Michael Finton
Encyclopedia
Michael C. Finton, also known as Talib Islam , a convert to Islam
and a part-time cook at a fish and chicken restaurant, attempted to bomb the Paul Findley Federal Building and the adjacent offices of Congressman Aaron Schock
in downtown Springfield, Illinois
, on September 24, 2009. Pled guilty on May 9, 2011 and was sentenced to 28 years in prison.
Finton, of Decatur, Illinois
, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) Anti-Terrorism Task Force for attempted murder and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
On his MySpace
page, Finton listed his hometown as Visalia, California
, and wrote he attended high school in Warren, Michigan
; on Classmates.com
he wrote that he was expelled for fighting with a teacher, and eventually moved to Illinois.
According to charges against him, on February 3, 1999, Finton indicated to a woman in Olney, Illinois
, that he had "a firearm or other dangerous weapon”, took $323 and eight cartons of cigarettes “by the use of force,” and “caused great bodily harm” to the woman “in that he struck (her) in the face and pushed her into a desk.” Finton was convicted of aggravated assault and aggravated robbery and spent 1999–2005 in prison, during which time he converted to Islam. After prison, Finton sporadically attended Decatur’s only mosque, the Masjid Wali Hasan Islamic Center.
In March 2008, Finton received $1,375 from a man in Saudi Arabia
, and immediately sent the same amount to a travel agency. The following month he flew to Saudi Arabia, where he stayed for a month.
Finton admired Anwar Al-Awlaki
(left), a Muslim
lecturer, spiritual leader
, and former imam
, who has been accused of being a senior Al-Qaeda
recruiter and motivator linked to various terrorists (including three of the 9/11 hijackers and the Christmas Day Bomber), and quoted Al-Awlaki on his Myspace
page.
FBI agent who he thought was an Al-Qaeda
operative, and tried to detonate the dummy explosives remotely via cell-phone. He was arrested and placed in federal custody on charges of terrorism and attempting to kill a federal employee.
on October 8, 2009, for attempted murder and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against property owned and used by the US. On May 9, 2011, he pleaded guilty and was immediately sentenced to 28 years in prison.
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and a part-time cook at a fish and chicken restaurant, attempted to bomb the Paul Findley Federal Building and the adjacent offices of Congressman Aaron Schock
Aaron Schock
Aaron Schock is the United States Representative for , serving since 2009. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district is based in Peoria and includes part of Springfield. At the age of , Schock is currently the youngest U.S. representative and the first member of the U.S. Congress born...
in downtown Springfield, Illinois
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield is the third and current capital of the US state of Illinois and the county seat of Sangamon County with a population of 117,400 , making it the sixth most populated city in the state and the second most populated Illinois city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area...
, on September 24, 2009. Pled guilty on May 9, 2011 and was sentenced to 28 years in prison.
Finton, of Decatur, Illinois
Decatur, Illinois
Decatur is the largest city and the county seat of Macon County in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city, sometimes called "the Soybean Capital of the World", was founded in 1823 and is located along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in Central Illinois. In 2000 the city population was 81,500,...
, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI) Anti-Terrorism Task Force for attempted murder and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
Background
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
page, Finton listed his hometown as Visalia, California
Visalia, California
Visalia is a Central California city situated in the heart of California’s agricultural San Joaquin Valley, approximately southeast of San Francisco and north of Los Angeles...
, and wrote he attended high school in Warren, Michigan
Warren, Michigan
Warren is a city in Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The 2010 census places the city's population at 134,056, making Warren the largest city in Macomb County, the third largest city in Michigan, and Metro Detroit's largest suburb....
; on Classmates.com
Classmates.com
Classmates.com is a social network service created in 1995 by Randy Conrads who founded Classmates Online, Inc.The social media website was originally designed to assist members in finding friends and acquaintances from kindergarten, primary school, high school, college, work and the United States...
he wrote that he was expelled for fighting with a teacher, and eventually moved to Illinois.
According to charges against him, on February 3, 1999, Finton indicated to a woman in Olney, Illinois
Olney, Illinois
Olney is a city in Richland County, Illinois, United States. The population was 8,631 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Richland County.-History:...
, that he had "a firearm or other dangerous weapon”, took $323 and eight cartons of cigarettes “by the use of force,” and “caused great bodily harm” to the woman “in that he struck (her) in the face and pushed her into a desk.” Finton was convicted of aggravated assault and aggravated robbery and spent 1999–2005 in prison, during which time he converted to Islam. After prison, Finton sporadically attended Decatur’s only mosque, the Masjid Wali Hasan Islamic Center.
In March 2008, Finton received $1,375 from a man in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, and immediately sent the same amount to a travel agency. The following month he flew to Saudi Arabia, where he stayed for a month.
Finton admired Anwar Al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki was an American and Yemeni imam who was an engineer and educator by training. According to U.S. government officials, he was a senior talent recruiter and motivator who was involved with planning operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda...
(left), a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
lecturer, spiritual leader
Spiritual leader
Spiritual leader is a form of title that is used to refer to religious leaders.In Buddhism, spiritual leaders are usually the people who have attained high level of spiritual awareness. Those spiritual teachers can guide people on their path toward spiritual awakening.Spiritual Leader may be a...
, and former imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
, who has been accused of being a senior Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
recruiter and motivator linked to various terrorists (including three of the 9/11 hijackers and the Christmas Day Bomber), and quoted Al-Awlaki on his Myspace
Myspace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
page.
Planning and attempting attack; arrest
On September 24, 2009, Finton drove a truck filled with what he believed to be "a ton of explosives" to the busy federal courthouse building, parked, locked it, and then left in another vehicle driven by an undercoverUndercover
Being undercover is disguising one's own identity or using an assumed identity for the purposes of gaining the trust of an individual or organization to learn secret information or to gain the trust of targeted individuals in order to gain information or evidence...
FBI agent who he thought was an Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
operative, and tried to detonate the dummy explosives remotely via cell-phone. He was arrested and placed in federal custody on charges of terrorism and attempting to kill a federal employee.
Legal proceedings
Finton was indicted by a federal grand juryGrand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
on October 8, 2009, for attempted murder and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against property owned and used by the US. On May 9, 2011, he pleaded guilty and was immediately sentenced to 28 years in prison.
See also
- Nidal Malik HasanNidal Malik HasanNidal Malik Hasan, USA is a United States Army officer and sole suspect in the November 5, 2009, Fort Hood shooting, which occurred less than a month before he would have deployed to Afghanistan....
, American Fort Hood shooter; 2009 - Colleen LaRoseColleen LaRoseColleen Renee LaRose , also known as JihadJane and Fatima LaRose, is an American citizen charged with terrorism-related crimes, including conspiracy to commit murder and providing material support to terrorists. Most recently, she lived in the Philadelphia suburb of Pennsburg, in Montgomery...
, American Muslim convert who also used the name JihadJane, charged with trying to recruit Islamic terrorists to wage jihad and murder Swedish artist Lars VilksLars VilksLars Endel Roger Vilks is a Swedish artist. He is best known for his drawings of Muhammed, prophet of Islam.- Personal background :...
. - Sharif MobleySharif MobleySharif Mobley is a suspected al-Qaeda and al-Shabab member who was arrested in Yemen in March 2010 by counter-terrorism officers following a shooting in which he was allegedly the perpetrator. Mobley had moved to Yemen two years prior...
, American suspected al-Qaeda member, arrested in Yemen in 2010 and suspected of killing guard in escape attempt - Aafia SiddiquiAafia SiddiquiAafia Siddiqui is an American-educated Pakistani cognitive neuroscientist who was convicted of assault with intent to murder her U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan. The charges carried a maximum sentence of life in prison; in September 2010, she was sentenced by a United States district court to 86...
, female alleged al-Qaeda member, former U.S. resident, convicted in 2010 of attempting to kill U.S. personnel - Bryant Neal VinasBryant Neal VinasBryant Neal Vinas is a Hispanic Muslim American convicted of participating in and supporting Al-Qaeda plots in Afghanistan and the U.S....
, American convert to Islam, convicted in 2009 of participating in/supporting Al-Qaeda plots in Afghanistan and the U.S. - Najibullah ZaziNajibullah ZaziNajibullah Zazi is an Afghan-American who was arrested in September 2009 as part of the 2009 U.S. Al Qaeda group accused of planning suicide bombings on the New York City subway system, and has pled guilty as have two other defendants. U.S...
, al-Qaeda member, U.S. resident, pleaded guilty in 2010 of planning suicide bombings on New York City subway system - Naser Jason AbdoNaser Jason AbdoNaser Jason Abdo is a Muslim US Army Private First Class who is currently being held without bond for possession of an unregistered firearm and allegedly planning to attack a restaurant frequented by soldiers from Fort Hood.-Early life:Abdo grew up in Garland, Texas and attended Richardson Terrace...
Allegedly attempted to bomb a Fort Hood restaurant in 2011. - Anwar al-AwlakiAnwar al-AwlakiAnwar al-Awlaki was an American and Yemeni imam who was an engineer and educator by training. According to U.S. government officials, he was a senior talent recruiter and motivator who was involved with planning operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda...
American born Islamist cleric. - Hasan Akbar caseHasan Akbar caseThe Hasan Akbar case refers to an event in the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, when Hasan Karim Akbar was convicted of the double-murder of two officers assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait.The victims were Army...
American Muslim convert convicted of the double-murder of two US Army officers. - Homegrown terrorismHomegrown terrorismHomegrown terrorism is commonly associated with an international organization rather than being a ‘lone wolf’ act committed by isolated and disturbed individuals. It constitutes terrorist attacks from within the target nation, often Western...