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Bloomberg: Terror Plot Is Reminder That 'Freedom Is Fragile'

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Mayor Bloomberg said Wednesday's arrest of Bangladesh native Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis shows the city remains a major terrorist target.

"This is something like the 15th time that we know about where somebody has wanted to attack us," Bloomberg told reporters including WCBS 880's John Metaxas. "We saw yesterday and you saw in the papers today another person who wanted to take away the freedoms that we have, take away our ability to be in charge of our own destiny."

WCBS 880's John Metaxas reports

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Bloomberg said this incident should remind New Yorkers to not become complacent.

"The great danger is we're going to forget the lesson that should have been taught to us back on 9/11/01 - freedom is fragile and we've got to work very hard to make sure that we keep ourselves safe and that we don't let our guard down," Bloomberg said. "The world is a dangerous place and we're going to have to keep fighting to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to enjoy the freedoms that some people around the world find so threatening."

Wednesday morning, federal officials said Nafis, 21, and an undercover agent drove a truck filled with inoperable explosives to lower Manhattan and parked it outside the Federal Reserve.

Nafis had allegedly planned to set off a bomb at the Federal Reserve Bank. He was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday after making several attempts to detonate a fake 1,000-pound bomb inside a vehicle parked next to the Federal Reserve, according to the criminal complaint.

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