US Isil supporter arrested over ‘plot to attack White House’

AN AMERICAN supporter of Isil has been arrested after he allegedly plotted to blow a hole in the White House with an anti-tank rocket and storm the building.

Hasher Jallal Taheb, 21, from the town of Cumming, Georgia, was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday, on the eve of his planned attack. He had been watched since March, after police were tipped off that he had become radicalised, changed his name, and was trying to sell his car to fund his travel to territory held by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

According to court documents, he was thwarted by not having a passport, and so changed his plans, intending, he told an informant, “to conduct an attack in the United States against targets such as the White House and the Statue of Liberty”. In December, Taheb met an undercover agent and produced “a hand-drawn diagram of the ground floor of the West Wing of the White House” and “described his plan for attacking the West Wing”.

A week later, court documents allege, he met with the undercover agent again and “broadened his prospective targets in the Washington DC area and indicated he wished to attack the Washington Monument, the White House, the Lincoln Memorial and a specific synagogue”. He also explained which weapons he wanted to purchase – semi-automatic weapons, explosive devices and an anti-tank rocket.

“His alleged intent was to attack the White House and other targets,” said BJ Pak, the US attorney for the northern district of Georgia.