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Drive-by jihadi pleads guilty to shooting at PentagonBy Warren Richey, Staff writer / January 26, 2012 An Alexandria, Va., man admitted in federal court Thursday that he fired live rounds into the Pentagon and three other government buildings and planned to desecrate graves at Arlington National Cemetery in support of Islamic militants overseas. Yonathan Melaku pleaded guilty to damaging government property, discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, and attempting to damage a veterans’ memorial. Under the terms of a plea agreement, prosecutors will request a 25-year prison sentence. In addition, Mr. Melaku faces up to $750,000 in fines...

Federal authorities on Thursday formally charged a Marine reservist in connection with 2010 shootings at the Pentagon and the National Museum of the Marine Corps. According to a criminal complaint, law enforcement officers searched the residence of Yonathan Melaku and found numerous documents concerning bomb-making and explosives. Melaku was arrested last week after he was found trespassing in Arlington National Cemetery before dawn. A car he pointed authorities to set off a bomb scare near the Pentagon. Officials said they seized a digital videotape in Melaku's bedroom desk. According to the criminal complaint, a review of the videotape showed Melaku...

WASHINGTON — The Marine Corps reservist arrested in Arlington National Cemetery last week with suspicious materials in his backpack was charged Thursday with firing shots last year at five military buildings in the Washington area, including the Pentagon. ...The late-night shots fired at the Pentagon, the National Museum of the Marine Corps and military recruiting offices last October and November were intended to shut down the buildings, the Justice Department said Thursday. No one was wounded in the shootings, which caused $100,000 in damage.

“It may be that he feels he has been wronged by the Corps in his professional and or personal life,” said FBI Acting Assistant Director John Perren, whose Washington Field Office has been leading the FBI investigation. “The subject of his grievance does appear to be the institution of the United States Marine Corps and not the individual men and women Marines for whom he may feel a great deal of respect, admiration and even loyalty.”

This morning police in Washington D.C. arrested Yonathan Melaku, a Muslim, for suspicious activity near Arlington National Cemetery and the Pentagon. The twenty-two-year-old Melaku is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Ethiopia that also serves in the Marine Corp Reserves. He was found carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer and other materials making reference to Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The first reports I saw came from the Drudge Report and neither made reference to Malaku’s religion. Then I remembered the stories about Asan Akbar who killed two members of his platoon and wounded fifteen more and Hasan Nidal who killed thirteen...