Two Law Firms in Texas Building Targeted by Alleged Would-Be Bomber
Attorneys at two Texas law firms found themselves uncomfortably close to the latest domestic terrorism concerns as federal authorities charged two men in separate attempted-bombing cases in Dallas and Illinois.
Both Hunton & Williams and Bracewell & Guiliani have offices in the Fountain Building in Dallas, and attorneys and other workers there were stunned by the news that the downtown office tower was allegedly targeted Thursday in an attempted bomb attack, reports the Tex Parte Blog.
“It is certainly a wake-up call,” says Sandy Brown, who serves as managing partner of the Bracewell office. “We’re going to have a briefing this afternoon with the building. And after that the FBI is coming over here to meet with one or two representatives of each tenant. And then we’ll have an officewide meeting, all hands on deck kind of thing, after that.”
The incident follows another such scare in the Illinois state capital of Springfield the day before, where a different man was accused of attempting to bomb the federal courthouse in Springfield, as discussed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post.
Although authorities say the two cases are unrelated, they involve similar allegations: Both Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, 19, a Jordanian who came to this country in 2007 on a student visa, and Michael Finton, 29, are accused of driving to the buildings they allegedly targeted, parking what they thought was an explosive-laden vehicle and attempting to detonate it via cell phone, according to the Associated Press.
In both cases, the purported bomb was a fake provided by an FBI agent posing as an al-Qaida operative, the news agency says.
Smadi’s lawyer has said little about the case, but his father says the charges against him are “fabricated” and insists that the family has never condoned terrorism, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Additional coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Man Charged with Trying to Bomb Federal Courthouse in Illinois”
