US man accused of terrorist plot

PHILADELPHIA - Federal investigators have accused a Pennsylvania man of trying to conspire with al-Qaeda to blow up major US oil and gas pipelines and wreck the economy, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The FBI says Michael Curtis Reynolds, 47, attempted to provide material aid to al-Qaeda to disrupt the federal government, to change its foreign policy, and to turn the public against the war in Iraq, the newspaper said.

The allegations were disclosed in a federal transcript obtained by the Inquirer on Friday.

Reynolds has not been formally charged with terrorist offences but has been held in a Pennsylvania jail since December 5 on the unrelated charge of possessing a hand grenade, the paper said.

Reynolds, who is unemployed, was drawn into an FBI sting operation in Idaho two months ago in which he meet with a purported al-Qaeda operative who was really a Montana judge who monitors extremist Muslim websites looking for potential terrorist activity, according to the report.

At that meeting, Reynolds expected to receive $40,000 to finance a plot to blow up sections of the Transcontinental Pipeline which carries natural gas from the US Gulf Coast to New York City via Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The alleged plot also included a plan to detonate propane trucks along the Alaska Pipeline, and to blow up oil refineries in New Jersey and Wyoming.

The newspaper quoted John Gurganus, a federal prosecutor, as saying Reynolds hoped to "disrupt government function", provoke opposition to the war in Iraq, drive up fuel prices, and "lend to the efforts by al-Qaeda to terrorise this nation".

Reynolds told federal agents he was not a terrorist but a patriot trying to trap al-Qaeda operatives, the newspaper said. FBI agents obtained search warrants for his computers and email accounts, which contained information on the alleged plot.

Reynolds, who has lived in many parts of the United States, has a string of bad debts and criminal convictions, including one for attempted arson, according to the Inquirer.

- REUTERS