A 35-year-old Albany woman was arrested Wednesday for plotting an ISIS-inspired bombing of the New York State Capitol — the kind of threat that should command law enforcement's full attention, except this one festered until an FBI informant finally walked through the door.

Jessica Bowie allegedly told a confidential FBI source she wanted to detonate an explosive at the capitol building, kill public officials, destroy "as much of the building as possible," and then flee to ISIS-controlled territory in Syria, according to the Justice Department. She was taken into custody after receiving what she believed was a live explosive device. The building was less than two miles from her home.

According to the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court, Bowie converted to Islam five years ago and created multiple social media accounts under an honorific Islamic name — accounts that were "frequently suspended by providers for violating their terms of use." Between May and July, those accounts sent messages expressing support for terrorism, including celebrating the September 11 attacks. She told the FBI's confidential source, who posed as an ISIS facilitator, that she wanted to "harm the enemies of god" and do something that would have an "affect on the American system."

If she had escaped after the bombing, she planned to return and carry out future attacks.

NBC News reported the conversion and social media details; The Guardian omitted them entirely, framing the story around a rise in "political violence and threats against public officials" — a formulation that lumps a declared ISIS sympathizer with anyone the establishment finds inconvenient. Governor Kathy Hochul's statement stressed there was "no immediate threat" and pointed to steps to "strengthen security," but said nothing about how this threat was allowed to develop in the first place.

Here is the question neither outlet asked: Where were the systems that are supposed to catch this? Bowie's accounts were suspended repeatedly for terms-of-service violations. She was broadcasting pro-terror sentiment for months. The capitol was a short walk from her apartment. Yet the only reason this plot was disrupted is that the FBI eventually deployed a confidential source who posed as an ISIS facilitator between July 16 and August 17. That is a sting, not a system. The same federal apparatus that has labeled parents at school board meetings as domestic threats, that has audited political enemies, that monitors Americans' bank accounts for misdemeanor purchases — that apparatus needed an informant to find a woman openly celebrating 9/11 two miles from the statehouse.

Neither outlet reported on Bowie's immigration history, if any, or whether any prior enforcement encounters were missed. The public is left to guess.

The FBI got its arrest. Hochul got her press conference. The press got its story. What Americans still don't have is an answer to why the federal government can find the time to surveil school board moms but needs a lucky informant to catch an ISIS sympathizer plotting a bombing down the street from the governor's office.