Michigan Jihad Update: move along, nothing to see here. Of course, the FBI is still working according to the utterly useless proposition that one is not a “terrorist” unless one has a “direct” connection to “known terrorist groups.” The possibility that these bridge plotters could have been inspired by the same ideology that motivates jihad terrorists around the world, and that that ideology continues to spread even in the United States, and that one need not be a member of a “terrorist group” to hold that ideology, is of no apparent interest to them. From AP, :
CARO, Michigan (AP) — The FBI said Monday it had no information to indicate that the three Texas men arrested with about 1,000 cell phones in their van had any direct connection to known terrorist groups.
Authorities had increased patrols on Michigan’s five-mile-long Mackinac Bridge after local prosecutors said investigators believed the men were targeting the span.
Local authorities didn’t say what they believed the men intended to do with the phones, most of which were prepaid TracFones, but Caro’s police chief noted that cell phones can be untraceable and used as detonators.
The FBI issued a news release Monday saying there is no imminent threat to the bridge linking Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas.
The release also said the FBI had no information indicating that the men, Palestinian-Americans living in Texas, had any direct links to any known terrorist groups or to the alleged plot to bomb trans-Atlantic jetliners that was announced in London last week….
Meanwhile, one of the suspects’ wife plays the race card:
Louai Othman’s wife, Lina Odeh, told The Associated Press on Saturday that she thought her husband and relatives were targeted because of their Arab descent. She said the men’s families come from Jerusalem.