Court bombing plot: US man arrested

August 6, 2004 - 9:18AM

Police arrested a man suspected of plotting to blow up a US court building in downtown Chicago with a fertilizer-based bomb like one used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, prosecutors said.

Gale Nettles, 66, was arrested on accusations he sold 680 kilograms of fertiliser to an FBI undercover agent, and purchased 227 kilograms of ammonium nitrate fertiliser from a second undercover agent, US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald said in a statement.

Nettles was due to appear in court later today.

Police said witnesses told them months ago of Nettles's plot to blow up the Everett McKinley Dirksen Courthouse using a truck bomb made of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, similar to the one Timothy McVeigh used to destroy the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, in 1995 killing 168 persons.

Witnesses also said Nettles knew the courthouse well enough to sketch it for them and could describe its occupants, police said.

The building houses the US attorney's offices, as well as those of the FBI and other federal offices.

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"At no time were the occupants of the Dirksen courthouse or the adjacent federal buildings in any jeopardy as a result of the defendant's activities," the statement said.

Nettles also sold counterfeit currency to an undercover agent, according to police.

Officials also said that the arrest was unrelated to a recently heightened attack threat level. They also said Nettles was acting alone.