Terror suspect pleads guilty in phony NY plot

NEW YORK (AP) — A Bangladesh native accused of trying to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank in New York with what he thought was a 1,000-pound car bomb pleaded guilty today to terrorism charges stemming from an FBI sting.

"I had intentions to commit a violent jihadist act," Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis told the judge. "I deeply and sincerely regret my involvement in this case," he said in a soft voice.

The 21-year-old faces a possible life term at sentencing on May 30.

He was charged in October with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to al-Qaida. Investigators said in court papers he came to the U.S. bent on jihad and worked out the specifics of a plot when he arrived.

Investigators said Nafis contacted a government informant, who then went to federal authorities. They said he selected his target, drove a van loaded with dummy explosives to the door of the bank and tried to set off the bomb from a hotel room using a cellphone he thought had been rigged as a detonator. But it was all fake.