The seventh member of the terrorist cell in Lackawanna, New York has been caught. And from the lawyers from the other six comes more confirmation that jihadis are motivated by religion. Why, then, do so many analysts continue to discount what the Islamic religion can reveal about the motives and goals of terrorists? This from AP:
The last member of a group of Yemeni-Americans from New York state sought by U.S. authorities for attending an al-Qaeda training camp is in custody in Yemen, a senior security official said Thursday.
Jaber Elbaneh was arrested several months ago as part of Yemen’s fight against terrorism, the official said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity. . . .
In a U.S. court last year, six Yemeni-Americans from Lackawanna pleaded guilty to aiding a terrorist organization by undergoing training in 2001 in a camp in Afghanistan run by Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida organization. Al-Qaida is blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
In their pleas, all six described weapons and explosives training and a speech by bin Laden to trainees about men on a mission to attack America.
Unlike the others, Elbaneh never returned to Lackawanna after his training in the al-Qaida camp, investigators said.
U.S. authorities said there was no evidence that the Lackawanna group was involved in planning or participated in any terrorist act.
Defense lawyers for the Lackawanna Six have said the men were victims of high-pressure recruiters who appealed to their sense of religious duty in persuading them to seek military-style training.
This has to be faced because it is still going on. Last week at CPAC I listened while a moderate Muslim spokesmen told the crowd about the peaceful and tolerant aspects of Islam. He cut off the discussion before I had a chance to reply, so I will reply here by way of a few questions: what are moderate Muslims doing to head off another Lackawanna Six? How are they countering the religious arguments that radicals use to recruit? Until they start doing this, their claims that Islam is peaceful are hollow: they aren’t even believed by those among their fellow Muslims who are busy waging jihad for the sake of Allah in what they believe is fidelity to the Qur’an.