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Friday, June 23, 2006

What Took Them So Long?

We can all breathe a sigh of relief, apparently, after 7 were arrested in Miami for plotting to destroy the Miami FBI Building and the Sears Tower. But as I read the details, I was struck by the fact that these men had been behaving in an irrational and bizarre way for a long time. Why didn't we catch them before this?

We are told the Patriot Act is in place to prevent this very sort of thing from happening. But was there any wiretapping or email screening of these nut jobs during all this irrational behavior? They'd been displaying it for about a year.

These men call themselves Muslims. Their leader claims they have "soldiers" in Chicago, too. During the last year, they have tried to recruit young men from a nearby neighborhood. "At times ... the men "would cover their faces. Sometimes they would wear things on their heads, like turbans."

"The men slept in the warehouse ... "They would come out late at night and exercise. It seemed like a military boot camp that they were working on there. They would come out and stand guard."

Hello? Shouldn't citizens have been beating on Homeland Security's doors? And shouldn't H.S. have caught onto this sooner if the Patriot Act is really working?

Inquiring minds want to know.

17 comments:

Ed said...

FBI agents were beating on the door trying to tell the government that known muslim terrorists were trying to learn how to fly airplanes and the government ignored them until after 9/11. Our political system is extremely top heavy and full of red tape. Nothing moves very fast except for the one political party on their opposing party's latest scandel.

High Power Rocketry said...

You know if anyone saw the TV show "Sleeper Cell", that warehouse was EXACTLY the same as the one used in the show. Pretty funny.

I bet these guys were taken in once they beat the FBI in the brain over it. Like they crossed the line when they spoke to the FBI director about their plans. That was the fatal flaw!

I dont see any wire taps, or the ability to enter my house without telling me, as helping in this case. Just good old school detective work, were we were lucky enough that these criminals were highly obvious and lousy at what they do.

Stephanie said...

Good questions! I hear about this too, just last night- without the details. I just heard that they were planning attacks on the Sears Tower. A LITTLE too close to home if you ask me! yeesh!

Saur♥Kraut said...

Jef, ya know, you have a point! It is beastly hot here. Why, oh why can't the hurricane season happen when it's COLD so that when the power goes out, we don't suffocate???

Stephanie, creeepy, isn't it? And they aren't arabic, either, according to early reports. Just Muslim.

Alex, exactly! I have the gut feeling that it was sheer luck that we stumbled across them at all. Perhaps we'll hear differently, though.

Ed, 'zactly!

United We Lay said...

I think this is pretty good proof that the Patriot Act acutally doesn't do ANYTHING to protect the American people and con only hurt us in the long run. If we get a democratic (though I'd rather 3rd party) President, I am hoping that the Patriot Act will fall by the wayside and be voted out of the law books, along with man of Lord Bush's other policies.

mikster said...

The Patriot Act is a sham. It was a knee-jerk reaction to 9-11. Most of these groups were under suspicion and authorities were notified of suspicious activities and law enforcement was slow to act. The Patriot Act won't and hasn't changed that.

mckay said...

my guess is that the Patriot Act played a bigger part in arresting these would-be terrorists than the media reports. The article i read said that they monitored these people long enough to build a case for prosecution. as soon as they had enough evidence to convict, they went in, closed them down and did the arrests. what more is everyone looking for? Personally, i don't want all the details of how our gov't used the Patriot Act or other tools to make arrests. Keep it covert, so they may continue to be used to save lives.

regarding susieb's idea to have homeland security peeps in our neighborhoods: we do. my high school friend married an FBI guy. he lives in a quiet local neighborhood, drinks beer, and i've been invited to their BBQs. these guys do not work 9-5 Monday through friday. they are always on guard, watching, protecting, even if everyone doesn't see it; even if it isn’t appreciated.

Scott said...

I would think that the fact that they were never to execute their plan would be the proof that law enforcement is doing their jobs. I know that in Canada when we recently caught a terror ring, they had been under observation for months. I guess they do that so they can see if there is a larger picture than what is going on.

Sad that we all have to be paranoid about such things.

Scott

Dave said...

Saur,

The liberal media has hit an all time low with their coverage of this story.

They are making the Muslim terrorists furious by insinuating that 6 black male thugs could possibly have the intelligence of one Muslim terrorist. If your old boyfriend were to put bombs in the Sears Tower and hand these Dudes the detonator they still couldn’t pull it off.

Liberty City is nothing but thugs . I’ve been there and it makes St. Pete look like Safety Harbor.

On the news tonight I witnessed two occurrences of traditional black on white crime. The two black males kicking the stuffing out of the white pizza delivery guy in Cape Fear and a black basketball player knocking the white player unconscious out on the floor. This is the type of black crime we’ve grown to know and expect.

Now what does the liberal media think they will accomplish by elevating this violent cultural behavior to the level of terrorism? This is an indictment to the well established crime culture that exists in America.

To call these lads terrorists is just wrong, wrong, wrong.

Excellent post

PS. I honestly believe that I have an excellent change of winning the best butt contest in Cancun this summer..

The Lazy Iguana said...

First, I would remind Mr. Gator that the "liberal media" must include Fox - which also covered the crap out of this story. Three guys decide what is and is not news in America. They each own a cable news network. They ALL suck.

Anyway, here is what I know of the story.

1. Once again, Miami proves itself to be a city of retards!

2. The talking heads from the government said (not directly) that the Patriot Act and the wiretaps and stuff would not help with groups like this one. They did not call Afganistan, none of them left the USA to go to Pakistan, and so forth. They were totally isolated from any other known terror group.

3. They were all dumb as can be, and no threat to anyone at all (except maybe themselvs). How were they going to "blow up the Sears Tower"??? With illegal bottle rockets?

4. In Liberty City, one learns to not rat people out. Many residents distrust the police (after getting arrested for "stealing" a car that belongs to them), or fear the gangs and drug dealers.

5. The group was ratted out from the inside. The FBI had an informant inside the group.

6. Nobody knows, or nobody will say, if MIA was on their list along with the Miami FBI building. Not that I am concerned - if these guys were terrorists, they were the world's most inept terrorist. I do not think they culd blow up a frog if you gave them an M-80 and a match. And a frog.

Dave said...

Mr. Igauna,

Thanks for the great laugh. I needed that.

Bryan said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Bryan said...

Has anyone considered the possibility that these guys were just a few more fall guys in a long list of fall guys used by our government to stir up fear so that we would be that much more willing to hand over our priceless liberties?

It's called:

Problem = Terrorism
Reaction = Fear
Solution = Police State

It's a classic intelligence agency ploy and has been used countless times by our own CIA, and was also employed by the Nazis in WWII to bring about a desired effect -- the willingness of the people to give up their liberties for security which, of course, only brought them tryanny. The burning of the Reichstag, for instance, was one such event. Hitler did the deed himself and blamed it on his political enemies, thereby allowing him to abolish the Chancellery and the people's rights.

History has a way of repeating itself. Please pay attention.

Also the Bush Family has a history of well-documented (though not widely known) Nazi connections; this alone should raise a few eyebrows as to the true purpose of the Patriot Act. An investigative reporter by the name of John Buckhannon found all of the Nazi connections material right in our own National Archives and Library of Congress. He was one of the reporters who first broke the Watergate Scandal back in the seventies, so there's no credibility problem there.

Pleasse listen to this documentary clip about the Bush Family's Nazi connections: Nazi Ties

Bryan said...

Oh, by the way. A thought-provoking post, Saur.

Bryan said...

I was looking at what I wrote last night on your blog and realized from the way I wrote "Pay Attention" that I could have been mistaken for being forceful and rude. It was late and I was tired and didn't word it the way I should have.

My apologies

Eddo said...

How does one go about contacting homeland security? This is something I need to find out. I live in a relatively diverse but safe place, however, if I did see something unusual I wouldn't know who to call other than 911.

The Lazy Iguana said...

Want to contact Homeland Security? EASY! Just call someone. The best place to call is any public phone overseas.

Speak clearly while the foreign pay phone is ringing. They will hear you.