BALTIMORE, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- A man charged with trying to blow up a Baltimore-area military recruiting center believed at least six soldiers were in the building, federal prosecutors say.
The Baltimore Sun reported what prosecutors called a "full confession" by Antonio Martinez, aka Muhammad Hussein, is detailed in a 30-page document filed in U.S. District Court Tuesday.
Martinez, 22, allegedly tried to detonate with a remote-controlled device the inert vehicle bomb, supplied by agents in a sting, after parking it outside the Armed Forces Career Center in Catonsville.
Prosecutors said a man he knew as an "Afghani brother" -- actually an FBI agent -- had confirmed "at least six soldiers" were in the center before Martinez allegedly tried to detonate the fake bomb Dec. 8.
Martinez, who prosecutors said was a recent convert to Islam who viewed himself as a radical "holy warrior," is charged with the attempted murder of a federal official and the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
A confidential informant had come across Martinez's Facebook page with "extremist views" and informed the FBI on Oct. 8 about postings on the site, including one in which he wrote of "attacking Army recruiting centers," obtaining guns and targeting military installations, prosecutors said.
An FBI agent posing as an "Afghani brother" introduced himself to Martinez and eventually supplied the phony explosive, the document said.
Martinez's public defenders have argued investigators induced his participation and violated his constitutional rights because they had not recorded his confession and several early conversations with an unnamed informant posing as a conspirator, the Sun said.
