This administration or the last one -- just plain don't ever believe anything until you've seen all the details.
This country is not under attack from terrorists. Despite the fearmongering of Richard Bruce Cheney and the Bush dead-enders, there is scant evidence of a determined, hidden, credible plan to kill thousands of us. The latest 'Bronx bomb plot' that has been ballyhooed by every New York politician is actually proof that the FBI has to entrap a sad cadre of losers in order to keep the terror mania going.
Of course, vigilance is important ... indeed, there maybe serious, bad people developing plans to stage another 9/11 style attack. However, it worries us that the government spends time and resources to trick a few drug addicts into dreamy schemes rather than pursuing whatever real threats that there may be.
The 'uncovering' of the 'Bronx plot' does not instill us with confidence that the government is doing its job of protecting us, instead it concerns us more that they are concocting publicity stunts for their own benefit.
Sadly, these four pathetic ex-cons will undoubtedly be convicted eventually, even if it takes four or five trials -- millions of your dollars spent to send these guys back to prison. Meanwhile, whether or not a genuine threat is exposed we may discover only too late.
By the now, it's maddeningly familiar. A scary terrorist plot is announced. Then it's revealed that the suspects are a hapless bunch of ne'er-do-wells or run-of-the-mill thugs without the slightest connection to any terrorists at all, never mind to Al Qaeda. Finally, the last piece of the puzzle: the entire plot is revealed to have been cooked up by a scummy government agent-provocateur.I've seen this movie before.
In this case, the alleged perps -- Onta Williams, James Cromitie, David Williams, and Laguerre Payen -- were losers, ex-cons, drug addicts. Al Qaeda they're not. Without the assistance of the agent who entrapped them, they would never have dreamed of committing political violence, nor would they have had the slightest idea about where to acquire plastic explosives or a Stinger missile. That didn't stop prosecutors from acting as if they'd captured Osama bin Laden himself. Noted the Los Angeles Times:
Prosecutors called it the latest in a string of homegrown terrorism plots hatched after Sept. 11.
"It's hard to envision a more chilling plot," Assistant U.S. Atty. Eric Snyder said in court Thursday. He described all four suspects as "eager to bring death to Jews."
Actually, it's hard to imagine a stupider, less competent, and less important plot. The four losers were ensnared by a creepy FBI agent who hung around the mosque in upstate New York until he found what he was looking for. Here's the New York Times account:
Salahuddin Mustafa Muhammad, the imam at the mosque where the authorities say the confidential informant first encountered the men, said none of the men were active in the mosque. ...
Mr. Cromitie was there last June, and he met a stranger.
He had no way of knowing that the stranger's path to the mosque began in 2002, when he was arrested on federal charges of identity theft. He was sentenced to five years' probation, and became a confidential informant for the F.B.I. He began showing up at the mosque in Newburgh around 2007, Mr. Muhammad said.
The stranger's behavior aroused the imam's suspicions. He invited other worshipers to meals, and spoke of violence and jihad, so the imam said he steered clear of him.
"There was just something fishy about him," Mr. Muhammad said. Members "believed he was a government agent."
Mr. Muhammad said members of his congregation told him the man he believed was the informant offered at least one of them a substantial amount of money to join his "team."So a creepy thug buttonholes people at a mosque, foaming at the mouth about violence and jihad? This is law enforcement? Just imagine if someone did this at a local church, or some synagogue. And the imam says the people "believed he was a government agent."
Preying on these losers, none of whom were apparently actual Muslims, the "confidential informant" orchestrated the acquisition of a disabled Stinger missile to shoot down military planes and cooked up a wild scheme about attacking a Jewish center in the Bronx.
The only one of the four suspects who appears to have aroused any suspicion was Payen, a Haitian native who attended the Newburgh mosque. Assistant imam Hamid Rashada said his dishevelment and odd behavior disturbed some members, said the assistant imam, Hamid Rashada.
When Payen appeared in court, defense attorney Marilyn Reader described him as "intellectually challenged" and on medication for schizophrenia. The Associated Press said that when he was asked if he understood the proceedings, Payen replied: "Sort of."Despite the pompous statements from Mayor Bloomberg of New York and other politicians, including Representative Peter King, the whole story is bogus. The four losers may have been inclined to violence, and they may have harbored a virulent strain of anti-Semitism. But it seems that the informant whipped up their violent tendencies and their hatred of Jews, cooked up the plot, incited them, arranged their purchase of weapons, and then had them busted. To ensure that it made headlines, the creepy informant claimed to be representing a Pakistani extremist group, Jaish-e Muhammad, a bona fide terrorist organization. He wasn't, of course.
It is disgusting and outrageous that the FBI is sending provocateurs into mosques.
The headlines reinforce the very fear that Dick Cheney is trying to stir up. The story strengthens the narrative that the "homeland" is under attack. It's not. As I've written repeatedly, since 9/11 not a single American has even been punched in the nose by an angry Muslim, as far as I can tell. Plot after plot -- the destruction of the Brooklyn Bridge! bombing the New York Subways! taking down the Sears Tower! bombing the Prudential building in Newark! -- proved to be utter nonsense.
N.Y. Bomb Plot Suspects Acted Alone, Police Say | New York Times
... In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Cromitie’s sister, Wanda Cromitie, said she was shocked to learn of her brother’s arrest while watching television this morning. She said she was unaware that her brother may have had extreme political views, and that she had last spoken to him about two years ago when she thought he was working at a Wal-Mart or Kmart store.“Right now, to me he’s, like, the dumbest person I ever came in contact with in my life,” Ms. Cromitie said.
She added that as far as she knew, he was not a Muslim, but said “they do a little time in jail and they don’t eat pork no more.”
At the Masjid al-Ikhlas mosque in Newburgh where the men first met the F.B.I. informant, they were not considered devoted members, said an imam at the mosque, Salahuddin Mustafa. He also said that the man he believes was the informant showed up about two years ago and started inviting people to meals, where he would talk about jihad and violence. The imam and others believed the man was a government agent and steered clear of him, he said, but Mr. Cromitie apparently took the bait.
An assistant imam at the mosque, Hamin Rashada, said that another one of the four men, Mr. Payen, seemed disturbed. Mr. Payen often talked in circles, showed signs of paranoia and kept bottles of urine in a messy apartment.
“He has some very serious psychological problems,” Mr. Rashada said. ...
... A federal law enforcement official described the plot as “aspirational” — meaning that the suspects wanted to do something but had no weapons or explosives — and described the operation as a sting with a cooperator within the group.
“It was fully controlled at all times,” a law enforcement official said. ...
Newburgh Neighbors Stunned as Cops See Enough Hate to Kill in Terror Fiends | Daily News: New York
... James Cromitie, 44, David Williams, 28, and Onta Williams, 32, all served time for drug dealing, converting to Islam in prison. Cromitie had as many as 27 convictions.He even made the stunning admission in court that he had smoked pot before the bust.
The fourth man, Laguerre Payen, 27, had served 15 months for assault and was supposed to be deported to Haiti. But an immigration judge stayed the order because Payen, a paranoid schizophrenic, was judged insane.
"Waiting for him to be sane enough to boot out of the country? That logic is what's insane," said a law enforcement source.
Payen lived in a filthy crack den where a friend Thursday said he saw bottles of urine.
The other three routinely hung out on Cromitie's porch in upstate Newburgh, across the street from David Williams' house, drinking and barbecuing. ...
... The fourth man, Payen, was hospitalized after his arrest. "He was off his meds - needing to be particularly crazy to do the deed," said a law enforcement source.
Payen had done time for shooting two teens with a BB gun.
His cousin, Marie Payen, said his mother also is mentally ill. His father is dead, and his brother, a U.S. Marine, is the only normal one, she said.
Still, she couldn't picture him as a terrorist. "I know he's not normal, but he's not that kind of person. I don't even think he knows how to read," she said.
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