US man accused of plotting to blow up pipelines

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

US man accused of plotting to blow up pipelines
09 Jul 2007 18:18:56 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Jon Hurdle

SCRANTON, Pennsylvania, July 9 (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania
man who sympathized with al Qaeda plotted to blow up U.S.
energy installations in a bid to drive up gas prices and
prompt a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, prosecutors alleged on
Monday.

Defendant Michael Curtis Reynolds believed gasoline prices
could hit "astronomical" levels if he succeeded in attacking
the Alaska pipeline or the Transcontinental Pipeline
connecting the Gulf of Mexico and the U.S. Northeast, a
jury heard in federal court.

Reynolds, 49, of Wilkes-Barre, faces six charges including
attempting to support al Qaeda; plotting to damage an
interstate gas pipeline; distributing instructions on making
explosives over the Internet; and possession of hand
grenades.

Reynolds' suspected plans were uncovered by Shannen
Rossmiller, a former Montana magistrate and Internet
sleuth with a record for tracking down extremists online.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N09297251.htm

---

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

Posted on Sun, Jul. 08, 2007

Web sleuth up for terror trial
By Alfred Lubrano

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A former Montana judge who ensnares terrorists on the Internet
by pretending to be a member of al-Qaeda is expected to testify
in the trial of a Wilkes-Barre man accused of planning to blow
up the trans-Alaska pipeline.

Shannen Rossmiller, 38, a private citizen who has worked with
the FBI in previous cases, is to testify against Michael Curtis
Reynolds, whose federal trial is scheduled to start tomorrow in
Scranton, sources close to the case said.

In a scenario that reads more like spy fiction than fact, Rossmiller,
a mother of three and the daughter of a wheat farmer, discovered
Reynolds, 49, in a chat room.

Reynolds, a self-professed computer expert and convicted arsonist
who once tried to blow up his parents, wrote online that he needed
money to destroy the pipeline, and with it America's economy,
court documents said.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/8376137.html

[aquart]

1. "Who once tried to blow up his parents..."

Ah.

[kestrel91316]

2. I wonder about this guy:

".....Defendant Michael Curtis Reynolds believed gasoline prices
could hit "astronomical" levels if he succeeded in attacking
the Alaska pipeline or the Transcontinental Pipeline....."

Something tells me he drives a macho gas hog and doesn't see the irony........