FBI Foils Terror Attack on Congress
By Matthew Vadum
A Muslim convert trying to join the Islamic State terrorist group was arrested by the FBI in Ohio yesterday for plotting to bomb the United States Capitol and murder government employees.
The uncovering of the alleged plan of 20-year-old Christopher Lee Cornell to detonate pipe bombs around the Capitol and shoot people in the complex is especially impressive because the Obama administration has placed politically correct handcuffs that limit federal investigators.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) praised the FBI, adding that the Cornell arrest is also “an important reminder of the very real threat that radical Islam continues to pose to the homeland.”
Cornell hails from Ohio, a hotbed of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) activity. CAIR, a Muslim Brotherhood front group, has been designated a terrorist group by the United Arab Emirates. CAIR has offices in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus.
Karen Dabdoub, executive director of CAIR’s Cincinnati chapter, told the Cincinnati Enquirer, “I haven’t heard of him.”
Cornell stands accused of “Attempted Killing of a U.S. Government Officer” (Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 1114) and “Possession of Firearm in Furtherance of Attempted Crime of Violence” (Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 924(c)).
Starting last year Cornell used a Twitter account under the name Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah, FBI Special Agent T.A. Staderman, a member of the FBI’s Cincinnati-Dayton Joint Terrorism Task Force, said in a sworn criminal complaint filed in federal court in Cincinnati yesterday.
Using Twitter, Cornell “posted statements, videos, and other content indicating his support” for Islamic State and “for violent jihad, as well as support for violent attacks committed by others in North America and elsewhere.”
