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FBI Arrests Ohio 'Mommy’s Boy' for Plotting Islamic State-Inspired Attack

Christopher Cornell, 20, was a recent convert to Islam and allegedly planning to blow up the US Capitol. But his dad said that he "never talked about violence to me or to his mother."
Image via AP/Butler County Jail

A recent convert to Islam has been arrested in Ohio for allegedly planning a bombing and gun attack on the US Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Christopher Cornell, from Green Township, has been charged with trying to kill US government officers, court documents reveal. The 20-year-old was arrested on Wednesday, after purchasing two semi-automatic rifles and around 600 rounds of ammunition from a gun store.

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Cornell reportedly caught the eye of FBI after lauding extremist groups like the Islamic State on Twitter — under the alias Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah. But Cincinnati Special Agent in Charge John Barrios has insisted that Cornell never actually posed a threat to the public.

Speaking with journalists, Mr. Cornell's father said that his son converted to Islam after becoming "lost and vulnerable" at high school. But John Cornell insisted that his son could not "have carried out any kind of terrorist plot…. He never talked about any kind of violence to me or to his mother. He is a mummy's boy, he tells his mummy everything."

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Back in August, a confidential source reportedly alerted the FBI to Cornell's Twitter feed. The informant then helped agency officials collect intel on their suspect in exchange for lenient treatment on an unrelated and unspecified offense.

Cornell reportedly revealed to the source, in an online message, that he wanted to "wage jihad" — but admitted that he had not been in touch with Islamic State leaders directly and was still in need of weapons.

'We already got a thumbs up from the Brothers over there and Anwar al-Awlaki before his martyrdom.'

"I believe we should meet up and make our own group in alliance with the Islamic State here and plan operations ourselves," he allegedly wrote.

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In another message, Cornell allegedly told the source: "We already got a thumbs up from the Brothers over there and Anwar al-Awlaki before his martyrdom."

Awlaki was killed in a US drone strike in 2011. He is believed to have been a leading figure within al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a Yemen-based al Qaeda affiliate that has claimed responsibility for last week's terror attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine offices in Paris.

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The FBI also said that Cornell spent time researching how to build bombs online.

In October, and then in November, Cornell and the informant met in person in Cincinnati. Cornell allegedly affirmed plans to travel to the US Capitol in Washington to detonate pipe bombs — and then, once panic ensued, shoot American lawmakers fleeing from the scene.

Cornell reportedly planned to travel to Washington this week.

Follow Katie Engelhart on Twitter: @katieengelhart