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A Muslim convert has been charged following a plot to blow up a group of politicians in New York.
Jessica Bowie, 35, was accused of conspiring to carry out an attack on New York state’s Capitol building.
Ms Bowie aimed to “destroy as much of the building as possible and kill the senators while they were meeting,” according to an affidavit by an FBI special agent.
She also reportedly wanted to carry out a second attack on the White House and Donald Trump.
Court documents revealed that she made a “formal oath of allegiance” to the Islamic State and had spoken about her plan with members of the FBI, who posed as members of the terror group, which included buying nails to make an explosive device.
Bowie, who converted to Islam five years ago, told one of the informants she would put the bomb “on a bag that looks like food delivery, so when I place it, I look like a food delivery person.”
She said she would then flee to IS-controlled territories in Syria; however, the terror organisation no longer holds any land there.
The US Department of Justice said that she was charged with attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State and appeared in federal court on Thursday.
Jessica Bowie has been charged after she planned to use a disguise to commit a terror attack
|US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
The affidavit continued to say she used more than a dozen social media accounts, including her Islamic name, Aisha Said; she “espoused anti-American messages” in Arabic.
In one message, she wrote: “Praise be to Allah for Sept 11.” In another, she wrote: “When I can migrate, I will poison these infidels.”
She also told an FBI informant: "Ideally it would be the White House with the President but, like, that’s an even harder job.
“Maybe in the future, we go back for that.”
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She was seen taking photos of the capitol building and buying the components for a bomb
|US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Before being arrested, Ms Bowie had watched the premises and made a point of “having picnics by the capital [sic] to observe and have coffee in the observation hall,” so she could learn the security arrangements.
The FBI confirmed she had taken dozens of photographs of the building and sent them to one of the informants.
She then went to a “social justice centre” to collect “anarchist literature” that she believed would provide “good tips” on conducting an attack, the affidavit continued.
Following her photographs, she met with the second informant from the FBI, who told her she would need to buy nails, electrical tape, acetone and a nine-volt battery to create an explosive device.
She was then photographed wearing a burka in a Home Depot store in Rensselaer, New York, where she was seen buying the items mentioned by the informant.
She asked the second informant: “I hope the nails are big enough… because the nails work as shrapnel, right?”
She then met with the FBI agent and gave them a DoorDash bag that would be used to hold the bomb.
John Sarcone, the first assistant US attorney for the Northern District of New York, said he looked forward to “aggressively prosecuting this case and delivering justice for the American people”.