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.)

After this morning's attempt at a V-E Day theme, I was given some heartfelt advice from a commenter:

"stop obsessing on the fringe trivia and get a grip on 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.

In a post called (appropriately) "Jihad in America," NRO's Andy McCarthy links this report which has more, while Glenn Reynolds links this CBS Report, and wonders whether Tony Soprano was the tipster.

Well, I'll say this for the Tony Sopranos of this world. They might not be nice, but they do tend to be on the side of the United States.

I noticed an odd detail from the WNBC report:

Fort Dix is used to train soldiers, particularly reservists. It also housed refugees from Kosovo in 1999.

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.

As to the big picture, Ft. Dix issued an official press release which clued me in:

"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 ...

Gosh, who'd have thought?

As you can see, I get so caught up in fringe trivia it's easy for me to forget!