have been in detainment for over a month now, and are suspected of involvement in a suicide-bombing plot.
Two teen girls in custody after bomb plot is feared
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Two 16-year-old girls have been detained since last month on immigration violations amid concerns that they were potential recruits for a bomb plot that never materialized, officials said Thursday.
The girls — one from Bangladesh, one from Guinea — were picked up by authorities March 24 and put in a detention center, the officials said. They had been living in New York.
Details about the case, first reported Thursday by The New York Times, were sketchy, and a supporter of one of the girls said the accusations are false.
The Times cited a government document in which the FBI said the girls posed “an imminent threat to the security of the United States based upon evidence that they plan to be suicide bombers.”
Two law enforcement officials confirmed the content of the document, but suggested that it might have exaggerated the threat.
Investigators were concerned that girls might be recruited in the future for a suicide mission by a suspect in an ongoing terrorism investigation, one official said. They decided to detain the two before they could become involved.
The law enforcement officials declined to discuss the terrorism investigation. Calls to the FBI's New York office were not immediately returned.
Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, confirmed that two juveniles had been arrested on “administrative immigration violations” and remain in custody.
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