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[UPDATE] "Hippie" Couple Busted For Explosive Powder, "Terrorist Encyclopedia" In W. Village Apartment
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Dec 31, 2012
Modified Jan 4, 2013
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Dec 31, 2012
Modified Jan 4, 2013
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Police arrested a graduate of one of Manhattan's most elite prep schools and her Harvard-educated boyfriend yesterday after allegedly finding explosive powder and a sawed-off shotgun in their Greenwich Village apartment. According to court documents, Morgan Gliedman, 27, who attended the Dalton School, and Aaron Greene, 31, are charged with felony possession of an explosive with intent to use, and felony criminal possession of a weapon. The criminal complaint also claims that a "collection of pages" entitled "The Terrorist Encyclopedia" was found in the apartment.
We spoke with a neighbor who resides in the couple's walk-up apartment at 8 West 9th Street: "They're hippie types," he said. "She's always very friendly, very nice. She looks like she's eight months pregnant. He's kind of cold, not the type of person who encouraged politeness. He never said a word to me."
The neighbor, who requested that his name be withheld because the seven-unit building is "very small, and we all respect each other's anonymity," said that recently the couple had refused to let the building's management into their apartment to perform repairs. "The super had been trying to put a new counter-top in for them, but all of a sudden two weeks ago, they wouldn't let him in the apartment, so it's just sitting outside their door."
Residents were roused by the police at around 7:30 a.m. on Saturday and relocated while police executed a search warrant. Gliedman, who is pregnant, is also charged with four counts of felony grand larceny for credit card theft that police say occurred in February of this year, and a warrant squad was making the arrest when they noticed "a white powdery substance" in a plastic container in the living room.
Investigators say that substance is Hexamethylene Triperoxide Diamine (HMTD), which was one of the components in the explosives to be used by Ahmed Ressam, the "millennium bomber" who planned to bomb LAX on New Year's Eve in 1999. HMTD was also likely to be used in the foiled bombings of transatlantic flights in 2005. Sergeant Michael DiMarfio of the NYPD's bomb squad tested the powder, and the results yielded a positive for HMTD, according to the complaint.
The second Google search result of "HMTD" (after its Wikipedia page) is a link entitled "Megalomania's Method of Making HMTD." The website notes the chemical's "extreme sensitivity to heat, shock, and friction" and describes it as "a poor choice for the lesser skilled home chemist…HMTD does not store well, so deal with it immediately." This video purports to demonstrate the chemical's volatility:
And a search for "The Terrorist Encyclopedia" yields this TextFiles document, penned by "Metamorphosis," which reads like an abridged Anarchist Cookbook.
8 West 9th Street (Googlemaps)
Greene was arraigned on Sunday afternoon, and is being held without bail until his next hearing on January 4. Gliedman had yet to be arraigned as of Sunday night. According to court records Gliedman was charged with marijuana possession in February, but had taken an Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal [ACD], and her next scheduled court appearance for those charges is on January 10.
According to Gliedman's Facebook page, she attended The Dalton School, NYU's Gallatin School, and received an MFA in creative writing at the Art Institute of Chicago. The Post reports that Greene "attended Harvard as an undergraduate and did his graduate work at the university’s Kennedy School of Government" and has "five prior run-ins with the police, with the charges including, assault, and weapons possession."
The longtime resident of the West 9th Street building, who said they interacted with the couple in the hallways and in passing, told us their rent-controlled one-bedroom apartment is "very beautiful." The resident said they had lived in it for around five years, but noted they kept it messy. "It was crammed with lots of stuff. Lots of furniture, clothing, it just looked to be in disarray." Otherwise they were described as being relatively normal neighbors.
When asked if the accusations of bomb-making in the stately apartment—which is home to authors, journalists, and a former executive at Christie's—was at all surprising, the resident replied, "I'm not that surprised."
"Every time this happens they interview the dumb neighbors and they always say, 'Oh, I would have never thought they could do this!' But everyone who lives in the Village will tell you about the bomb explosion," the neighbor said, referring to the Weathermen's bomb factory at 18 West 11th Street that blew up on accident in 1970. "It's crazy that this happened, but anything can happen. Nothing surprises me anymore."
[UPDATE] Gliedman's arraignment was been postponed, and she has been taken to the hospital, according to a source. The Daily News is reporting that Gliedman is in labor, a detail the source couldn't confirm.
Greene's attorney, Lisa Pelosi, declined comment.
[UPDATE 2][UPDATE] This article originally referred to Greene as a Harvard graduate. That is incorrect. Read our correction here.
Tagged
aaron greene
bomb squad
explosives
greenwich village
HMTD
morgan gliedman
terrorism
the weathermen
white powder
original
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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