The real Abdul Rahman Yasin, who remains a fugitive, is suspected in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Authorities say Smith initiated a call to the emergency 911 system from his iPad using a service that assists hearing-impaired individuals with making and receiving telephone calls.
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The threat caused police to evacuate some 3,200 people that day, rushing them off Liberty Island.
Agents from the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force have also linked the iPad, which they say was registered in his name, to two threats in May from someone identifying himself as “Isis allah Bomb maker”. Canine units alerted to the area of the visitor lockers at the base of the Statue of Liberty, prompting law enforcement officers and emergency responders to evacuate people who were on Liberty Island at the time.
Court papers show Smith has been arrested for making such calls before. Smith’s threat was subsequently determined to be unfounded, prosecutors say. The investigator wrote that he later learned Smith said he had attended a school for the deaf and blind. From January 29 to January 31 alone, Smith’s account was used to make a total of 18 911 calls, officials claimed.
He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Jason Paul Smith of Lubbock, Texas, called the city’s 911 in April, saying he was an Islamic State-connected terrorist named Abdul Yasin and was preparing to blow up the Statue of Liberty, according to the complaint filed in Manhattan federal court.
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Smith, who is from Harts, West Virginia – about an hour from the capital of Charleston – was charged with conveying false and misleading information and hoaxes.
