Case to proceed against Dallas terror suspect

Hosam Maher Husein Smadi is pictured in this undated family handout photo released October 1, 2009.

DALLAS (Reuters) - A Jordanian accused of attempting to blow up a Dallas skyscraper will remain in custody after a magistrate ruled on Monday there was enough evidence to proceed with the case.

Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, 19, was arrested and charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction late last month. The charge carries a maximum life sentence.

"The court rules there is probable cause (to proceed) ... Good luck to you, Mr. Smadi," Magistrate Judge Irma Ramirez said at the end of a 40-minute hearing in which the prosecution presented the basis for its case.

Smadi, clad in an orange jump suit, sat impassively through the hearing. He was led in and out of court in shackles.

Smadi, who had been under FBI surveillance, was arrested near a 60-story office tower in downtown Dallas, after he placed an inactive car bomb at the location.

Federal authorities said the public was not at risk because undercover agents had ensured the device had no explosive materials.

The lone witness during Monday's hearing, FBI special agent Thomas Petrowski, said federal authorities first became aware of Smadi's intentions to commit an act of terrorism in January through extremist web sites and chat rooms.

"He stood out because he indicated he was on U.S. soil and wanted to act," the agent said.

Smadi thought he was reaching out to an al Qaeda cell but was in fact being duped by an undercover FBI operation.

Petrowski also said Smadi had made a seven-minute video he believed would be transmitted to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

The agent said the Smadi case was not connected to a separate bomb-plot investigation in New York and Colorado and another in Illinois.

No date has been set for another hearing.

(Editing by Alan Elsner)