It was all a joke, says Mohamed Younes! Of course! When Mohamad Shnewer was in a particularly joking mood back in 2006, he showed a fellow plotter who turned out to be a government informant some DVD files: some featured Osama bin Laden calling Muslims to wage jihad warfare, and others contained the last will and testaments of some of the 9/11 hijackers.
Oh, Shnewer, you kidder!
Shnewer was ready to lay them in the aisles but good, saying of American soldiers at Fort Dix, “They are the ones, we are going to put bullets in their heads, Allah willing.” Riotous!
“Many Muslims skeptical of Fort Dix verdicts,” by Wayne Parry for Associated Press, December 22 (thanks to all who sent this in):
Yes, they talked tough, fired guns and watched jihadist videos.
But the five young Muslims convicted Monday of plotting to kill soldiers at Fort Dix may not have been guilty of anything more than youthful braggadocio and poor judgment.
That was the verdict rendered by Muslim leaders immediately after the guilty verdicts were read in U.S. District Court in Camden.
“It seemed to me as if the case was pretty flimsy,” said James Yee, the former Muslim chaplain at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba who was arrested in 2003 and charged with mishandling classified material and other crimes in a suspected espionage ring. Criminal charges were later dropped against him.
“It seems like these guys under normal circumstances weren’t going to do anything until a government informant initiates contact with them and incites them,” said Yee.
“All of this doesn’t help build trust with the American Muslim community, and that is vital if our law enforcement is going to fight terrorism,” he said. “If anyone can improve security, it’s our community, but we need to be seen as trusted partners, not potential suspects.”
Mohamed Younes, president of the Paterson, N.J.-based American Muslin Union, voiced similar sentiments.
“I don’t think they actually mean to do anything,” he said. “I think they were acting stupid, like they thought the whole thing was a joke. They don’t look like the type of people to do something like this.”
Jim Sues, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, attended five days of testimony during the trial.
Jim Sues, of CAIR. Heh.
“Many people in the Muslim community will see this as a case of entrapment,” he said. “From what I saw, there was a significant role played by the government informant.”…