LOS ANGELES (AP) — A terror plot by an Army veteran who converted to Islam and planned to bomb a white supremacist rally in Southern California as retribution for the New Zealand mosque attacks was thwarted, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Mark Domingo, 26, an infantryman who served a combat stint in Afghanistan, was arrested by federal agents Friday while finalizing plans to plant a bomb at a Nazi rally that had been scheduled Sunday in Long Beach.
Domingo was arrested on a charge of providing material support to terrorists and a criminal complaint said he had been planning since March to “manufacture and use a weapon of mass destruction in order to commit mass murder.”
Court papers show that Domingo discussed with an informant different types of attacks that included targeting Jews, churches and police officers.
Domingo allegedly said he wanted revenge for attacks on mosques in New Zealand that killed 50 people last month.
Domingo allegedly bought parts, including nails, for an improvised explosive device that would be remotely triggered, but in fact contained inert materials, FBI agent Tasha Coolidge said in an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
If they survived the planned bombing at Bluff Park, Domingo discussed launching further attacks on the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles or on a train.
White nationalists never showed up to the planned event in Bluff Park, but a large group of counter protesters demonstrated.
A message left on a phone listed for Domingo was not immediately returned.
A neo-Nazi rally, and the ports of Los Angeles or Long Beach, or a train?
Sounds like a lot of generalized anger/resentment, and some “help” from an undercover agent.
One thought is that a white supremacist rally in Long Beach? That’s a pretty hazardous undertaking to begin with.
But if the FBI is accurate, this guy shows why hate is so evil. The shooter in New Zealand was anti-Semitic as well as Islamophobic. But the accused here lumps anyone who’s no Muslim (and, I bet, his kind of Muslim) into one pot.
Violence begits violence. This is why Trump’s rhetoric, even if it only inspires one attack, can cause a chain reaction that we will be living with for years.
So now we know where the line is. Punching Nazis: Okay. Blowing up Nazis: Not Okay. And how coincidental is it that the FBI was Johnny on the Spot when white supremacists were in danger, but nowhere to be seen when it was “those people” being threatened…