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An ISIS-inspired New Yorker who plotted to bomb the state Capitol in Albany was once a “little girl waving the American flag after 9/11” — before she turned radical and started celebrating the deadly terror attacks online.
Jessica Bowie, 35, was arrested in Albany on Wednesday after the FBI foiled her alleged diabolical plan to place a bomb in a DoorDash food delivery bag at the Capitol and “destroy as much of the building as possible,” the feds wrote in a criminal complaint.
Bowie – who converted to Islam five years ago and was going by the Islamic name “Aisha Saif” — met with two FBI informants, on the day she was captured, inside a car where she made the chilling admission that she was no longer the same person who once adored the United States.
“She went from a little girl waving an American flag after 9/11 to now having stickers of the falling towers,” Bowie eerily told one informant, according to the complaint.
She was just 10 years old when the World Trade Center fell in 2001.
In the video and audio-recordings from Wednesday, Bowie also handed $150 in cash to the same informant to purchase a handgun — which was actually inert — a magazine and ammunition.
The informant showed Bowie an inert explosive device that was built using components she purchased from a Home Depot on Aug. 5, while wearing a burqa.
The wannabe terrorist then gave the informant $200 to donate to a bombmaker to fund the construction of more explosive devices — stating she “wished she could fund a big operation,” the complaint said.
If her roommate accidentally discovered the bomb components, Bowie coldly told the informant she “would have to kill the roommate quietly,” emphasizing she “would have to cut her.”
After exiting the vehicle with the firearm and the phony explosive, she was swiftly cuffed by the FBI — who also found knives on her and a “handwritten bayah,” or an oath of allegiance to ISIS.
Authorities had tracked her for five weeks before the planned massacre — in which she allegedly plotted to “take out at least half” of the 200 people inside the state Legislature building.
“I want to destroy as much of the building as possible and kill the senators while they are meeting,” she separately messaged an informant on July 29.
“I want them to lose a lot of important documents as well.”
She had monitored the Capitol for weeks, taking pictures from various vantage points including an “observation hall nearby,” according to the complaint.
After she pulled off the attack, the ISIS-inspired militant was ready to escape to Syria, according to the feds.
And if her plot was successful, Bowie told an informant on Aug. 5 she could return to the US to plot more attacks — such as “New Year’s Eve in Times Square,” and “all kinds of good stuff that could be done in the future,” the complaint said.
It is not clear what led her to affiliate with Islamic extremists, but federal authorities on Thursday said the Schenectady resident had become radicalized online — and allegedly created several profiles on social platforms to “espouse anti-American messages.”
An account linked to her posted “Praise be to Allah for September 11th” on May 28, according to the complaint.
“She told a source that she went from a little girl waving the American flag after 9/11 to now having stickers of the fallen towers. Folks, let that sink in,” FBI Special Agent in Charge at the Albany Field Office, Craig L. Tremaroli, told reporters at a press conference Thursday.
“Again, Ms. Bowie didn’t just want to kill lawmakers; she wanted a complete destruction of our government.”
English (US)