A 29-year-old Moroccan man suspected of plotting a suicide attack at the Capitol was arrested Friday near the building in an FBI sting operation, according to the FBI, U.S. Capitol Police and media reports.
?This arrest was the culmination of a lengthy and extensive operation during which the individual was closely and carefully monitored,? Capitol Police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider said in a statement. ?The U.S. Capitol Police was intimately involved in the investigation for the duration of the operation. At no time was the public or congressional community in any danger.?
Continue ReadingCBS identified the man as Amine El Khalifi, who has lived in the U.S. for more than 12 years. The man had reportedly told an undercover law enforcement officer last December that he planned to detonate a bomb at a building in Alexandria, Va., that contains U.S. military offices.
According to a court official, the man is expected to appear Friday afternoon before a federal magistrate in Alexandria, WJLA-TV reported.
Fox News, which first reported the story, said the man was carrying a suicide vest containing what he believed were explosives but the materials were actually inert. He was arrested after leaving a mosque where he was praying before heading to the Capitol, the network said, adding that the suspect believed the FBI agents that were working with him were associates of Al Qaeda.
A Capitol Police spokeswoman would not confirm where the arrest was made, but Samuel Lul, an attendant at an underground parking garage at 122 C St., NW, located behind the Charlie Palmer Steak restaurant and next to the Department of Labor just blocks away from the Capitol, told POLITICO that police had shut down the garage Friday morning.
According to Lul, about 10 a.m., police instructed him to leave the garage and sealed off an alley that gives access to the underground lot. Lul said he wasn?t told why the garage was being closed and wasn?t allowed to return until about noon.
The suspect had overstayed his visitor visa for years, and the FBI had provided him with an inoperable gun and inert explosives, officials told The Associated Press. The suspect, who is not believed to be associated with Al Qaeda, also changed his mind about his target several times before finally deciding on the Capitol, the AP said.
NBC said the man lives in Alexandria, Va., and was planning to go to the Capitol Visitor Center with the intention of setting off what he believed were explosives in an area full of people.
?We can confirm that there has been an arrest of a suspect in Washington, D.C., in connection with a terrorism investigation,? Peter Carr, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney?s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in an email. ?The arrest was the culmination of an undercover operation during which the suspect was closely monitored by law enforcement. 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.?
Scott Wong and Josh Gerstein contributed to this story.
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