Over the weekend I agreed to do this week's RINO Sightings Carnival, which wasn't all that easy, as I tried to come up with some sort of coherent theme. It's not easy to tie together different posts from different people and it's always a challenge. (Once I tried to do it with RINO horns; another time it was Salvador Dali's RINO obsessions.)
"stop obsessing on the fringe trivia and get a grip on the big picture!"
I thought I had tried to do that, but I guess I got so bogged down in the posts that I lost sight of the big picture.
It's a fair criticism and it happens to me all the time. So I'm trying to refocus, at least for this one post. (The fringe stuff can wait till later, or maybe tomorrow.)
Anyway, I don't know whether it's fringe trivia or today's news, but a group of terrorists have been arrested for planning to kill "as many [U.S.] soldiers as possible" at the Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey:
One suspect reportedly spoke of using rocket-propelled grenades to kill at least 100 soldiers at a time, according to court documents.
"If you want to do anything here, there is Fort Dix and I don't want to exaggerate, and I assure you that you can hit an American base very easily," suspect Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer said in a conversation last August that was secretly recorded by a government informant, according to the criminal complaint against him.
"It doesn't matter to me whether I get locked up, arrested or get taken away," a suspect identified as Serdar Tatar said in a conversation recorded by the same informant. "Or I die, it doesn't matter. I'm doing it in the name of Allah."
Still another suspect, Eljvir Duka, was recorded by a second informant as saying, "In the end, when it comes to defending your religion, when someone is trying attacks your religion, your way of life, then you go jihad."
Officials said four of the men were born in the former Yugoslavia, one in Jordan and one in Turkey. All had lived in the United States for years. Three were in the United States illegally; two had green cards allowing them to stay in this country permanently, and the sixth is a U.S. citizen.
Besides Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, Serdar Tatar and Eljvir Duka, the other three men were identified in court papers as Dritan Duka, Shain Duka, and Agron Abdullahu. Checks with Immigration and Customs Enforcement show that Dritan Duka, Eljvir Duka and Shain Duka are illegally living in the United States, according to FBI complaints unsealed with their arrests.
Five of the men lived in Cherry Hill, a Philadelphia suburb located about 20 miles from Fort Dix.
Gee, that's not all that far from me. (I wonder whether any of them might have been worshippers at the Saudimadrassa in myneighborhood.)
Fort Dix is used to train soldiers, particularly reservists. It also housed refugees from Kosovo in 1999.
Kosovo?
I'm wondering whether Dritan Duka is the same man as this refugee from Kosovo who sought asylum in Great Britain in 2001.
Who knows? But considering how many of the men were here illegally, it would appear that someone's not doing the greatest job of keeping track of who enters the United States.
"Security at Ft. Dix remains stringent in the wake of arrests Monday of six men who were allegedly plotting a terrorist attack on the post. This alleged attack is a reminder that we are a nation at war, and that each of us must be vigilant and aware of our surroundings ...
We are at war?
Gosh, who'd have thought?
As you can see, I get so caught up in fringe trivia it's easy for me to forget!
posted by Eric on 05.08.07 at 02:38 PM
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://classicalvalues.com/cgi-bin/pings.cgi/4994
Comments
I agree wholeheartedly that this is a serious incident and I'm very pleased that our intelligence services penetrated it long before they had the opportunity to act on their desires. It would also be interesting to learn when the aliens entered the USA; if it was after 9/11 we have to look very carefully at how they slipped through the security net.
One thing that's important to keep in mind: these were definitely nut cases. It's very difficult to surreptitiously obtain an RPG (thank goodness for those horrible gun control laws!) You can find them, but the intelligence services have set up so many sugarpots (false offers of illegal weapons) that you simply can't know whether acquiring such a weapon won't tip off the Feds. Moreover, an RPG is nowhere near powerful enough to kill a hundred soldiers. These are very short-range weapons with a limited amount of explosives. They are best at knocking out thin-skinned vehicles.
I will take issue with the claim that we are at war. This is very tricky business, because it's entirely too easy to jump from "we are at war" to "dissenters should be shot as traitors". I think it's better to take a "just the facts, Ma'am" approach. Poetic license is fine for poetry, but relying on poetic license to make policy decisions is sure to lead to tyranny.
Froblyx · May 8, 2007 02:57 PM
We are at war?"
With whom?!
Is that why the gov. is allowing islamic immigrants LIKE YOU WON'T BELIEVE - in?
Recently 70,000 Turks on worker's visas -WHAT? - they're no U.S. citizens to do the work?
ANd the gov. is admitting Iraqis. Who are they? We're at war with them for God's sake? Are they for the U.S.?
What about the Palestinians coming in? The Syrians, etc.
All these are moslems which adhere to Sharia law, i.e. religion and government as one. With no option. Talk about tyranny - worry about THAT tyranny.
I hear people yap about the illegal MExs, but betw. them and the "legal" muslimah, I'll take the Mexs any day. At least the Mexs. are eager to assimilate and have Western values.
al · May 8, 2007 04:59 PM
"All these are moslems which adhere to Sharia law, i.e. religion and government as one. With no option. Talk about tyranny - worry about THAT tyranny."
It's a little more complicated than that.
Froblyx · May 8, 2007 05:50 PM
Oh, come on. These were nuts who would have been blown to shit by the civilian security guards at Fort Dix.
Also, just because they were here illegally doesn't mean they were let in under even questionable circumstances. About half the people who are here illegally come in legally and just don't leave when they are supposed to.
Frankly, while these guys are a cut above the laughable Miami Seven, I don't think we should draw large-scale assumptions from them.
Jon Thompson · May 9, 2007 03:25 AM
We're at war? Think the government knows about this? Or maybe they're afraid of what we might do if we found out. Like making sacrifices to help prosecute the war.
The DixSix would be the DeepSix if they actually did get their act together... but it is their lawyer that has the interesting connections. And just a bit of a reminder that for all of their incompetence they did do exactly what was asked of another organization in 2000. And that, too, was from Albania.
That man has two intermediary steps between himself and the DixSix.
The guy who arranged the 2000 attack from Albania?
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Don?t bang your head!
I agree wholeheartedly that this is a serious incident and I'm very pleased that our intelligence services penetrated it long before they had the opportunity to act on their desires. It would also be interesting to learn when the aliens entered the USA; if it was after 9/11 we have to look very carefully at how they slipped through the security net.
One thing that's important to keep in mind: these were definitely nut cases. It's very difficult to surreptitiously obtain an RPG (thank goodness for those horrible gun control laws!) You can find them, but the intelligence services have set up so many sugarpots (false offers of illegal weapons) that you simply can't know whether acquiring such a weapon won't tip off the Feds. Moreover, an RPG is nowhere near powerful enough to kill a hundred soldiers. These are very short-range weapons with a limited amount of explosives. They are best at knocking out thin-skinned vehicles.
I will take issue with the claim that we are at war. This is very tricky business, because it's entirely too easy to jump from "we are at war" to "dissenters should be shot as traitors". I think it's better to take a "just the facts, Ma'am" approach. Poetic license is fine for poetry, but relying on poetic license to make policy decisions is sure to lead to tyranny.