Some new, unusual facts are already emerging. Yes, the men were arrested during what the FBI said was an attempt to buy AK-47 machine guns, M-16s and other weapons. But . . . http://www.msnbc.msn...
[O]ne of the men, Tatar, called a Philadelphia police officer in November, saying that he had been approached by someone who was pressuring him to obtain a map of Fort Dix, and that he feared the incident was terrorist-related, according to court documents.
On the other hand, a co-worker of one of the six said:
http://wcbstv.com/to...
Abdullahu sometime made jokes about how the United States couldn't find bin Laden, saying, "U.S., no matter what they do, cannot catch my Uncle Benny," Watts said. He said Abdullahu also showed him bomb recipes that he had in his car.
But the co-worker also said:
But Watts said he never saw anything to indicate that his friend hated the country."That's what's puzzling me and making my stomach turn knots right now," he said.
Back to the main story . . .
"The FBI learned of the alleged plot when the men went to a Circuit City store and asked a clerk to transfer a jihad training video of themselves onto a DVD." Were they just that stupid as well as evil? Or were they just a bunch of guys who liked to look macho on video?
According to the AP account,
He railed against the United States, helped scout out military installations for attack, offered to introduce his comrades to an arms dealer and gave them a list of weapons he could procure, including machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.These were not the actions of a terrorist but of a paid FBI informant . . .
In their zeal to enforce the law, Government agents may not originate a criminal design, implant in an innocent person's mind the disposition to commit a criminal act, and then induce commission of the crime so that the Government may prosecute.
[Aside: you know a defendant is going to have his conviction nullified when, as in this case, U.S. v. Jacobson, the opening words of the court opinion are: "In February 1984, petitioner, a 56 year old veteran turned farmer who supported his elderly father in Nebraska . . ."]
A little more elaboration from the Supreme Court:
The evidence that petitioner was ready and willing to commit the offense came only after the Government had devoted 2-+ years to convincing him that he had or should have the right to engage in the very behavior proscribed by law. Rational jurors could not say beyond a reasonable doubt that petitioner possessed the requisite predisposition prior to the Government's investigation and that it existed independent of the Government's many and varied approaches to petitioner. As was explained in Sherman,where entrapment was found as a matter of law, "the Government [may not] pla[y] on the weaknesses of an innocent party and beguil[e] him into committing crimes which he otherwise would not have attempted." Id., at 376.
Why am I suspicious? Try -- Gitmo; Abu Gharib; renditions; etc. and etc. Forgive me for being a cynic.
Earlier this year, authorities said, the men took a training trip to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, where they fired weapons and played paintball to prepare for an attack.http://www.cbsnews.c...
Of course, they've been denied bail.
Another interesting fact:
Agents say they have not been able to establish any link between the men and outside terrorist groups.http://www.npr.org/t...
Maybe they are guilty -- we'll see what happens. This link has a few damning allegations: http://www.nydailyne...
"My intent is to hit a heavy concentration of soldiers," Shnewer said, revealing a plan to sneak into Fort Dix with automatic weapons."When you go to a military base, you need mortars and RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades]," he said. "You take a map and draw it and then you calculate that there are areas where there are 100, 200 individuals and you should allocate six to seven persons for this alone."
We must wait and see what else comes up.
The only thing that could change it is if the informants were egging them on and pressuring them to do something, in effect becoming the ringleaders
The criminal complaint is online at the above link. Of course, one has to hear the statements quoted in context, but the complaint sounds like there was a real plan. http://www.cbsnews.c...
However, some of the stuff seems really dumb. There's a lot of mention of procuring a map of Ft. Dix (which one of the alleged co-conspirators could obtain from his father's pizza business. See, e.g., Paras. 25 and 28 of the attachment to the complaint. However, you can get a map and pretty detailed aerial view of Ft. Dix from Yahoo maps online.
http://maps.yahoo.co...
Were they that dumb?
I hope there's a fair judicial process. The whole thing seems odd.
By the way, we should take a look at this proposed FISA expansion. Senator Whitehouse(?), Democrat, was on C-Span today with a huge chart which he said represented over 9,000 people, INCLUDING Karl Rove, who would be entitled to initiate warrantless investigations under the legislation. He said the proposal would expand the control over FISA authorizations from the current group of 9 vetted and Senate-approved federal judges to over 9,000 people designated by the President for such capabilities.