Are These Terrorists the Real Deal?
Maybe it’s just me, but there seems to be considerably more caution in the blogosphere today over the announcement that the feds have arrested six men who were planning to attack soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey, than breathless reports yesterday that an explosion in a Las Vegas parking garage was a terrorist attack.
That is well and good, because the preliminary reports call to mind those feckless Miami-based terrorist wannabes who were going to take a bus to Chicago and blow up the Sears Tower. Or something.
These alleged terrorists had been under surveillance by the FBI for months, practiced by shooting paintball guns and real weapons in a rural area of the Pennsylvania Poconos and allegedly watched jihadist videos in which Osama bin Laden urged them toward martyrdom.
Captain Ed cut to the chase at Captain’s Quarters in noting that these guys do not appear to have the smarts of typical Al Qaeda operatives insofar as they made a videotape of their training sessions and then went to a retail store to get it made into a DVD.
He adds:
Is this al-Qaeda? It could be, but I’m not sure that true AQ jihadis would be that dumb, at least not twice. I’m also thinking that AQ would not have chosen Fort Dix as a target. It could just be AQ-inspired fanatics who managed to screw up just enough to get caught.
Good points. Fort Dix is about as low-priority a military target as exists in the U.S., but it was a convenient one being only a few miles from where the men lived. Four are said to be ethnic Albanians, and it is possible that some or all of them had lived at the base in 1999 when it sheltered more than 4,000 ethnic Albanian refugees during the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.
In any event, stay tuned.
More here.
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6 Responses to “Are These Terrorists the Real Deal?”
Shaun – Some mouth breathers are linking to old news about a “Detroit terror” cell in other posts to gin up the LV story. While in 2004 the Detroit cell was big news, what they fail to mention is the case had more holes than the Duke rape case. The Detroit conviction was overturned and the prosecutor was reprimanded. Are LittleDebbie trolls posting over here now.
http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1123&context=lawfaculty
Youseff Hmimssa
How Juries Get It Wrong – Anatomy of
the Detroit Terror Case
http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/090204/sta_overturn001.shtml
Detroit terror conviction overturned
Justice Department admits prosecution was filled with ‘mistakes and oversights’
PUBLISHED: September 2, 2004,
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — In a dramatic reversal, the Justice Department acknowledges its original prosecution of a suspected terror cell in Detroit was filled with a ”pattern of mistakes and oversights” that warrant the dismissal of the convictions.
In a 60-page memo that harshly criticizes its own prosecutors’ work, the department told U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen on Tuesday night it supports the Detroit defendants’ request for a new trial and would no longer pursue terrorism charges against them. The defendants at most would only face fraud charges at a new trial.
Rudi:
Good point, although my gut tells me that these New Jersey wackos may be the real deal. We just don’t know yet how real.
Shaun – It’s is the real deal, but did we hide in bunkers from the militias during the 1990′s? Some look for anything to justify the coming WWIII and the culture war, but who many attcks by Islamic terrorist have we had since 9-11? These wackos attacking an Army base wouldn’t have the affect on daily life of an attack on a mall or sporting event. Some mouth breathers were forcasting suicide type attack like in Israel, it hasn’t happened, more have died from feces tainted food. I suggest we stop deficating so that “Detroit terrorist” don’t taint our salads or pet foods.
I have been searching in vain for the status of the “Miami Seven”. Anyone have anything dated later than the Sept. 2006 hearing to share?
Shaun,
The really sad part is that these guys are making headlines for being wannabe’s.
I notice no one got too upset when 5 good ol’ boys got arrested by ATF&E in Alabama while planning an attack. According to the Huntsville Times, they had machine gun, 130 homemade grenades, a grenade lancher…
Why no headline news? The target wasn’t American military; it was a community of Mexicans.
My rant on this here.
[...] like Ed Morrissey at Captains Quarters and The Moderate Voice’s Shaun Mullen are wondering if this is just another repeat of the famous Miami [...]