WASHINGTON, Aug 15: US officials were leaving out key facts and exaggerating the significance of the alleged plot to smuggle a shoulder-launched missile into the United States, ABC News said on Friday.

The missile shipped into the New York area last month was not a real missile — just a mockup — arranged entirely by the US government, said the ABC News quoting senior law enforcement officials.

The report said that the government also arranged the meetings at a New Jersey hotel and elsewhere, where accused ringleader Hemant Lakhani allegedly told undercover agents that he supports Osama bin Laden. The agents were posing as Al Qaeda terrorists.

Lakhani, a British national, appeared on Wednesday in federal court in Newark, N.J, and was ordered held without bond on charges of attempting to provide material support and material resources to terrorists and acting as an arms broker without a license.