A New York woman accused of planning an ISIS-inspired bombing at the state Capitol in Albany also discussed possible future attacks on other high-profile targets, including the White House and New Year’s Eve festivities in Times Square, federal authorities said.
Jessica Bowie, 35, was arrested Wednesday in Albany after the FBI disrupted what prosecutors described as a deadly plot to detonate an explosive at the New York State Capitol “on a day when the most amount of senators are there.” According to federal officials, the alleged plan involved concealing a bomb inside a DoorDash food delivery bag.
Bowie, who converted to Islam about five years ago and used the Islamic name “Aisha Saif,” allegedly spent roughly two weeks developing the attack plan while communicating with FBI informants.
Investigators said she had also mapped out a potential escape route to Syria and spoke about returning to the United States later to carry out additional large-scale attacks, according to the federal complaint.
During an in-person meeting with two informants on Aug. 5, Bowie allegedly said that if the Capitol attack succeeded and she managed to flee, she could “come back in the future and do more.”
Among the targets she mentioned was “New Year’s Eve in Times Square,” the world-famous celebration that draws massive crowds to New York City, with as many as 1 million visitors packing the area in some years.
Though Bowie allegedly focused on the state Capitol because it was “the biggest political building that I know of around that area,” the Albany resident told an informant she would have preferred to target the “White House with the President,” while acknowledging “that’s an even harder job,” the complaint states.
“Maybe in the future we go back for that,” she allegedly said.
That same day, she allegedly purchased bomb materials from a Home Depot in Rensselaer, while wearing a burqa, photos show.
Law enforcement had Bowie on their radar for five weeks leading up to her arrest Wednesday and believe she was “radicalized online,” First Assistant US Attorney John A. Sarcone III said at a press conference Thursday evening.
The upstate New Yorker had already plotted to carry out the most deadly bombing she could at the state Capitol — telling an informant she thought she could take out at least half of the 200 people in the Albany building.
Before FBI agents swept in to cuff her, Bowie paid an informant $200 to help a bombmaker fund the construction of explosives for future attacks, telling the person she “wishes she could fund a big operation,” according to the complaint.
Following her arrest, she appeared to offer a partial confession during her interview with the FBI, according to the complaint.
“There’s no helping me, you guys know enough, there’s no helping me, I’m…going to prison for the rest of my life,” she allegedly said.
“Material support is up to 20 years in prison, I already Googled it before, I know I’m going to jail.”
Just last month, another radicalized upstate New Yorker, 37-year-old Catherine Beth Washburn, was charged with allegedly supporting an Islamic terrorist organization after donating $30,000 in cryptocurrency to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group in Gaza.
Gov. Kathy Hochul thanked the FBI and law enforcement for thwarting Bowie’s possible attack in a statement Thursday.
“Earlier this year, amid a rise in political violence and threats against public officials, we took steps to strengthen security at the State Capitol and across state government,” the gov said.
“While there is no immediate threat at this time, we will continue working closely with our law enforcement partners to protect New Yorkers and keep our communities safe.”
