Seven arrested in Sears Tower jihad attack plot...more arrests to come

[rhubarb]

Almost every article ...

Okay Rube, don't doubt your word, but how about some links to these articles...

A search of Google News for "Miami terrorists" turns up some 2,000 articles.

Here are a few I cherry picked:
US Terrorist Plot Foiled
The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) says the group was plotting to blow up America's tallest building, but they were never "an immediate threat".

FBI: Suspects Sought Help From al-Qaida
The group of men, who were arrested Thursday when authorities busted their alleged hide-out in a Miami warehouse, had no explosives and lacked adequate funding. Their only link to al-Qaida was through an FBI informant fronting as a member of the terrorist group, authorities said Friday.


No Immediate Threat
"There is no immediate threat whatsoever to the Sears Tower," Blagojevich said.

Authorities said the Tower was never in imminent danger because the group of would-be attackers did not have the materials to carry out their plan.

Now that's fine and all, but what about the fact that in almost every article Gonzalez or Pistole are quoted as stating that the Miami 7 are in fact a terrible threat? Pretty much debunks my claim, right? Not really. When you look at the facts, you see what a farce this is. The "terrorists" accepted boots from an "Al Qaeda" operative. The "Al Qaeda" operative took them to the store to buy a memory chip for their camera to go take pictures of a Miami federal building. If you read the facts of the case as put forth by the FBI, you will see that there is no credible evidence of a real danger. You will see that there are no ties to any real terrorists. The only one in the case that has openly claimed to be a terrorist is a government operative. When you contrast what the government is saying about the danger with what the "terror cell" actually did, you see that the terrorists were led by the United States government. What a case.

I suspect that this whole case is an invention by our government to justify to the American people the government's increasing encroachment into our lives. Bush is tired of getting ripped over the P. Act, illegal wiretapping, and stories like the one that just came out about the CIA monitoring banking worldwide. Then you have the British and Canadians busting up terror cells right and left. Makes us look bad. How come they have terrorists and we don't? He has to show something for his efforts to improve security against terrorists.




P.S.
Here's a link for you "culture warriors."

 

[Mongo the Mutterer]

Yep ABC and the .... Guardian. Just as I thought.

 

[Marshall]

*Planning to blow up the Sear Tower.

*Planning to blow up a Federal building.

*Planning a "full ground war" which they planned would "be just as good or greater than 9/11."

*Building an "Islamic Army to wage Jihad"

*Seeking out al-Qaeda training with the aim, to "kill all the devils we can".

*Asked for boots, uniforms, guns, radios and vehicles for the plan.

*Each swore an oath of allegiance and provided the supposed al-Qaeda representative with photographs of the FBI building in North Miami and details of their plans.

Say what you want, over think it all you want, criticize it all you want, call BS on it all you want and talk conspiracy all you want but I'm glad they're off the streets and and am proud of the job the FBI has done. If you think for a second that al-Qaeda wouldn't have loved to have found and used these guys, you need to re-think. Thank you FBI.

 

[Mongo the Mutterer]

Yep Marshall, love your seven bullet points.

Thanks to the FBI.

By the way Rube, the reason I thumb my nose at the Guardian, is that you cannot find a more left wing publication in this country. Oh yeah... They are in England. I guess you have to get a foriegn perspective our AMERICAN problems. They are soooo enlightened.

 

[Biker]

I suspect that a real AQ operative would have ran from those bozos as fast as he could.

Totally incompetent.

Biker

 

[carebear]

If they are more "intentional" (making plans/talking about committing terroristic acts) than "operational" (having the training/equipment/ability to actually commit terroristic acts), then the AG's office could make a solid (by their standards ) case that I (and half this forum) am in fact more "operational" than "intentional".

I don't mind busting up a group of wannabe losers with mayhem on their minds, heck boys, get on with rounding up the next bunch of keystone kommandos post haste; but don't blow them up into the frikkin' Red Brigade when they clearly aren't.

It's just this kind of obvious misstatement of reality for political gain and "look how good we are" grandstanding that blows AG-level law enforcement's (from local to especially federal) credibility out of the water.

You busted some alleged criminals, if you have a real charge, book em and move on. Just quit giving yourselves pats on the back.

 

[p35]

I keep thinking about all the "Constitutional Patriots" and other antigovernment wingnuts out there plotting to replace the US Government. What did these mopes do that was that different? If this is a major victory in the "War on Terror", we might as well shut it down.

It also reminds me that the whole Ruby Ridge disaster started with a Fed informant setting up Randy Weaver to sell an illegal shotgun. They wanted to put him in a bind to make him infiltrate the Nazis who infested North Idaho at the time. He sold the informant a legal shotgun, and the guy said he wanted it with a shorter barrel. Weaver grabbed a hacksaw and cut it off. Dumb move on his part, but not really his idea. Things snowballed from there until a bunch of people died.

Likewise, everything illegal these guys did seems to have been at the suggestion of the informant. Frankly, it sounds to me like a game of "how far can we get these guys to go?" If all they were doing before the Feds got involved was sitting around talking about how much they hated the government, the Feds should have left them alone. I can't believe they can't find enough real work to do in Miami.

 

[XLMiguel]

These putzes have been labeled 'more aspirational than operational', sounds about right. It seems they got busted because they bragged about their plans in the 'hood and got turned in.

It remains to be seen how much the .gov egged them on. I wonder why, if they wanted to be covert, they would want uniforms? I'm sorta waiting for the race card to be dropped. I agree that real al qaeda would avoid jerks like this big time.

OTOH, while they may, indeed, be a bunch of wanker wannabes, as many have noted, such clods only have to get lucky once to cause great harm, and even a blind pig finds an acorn from time to time, if they were sincere in their desires to blow stuff up, they do need to be dealt with. Harshly.

 

[bogie]

Excessive tacticality.

They shouldn't have asked for boots and uniforms.

They shoulda asked for rope.

 

[carebear]

If they'd asked for special ninja wall-climbing boots, they wouldn't need rope.

 

[silverlance]

i'll only say it once on this public forum.

i don't like this case.

i don't like how 5 wackjobs who were living in essentially an abandoned warehouse lit by candles and practicing their own religon have become demonized as "militants", "terrorists", and "conspirators".

i'm willing to bet every last sock i own that if i took a day off and spent about a hundred bucks, I would have by the sundown my own little group of "jihadis" made up of dimwits, numskulls, and crackpots gleaned off of skid row, too.

sir arthur conan doyle once wrote as sherlock holmes: "Follow the path of greatest benefit, my Dear Watson. Who would benefit the most from this heinous crime?"

 

[evan price]

Lone Gunman..:Question: "What were they charged with?" Answer: Straight to Gitmo, what are these "charges" of which you speak?