A U.S. Capitol police officer. Yahoo/Reuters
An Ohio man was arrested for a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol building. Yahoo/Reuters. Christopher Cornell, 20 years old, researched building pipe bombs and bought a rifle to attack the Capitol building. Cornell, using the nom de guerre Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah, has shown support for ISIS on Twitter. Cornell told an FBI informant that his plan was to throw pipe bombs at the Capitol building and then shoot people. The FBI claims that the public was never in danger.
My Comment:
Obviously there is no relation to this suspect and the singer from Soundgarden and Audioslave. Just thought I would point that out.
As for the story itself, I wonder if this isn't one of those cases where the FBI entrapped someone. The FBI has a history of creating its own monsters with these sting operations. Of course it is very possible that Cornell would have been radicalized no matter what, but the FBI may have helped him along. Of course the fact that Cornell was willing to buy weapons and had a plan means that he probably had to be dealt with no matter what.
Do I think this was a serious threat? Not really. Talking about supporting ISIS on Twitter is a great way to bring attention to yourself. And his plan was pretty terrible. The U.S. Capitol building is a "hard target" and any attack would end quickly. The real threat isn't the guys that broadcast their support on Twitter and attack well defended targets. It's the guys that don't tell anyone what they are planning and attack "soft targets" that aren't nearly as well defended.
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