The United States Capitol
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A Moroccan man was arrested Friday as he sought to carry out a suicide attack on the US Capitol under the watch of the FBI, which was conducting a sting, officials said.
The FBI said it conducted an undercover operation as part of a longstanding terrorism probe of the suspect, who was arrested blocks from the Capitol building as he allegedly hoped to detonate what he believed to be live explosives.
“Explosives the suspect allegedly sought to use in connection with the plot had been rendered inoperable by law enforcement and posed no threat to the public,” the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.
US officials identified the man as Amine El Khalifi.
US media reported that the 29-year-old suspect was arrested after he accepted a suicide vest which he believed was filled with explosives, but that actually contained harmless material.
Authorities briefed US lawmakers — who gather in the Capitol building to debate and vote on legislation — on Khalifi’s arrest.
“The brazen nature of this plot — targeting the US Capitol building with the aim of killing innocent people and desecrating a symbol of our democracy — is disturbing,” Republican Senator Susan Collins said in a statement.
“While we are still learning details, this plot appears to be yet another example of radicalized extremists attempting to attack Americans from within our borders.”
Collins, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, said she was “alarmed at the growth of homegrown terrorist plots,” and pointed to figures which show a sharp rise in such thwarted plots in recent years.
According to the Congressional Research Service, between May 2009 and February 9, 2012 arrests were made in connection with 36 homegrown plots by Americans or legal permanent US residents, compared to 21 such plots between September 11, 2001 and May 2009.
Friday’s arrest was startling in that it marked a plot by a US-based suspect apparently intent on blowing himself up, whereas several previous sting operations foiled plots that did not necessarily involved a suicide attack.
While US authorities have been on alert to terrorism plots in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, in which terrorists flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, “I think we have this false sense that a suicide bombing… is unlikely to happen here,” said Frances Townsend, former homeland security advisor to president George W. Bush.
“We shouldn’t assume that we’re immune from it here,” she told CNN.
The police force responsible for security at the Capitol said it was intimately involved in the “lengthy and extensive” operation from the start, and “at no time was the public or congressional community in any danger.”
AFP
