The Miami group arrested as terrorists, which called itself the "Seas of David," evidently hoping that people might just think they're the latest Royal Caribbean line super ship, were cooking up a plot that was "more aspirational than operational," according to FBI deputy director John Pistole. Sort of like that old Catholic notion that if you think of the sin, you've already committed it. Or, to paraphrase Tom Edison, "Terrorism is 99% aspiration, and 1% perspiration."
The more I hear about these guys, the more they sound like a particularly nasty bunch of totally inept little boys playing at being badass.
I think it's hilarious that the Bushistas and their acolytes are portraying this as some kind of huge success in the War on Terror, never mind the fact that they want to have it both ways with these guys. I mean, if the war in Iraq is "fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here", then if these guys are Big Bad Al Qaeda wannabes, we're fighting them here anyway, right?
And if the "terrorists here" are as dumb as this bunch is supposed to be, then don't you think that all this nonsense with vast data banks in AT&T secret rooms and amassing bank records is just a wee bit of overkill?
I mean, look at what he have here: Nineteen guys with baseball cutters, taking orders from a 6'4" guy on dialysis in Afghanistan manage to topple the World Trade Center and damage a third of the Pentagon. Some Latino guy (Jose Padilla) talks about dirty bombs without having any means of acting in his talk and ends up being disappared into a military prison, probably for life. Now these guys. This isn't exactly high-tech stuff, folks. This hardly makes "the enemy" that Bush talks about all the time sound worthy of being the focus of so much hysteria. In fact, the boogeymen that this Administration, with the help of the media flaying these stories until their flesh fragments, sound more like the Keystone Kops than the kind of threat for which Americans should be willing to give up their freedoms.
If this country is really that much threatened by every nut with delusions of destructions, then perhaps we need a serious gut-check.
Josh Marshall has more:
It seems the new terrorist cell rolled up near Miami was in such preliminary stages of launching their jihad that they hadn't yet set aside time to become Muslims.
From the NYT: "Neighbors said at least some of the men were in a religious group called the Seas of David that appeared to mix Christian and Muslim beliefs. The group wore uniforms bearing a Star of David and met for Bible study, prayer and martial arts in a one-story warehouse in the heart of the predominantly Haitian section of the impoverished Liberty City area."
From CNN: "The sister of Lyglenson Lemorin, or "Brother Levi," one of the men arrested Thursday on charges of concocting a terrorist plot, said her brother was involved with the group of men to study religion. Gina Lemorin, who had just returned from her college graduation in Atlanta, Georgia, when she learned of the charges, said he had been with the group in Miami doing construction work. But when the group began practicing "witchcraft," she said, Lemorin left and moved to Atlanta about four months ago ...The family of Phanor, who according to the indictment calls himself "Brother Sunni," told reporters in Miami he was innocent of all charges and was a practicing Roman Catholic, not a Muslim. "They all call themselves brothers and they well-mannered," said his older sister, Marlene Phanor. "All they was trying to do was clean up the community. We are Catholic. He's Catholic." She said the family attends St. Mary's Catholic Church in Miami. Sylvain Plantin, a cousin of Phanor's, said he was involved in a religious group called "Mores," which met to read the Bible."
From KR: "The group apparently did little to inspire fear in the Liberty City neighborhood where they took up residence. A close family friend and a distance cousin of Stanley Grant Phanor described the leader of the group, Narseal Batiste, as a "Moses-like figure" who would roam the streets in a cape or bathrobe, toting a crooked wooden cane and looking for young men to join his group. Sylvain Plantin, 30, said Batiste was a martial arts expert who preached an obscure religion."
I mean, hell, if running around talking like a religious nut means you're a terrorist, then we might as well arrest most of the Republicans in Congress right now.
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