More on the New York/Colorado jihad plot. "Officials: NYC Plot Operational, Not Just Aspirational," by Dina Temple-Raston for NPR, September 28 (thanks to James):
The man at the center of an alleged plot to blow up transportation targets in New York City is scheduled to appear before a Brooklyn judge for the first time Tuesday. Najibullah Zazi is accused of plotting to use weapons of mass destruction against U.S. targets in what law enforcement officials say was the most serious terrorist threat against the U.S. since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.Read it all.While the FBI arrested Zazi just a little more than a week ago, U.S. intelligence officials had been tracking him for months. They had been listening to Zazi's phone calls, tracking his e-mails and following his associates for months in a bid to uncover exactly what he was planning and who was helping him. The investigation blew up before they got answers to either of the questions.
Officials close to the case tell NPR that more arrests could happen as soon as this week.
"We still don't know what we don't know yet," one senior intelligence official with direct knowledge of the case said. "We just know that it was going to be a very bad attack. We don't get terrorists in this country who go get al-Qaida training and come back to attack here. That's what we were expecting was going to happen in a second wave of attacks after 9/11. So in that sense, Zazi isn't just unusual -- he's scary."...
Whatever his defense may be, Zazi has come to embody everything U.S. intelligence officials worry about in a suspected jihadist. He was in the U.S. legally, so he could move about the country freely. He was raised and attended school in the U.S., so he understands American culture and customs and could blend in. Most frightening of all, they say, Zazi wasn't just an aspirational jihadist, he was also an operational one. Official say he didn't just dream up a plot, he actually began to launch one -- unlike other terrorism suspects the FBI has arrested since Sept. 11, 2001....
How much longer can we keep dodging bullets?
An aside to CAIR, silly dhimmis and Muslim apologists like Abdullah Mikhail - These mythic moderate Muslims you keep claiming exist - how do we tell the difference between them and jihadis? Or is it that there is no difference..............?
This Zazi ". . . was in the U.S. legally, so he could move about the country freely. He was raised and attended school in the U.S., so he understands American culture and customs and could blend in."
So much for welcoming Islamics into this country with open arms (and bending over for them). This is not only the present administration's fault--although it is headed by a person who was raised as an Islamic--but also that of the previous administration with its close ties to the Saudis and its apparent ignorance of the real Islam.
"We don't get terrorists in this country who go get al-Qaida training and come back to attack here..."
We don't "get" 'em because we already GOT 'em. And worse. Hundreds of Muslim Chechens, freakin' nightmares, are already here.
But like the "intel" guy suggested, nothin' to worry about.
What is even more scary than Zazi is reading through the entire NPR story and then reading the comments of NPR's loyal leftie followers. The few who dared suggest this had anything to do with Islam or immigration from Muslim countries were immediately slammed down by other commenters with the usual cries of "racist" amid reminders that the Irish and Catholics were not welcome once either. HUH? Not a clue what Islamic doctrine and Islamic history entails. Not a clue!
I am not a Leftist but I would think that just being human an American citizen of any party would be CURIOUS about WHAT motives lay behind these Illinois, Dallas and NY plots. All they seem interested in is the tired refrain that if WE stop being racist and bigoted THEY will suddenly be peaceful. And of course many brought up Bush and Cheney as the cause of all these poor misguided Muslims hating us. I thought their O-man was prez now. And exactly how OLD is former VP Cheney? Was he around to cause the Hindu slaughters "the kush"? Did he cause the butchering in Constantinople and the Armenian slaughter too? Wow, Dick, that is some pacemaker you have.
Zazi has come to embody everything U.S. intelligence officials worry about in a suspected jihadist. He was in the U.S. legally, so he could move about the country freely. He was raised and attended school in the U.S.
Not a single word about his being a Moslem?
*** Bukhari Vol 4 Bk 52 No 220 ***
I'm calling a non-sequitur here. They're not intelligence officials, they're officious actors with playing an important role in the Human Comedy.
Fictive Reality can be fun, but it can also be extremely dangerous. We all remember what happened in 1939.
How was this largely American raised person radicalized? Did he just misinterpret the koran himself or did he have help? Why are we not putting more effort into stopping the process of radicalization. It is apparently a problem here not just outside the USA.
Which again brings us to the unanswered question, why was someone like Najibullah Zazi in the US to begin with?
I am pretty certain that if Hugh posted one of his essays over on NPR, it would wake up a few minds.............
Unfortunately it seems that most of the followers of NPR pretty much have their minds made up.........
And thats a very, very dangerous thing.......
Would Najibullah translate to something like the "unclean/unworthy of Allah"? Akin to Wayne and Garth's (Wayne's World, SNL, film) "We're not worthy!"?
I ask because "naji" I believe is a state of ritual uncleanliness or an insult hurled at non-Muslims. I guess you could say it's their N-word.
Did some searching. Apparently "naji" means "safe". Which is ironic. I only see the unclean meaning termed "najis" plural. I still wonder what his parents were trying to say though.
"Zazi has come to embody everything U.S. intelligence officials worry about in a suspected jihadist. He was in the U.S. legally, so he could move about the country freely. He was raised and attended school in the U.S., so he understands American culture and customs and could blend in. Most frightening of all, they say, Zazi wasn't just an aspirational jihadist, he was also an operational one."
Absolutely chilling.
If that kind of information - referring to a man of Muslim faith living in arguably the most prosperous country in the world and and standing to benefit mightily from all of its freedoms and opportunities - isn't enough to give "the One" you people elected (and the political, legal and security establishments that continue to view it as just another of the world's religions alongside all the rest and therefore unquestioningly guaranteed full and unfettered freedom to operate without restriction) pause to reconsider his idiotically naive and uninformed assumptions about Islam and the threat (the non-threat, as he claims to see it) that it poses to the U.S. I can't begin to imagine what will!
Despite my centre-left electoral history (being part of the regretably small constituency on the left that "gets it" about Islam), and despite the fact that I find Stephen Harper an unsufferable p****, I can't thank God enough these days that I live in a country ruled by Conservatives who've recently flexed their muscles against Islamist activities on some significant fronts. (Not to mention that for a change I actually managed to vote for the winning side.)
I feel terrible for all of you down there in light of this current situation. You need all the help you can get right now, so I keep you and your country in my prayers.
Obama better smarten up soon. If he doesn't, 2012 won't be able to come soon enough for me. I just hope the U.S. is still standing at that time.
"Zazi has come to embody everything U.S. intelligence officials worry about in a suspected jihadist. He was in the U.S. legally, so he could move about the country freely. He was raised and attended school in the U.S., so he understands American culture and customs and could blend in. Most frightening of all, they say, Zazi wasn't just an aspirational jihadist, he was also an operational one."
Absolutely chilling.
If that kind of information isn't enough to give "the One" you people elected (and the political, legal and security establishments that continue to view it as just another of the world's religions alongside all the rest and therefore unquestioningly guaranteed full and unfettered freedom to operate without restriction) pause to reconsider his idiotically naive and uninformed assumptions about Islam and the threat (the non-threat, as he claims to see it) that it poses to the U.S. I can't begin to imagine what will!
Despite my centre-left electoral history (being part of the regretably small constituency on the left that "gets it" about Islam), and despite the fact that I find Stephen Harper an insufferable p****, I can't thank God enough these days that I live in a country ruled by Conservatives who've recently flexed their muscles against Islamists activities on certain fronts. (Not to mention that for a change I actually managed to vote for the winning side.)
I feel terrible for all of you down there in light of this current situation. You need all the help you can get right now, so I keep you and your country in my prayers.
Obama better smarten up soon. If he doesn't, 2012 won't be able to come soon enough for me.
Sorry for the double posting above folks. A mysterious holdup in posting and a mistaken attempt to make some corrections and last minute changes in what I thought was an opportunity presented by that circumstance made a mess of that comment.
Anyway, my best to everyone down there and my sympathies and regrets for the menaces that you're facing these days.
But the scorpion promised he wouldn't sting me in the back if I helped him!
The epitaph of the p.c. West.