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"These additional charges hammer home the grim reality that today's homegrown terrorists are not limiting their violent plans to locations overseas, but instead are willing to set their sights on American citizens and American targets, right here at home," including the Army and Marines.
Michael C. Finton - The FBI's Fifth Top Story for the Week Ending September 25
On September 24, an FBI press release announced that "Michael C. Finton, aka., 'Talib Islam,' has been arrested on charges of attempted murder of federal employees and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction (explosives) in connection with a plot to detonate a vehicle bomb at the federal building in Springfield, Ill."
Another FBI sting was involved, again with undercover agents in a scheme now all too familiar, yet the public seems none the wiser.
According to the FBI:
Finton "dealt with undercover FBI agents and confidential sources who continuously monitored his activities up to the time of his arrest. Further, in his alleged efforts, Finton drove a vehicle containing inactive explosives to the Paul Finley Federal Building and Courthouse in Springfield and attempted to detonate them. (He's) charged....with one count of attempted murder of federal officers or employees and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction (aka, an inert, FBI-supplied explosive device)." If convicted, he faces possible life imprisonment.
On September 27, New York Times writer Dirk Johnson headlined "Suspect in Illinois Bomb Plot 'Didn't Like America Very Much," so he planned to blow up part of it. He worked as a fry cook at Seals Fish & Chicken in Springfield, IL and is described by co-workers, according to Johnson, as "cheerful and polite, but unwavering when it came to religion and politics." So are many people, but that doesn't make them "terrorists."
Neighbors in his apartment building called him "mild-mannered" in expressing shock about the charges. A Brandon Jackson said they played chess, card games and watched soccer on television, after which Finton took him out for pizza. Vivian Laster was "baffled" that this "nice young man" was charged with such a plot. Others said he was excited to be a Muslim and occasionally he wrote articles for the Richland Community College student newspaper about campus-related entertainment activities, not the usual topic for a jihadist.
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