By Sara Thorson
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS - This city doesn't have the tallest skyscrapers, a Gateway Arch like St. Louis or a Space Needle like Seattle.

Yet it's become a terrorism target, where authorities say a plot unfolded to bomb a shopping mall.

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 size and noncelebrity status could be part of the allure.

"I think it's important that people remember that the heartland is out there," said James Ellis, a terrorism specialist with the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism in Oklahoma City, created after the bombing there in 1995. "The lesson of Oklahoma City is that terrorism can happen anywhere."

The government revealed charges Monday against Nuradin Abdi, 32, a Somali man accused of planning to blow up an unidentified mall just months after the government granted him asylum.

Though its tallest building is less than half the height of the former World Trade Center towers, Columbus' interstates, malls and even its farmlands are the type of targets that terrorists are focusing on more often, experts said Tuesday.

Highways are vulnerable to attack and a convenient way to move weapons to targets, Ellis said. Malls are symbols of thriving commerce, with many unguarded entrances, to terrorists intent on hurting the nation economically.

"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."

Col. Paul McClellan, superintendent of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, doesn't believe Ohio's capital is more vulnerable than any other city but noted that Ohio is the crossroads of interstate highways.

"Statistically, if you get anything to the state of Ohio by air, rail or water, by truck, it can reach two-thirds of the population of the rest of the country within one day," McClellan said.

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

Columbus is home to more than 30,000 Somalis, the second-largest Somali community in the United States after Minneapolis.

"We need to be careful, that people don't generalize it to say that the entire Somali portion of our community is dangerous," said Todd Stewart, director of Ohio State University's Program for International and Homeland Security. "You have a cell of radical people. Just as in any diverse population or ethnic groups, you have people that have extremist beliefs, like the skinheads."

Abdi found the Midwestern city was an agreeable place to raise a family and start a small business, friends and family say. He hated terrorists and is innocent, they said.

Abdi is charged with providing material support to al-Qaida, conspiracy to provide material support and document fraud. If convicted on all charges, he could be sentenced to up to 80 years in prison and fined $1 million.

Abdi is accused of conspiring with convicted al-Qaida operative Iyman Faris, a former Columbus truck driver who sought to sabotage the Brooklyn Bridge.

Though authorities said no specific mall was targeted, that was no comfort to Susan Miller, 23, of Westerville, as she shopped Monday for a Father's Day present at Polaris Fashion Place.

The city's central location makes it open to terrorism, Miller said.

"I think we're always going to be vulnerable for the rest of our lives," she added.

"Columbus seems like a smaller city, but it's still an easy target."