Amine el Khalifi wanted to kill as many Americans as possible in the U.S. Capitol building either by shooting them with the MAC-10 machine gun he was carrying or by detonating the bomb concealed in his vest. The vest bomb was packed with nails, a standard terrorist method of maximizing the horror and casualties of a suicide bombing. Born and raised in Morocco, Khalifi came to America in 1999 with his parents on a trip to Disneyland. He arrived on a tourist visa, then remained in this country illegally after the temporary document expired. He believed the U.S. war on terrorism was in fact a war on Muslims and he thought his co-conspirators — “Hussein” and “Yusuf” — were al Qaeda operatives in the war against the Great Satan, America.

Khalifi was not was simply a “lone wolf,” as assumed by officials like Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, the Maryland Democrat who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, as well as by most reporters and editors in the mainstream media. Lone wolves don’t band together with others claiming to be comrades on a lethal mission. Khalifi believed he was acting in concert with al Qaeda, which he asked to join. He thought his attack was to be coordinated with a larger one being mounted by other al Qaeda operatives. In short, he believed he was on the al Qaeda terrorist team. So using the term “lone wolf” to describe Khalifi is, at best, a misnomer and at worst a dangerous misrepresentation.