Ohio terror suspect says he ‘would’ve shot Obama in head’
An Ohio man accused of plotting a terrorist attack on the US Capitol says before his arrest he was planning to go to Washington, DC and shoot President Barack Obama in the head.
Christopher Lee Cornell called WXIX-TV, a television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, from the Kentucky prison where he's being held and said if he hadn't been captured in January he would have assassinated the US president.
The 20-year-old man told the channel in an interview part of which was aired on Friday night that he is a supporter of ISIL. He said he planned to kill US administration officials in retaliation for US airstrikes on the terrorist group.
Cornell, who grew up in the Cincinnati suburbs, said he would have taken a gun, "I would have put it to Obama's head, I would have pulled the trigger, then I would unleash more bullets on the Senate and House of Representative members, and I would have attacked the Israeli embassy and various other buildings."
He added that he wanted to target them because of "the continued American aggression against our people and the fact that America, specifically President Obama, wants to wage war against Islamic State."
Cornell also said that people of the United States “might say I'm a terrorist, but you know we see American troops as terrorists as well, coming to our land, stealing our resources and killing our people, raping our women."
The ISIL terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, control large parts of Syria's northern territory.
In June last year, ISIL sent its militants into Iraq, seizing around one-third of the territory of the country. They are engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control.
The ISIL terrorists have also beheaded three American, two British and two Japanese hostages in recent months. The videos of their beheadings were posted online.
Cornell’s revelation comes as the US Secret Service, charged with protecting the president, is recovering from a series of embarrassing security breaches.
A small drone crashed into the White House grounds in January, prompting officials to declare a security lockdown.
In September, a US war veteran was able to reach deep into the White House with a knife before being apprehended by Secret Service agents, an unprecedented security breach in recent decades.
According to a report by the Washington Post, it took the Secret Service five days to discover that a man had shot seven bullets at the White House in 2011.
GJH/GJH
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