Seven men were arrested in a plot to attack the 110 story Sears Tower in Chicago, and there is a roundup of suspicious characters going on in Miami.
MIAMI - Seven people were arrested Thursday in connection with the early stages of a plot to attack Chicago's Sears Tower and other buildings in the U.S., including the FBI office here, a federal law enforcement official said.
As part of the raids related to the arrests, FBI agents swarmed a warehouse in Miami's Liberty City area, using a blowtorch to take off a metal door. A neighbor said the suspects had been sleeping in the warehouse while running what seemed to be a "military boot camp."
In paragraph 3 the AP goes out of its way to quickly make a point.
The official told The Associated Press the alleged plotters were mainly Americans with no apparent ties to al-Qaida or other foreign terrorist organizations.
An anonymous official certifies this for the AP? Great. I have a question. Were they Muslim? I'm just asking. Paragraph 8:
Residents living near the warehouse said the men taken into custody described themselves as Muslims and had tried to recruit young people to join their group, which seemed militaristic.
Paragraph 11:
[Tashawn Rose] talked to one of the men about a month ago: "They seemed brainwashed. They said they had given their lives to Allah."
I see. They were Muslim men who "seemed brainwashed," who "seemed militaristic," who tried to recruit additional young people to join the group, who had "given their lives to Allah," and who were plotting to blow up landmark buildings in America. Thank God they weren't Al Qaeda.
But they are Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda is not an organization in the traditional sense. It's a philosophy. If you possess the philosophy then you are Al Qaeda. If you want to destroy western society, to sow terror among the infidels, to bring jihad to all non-Muslim lands, then you are Al Qaeda. There is no reason to make that part of the checklist. Is there a reason to treat terrorists differently because they are not "officially" Al Qaeda? I think not.
6/23/06 0610: CNN informs us that
Law enforcement sources told CNN that some of the suspects are members of a radical Muslim group and that at least one had taken "an al Qaeda oath." ...
Sources told CNN that the arrests culminated a monthslong undercover operation. The suspects believed they were dealing with an al Qaeda operative but the person was actually a government informant, the sources said.
Big run down at Hot Air from Allah, and at Captain's Quarters.
Kind of like the arrests in Toronto 3 weeks ago, no? Any connection?
