The FBI has detailed information about Khalid Aldawsari’s alleged terrorist ambitions—because the 20-year-old wrote all about them in his journal and emails to himself. Aldawsari wasn’t affiliated with any terrorist group, and Saudi Arabian officials confirm that he had no criminal record back home. But he was inspired by Osama bin Laden, and wrote that he wanted to create “an Islamic group under the banner” of al-Qaeda, the Washington Post reports. He decided to study in the US specifically to kill Americans.
“One operation in the land of the infidels is equal to ten … in the land of the Muslims,” he wrote. He first studied English at Vanderbilt, then chemical engineering at Texas Tech, before transferring to South Plains College. “Now, after mastering the English language, learning how to build explosives, and continuous planning to target the infidel American, it is time for Jihad,” he wrote. Another journal entry outlined a "synopsis of important steps" of his plan: to rent cars with various fake IDs and plant remote-detonating bombs in them, leaving them in cities during rush hour. Click for another one of his plots, involving baby dolls. (More Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari stories.)