* You may have noticed this…

A 29-year-old Decatur man arrested on charges of attempted murder of federal employees and attempting to use explosives to detonate a vehicle bomb at the federal building downtown Springfield had his first court appearance this afternoon at that very building.

Federal officials allege that on Wednesday, Finton drove a van containing what he thought was explosive material and parked it directly in front of the northwest corner of the Paul Findley Federal Building at Sixth and Monroe streets.

He got out of the van, locked the door and got into another vehicle driven by an undercover FBI officer and drove away. Within a few blocks of the federal building, Finton made a cell phone call to remotely detonate the purported bomb,” officials said. […]

According to a federal affidavit, Finton considered the Findley building a primary target, and considered the nearby downtown Springfield office of U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Peoria, to be a secondary target.

Click here [fixed link] to read the Department of Justice press release. We don’t appear to have been in any real danger because the FBI identified this guy early on. But yikes, man.

…Adding… For clarification purposes, this is from the press release…

According to the affidavit, over the next few months, Finton communicated with an individual who, unbeknownst to him, was a law enforcement source. The affidavit alleges that during these talks, Finton expressed his desire to receive military training and to travel to Gaza or other overseas locations to become a jihadist fighter.

In February 2009, Finton was introduced to an undercover FBI special officer posing as a low-level al-Qaeda operative. According to the affidavit, Finton expressed his desire to receive military training at a camp and to fight in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia or other locations. The undercover agent told Finton several times that it was Finton’s decision and that he could walk away from the decision anytime. According to the affidavit, Finton indicated that he was excited and had no second thoughts about attending a camp.

Also, the explosives in the van were fake. He was duped (for want of a better word) by the feds into thinking he was carrying out a real terrorist act.

…Adding… I don’t know if there is more than one guy named Talib Islam in Decatur, but a Decatur resident by that name has a MySpace page. And he appears to work in a restaurant.