Illinois man indicted for trying to blow up courthouse

[discocrisco01]

Source: AFP

CHICAGO — An Illinois man who tried to blow up a federal courthouse but was stymied by undercover FBI agents posing as fellow militants was indicted Wednesday on two criminal counts.

Michael Finton, who goes by Talib Islam, is accused of parking a van that he believed contained approximately a ton of explosives outside the courthouse in the Illinois state capital of Springfield on September 23.

He then got into another vehicle driven by the undercover agent and tried to detonate the bomb with a cell phone call when they were a few blocks away. The bomb was a fake and Finton was immediately arrested.

Officials said he has been under constant surveillance by federal agents for quite some time and the public was never in danger.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hahnUYihYOsqdp9MTvFznwXNevVw

[mule_train]

1. a guy in our state tried to blow up a bus

but he burned his lips on the exhaust pipe

[Critters2]

2. Glad the FBI was on the case, and prevented Springfield from

being another Oklahoma City.

[Seldona]

3. Isn't this the second or third attack the FBI has stopped in the last two weeks?

That is a damn good track record. But the amount of attacks is starting to accelerate. I hope they are prepared.

I don't recall all that many cases in the last few years, but three in the last two weeks? Something appears to be up, more than normal anyway.

[maglatinavi]

5. attacks

Maybe they were not publicized...:shrug:

[tomm2thumbs]

4. my question is - would he be a hero to the far right if he just called himself 'Michael Finton'

without the Islamic name inserted, he'd probably be one of their new heroes

[Critters2]

6. Good point. nt

[lagavulin]

7. But would this idiot really have been a threat if the FBI hadn't hold his hand the whole way?

"News of his arrest came the same day as that of a 19-year-old Jordanian man caught in an FBI sting trying to blow up a 60-story glass skyscraper in Dallas, Texas and the indictment of an Afghan-born airport worker was charged with planning a massive bombing campaign in New York"

I have to seriously wonder if any of these disaffected dimwits actually had the mental, social, and monetary resources on their own to pose a threat anything like they're being convicted of.

I mean, don't chide me for being doubtful, but at this point in the game I wouldn't be at all surprised if the FBI is just finding young angry shills -- perhaps even with serious mental problems -- walking them through these grandios engineered schemes, then using their arrests to frighten us all that "Look at all these serious terr'ists we're stopping -- they're all over the place!".

I'm just sayin'...

[Hassin Bin Sober]

8. That's how I feel.

This reminds me of the Karate-move-doin' beret wearin' Miami wackos charged with a plot to blow up Sears Tower.

Except this guy actually had a source and funding for (fake) explosives. Only problem was it was the cops.