one man, four metro stations. tonight federal investigators trying to get to the bottom of a terror plot targeting our subway. we'll have the latest in a few

minutes. but we have to get over to topper for the latest on an afternoon full of watches, warnings and rough weather out there. >> we're getting toward the end here. we're in the final stretch, if you will. we'll start with titan. the tornado watch continues. essentially i-95 eastward until 8:00. thunderstorms around fredericksberg and south of charlottesville another batch of showers and thunderstorms. everything moving up to the north and east. now going to live doppler 9000 and we do have another batch of storms. one around la plata. this is kind of weak. but this storm around fredericksberg is more intense, if you will. and that's why we're still under the watch until 8:00. we'll come back and track this storm for you and let you know what the storms mean to your morning commute. derek, back to you. now back to the terror plot arrest. a man from ashburn virginia was casing the pentagon city, crystal city, arlington national cemetery and courthouse metro station for a

possible terror attack. he thought he was helping al- qaeda but surae chinn is live at the courthouse station with more on the guy actually talking to fbi agents. >> reporter: derek, tonight the takeaway experts say is more security at our metrorail system. according to these court documents, fbi agents undercover and posing as al- qaeda members say they found an ashburn man more than willing to carry out attacks right here at the metro station, pentagon city being one of them. 34-year-old faroque ahmad arrested and indicted on three counts of trying to provide and collect information for al- qaeda. according to court documents, he told whom he thought was al- qaeda, but they were undercover fbi agents, quote, between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. would be the best time to stage an attack to cause the most casualties. it said he met in hotel rooms in sterling, dulles and herndon when he allegedly suggested,

quote, rolling suitcases instead of backpacks to contain bombs to be explode the at metrorail stations in arlington and simultaneous attacks in 2011. court documents say fbi agents told him to check several metro stations, arlington cemetery, arlington courthouse and pentagon city. then he allegedly came back saying crystal city would also be a good target. he took pictures and provided them on a thumb drive. former fbi counter terrorism experts say it showed just how vulnerable metro is. >> now at what time are we going to take the security serious at the metrorail system. if something were to happen here in the washington, d.c. area, it would not only cripple the government, it would cripple the capitol and shut everything down. >> but not if it's going to happen, but when? >> an attack, no matter the

severity, how less or great, if we thwart it before it happens. >> reporter: remember, there was no danger to anyone here at the metrorail. there was an fbi sting operation but clearly it raises the question just how many people are out there willing to carry out attacks if they were approached to do so. reporting live in arlington, surae chinn, 9 news now. >> and many questions raised tonight. we want to know more about the man who is behind this or alleged by so. he is 34-year-old faroque ahmad and an accused terrorist now. but to his neighborhood he was a familiar face and even a friend to some of them. and gary nuremburg is live. what do they have to say about the guy? >> reporter: we should say he's a pakistan native who became a naturalized citizen. a student of american university with engineering experience. he worked installing routers for a phone company here. remember what he was allegedly trying to do.

keep that in mind as you listen to how his next door neighborhood heard the news. >> i was upset. i was on the metro when i got the e mail and started getting phone calls from my neighbors saying what was happening and i immediately knew who it was because i knew him a little bit and knew his name. it was upsetting, traveling home from work and to find out that your neighbor was plotting something like that is pretty crazy. >> you could have been one of his victims. >> absolutely. >> reporter: fab youk amed and his family moved to this home a year ago. the next door neighbor on the other side. >> the government said he wants to kill as many people as he could. >> that makes me angry. it does make me angry. if he's a naturalized citizen, you can come into the country and -- but i was angry when i heard that he wanted to do that. >> he was nice to you. >> he was.

he was nice to me. he invited me to look through the telescope and things like that. we didn't have a lot of interactions but they all seemed normal. >> reporter: someone said if the government is right normal won't apply any more. one of the family cars sits on the street in front of the home. when he arrived in virginia he began accumulating traffic citations but no criminal record of any severity. if he's convicted of these charges, however, he could face 50 years in prison. >> gary nuremburg. and now as you might imagine metro has a few things to say this afternoon at a press conference. brittany morehouse has more coverage. >> reporter: did metro and police know about this case from the beginning? the answer is yes. and was anyone in danger? the the police are emphasizing absolutely not. and the question that may raise eyebrows is does this case change anything about how they are handling security now and the plans for the future and

here is what metro transit police chief michael taye born had to say about that. >> what it does is makes us aware there are people intent on causing harm to american citizens and we have to be vigilant to make sure if we do see something and say something. it may be the smallest thing but it may be important for law enforcement agencies. >> reporter: now he added that transit is an open environment. they don't have a lot of technology to be able to prevent such future attacks. what they do have is the trust is they have good employee training, and good public awareness and continue to have enhanced security screening measures that they will improve on in the future. now there were a lot of questions asked about this case in particular, was there any evidence that metro provided, any riders or employees who saw something and helped the fbi with this case and all of those questions, metro punted to the fbi. >> more to know but we won't find it out tonight. and thank you, brittany.

and to read metro's whole statement go to wusa9.com. we have the charging documents in the case against faroque ahmad. and dave calhoon in the traffic center. >> still lingering delays. i-66 heavy from nutley street to pass route 123. nothing reported in the roadway. southbound i-395, very nice ride from the district down to springfield. it's cleared out nicely. in maryland, northbound i-270 still some lingering delays between clopper road and middlebrook road. and in college park some road work to talk about. this is a water main break, northbound route 1 at campus drive blocking the right lane. back to you. still to come, getting ready for the busy weekend. what you need to know in order to get around. but first we'll speak with a local terrorism expert about today's arrest concerning that plot against the metro. and i'm topper shutt. we now have tornado warnings again for king george and spotsylvania. these are the storms. we'll come back and track them

and they'll head into maryland and across the river shortly. full forecast coming up.

well joining me now to offer more insight on the fbi sting with the terrorist with designs on at least four minute row stations. neal cornerstone from a crisis management firm here in d.c. and neal, thank you for coming in. big, scary plan and perhaps a lot of casualties in the making. nobody got hurt. but should we take comfort in that? >> i think we should take comfort. because we've had a lot of plots over the past 18-24 months and with the exception of major hasan, the guy who walked into fort hood and opening fire, none of the plots have really come down. the underwear bomber failed. the times square bomber failed.

so we've got to say the government has been doing a pretty good job. >> but that's the question, are they so bad or are we so good? >> it's a combination. actually they've sent some folks over here that didn't really have all of the training that they probably could have used. at the same time, this guy is the type of guy that we're concerned about because he was a lone operator who decided to join the jihad. we still don't know how he got recruited. and he couldn't build the bombs he needed so he linked up with some other people. they turned out to be fbi. >> that's the other question. is this the face of terror we ought to worry about. the guy has been here for 17 years, naturalized u.s. citizen, that the kind of person that we have to be scared of. >> the lone operator is the most dangerous because when you have a conspiracy, it takes one person to make a mistake and

you unravel the whole conspiracy. and this follows on the heels of two tapes coming out of al- qaeda and they said people should step up and join the jihad and shoot up restaurants in washington or drive pickup trucks into crowds. >> obviously somebody was listen to that. what does it make to meet somebody from al-qaeda? i want to say to these guys, if you can meet them, they're probably not from al-qaeda and they are probably fbi. >> we don't know the fbi probably won't tell us a lot of detail in this case. whether this guy went to someone in -- on the web that he thought was al-qaeda, whether he found this person in a mosque, we don't know yet. but there clearly are cre reuters in -- recruiters in this country and so they have some bad actors here. but at the same time we have people posing as al-qaeda jihadists to do what the fbi did today. >> neal livingston.

good news. nobody hurt and perhaps somebody taken off the board. >> absolutely. >> neal, we appreciate your time. thanks for joining us. still ahead, we'll head back over to topper for the late of the on the storm alert. but first the rally to restore sanity may drive you insane. what you need to know about the weekend's march and perhaps getting around in the middle of it. that's up next.

well back now with a live look at the traffic just moving right along route 27 at the

pentagon tonight. it looks great. the entire road will be closed down on sunday for the marine corp marathon. just one of the events making for a busy weekend all over the area. saturday we have the howard university homecoming parade and the red bull sound class. there is also the government doesn't suck march and the rally to restore sanity and fear. all of that down on the national mall and today after weeks of speculation we learned more about the plans for the sanity rally. lindsey mastis brings us those details. >> reporter: crews began setting up after they got their permit finalized by the national park service. in it details about saturday's event, including the stuff comedy central has been hush- hush about. >> i'm not familiar with who is on the guest list. >> we don't have a clue. it keeps changing by the minute. >> reporter: according to the

permit, sheryl crow will be form but only on stage for five minutes. >> that makes me want to come even more. >> she's a good singer. >> reporter: the roots will play and sam waterson will read a poem. there will be dressing rooms for the stars and the stage will have two huge l.e.d. screens. and remember when they were having problems finding port-o- potties. there will be 500 of them for the event. crews have a couple of more days to finish setting up and comedy central wants to make sure there is an area for families to accommodate 5,000 guests. i'm lindsey mastis, 9 news now. and comedy central said they expect 60,000 folks to come down for the event. and as you might expect, a lot of streets will be closed for the rally and all of those events i mentioned a few minutes ago. log on to wusa9.com and click on the "extra" button for a full list. metro is not opening early to help folks get downtown.

and word from the association that uses the two-wheel devises may not be the way to g. the group typically provides bike valets at big events like this weekend's rallies but the organizers were not interested in providing such a service so no-go. so to get into d.c. this weekend and thinking you could avoid the events by coming across chain bridge? no. commuter alert says no. the chain bridge is closed again this weekend so the d.c. department of transportation can hopefully complete the repair project going on for a year now. the bridge will close friday night at 8:00. crews hope to have it open again by sunday morning. and we get the breezes and the lightning on that map that says our rough times are not quite done. >> not quite. we're nearing the finish line but we do have a tornado warning in effect for westmoreland county until 7:45. and it may jump the river.

and you folks in southern maryland, get ready. it may follow the same pattern. let's start with titan and give you a wider view of the thunderstorms. and again we have one more little batch pushing through. and here is the deal. the watch has been trimmed a little bit so essentially it just covered southern maryland. it no longer covers prince george's county, anne arundel county. it's just southern maryland and south and east. and this is why. this is the storms that prompted the warning down into westmoreland county. and there is still thunderstorms back to the south and the west. although i think this wave back here will probably pass and maybe clip southern maryland and go into delmarva. let's go to live doppler 9000. you can access this any time on wusa9.com. north and west of town we are fine. a little sprinkle north of frederick and that's it. by and large everything has been south of town and no exception. this is what has prompted the warning in westmoreland county. it will go across the river and moving east northeast at 36 miles per hour.

so we are looking at a fast timetable as it moves into southern charles county and into northern st. marys county. you folks in newberg take precautions and get away from the windows and get to the basement or interior room because this is the track of the next hour. through meck andsville and over 4 and then off to the north and east. so this line indicates a track and it's exactly where it's going to go. let's good to the -- go to the computer. giving you the wide picture. look at this storm. the center of the storm is north of the great lakes. see this swirl, that's the center. producing snow in the plains. and the frontal system extends from maine down to the gulf of mexico. an enormous storm. the frontal system is not through us yet. consequently we still have a few left over showers. but when it clears out, we won't get cold right away. we'll have a nice night tonight and nice day tomorrow. and here are the last batch of showers and thunderstorms pushing through.

there is the last batch right there. let's talk about the next three days. because we'll be in good shape tomorrow, 75. 65 on friday, chilly for high school football. 62 on saturday. nice for homecoming for maryland and also for howard university as well. day planner for tomorrow, 62 to start. a few clouds, but you'll need your sunglasses. 70 by lunchtime, 74 by evening. so all in all we'll recover nicely after this severe weather. once again a tornado watch well south and east of town until 8:00. derek. >> thank you, top. have you ever called in sick to work when you weren't exactly actually under the weather. well tonight we're hearing all kind of doesies folks try to use. a new survey finds that 29% of workers say they have called in sick when they were perfectly healthy. and those mental health days are being blamed on the continued stress and burnout from our bad economy. among some of the better

excuses we read, a chicken attacked my mom. my finger is stuck in a bowling ball. i've got to mow the lawn to avoid a lawsuit from the homeowner's association. and my favorite, a cow broke into the house and i'm waiting for the insurance agent. we put that question to you on our facebook page and sandry richard writes, i once was in a training class for managers when we discussed this. one of the managers had an employee call in drunk. i think that's a great excuse for not wanting that employee at work. but would you even want him there the day after he called in drunk. you can share your thoughts on our facebook page or with mcginty's mail bag at wusa9.com. we want to hear what you think. send your e-mails to mcginty's mail bag at wusa9.com. 9 news now will be right back.

woman 1 sync: i knew what bob ehrlich did as governor. man 1 sync: raised my property taxes 60 percent. woman 2 sync: let utilities hike our rates 72 percent. woman 1 sync: but i didn't know what he's done since he got fired as governor. man 2: ehrlich's raked in millions. man 3: he worked for a wall street bank that took 10 billion dollars from the bailout. woman 3: 10 billion of our money. woman 4: our money. woman 5 sync: and he worked for another bank that collapsed. man 4: costing tax payers 17 million. anncr: tell bob ehrlich big banks don't need help. middle class marylanders do.

in the mail bag tonight, the infamous video from move on.org being stopped by a candidate for rand paul. deb from arl said what is wrong with you people. we've lost decorum and politeness and people are ready to pop on someone, often an innocent. i believe a lot of it is

discretion and taking out woes on the most closest person. but greg from chantilly said stomp? did you watch the video? the video saw what i saw showed a foot being applied on the shoulder of the victim. did i miss something? stomping did not happen in the video that i saw? what did the victim do being warranted being taken to the ground. let's show you the video in question. outside the woman from www.moveon.org and they grabbed her wig and now we see the infamous foot come down -- there it is on the shoulder. i'm going to say that that was at least a stomp. if it didn't hit directly on the head, certainly it got her on the neck at least. and as she said, it wasn't very nice, which i always said was a bit of an understatement. so hard may be in the eye of the beholder but once again i think it was a pretty hard step

on that poor women's neck. >> let's give it that. >> north look at the weather. a tornado warning in effect for king george until 745:67:89 the watch continues into southern maryland until 8:00 and this storm will head off to the north and west. you folks in southern maryland and charles county, northern st. mary's county, calvert county, get ready. well that is our report. i'll be back here tonight at 11:00 with anita brikman and we'll have the latest on the weather. plus we're working on the 9 news now truth set. we debunked the o'malley ad and now is connelly conning them and is simeon fibbing?

>> now, "entertainment tonight," the most watched entertainment news magazine in the world. >> charlie sheen speaks out. the star comes forward with what he says really happened inside new york's plaza hotel. the new york post says that charlie was engaged in a coke and hooker rampage. >> plus what denise richards knows. >> i can't control what happens. >> robert downey, jr.'s take. >> he was not brought into custody, he's got me beat. >> david arquette uncensored about his split with courtney and other women. >> so you had sex the other night. would you see her again or was it just a one night? >> no, i'd see her again. >> we're taking you inside brad and angelina's newest mansion. >> the chandeliers, the giant pool, plus brad's new movie with tina and will. >> he smells of cinnamon.