The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrested a 20-year-old man for allegedly plotting an attack on the US Capitol in Washington. The man, who recently converted into Islam, is said to have come under the FBI scanner because of his tweets in support of extremist groups.
![[Image: Hisham Ibrahim/Getty Images]](http://www.spectralhues.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/uscapitol.jpeg)
[Image: Hisham Ibrahim/Getty Images]
Mr Cornell, who supposedly operated Twitter handle with the name Rahel Mahrus Ubaydah, had come under scrutiny through a confidential FBI source. The FBI later traced him.
On Wednesday, he was arrested after he purchased firearms. Reports in the media suggest that an undercover agent had been tracking Mr Cornell for a long time.
His father, who spoke to ABC News after his arrest said that his son was not capable of carrying out an attack, though he agreed that his son may have posted angry messages about violent jihad.
The BBC News reported that Mr Cornell allegedly told the source he had not been directly authorised by Islamic State leaders overseas to undertake attacks but wanted to “wage jihad under our own orders”.
BBC quoted Mr Cornell’s message as showed in the document: “I believe we should meet up and make our own group in alliance with the Islamic State here and plan operations ourselves.”
Mr Cornell told the FBI source about his need for weapons, during a meeting in October last year, though he refused to share his plan then. It was only at their second meeting that he opened up his plan of attacking the US Capitol in Washington and shooting employees and officials there.
He was arrested from Ohio by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, after he had bought two M-15 semi-automatic rifles and 600 rounds of ammunition.
Tags: FBI US Capotol
