Man Arrested, Charged With Plotting Terror Attack on White House

Monica Sanchez | January 17, 2019
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A man has been arrested in connection to a foiled terror attack on the White House.

The man, 21-year-old Hasher Jallal Taheb of Cumming, Georgia was arrested on Wednesday in a sting operation. He was being monitored by the FBI under suspicion that he had been radicalized.

Taheb was reportedly planning on carrying out the attack this week.    

The Associated Press reports,

A Georgia man accused of plotting to use an anti-tank rocket to storm into the White House was arrested in a sting Wednesday after he traded his car for guns and explosives, authorities said.

Hasher Jallal Taheb, 21, of Cumming was arrested Wednesday and is charged with attempting to damage or destroy a building owned by the United States using fire or an explosive, U.S. Attorney Byung J. ‘BJay’ Pak said.

A local law enforcement agency contacted the FBI in March after getting a tip from someone who said Taheb had become radicalized, changed his name and planned to travel abroad, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit filed in court.

The affidavit says Taheb told a confidential FBI source in October that he planned to travel abroad for ‘hijra,’ which the agent wrote refers to traveling to territory controlled by the Islamic State. Because he didn’t have a passport, he couldn’t travel abroad and told the FBI source that he wanted to carry out an attack in the U.S. against the White House and the Statue of Liberty.

According to the affidavit obtained by AP, Taleb met with the confidential FBI source and an undercover FBI agent multiple times in December and discussed the details of his terror plot which led to the sting operation and his arrest on Wednesday.

At one meeting, “he showed the undercover agent a hand-drawn diagram of the ground floor of the West Wing of the White House and detailed a plan for attack,” AP writes. “He asked the undercover agent to obtain the weapons and explosives needed to carry out the attack, and they discussed selling or exchanging their cars to pay for them.”

The weapons he sought to trade for his and the FBI undercover agent’s cars were semi-automatic assault rifles, three explosive devices with remote detonators, and an anti-tank rocket. He was arrested after the “exchange” took place.

Atlanta Acting Special Agent in Charge J.C. (Chris) Hacker told reporters on Wednesday that the foiled terror attack was yet "another example of how important it is to contact law enforcement if you see or hear something suspicious."

"It's important to point out that this investigation and arrest were the direct result from a tip in the community," said Hacker. 

For more, check out the AP video below. 

(Cover Photo: Flickr / The White House)
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