“He was perilously close to carrying out his plans”
The Associated Press
MIAMI, Florida (AP) --A man arrested on suspicion of plotting to bomb abortion clinics came “perilously close to carrying out his plans” after casing clinics, studying bomb-making and buying material that could be used in an attack, according to the FBI and court documents.
Stephen John Jordi, 35, was arrested Tuesday after agents arranged a meeting aboard a boat, FBI spokeswoman Beverly Esselbach said. He jumped overboard and was pulled from the ocean by the Coast Guard a half-hour later.
Jordi was in the final stages of planning imminent attacks, U.S. Attorney Marcos Jimenez said. A criminal complaint said Jordi cased several South Florida clinics and discussed bombing one in Macon, Ga.
On Tuesday, Jordi and an FBI source bought gasoline cans, flares, starter fluid and propane tanks -- including a large one filled with propane gas, the affidavit said. The source also provided Jordi a .45-caliber pistol, silencer and empty magazines in exchange for $200, the affidavit says. Jordi was arrested later that day.
The affidavit said Jordi had discussed with an FBI source possibly using C-4 plastic explosives, propane tank bombs or pipe bombs and had studied bombing methods throughout the fall.
“He was perilously close to carrying out his plans,” Esselbach said.
Jordi was charged with solicitation to commit a crime of violence; distribution of information relating to making and using explosives for arson; and possession of an unregistered firearm or destructive device.
Jordi admired Paul Hill, who was executed September 3 for killing an abortion doctor and his bodyguard outside a Pensacola clinic in 1994, Jimenez said. According to the affidavit, Jordi showed the FBI source a letter in which Hill thanked Jordi for his moral and financial support.
The affidavit also says Jordi, a former Army Ranger, hoped to be “on the run” like Eric Rudolph, who is charged with the Olympic park bombing and abortion clinic bombings. The affidavit said Jordi told an FBI source he expected to eventually be hunted by authorities: “As long as I keep hitting places ... they’ll keep after me ... but like trying to catch a cockroach in a house ... they won’t get me.”
Jimenez said the arrest affidavit “makes clear that this is a dangerous person that has now been taken off the streets.”
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force had been investigating Jordi since August.
Esselbach said Jordi’s Coconut Creek house was searched late Tuesday, but she would not comment Wednesday on what was found.
Jordi’s brother, Michael Jordi, said by telephone Wednesday that he told the FBI of the plot after learning about it in July. He said he and his brother have a poor relationship, and called him mentally unstable. He said the allegations didn’t surprise him.
“That’s why we called the FBI. Where he’s at (in custody) he needs to be,” said Michael Jordi, a Bridgeport, Alabama, resident. He refused to comment further.
Stephen Jordi was arrested in 2000 on an allegation of child abuse, but the case was dropped two months later.
Dwight Ward, Stephen Jordi’s brother-in-law, said Wednesday he thought Jordi once mentioned to a relative that he might “do something to an abortion clinic.” Ward said Jordi never specifically talked about blowing up clinics.
Jordi is “overzealous about the Lord,” but not a violent person, Ward said.
Ward said that if the allegations were true, Jordi would only “try to destroy the clinic itself, if anything. He would have done it after hours and hope no one was in there.
“He was trying to discourage the act and not the people behind it.”
A woman who answered the phone at Jordi’s address Wednesday confirmed that it was his home, but said she did not want to speak to reporters. A message left with Jordi’s public defender was not returned.
Hill was the first person put to death in the United States for anti-abortion violence, and abortion rights activists warned that his execution could lead to reprisals from extremists.
Mona Reis, director of Presidential Women’s Center in West Palm Beach, said clinics have been on heightened alert since Hill’s execution.
This fall also represents the five-year anniversary of the shooting death of Dr. Barnett Slepian by an anti-abortion activist in suburban Buffalo, New York.