A New York woman has been arrested after she planned to bomb the New York State Capitol and kill state senators. The woman, Jessica Bowie, was apprehended upon her possession of what she believed was an explosive device. Investigators learned that Bowie had sought to attack the state capitol before traveling to Syria to join those in ISIS territories.
Bowie was seen taking photos of the state capitol building and was recorded as saying, “I want to destroy as much of the building as possible and kill the senators while they are meeting. I want them to lose a lot of important documents as well,” and “I want it to have an effect on the American system. And destroy some of the taghut.”
The woman has also expressed anti-American sentiments, having written on social media, “Praise be to Allah for September 11th” and “When I can migrate, I will poison these infidels.” She also distributed her formal pledge to ISIS online.
“As alleged, Bowie plotted to deploy an explosive device at the New York State Capitol, intending to kill public officials and to destroy ‘as much of the building as possible’ before fleeing to ISIS‑controlled territory in Syria,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said in a statement. “The National Security Division and our law-enforcement partners are committed to the painstaking work of preventing plots like this from succeeding and securing convictions against those who attempt such plots.”
A separate New York resident was sentenced last year to 108 months in prison after he attempted to provide support to ISIS and plot an attack. Court documents explain that Awais Chudhary, 25, pledged allegiance to ISIS’s then-leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and began to plan a knife or bomb attack. He sought to carry out the attack at specific locations such as pedestrian bridges over the Grand Central Parkway and the Flushing Bay Promenade.
