Noelle Velentzas, 28, and Asia Siddiqui, 31, both of the Queens borough of New York, were arrested in April for allegedly plotting to construct a bomb to carry out a terror attack in the US.
The criminal case is based on statements overheard and recorded by an undercover federal agent. Both defendants are US citizens.
Court documents filed in the case track their research and discussions about which kind of bomb to build. They considered building a car bomb like the one used in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a fertilizer bomb like the one used in the 1995 attack on the federal building in Oklahoma City, and a pressure cooker bomb like the one used in the 2013 Boston Marathon attack.
After hearing news of the arrest of Air Force veteran Tairod Pugh for allegedly attempting to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group, Ms. Velentzas told the undercover agent “that she did not understand why people were traveling overseas to wage jihad when there were more opportunities of ‘pleasing Allah’ here in the United States,” according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case.
