A hearing is set for Monday.

Just a few weeks ago, Daoud appeared to be finally headed for trial after years of delays over national security secrets and Daoud’s own mental capacity. Coleman found him not competent to stand trial in 2016 after he repeatedly rambled in court about the Illuminati and reptilian overlords. She declared his competency restored in March.

In the document filed Tuesday, the feds say Daoud in 2012 shared clips of “Jihad songs” translated into English with two people, including Abdella Tounisi, who would later also face terrorism charges and is serving a 15-year prison sentence.

The first song encouraged listeners to “Get up and shake off your slumber, because Islam is back. We have come for the sake of Allah and we have declared Jihad. We have returned with sub-machine guns.”

“I listen to these on my ipod!” Daoud allegedly wrote on YouTube. “Including the terrorist one! … I say I want to be a terrorist!”

In response to a cartoon mocking an interrogation of the Times Square Bomber, Daoud allegedly wrote, “The solution is simple. Stop killing Muslims and trying to destroy Islam and NO ONE WILL BOMB YOU.”

Daoud also allegedly wrote that he was against the U.S. government “for what they are doing against my brothers and sisters.” The feds say he researched the cost of an AK-47 assault rifle and downloaded an “Improvised Munitions Handbook” on his Kindle.

The feds arrested Daoud in September 2012 after they say he pushed the detonator on the fake car bomb given to him by an undercover FBI agent. Later, in jail, Daoud allegedly asked a fellow inmate to help him have that agent killed, calling him “a hypocrite and a spy.”

“I could let things go, like I don’t hold grudges,” Daoud allegedly said. “But he still has to die.”

After suggesting to the fellow inmate how the agent could die, Daoud allegedly said of the hitman, “I just care that he gets it done and he gets away and no one can find us.”

Later, in May 2015, prosecutors say Daoud tried to kill another fellow inmate at the Metropolitan Correctional Center over a drawing of the Prophet Muhammad. Daoud had allegedly attacked the inmate once before, according to the feds’ document, returning in May 2015 when he knew the inmate would be sleeping with headphones and an eye covering.

Another inmate said Daoud had a weapon in his hand, which he described as a toothbrush wrapped with a white cloth with what appeared to be a razor blade attached. Daoud allegedly called it a “jailhouse shank,” and the feds said he flushed it and a second toothbrush hidden under his shirt down the toilet.

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