FBI arrests man on bomb-making charges

Justin Moose.

Federal authorities have charged South Rowan High School graduate with conspiring to bomb a North Carolina clinic where abortions are performed.

Justin Carl Moose, 26, of 93 Mary Circle, Concord, was arrested Tuesday morning in China Grove by the FBI, according to information provided by the Department of Justice and court documents.

He is charged with providing information related to the making, use or manufacturing of an explosive, destructive device or weapon of mass destruction to a person Moose believed was planning to bomb a North Carolina clinic. Authorities did not identify the clinic.

According to an affadavit accompanying a criminal complaint, Moose provided detailed instructions to a confidential FBI informant who told Moose he wanted to bomb a clinic where a friend’s wife was planning to have an abortion.

The affadavit alleges Moose used Facebook as a platform to advocate violence against women’s health-care clinics where abortions are performed and the people who work there.

On his Facebook page, Moose says he is a South Rowan High School graduate and a member of Royal Oaks Baptist Church in Kannapolis.

According to an affadavit filed by an FBI?agent, an investigation began after the Planned Parenthood Association notified authorities that a Concord resident was “advocating extreme violence” against clinics that perform abortions on his Facebook page.

Federal authorities identified Moose as the person who made the Facebook page. On it, he writes: “Whatever you may think about me, you’re probably right. Extremist, Radical, Fundamentalist...? Yep! Terrorist...? Well.... I?prefer the term ‘freedom Fighter’. ‘End abortion by any means necessary and at any cost’. ‘Save a life, Shoot an abortionist’

The affadavit says that starting Jan. 19, Moose made numerous statements “advocating the use of violence in order to affect his ideological and political beliefs. The majority of these postings relate the issue of abortion and the murder of abortion providers.”

One posting on Aug. 22 was “List of death camps with address’ Do with it what you wish.” The affadavit says that post referred to a list of abortion clinics throughout the nation.

Another post, on Aug. 3, provided a link to a website that authorities say contained a recipe for making explosives. In a post the next day, the affadavit says, Moose warned advised readers how to use the explosives without harming themselves.

On Aug. 23, the affadavit says, Moose posted this:?“To all the feds watching me:?You can’t stop what is in motion. Even if you bring me in, my men will continue their mission. Furthermore, I?will not go peacefully. Do you really want another Waco?”

The affadavit says the Facebook page also contained four videos, including one called “Hey Man Nice Shot,”?which the affadavit calls “a tribute to individuals who had murdered abortion clinic doctors.”

FBI?agents also looked at Moose’s MySpace account, the affadavit said, and found pictures including those of a young girl holding an assault rifle and others that appear to show “some of the basic elements of an improvised explosive device.”

After obtaining a search warrant, the FBI got access to private messages on Moose’s Facebook account, the affadavit says. In one, Moose wrote, “If there’s any good that I?do, I?give the glory to my father God. And if there’s any bad I?do, well I guess I?can take credit for that :) As far as I’m concerned nothing is off limits to stop abortion. Anything and everything goes.”

In another private message, he wrote: “...there was an experience that made me a militant... My entire life has centered around the art of making war. Destruction is what I?know best... I realize that the Holy Spirit has been preparing me to teach and lead others... Over the next few weeks (or months...) I will be writing down all that I have learned over the years concerning destructive devices, sabotage, covert operations, and survival skills.”

On Sept. 3, a confidential informant working with the FBI?contacted Moose by telephone. The affadavit says the informant had previously been in touch with Moose on his Facebook side. The FBI?recorded the phone call, in which the informant old Moose his best friend’s wife “was planning on doing something he strongly opposed.”

Moose stopped the man when he tried to provide details, according to the affadavit, and said, “I?understand and I?can help.” Moose went on to say that he was “marked” by federal agents who might be listening in on their conversation.

The two met Sept. 4 at the TGI Fridays restaurant on Concord Mills Boulevard and the FBI?again recorded the conversation, during which the informant specified the clinic he wanted to bomb and Moose detailed three ways he could do it, where he could obtain the materials to make the explosives, how to conduct reconnaissance on the clinics and how to avoid being caught, the affadavit says.

Moose told the informant that he is a member of the group the Army of God, which he called a “phantom cell organization. I have set up groups. I?train people and this is not my first rodeo.”

During the meeting with the FBI informant, the affadavit says, Moose referred to himself and other anti-abortion extremists as “judges,” told the informant that the murder of a doctor who provided abortions in the Midwest decreased their number there and said the “ends justify the means.”

Moose also called himself “the Christian counterpart of Usama bin Laden” during that conversation, the affadavit says.

In a telephone conversation Sunday, the affadavit says, Moose provided more instruction when the informant told Moose he had obtained the ingredients and was making an explosive device.

Moose also told the informant he’s spoken with “another known anti-abortion extremist”?who the affadavit does not identify about the informant’s plans to bomb a clinic.

“Moose stated that this person and several others were praying”?for the informant, the affadavit says.

An arrest warrant says the FBI took Moose into custody Tuesday in China Grove. It does not specify where that happened.

Moose will face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. He had a first appearance in federal court Tuesday.

Check salisburypost.com for more information.

Download the FBI's detailed description of the investigation here.