US man convicted of pipeline, energy attack plan

Scranton (Pa), July 14: A Pennsylvania man was convicted today of plotting to blow up US oil pipelines and energy installations and of attempting to enlist al-Qaeda militants on the Internet to help carry out his plan.

A federal jury of six women and six men took a little more than an hour to convict Michael Curtis Reynolds, 49, on those charges and of possessing a hand grenade. He faces a maximum 57 1/2 years in prison.

The government accused Reynolds, from Wilkes-Barre, of scheming to attack the Alaska and Transcontinental pipelines and other energy installations to prompt a US withdrawal from Iraq.

Reynolds' purported plot was uncovered by Shannen Rossmiller, a former Montana magistrate who has been independently tracking extremists on the Internet since the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Reuters

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