...being waged by native-born jihadists.
"U.S. sees homegrown Muslim extremism as rising threat: This may have been the most dangerous year since 9/11, anti-terrorism experts say," by Sebastian Rotella for the Los Angeles Times, December 7 (thanks to Twostellas):
Reporting from Washington - The Obama administration, grappling with a spate of recent Islamic terrorism cases on U.S. soil, has concluded that the country confronts a rising threat from homegrown extremism.Anti-terrorism officials and experts see signs of accelerated radicalization among American Muslims, driven by a wave of English-language online propaganda and reflected in aspiring fighters' trips to hot spots such as Pakistan and Somalia.
Europe had been the front line, the target of successive attacks and major plots, while the U.S. remained relatively calm. But the number, variety and scale of recent U.S. cases suggest 2009 has been the most dangerous year domestically since 2001, anti-terrorism experts said:
* There were major arrests of Americans accused of plotting with Al Qaeda and its allies, including an Afghan American charged in a New York bomb plot described as the most serious threat in this country since the Sept. 11 attacks.
* Authorities tracked other extremism suspects joining foreign networks, including Somali Americans going to the battlegrounds of their ancestral homeland and an Albanian American from Brooklyn who was arrested in Kosovo.
* The FBI rounded up homegrown terrorism suspects in Dallas, Detroit and Raleigh, N.C., saying that it had broken up plots targeting a synagogue, government buildings and military facilities.
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano issued her strongest public comments yet on the homegrown threat.
"We've seen an increased number of arrests here in the U.S. of individuals suspected of plotting terrorist attacks, or supporting terror groups abroad such as Al Qaeda," Napolitano said in a speech in New York. "Home-based terrorism is here. And, like violent extremism abroad, it will be part of the threat picture that we must now confront."
Officials acknowledged that her tone had changed, though they said terrorism has been her focus since becoming Homeland Security chief.
In some of the 2009 cases, extremist leanings are suspected but motives are not known.
Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan -- accused of killing 13 people in a Ft. Hood, Texas, shooting rampage last month -- has apparently suffered emotional problems. But in interviews, officials and experts have also raised his Muslim beliefs as an alleged motive.
A previous attack on the U.S. military, a shooting in June by an American convert who killed a soldier and wounded another at an Arkansas recruiting center, was apparently a case of a lone wolf radicalized in Yemen, according to Homeland Security officials.
"You are seeing the full spectrum of the threats you face in terrorism," former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.
"Radicalization is clearly happening in the U.S.," said Mitchell Silber, director of analysis for the Intelligence Division of the New York Police Department. "In years past, you couldn't say that about the U.S. You could say it about Europe."...
Nonetheless, recent investigations have run across Americans suspected of being operatives of Al Qaeda and its allies who were trained overseas and, in several cases, allegedly conspired with top terrorism bosses. They include a convert from Long Island, N.Y, who was captured in Pakistan late last year; a Chicago businessman accused of scouting foreign targets for a Pakistani network; and at least 15 Somali American youths from Minneapolis who returned to fight in their ancestral homeland....
No! It can't be!
The Obamahdi promised us that Islam is a "Religion of Peace". What could have gone wrong?
Is that learning curve raising itself from what seemed to be its permanently prone position, so that it no longer lies flat and coincident with the Y-axis, but can actually begin to be detected?
"Radicalization is clearly happening in the U.S.," said Mitchell Silber, director of analysis for the Intelligence Division of the New York Police Department. "In years past, you couldn't say that about the U.S."
The only reason you couldn't say that about the U.S. in past years is because you were either in denial or actively part of the problem.
Do you think...
-- that there might be a danger from second and third and fiftieth generation Muslims, given the nature of the belief system?
-- that we can learn from the millions of europeans unhappy with what their naive and foolish leadership has done?
-- that, with relatively few muslims here, we an opportunity is being squandered by people who insist that islam is primarily a religion, protected by civil rights law in a way that Ku Klux Klanism is not protected?
-- that americans can stop the nonsensical "respect" and can start seeing clearly?
"Obama Administration officials starting to realize there's a jihad on U.S. soil"
What reality rasing its ugly head again?
"In some of the 2009 cases, extremist leanings are suspected but motives are not known."
Love it, funny as all hell, like Montey Python on crack ... but it makes me sick in my heart.
"Radicalization is clearly happening in the U.S.
No kidding Sherlock...I wonder what cesspool this 'radicalization' is coming from? Instead of uselessly swatting at mosquito's, when are you going to drain the swamp?
Yes, now it looks just like the profile of a praying Muslim...ass-end aflutter.
Gotta be really careful there, Janet N. and all the terror pundits, not to mention the "I" word in any of this.
Don't even think the "I" word.
Not appropriate.
Un-American and intolerant to attach the "I" word and "extremism" in the same sentence.
No, must not do that.
How long's it been now since the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon were blown up at a cost of some 3,000 American lives? Eight years, two months and seven days by my count.
And our political and military leaders still haven't figured out who did it, and more importantly, why they did it. It's all just an on-going mystery.
Amazing.
But...but...everybody knows American Muslims are "moderate"!
A Pew Research poll from 2007 found "most Muslim Americans are largely assimilated in the culture, happy with their lives and embracing the American dream".
"Jihad on U.S. soil"—must be some sort of Islamophobic, right-wing crazies...
There are still some inhibitions in DC about simply and openly supporting those who wish to kill Americans and destroy America immediately and physically.
Not the people at the pointy end, I mean the higher fed officials like Napolitano and her creatures.
They have to be seen as doing something about it.
Nonetheless, they'll find a way to use it as a pretext to expand their power at our expense.
Never let a good crisis go to waste. -- Rahm Emanuel
OT? Not completely.
AirTran seems to be lying about what happened on flight 297. A third person--a corporate CEO--is speaking out:
http://www.mdjonline.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Laura+Armstrong-+The+curious++case+of++Air+Tran+flight+297%20&id=5017926-Laura+Armstrong-+The+curious++case+of++Air+Tran+flight+297
"Instead of uselessly swatting at mosquitoes...."
I don't have my Spanish dictionary handy, but isn't "mosquito" the Spanish for "little mosque"? Both have been major sources of death over the last 14 centuries. It's hard to tell which has killed more, Islam or malaria + yellow fever.
I suppose any action taken to combat this newly recognized (to the lefties) threat will have to be labeled
the "Homeland Contingency Operations".
but
they cannot seem to figure out why there is a jihad on American soil
duh
I think the big problem with the left is any real critical examination of the Jihad doctrine would put their foundational belief that "all cultures are equal" at risk.
Yes.
Actually "all cultures are equal" is code talk for other cultures are better -- as in "all cultures are equal but some are more equal than others".
It is very hard to come to terms with the inadequacies and disappointments of one's own life. Easier to get all excited about the inadequacies of one's culture.
Another reason the left likes mohamedanism over other religions.
Mohammedanism is wildly self-aggrandizing -- at least in the sense of self as a member of the superior group, not in the sense of self as wonderful in its own right.
Pretty much all the other religions say "get over yourself and try to act decent". One doesn't get major ego-grats for simply being a Baptist or a Jew or a Buddhist or a Hindu. One is expected to behave and keep one's ego in check, simply being a member doesn't make one a superior being.
Yes, in the time series where X=time and Y=officialdom having a clue about Islam, there does appear to be a smidgen of movement upward off the X-axis. It's a beginning.
"Instead of uselessly swatting at mosquitoes...."
I don't have my Spanish dictionary handy, but isn't "mosquito" the Spanish for "little mosque"? Both have been major sources of death over the last 14 centuries. It's hard to tell which has killed more, Islam or malaria + yellow fever.
_________________________________
Mezquita is Spanish for mosque. Mosca means fly (insect). Mosquito means mosquito. Mosquito grammatically is the dimunitive form of mosca. In México mosquitos are called both moscas and mosquitos.
Still Breathing
This is a very interesting story. It looks like the next level up from *the flying immams*. 13 is too high a figure for hijacking, you don't need that many. However, if you want to probe/practice frightening the life out of flyers it worked well. The fact that they caused chaos so easily, forced the pilot to turn the aircraft around (without any direct threats, just with misbehaviour pitched to cause anxiety - the context is everything here) and that the airline let all but 2 back on the plane (?fear of lawsuits) and that crew and flyers refused to get back on it.
Imagine, if you will, this happening all over America, or on flights from one airport etc. They could stop a lot of flights, imagine the chaos.
Wait and see if any suing or if this happens again, and if so where. They are intimidating you by producing a context of uncertainty, anxiety and concern by pressing your buttons. They are getting results.
Here's the bio of the third important voice in this story:
http://www.chesleybrown.com/brent.html
The second voice, Dr. Robinson, seems to be a credible witness, too:
http://www.speakermatch.com/keynotespeakers/602725113.htm
Well before September 11, you or I would have been forced out of line in boarding an airplane if we made jokes about hijacking. Is this now acceptable?--
"The de-boarded passenger related that a few of the men gestured with imaginary guns as their fingers, indicating with their triggering action that they would shoot the people on the plane."
http://espositosmusings.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/air-tran-flight-297-incident1.pdf
Muslim elbows are flying, as in other nations, other times.
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/21890438/detail.html
A different interpretation:
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/199871.php
'"Radicalization is clearly happening in the U.S.," said Mitchell Silber...'
No, Mr. Silber, not radicalization, normalization -- for Muslims. Some of our "moderate" bearded neighbors have studied their sacred text and discovered that Mohammed's dictum "kill infidels" translates to... kill infidels.
OT, not:
a kind of "joking jihad" also occurred on a second flight:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=118310
Oh my, you mean the senior citizens, veterans, and Tea Party attendies are threatening the national safety. I'll just bet those dudes on the airplane were gun-sighting the Minute Men. Shucks, these guys are entitled by the freedom of speech clause in the Quaran, "Kill those who blasphemy Islam." Give them a break.
Test