Michael C. Finton, also known as ''Talib Islam'' ( ar, طالب إسلام – Ṭạlib Islām meaning "student of Islam"; born 1980), is an American convert to Islam and a part-time cook who attempted to bomb the Paul Findley Federal Building and the adjacent offices of Congressman

Aaron Schock Aaron Jon Schock (born May 28, 1981) is an American former politician who was Republican U.S. Representative for from 2009 until 2015. The district is based in Peoria and includes part of Springfield. He was the first member of the U.S. Co ...

in downtown Springfield, Illinois, on 24 September 2009. He pleaded guilty in federal court on 9 May 2011 and was sentenced to 28 years in prison. A resident of Decatur, Illinois, Finton was arrested by an undercover agent of the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

(FBI) Anti-Terrorism Task Force, who was posing as an Al-Qaeda operative. He was charged with attempted murder and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

Background

Finton has said he was born in

Visalia, California Visalia ( ) is a city in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley of California. The population was 141,384 as per the 2020 census. Visalia is the fifth-largest city in the San Joaquin Valley, the 42nd most populous in California, and 192nd in ...

, and moved with his family to

Warren, Michigan Warren is a city in Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The 2020 Census places the city's population at 139,387, making Warren the largest city in Macomb County, the third largest city in Michigan, and Metro Detroit's largest suburb. T ...

, where he attended high school. He later moved to

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

Assault conviction and conversion

On February 3, 1999, Finton robbed a store in

Olney, Illinois Olney ( ) is the county seat in Richland County, Illinois. The population was 9,115 at the time of the 2010 census. History Settlement of the Richland County area began around 1815 when Thaddeus Morehouse, a native of Vermont, arrived by wa ...

, and injured the clerk on duty. Finton was convicted of aggravated assault and aggravated robbery, and spent 1999–2005 in prison. During this period, he

converted to Islam Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliatin ...

, and after leaving prison, he occasionally attended services at the Masjid Wali Hasan Islamic Center. Finton admired

Anwar Al-Awlaki Anwar Nasser al-Awlaki (also spelled al-Aulaqi, al-Awlaqi; ar, أنور العولقي, Anwar al-‘Awlaqī; April 21 or 22, 1971 – September 30, 2011) was an American imam who was killed in 2011 in Yemen by a U.S. government drone strik ...

, a Muslim lecturer suspected by the US government of having ties to Al-Qaeda (Al-Awlaki was killed by a US drone in September 2011 in Yemen). Finton had quoted the cleric on his Myspace page.

Planning and attempting attack; arrest

After returning from a trip to Saudi Arabia in 2008, Finton happened to make contact with an

undercover To go "undercover" (that is, to go on an undercover operation) is to avoid detection by the object of one's observation, and especially to disguise one's own identity (or use an assumed identity) for the purposes of gaining the trust of an ind ...

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

agent, who posed as an Al-Qaeda operative. The FBI agent worked with him to plan an attack on the Springfield Federal Building and procure the supplies to carry it out. On September 24, 2009, Finton drove a truck filled with an inert substance that he believed to be "a ton of explosives" to the federal courthouse building, parked, locked it, and left in another vehicle driven by the undercover FBI agent. Finton tried to detonate the dummy explosives remotely via cell-phone. He was arrested and placed in federal custody on charges of

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

and attempting to kill a federal employee."Decatur man arrested for attempting to bomb Springfield federal building"
SJR

Legal proceedings

Finton was indicted by a federal grand jury on October 8, 2009, for attempted murder and attempting to use a

weapon of mass destruction A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natu ...

against property owned and used by the US. On May 9, 2011, he pleaded guilty and was immediately sentenced to 28 years in prison.http://articles.cnn.com/2011-05-09/justice/illinois.bomb.plot_1_federal-courthouse-sting-operation-michael-finton?_s=PM:CRIME "Man sentenced to 28 years for plotting to bomb federal courthouse"],

CNN News CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

'', May 9, 2011 He was imprisoned at

USP Florence High The United States Penitentiary, Florence High (USP Florence High) is a high-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Colorado. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States United States Departm ...

. On June 27, 2021, Finton was transferred to

USP Big Sandy The United States Penitentiary, Big Sandy (USP Big Sandy) is a high-security United States federal prison for male inmates in unincorporated Martin County, Kentucky, near the city of Inez. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a divisi ...

with BOP# 17031-026.

References

External links

"Criminal Complaint," in USA v. Finton (September 24, 2009), The NEFA Foundation"Indictment," in USA v. Finton (October 7, 2009), The NEFA Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finton, Michael C. Living people 1980 births People from Decatur, Illinois American Islamists People from Visalia, California People from Warren, Michigan Anwar al-Awlaki Converts to Islam