An Ohio man said to be a sympathizer with the Islamic State was arrested for planning an attack on the U.S. Capitol, the FBI said according to CNN.
Christopher Lee Cornell expressed Islamist extremist ideals online and wanted to carry out a "violent jihad," according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday. The 20-year-old allegedly wanted to plant pipe bombs in the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. and gun people down as they ran.
Cornell's troubling social media messages, written under the alias Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah, gained the attention of the FBI sometime last year, the criminal complaint alleges.
An investigation was launched and the FBI planted an undercover source - a person who was cooperating after being charged for an unrelated crime - to make contact with Cornell, CNN reported.
Cornell told the undercover source he was in contact with a self-proclaimed ISIS member overseas, but he didn't think he would get "specific authorization to conduct a terrorist attack in the United States," according to the complaint.
Still, Cornell "wanted to go forward with violent jihad and opined that this would be their way of supporting ISIL," the complaint said, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also referred to as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The Ohio suspect allegedly said he was willing to plan his own attacks separate from the Islamic State.
"I believe that we should just wage jihad under our own orders and plan attacks and everything. I believe we should meet up and make our own group in alliance with the Islamic State here and plan operations ourselves," Cornell allegedly wrote.
He researched how to make pipe bombs, saved money for the alleged attack and bought weapons, the complaint said. He also reportedly met the FBI source in October and another time in November.
Cornell was arrested Wednesday, CNN reported. Officials said his alleged plan was only in the beginning stages and posed no actual threat.
