Terror Plot on Chicago Mall Foiled

A plan to wage "violent jihad" in a Chicago area mall during the Christmas rush was thwarted by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

From ABC News:

Derrick Shareef, of Rockford, Ill was arrested Wednesday by the Joint Terrorism Taskforce when he met an undercover agent to trade hand grenades and a 9-millimeter handgun for a set of stereo speakers.

Shareef is accused of planning to use firearms and explosives to attack the CherryVale shopping mall in Rockford. The alleged plan was to target the 130-store mall during the holiday shopping season.

In September, Shareef became acquainted with a confidential witness who was cooperating with the FBI and confided to him that he wanted to commit acts of violent jihad against civilians.

Authorities believe that Shareef was acting alone.

Via Stop the ACLU, where Jay reports that a press conference revealed Shareef was influenced, in part, by jihadi websites.

Any time now, the Left will be claiming that it wasn't a serious plot and/or the poor little jihadi wannabe was entrapped.