COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - This city doesn't have the tallest skyscrapers or any high-profile monuments. Yet Columbus is where authorities say terrorists plotted to bomb a shopping mall. The city's interstates, malls and even its farmlands are the type of ``soft targets'' that terrorists are focusing on more often, experts said.
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The attraction could be Columbus' central location in a state easily accessible to much of the nation and a diverse population that allows outsiders to blend in. Even its modest size and its ordinariness could be part of the allure.

Malls are symbols of thriving commerce to terrorists intent on hurting the nation economically, and they have many unguarded entrances.

`It really doesn't have the same symbolic value of attacking something that is a large monument or a symbol of military power,'' Ellis said. ``But out of frustration or because it's kind of an amateurish do-it-yourself group, they could go for softer targets.''

Terrorists also pick communities where they are more likely to blend in, experts said. Columbus' population of more than 710,000 is almost 32 percent minority, about 7 percentage points more than the U.S. population.

Abdi is charged with providing material support to al-Qaida, conspiracy and document fraud. If convicted, he could get up to 80 years in prison.