The FBI has confirmed the arrest Friday of a man suspected of plotting a suicide attack against the U.S. Capitol, which was first reported by Fox News. The unidentified man was arrested after a lengthy undercover FBI terrorism investigation, the Justice Department said.
"FBI agents today arrested an individual in the vicinity of the Capitol," Andrew Ames, spokesman for the FBI Washington D.C. field office, told Yahoo News Friday. "The arrest was the culmination of an extensive operation during which the individual was closely monitored. At no time was the public in any danger."
Ames declined to comment on the Fox News report that the arrested man is from Morocco.
Mike Levine of Fox News noted that the man was in his mid 30s and the FBI grew suspicious of him because he had expressed interest in carrying out an attack. "The man thought undercover FBI agents assisting him in his plot were associates of al Qaeda," wrote Levine.
"Explosives the suspect allegedly sought to use in connection with the plot had been rendered inoperable by law enforcement and posed no threat to the public," Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd told Yahoo News in a statement Friday, adding that additional information on the case would be released soon.