Timeline of Dallas terror case

A timeline of some key events in the Smadi terror case:

September-October 2007: Hosam Smadi, who has entered the United States on a visitor’s visa, stays with a retired Jordanian businessman and his family in San Jose, Calif., for several weeks.

October 2007-February 2008: Smadi and his brother live in a small apartment complex at 2705 Homestead in Santa Clara, Calif. They move out when their unit accidentally catches fire.

Sometime in 2007: The brothers attend high school in the Santa Clara Unified School District. Smadi drops out after only a couple of months. His brother, Hussein, attends at least a year. Neither graduates.

February 2008: Smadi is living in Italy, Tx., a small town outside of Dallas. He gets a job working at Texas Best Smokehouse, a restaurant and travel stop off Interstate 35E in Italy.

July 16, 2008: Smadi marries an Ellis County woman, Rosalinda Duron.

January 2009: The FBI begins to monitor Smadi among a group of extremists online because of his "vehement intention to actually conduct terror attacks in the United States."

Early March 2009: An undercover FBI employee, posing as a senior member of an al Qaeda sleeper cell, begins communicating with Smadi online.

March 19, 2009: Smadi, believing he is communicating with an al Qaeda member, states his desire and intent to commit jihad.

April 7, 2009: After undercover FBI employees tell Smadi that he doesn’t have to die to commit jihad, Smadi responds: "I have chosen to be a Mujahid (a Muslim engaged in jihad) with myself, blood, soul and body."

May 12, 2009: Smadi meets with an undercover FBI employee at a Dallas hotel. When the agent asks what he would have done if he hadn’t found their sleeper cell, Smadi replies that he would have continued to look for an extremist group to be part of, even if he had go to Palestine and join Hamas or Pakistan and join the Taliban. "I want to destroy ... targets ... everything that helps America on its war on Arabs will be targeted."

June 24, 2009: While meeting with an undercover FBI employee at a Dallas hotel, Smadi states that he wants to target the buildings belonging to the biggest credit-card companies because credit is what drives America. Smadi tells the employee that the attack will be done by remote detonation of timed explosives.

July 21, 2009: An undercover FBI employee picks up Smadi in Italy and drives him to 1445 Ross Ave. in Dallas, where the 60-story Fountain Place is located. Smadi goes into the building and conducts his own reconnaissance. Afterward, Smadi and the undercover employee go to a Dallas hotel room, where Smadi makes a 7-minute video that he believes will be given to Osama bin Laden.

Aug. 11, 2008: Smadi’s brother, Hussein, 18, encounters legal trouble in Santa Clara, Calif., where he is arrested on one count of possession of methamphetamine. He has pleaded not guilty.

Aug. 26, 2009: Smadi meets the undercover FBI employee in a Dallas hotel room and discusses the logistics of bombing Fountain Place.

Sept. 20, 2009: Smadi tells the undercover employee that he is ready.

Sept. 22: Smadi moves out of his dome-shaped apartment in Italy and into a small, tan mobile home in rural Hill County.

Sept. 24: Smadi is arrested for attempting to blow up Fountain Place. He drove a truck, which he believed held a live bomb, and parked it in the garage under Fountain Place. He then allegedly sat in a car parked a safe distance away and attempted to detonate the "bomb" by dialing a cellphone that he thought would ignite the blast.

Sept. 24: Smadi’s brother, Hussein, is arrested by immigration officials on visa violations in California. Officials say he is not connected to the Dallas plot.

Oct. 5: Prosecutors outline their case against Smadi during a probable cause hearing in federal court in Dallas. The judge rules that enough evidence exists to hold him for further proceedings.

Sources: Federal arrest warrant affidavit, interviews, published reports.

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