Sami Samir Hassoun, 22, is a resident alien from Lebanon, coming to the country a few years ago. He lives above a series of stores in the 4700-block of N. Kedzie. Those who know Hassoun said he seemed like a pretty typical 22-year-old. They said he liked to date and considered becoming a doctor.
The FBI intercepted and stopped Hassoun’s plan to set off explosives in Chicago’s Wrigleyville neighborhood.
The FBI says he went to the corner of Clark and Addison in Wrigleyville Saturday night with what he thought was an explosives-filled backpack 20 minutes away from detonation. Turns out that the explosives were fake and were given to him by an FBI informant.
Over the last several months, Hassoun allegedly talked to an FBI informant in secretly recorded conversations about setting off car bombs, perhaps poison the city’s water supply, and assassinate Mayor Daley.
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Hassoun is charged with placing what he though was an explosives-filled backpack in a trash can outside Slugger’s sports bar across the street from Wrigley Field.
‘He wanted to make a statement, and he wanted to replace the mayor of Chicago,’ said FBI Special Agent-In-Charge Robert Grant. ‘He was unhappy, obviously, with the way the city was running, but he was also unhappy with things that were happening in other parts of the world.’
‘His intent was to kill as many people as he could, and, in an area of town that was highly populated at that time of night, to create as much destruction as possible,’ said Grant.
The head of the FBI in chicago said the confidential informant is the real hero in this story, bringing Hassoun to their attention more than a year ago.
If convicted, Hassoun faces five years to life in prison.
