Federal agents arrested a 35-year-old Albany-area woman this month on charges she tried to help ISIS bomb the New York State Capitol. The charge, attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, is the federal crime of knowingly aiding a terror group with anything of value, money, weapons, or personnel among them. Jessica Bowie, who used the name Aisha Saif, was taken into custody on August 19 carrying what she believed was a live firearm and an assembled explosive device. Both were inert.
An FBI affidavit filed with the complaint traces a months-long investigation. Bowie converted to Islam roughly five years ago, and by May of this year, accounts linked to her were sending messages the FBI characterized as support for terrorism. Among the messages cited in the affidavit: an alleged Arabic-language post on May 28 praising the September 11 attacks, and a second message that month saying she planned to poison people she called infidels once she could migrate.
The plot as the FBI describes it
Bowie allegedly told a confidential FBI source, posing as an ISIS facilitator, that she wanted help making explosives and that the Capitol was her target. First contact came through an encrypted messaging app on July 16. Between roughly July 21 and August 9, she scouted the building on about five occasions, photographing it and studying its security, according to the affidavit. She told the source she planned to conceal the device in a DoorDash bag while posing as a food-delivery worker.
On August 5 she met two additional FBI sources she believed were ISIS-connected. She told them she wanted to strike when the greatest number of senators were present and that she would not accept a device that killed only two or three people. Killing the senators, she said, was the most important part. That same day she used $200 provided by an FBI source to buy materials at a Home Depot in Rensselaer, New York, spending about 28 minutes inside. The purchase included a large container of nails. She later asked the source whether the nails were big enough to work as shrapnel.
By August 13 she was allegedly seeking a handgun to use against police if they approached during the attack. On August 19 she paid $150 for what she believed was a gun, magazine, and ammunition, all inert. She said at that meeting that the Capitol could hold as many as 200 people and that she hoped to kill at least half.
The FBI arrested Bowie as she left that meeting. Agents found knives and a handwritten pledge of allegiance to ISIS on her person. The affidavit also notes she discussed future targets including the White House and Times Square around New Year's Eve. She is held at the Schenectady County Correctional Facility, and a booking photo released this week shows her face publicly for the first time.