Police have arrested an alleged accomplice of Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, the Bangladeshi man who was arrested Wednesday for allegedly trying to detonate a van full of (fake) explosives outside the Federal Reserve. Authorities say that 36-year-old San Diego resident Howard Willie Carter II, who was identified as “Yaqueen,” is “an associate of Nafis” who wanted to help him carry out his attack. However, he wasn't arrested yesterday for any terrorism charges—investigators found approximately 1,000 child porn photos on his computer.
Nafis' family is shocked by the allegations that he tried to set off 1,000 pound bomb outside the Federal Reserve: “I spent all my savings to send him to America,” said his father, Quazi Ahsanullah. “He is very gentle and devoted to his studies.” Other family members claimed Nafis was a victim of a “racist conspiracy.” “It’s simply not possible,” said Nafis’ sister, Dr. Faria Bilkis. “We don’t think it can be done by him. He must be victimized, because in Bangladesh, he was not like this. He was a good boy.”
Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said diplomats in the U.S. will meet State Department officials Saturday in Washington. “This is a sensitive issue,” Moni told reporters. “We don’t want to speculate on it.” Officials have learned that Nafis was a bus boy who studied at a college in Missouri before transferring to ASA College in Manhattan. Jim Dow, a classmate at Southeast Missouri State, said Nafis spoke admiringly of Osama bin Laden: “He told me he didn't really believe bin Laden was involved in the twin towers because he said bin Laden was a religious man, and a religious man wouldn't have done something like that," Dow said, adding: “He’s not an evil person, but this is such an evil thing.”
