Has the word entrapment disappeared from the vernacular? It took them [FBI] A YEAR to get this idiot to strap on a fake vest and go walking around the Capitol. How much more obvious can it get that they are desperate to find actual terrorists when they have to spend all that time and energy to set up some moron illegal.
Federal agents arrest man who allegedly planned suicide bombing on U.S. CapitolBy William Branigin and Del Quentin Wilber
Updated: Saturday, February 18, 7:26 AM
The FBI and the U.S. Capitol Police arrested a Moroccan man Friday in downtown Washington after a lengthy investigation into
an alleged plot to carry out a suicide attack on the Capitol.
Amine el-Khalifi, 29, was picked up while carrying
an inoperable gun and
a fake suicide vest provided to him by undercover FBI agents posing as al-Qaeda associates, U.S. officials said. They said he entered the United States when he was 16.
Khalifi, an illegal immigrant living in Alexandria, Va.,
had been under investigation for about a year and had overstayed his visitor visa for years, the Associated Press reported, citing a counterterrorism official and a government official briefed on the matter.
The first official word of the arrest came in a cryptic news release from the Capitol Police that said an unidentified individual was arrested “in the area of the U.S. Capitol” but that “at no time was the public or congressional community in any danger.”
The statement said the arrest “was the culmination of a lengthy and extensive operation during which the individual was closely and carefully monitored.”
The statement provided no other details, but a U.S. official said a Moroccan man was picked up near the Labor Department
on his way to the Capitol for what he thought would be a suicide attack. He was carrying with him a vest that he believed was packed with explosives but that actually contained harmless material, officials said.
The man thought he was being assisted by members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network, but they were really undercover FBI agents, officials said.
“We can confirm that there has been an arrest of a suspect in Washington, D.C., in connection with a terrorism investigation,” said Peter Carr, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride in Virginia, where the investigation is centered.
“
The arrest was the culmination of an undercover operation during which the suspect was closely monitored by law enforcement,” Carr said in a statement. “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. Additional information will be forthcoming at the appropriate time.”
The FBI issued a similar statement. One FBI source said agents had been working the investigation for several months and confirmed that the target was the U.S. Capitol.
The Moroccan man entered the United States with a family member, and
at some point, he came to the attention of the FBI, said a law enforcement official.
Undercover FBI agents gave the man inoperable explosives and a gun, and he was followed Friday into the District, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.The man was arrested in a parking lot near the Labor Department, which is just a few blocks from the Capitol, according to the official.
Fox News, which first reported the man’s alleged intention to carry out a suicide mission against the Capitol, said the investigation began after he expressed interest in conducting an attack but that it was unclear how the FBI learned of his aspirations.
More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/federal-agents-arrest-man-who-allegedly-planned-suicide-bombing-on-us-capitol/2012/02/17/gIQAtYZ7JR_story.html
