US arrests Moroccan man, suspect in Capitol suicide attack plot

A Moroccan man was arrested near the U.S. Capitol on Friday wearing a vest he believed was full of al Qaeda-supplied explosives and charged in an attempted suicide bombing of Congress, the Justice Department said.   

Amine El Khalifi, 29, an illegal immigrant who lives in Alexandria, Virginia, was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against property owned and used by the United States, intending to detonate a bomb and to shoot people, the department said.   

He was arrested by the FBI and the U.S. Capitol Police in a parking garage just a few blocks from the Capitol. The object of a lengthy undercover FBI investigation, El Khalifi later appeared in federal court in Virginia and faces up to life in prison if convicted.   

U.S. law enforcement officials said there never was any threat to the public. The explosives in the suicide vest and the gun he had been given by the FBI had been rendered inoperable and posed no danger to the public.   

The officials said the arrest capped a year of monitoring by law enforcement authorities.   

Reuters