BALTIMORE, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- A man accused of plotting to blow up a Maryland military recruiting station was ordered held pending trial at a hearing in Baltimore Monday.
Federal prosecutors said Antonio Martinez, 21, was "grinning from ear to ear" and said "Allah Akbar" ("God Is Great") as he was about to set off what he thought was a powerful bomb, The Washington Post reported.
Martinez, who recently converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Hussain, was determined to kill soldiers he saw as enemies of Muslims and tried to recruit others, prosecutors said. The FBI learned of him from an informant, joined the plot and supplied him with a fake car bomb.
Defense attorney Joseph Balter responded that his client was "incapable" of carrying out such an attack by himself and was entrapped.
"They induced him to be involved in an act that was clearly the design of the government," he said.
The arguments made before Magistrate Judge Susan Gauvey in U.S. District Court may preview future cases as courts judge the use of undercover agents who monitor extremists, pose as co-conspirators and sometimes provide materials for an attack, the newspaper said.
