Washington DC Metro bombing plot: Why those particular stations (esp. Court House metro?)?

[No_Wikipedia_Cites]

In the latest news, word on the street is that there was a plot to bomb certain metro stations, three ‘blue line’ ones that service the Pentagon and all the millitary personnel that would be on the metro, but also, the orange line stop of Court House – completely distinct from the blue line military thing.

Why Court House metro? I don’t get the juxtaposition between Pentagon/Crystal City on one hand (big, big, big federal government military presence) and Arlington County Courthouse on the other (Virginia lawyers in suits too big for them arguing for damages in the latest fender-bender).

???

[Caffeine.addict]

The only thought I have is that Courthouse is a busy station on the Orange Line. Those trains are packed by Courthouse so a bomb there would kill a lot of people.

[Peremensoe]

The FBI apparently selected most of the targets. This fellow seems to have mainly just gone along with what they proposed to him.

@Spencer S. Hsu / Washington Post

Farooque Ahmed, 34, of Loudoun County never suggested any attacks inside the United States, and the plot to attack Metro was hatched by government operatives posing as terrorists, according to court records unsealed Thursday.
…
At a July 19 meeting in Northern Virginia, Ahmed was told his work was being used to prepare bomb attacks at the Arlington Cemetery, Court House and Pentagon City Metro stops in Arlington - stations used heavily by military personnel, civilian Pentagon employees and contractors - as well as at a hotel in the District.

“AHMED replied that those were good targets that contained many people,” Dayoub wrote.

Ahmed also agreed to conduct surveillance at the Rosslyn and Pentagon City Metro stations and the Pentagon City mall. Eventually, Ahmed recommended another target, the Crystal City Metro station, and offered to provide Metro cards and other assistance in the plot, the FBI wrote.

So the station list mentioned–and in fact the targeting of Metro to begin with–doesn’t mean anything. Some therefore question the reaction.

@David Alpert

Metro transit police are already pondering instituting useless “security theater” methods like random bag searches.
…the idea to bomb Metro came from the FBI. In other words, no terrorist (that we know of) actually was planning to hit Metro. The FBI could easily have suggested any other target. If they had suggested Ben’s Chili Bowl, would we now be talking about the need to beef up security in half-smoke shops?

[paperbackwriter]

A lot of federal workers live out along the Orange line, too, so maybe that was a factor? I remember trying to get onto an Orange line train at Ballston when the federal work force was getting off was like being a salmon swimming the wrong way.

[jayjay]

@paperbackwriter

A lot of federal workers live out along the Orange line, too, so maybe that was a factor? I remember trying to get onto an Orange line train at Ballston when the federal work force was getting off was like being a salmon swimming the wrong way.

If you’re lucky, you get to spawn!

[Quercus]

@paperbackwriter

A lot of federal workers live out along the Orange line, too, so maybe that was a factor?

So you’re saying the FBI picked it so as to frighten the maximum number of federal workers? (Especially ones who might have some oversight/budget authority over the FBI).

Depressingly plausible.

[Giles]

I’d have thought that for maximum impact on federal workers, you’d go for L’Enfant Plaza station – surrounded by federal office buildings, and the junction of four Metro lines and the Virginia Railway Express. Not that I’d actually advocate such a thing myself.