Student in Texas Accused of Plotting Attack on Bush

A Saudi Arabian man attending college in Texas has been charged with the "attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction," the Justice Department announced today. Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, 20, allegedly bought several chemicals needed to build an improvised explosive device, and “was actively researching potential targets,” according to a department statement. One of those targets appears to have been George W. Bush, NPR reports.

By spying on Aldawsari’s email, the department found that he often emailed himself potential targets—and that one email, marked “Tyrant’s House,” listed Bush’s Dallas address. Others listed various dams, nuclear power plants, and the names and addresses of troops formerly stationed at Abu Ghraib, according to NBC Dallas/Fort Worth. Aldawsari had been studying at South Plains College. His diary indicates he pursued a US scholarship specifically because he’d long planned a terrorist attack, federal authorities say. (More Saudi Arabia stories.)