24February2011 3:11pmEST
ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center
SOURCE: FBI
Saudi Arabian Student Arrested in Texas for Plotting Terrorist Attack
GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE:
WASHINGTON—Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, 20, a citizen of Saudi Arabia and resident of Lubbock, Texas, was arrested late yesterday by FBI agents in Texas 
on a federal charge of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction in connection with his alleged purchase of chemicals and equipment necessary to make an improvised explosive device (IED) and his research of potential U.S. targets.
The arrest and the criminal complaint, which was unsealed in the Northern District of Texas, were announced by David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; James T. Jacks, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas; and Robert E. Casey Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Dallas Field Division.
Aldawsari is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court in Lubbock at 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning. Aldawsari, who was lawfully admitted into the United States in 2008 on a student visa and is enrolled at South Plains College near Lubbock, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
According to the affidavit filed in support of the complaint, Aldawsari has been researching online how to construct an IED using several chemicals as ingredients. He has also acquired or taken a substantial step toward acquiring most of the ingredients and equipment necessary to construct an IED and he has conducted online research of several potential U.S. targets, the affidavit alleges. In addition, he has allegedly described his desire for violent jihad and martyrdom in blog postings and a personal journal. (read full report)
Texas Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Hate Crime in Connection with Mosque Arson in Arlington, Texas
GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE:
WASHINGTON—Henry Clay Glaspell, of Arlington, Texas, pleaded guilty today to a hate crime charge stemming from the ethnically motivated arson of a children’s playground at the Dar El-Eman Islamic Center in Arlington in July 2010, the Justice Department announced today.
Glaspell, 34, pleaded guilty to damaging religious property in violation of federal 
hate crime laws before U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas. During the plea hearing, Glaspell admitted that he set fire to playground equipment at the mosque as part of a series of ethnically motivated acts directed at individuals of Arab or Middle Eastern descent associated with the mosque. Glaspell further admitted that he stole and damaged mosque property, threw used cat litter at the front door of the mosque, and shouted racial or ethnic slurs at individuals of Arab or Middle Eastern descent at the mosque on multiple occasions. This is the 50th prosecution of post-September 11, 2001 backlash against Arab and Muslim Americans.
“Arab-Americans are part of the American family, and the defendant today admitted that he targeted Arabs at a mosque where people worship peacefully and children play,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “Hate-fueled incidents of this kind will not be tolerated in our country. The Justice Department is committed to vigorously prosecuting hate crimes against all persons.”
“All members of our community must be free to live without fear that they will be targeted because of their ethnicity or religion. This office will vigorously prosecute those who commit such despicable acts of hatred,” said U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas James T. Jacks. (read full report)
Texas Man Pleads Guilty to Hacking into Computer Servers of NASA
GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE:
MINNEAPOLIS—United States Attorneys B. Todd Jones, of the District of Minnesota, and Rod J. Rosenstein, of the District of Maryland, announced that earlier today in federal court in St. Paul, Minnesota, a 26-year-old Texas man 
pleaded guilty to hacking into computer networks at a Minnesota business and at NASA. Jeremey Parker, of Houston, Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. He was indicted in the District of Minnesota on October 13, 2010.
In his plea agreement, Parker admitted that from December 23, 2008, through October 15, 2009, he hacked into the computer network of SWReg, Inc., a subsidiary of the cyber-based company Digital River, Inc., of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, in an effort to steal money. SWReg. pays independent software developers who write code. Royalties owed to those developers are accumulated at SWReg. The software developers have the ability to go online, view the royalty balances in their SWReg accounts, and, ultimately, cash out those accounts. When a particular developer cashes out an account, SWReg electronically transfers the money to the developer’s bank account, mails the developer a check, or has the developer’s PayPal account credited. Parker hacked into SWReg’s system, created the money by crediting the SWReg accounts, and then caused that money to be wire transferred to his bank account instead of the accounts of several developers. Parker stole approximately $275,000.
In addition, Parker admitted that on September 24, 2009, he hacked into two computer servers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The servers supported access to data being sent to Earth from satellites gathering oceanographic data. The servers did not have any control over the satellites themselves but, rather, allowed paying members of the scientific community to access the stream of data coming from those satellites. After a period of time, the data was freely available to anyone who wished to log onto a specific NASA website. Once the breach of its computer system was discovered, NASA spent approximately $43,000 to repair the damage. During the time the website was down for repairs, approximately 3,300 users were denied access to the oceanographic data. (read full report)
