The FBI and the U.S. Capitol Police arrested a Moroccan man Friday in downtown Washington after a lengthy investigation into an alleged plot to carry out a suicide attack on the Capitol.
According reports, Amine el-Khalifi, 29, was picked up while carrying an inoperable gun and a fake suicide vest provided to him by undercover FBI agents posing as al-Qaeda associates, U.S. officials said.
Khalifi, an illegal immigrant living in Alexandria, Va., had been under investigation for about a year and had overstayed his visitor visa for years, the Associated Press reported, citing a counterterrorism official and a government official briefed on the matter.