A man from downstate Decatur has been arrested for trying to bomb the federal building in Springfield.
U.S. Department of Justice authorities say Michael Finton, also known as Talib Islam, appeared in court yesterday. An affidavit alleges that on September 1st, the 29-year-old drove a vehicle filled with what he thought were explosives to the northwest corner of the federal building. Then he made a cell phone call to detonate the bomb.
What he didn’t realize is that the explosives were phony, and that his accomplices turned out to be undercover federal agents.
U.S. Congressman Aaron Schock’s office was allegedly a secondary target.
Authorities say Finton had made at least one trip to Saudi Arabia and expressed interest in waging jihad overseas. And they say this case is not linked to the ongoing terrorism investigation in Colorado and New York, or another one in Texas.