US man who tried to attack White House sentenced to 15 years
The White House
A 23-year-old man in the United States was sentenced to 15 years in prison for planning an attack on the White House with an anti-tank missile and other explosives.
Hasher Taheb of Cumming, Georgia also made plans for attacks on the Statue of Liberty, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and a Washington-area synagogue, the Department of Justice said in a statement.
He was arrested on January 16, 2019 after a yearlong FBI investigation sparked by a tip from the local community that the then-21-year-old had become "radicalised."
Taheb had tried to recruit an informant and an undercover FBI agent into his plan to attack the White House and other monuments and targets.
Wanting to fulfil that "duty" and expecting to become a "martyr," Taheb originally hoped to travel to Islamic State-held territory in the Middle East. But because he lacked a passport, Taheb told the informant it would be better to launch attacks inside the United States, the indictment said.
On December 7, 2018, he met the undercover agent and revealed a hand-drawn diagram of the White House West Wing, where the president's office is located.
In the subsequent weeks, Taheb detailed what weapons he wanted to acquire for the plot, and assigned the FBI agent to obtain them: semi-automatic weapons, grenades and an AT-4 shoulder-mounted anti-tank weapon.
When Taheb took delivery of the weapons, he was arrested.