MILWAUKEE — Federal officials in Milwaukee say they have arrested a 23-year-old man who planned to attack a Masonic temple.
WDJT, the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee, identified the arrested man as Samy Mohamed Hamzeh. He is charged with unlawfully possessing a machine gun and unlawfully receiving and possessing unregistered firearms.
They say the FBI was tipped in September that the man had planned to travel to Israel to attack Israeli soldiers and citizens in the West Bank, but abandoned the plan as too difficult and later decided on a domestic attack.
A criminal affidavit says the man toured a Masonic center in Milwaukee on Jan. 19 and was tape-recorded discussing his plans to attack it in the name of “defending Muslim religion.” The affidavit says he was arrested Monday after buying machine guns and silencers from two undercover FBI employees.
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