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March 29, 2008
"Jihad, USA" Documentary To Air Tonight and Sunday Night On Fox
Jihad USA: Confronting the Threat of Homegrown Terror
Law enforcement officials and security experts are warning against the threat of homegrown terrorism as several cases involving alleged American jihadists enter the courts.
"The public is getting complacent," New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly tells FOX News. Kelly, who was the police commissioner during the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, has developed a task force of counterterrorism officers trained to spot jihadists.
Although there has not been a major terrorist strike in the U.S. since Sept. 11, 2001, Kelley says the country cannot let down its guard.
"We can't afford to be complacent in law enforcement, and I don't think we are," Kelly says in the new FOX News documentary, "Jihad, USA," which will air at 9 p.m. ET on March 29.
Several terror-related cases now in the courts highlight this need for continued vigilance, experts say.
— In Florida, the retrial of six of the "Liberty City Seven" is coming to a close. The group members, who allegedly plotted to destroy the Sears Tower in Chicago and swore allegiance to Al Qaeda on a secret FBI surveillance tape, were arrested in June 2006. Their first trial ended in a not-guilty verdict for one defendant and a mistrial for the other six.
— In Washington state, the murder trial has begun for Pakistani-American Naveed Haq, who is accused of opening fire in Seattle's Jewish Federation Building in July 2006, killing one woman and wounding five others. Haq allegedly said he was mad at the Jews and how they are running the country.
Two other cases are to enter court next month.
— In Michigan, a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Houssein Zorkot, a Lebanese-born medical student at Wayne State University in Detroit who posted on his Web site in September 2007 that he was launching a personal jihad. He was arrested that same day in a nearby park, wearing camouflage paint and holding a loaded AK-47.
— In South Carolina a trial is set for Youssef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed, two University of South Florida students who officials say had pipe bombs in their car when they were caught speeding near the Goose Creek weapons base.
Terror experts say these and other cases since Sept. 11 illustrate an emerging threat from homegrown terrorists, people who have been radicalized by extreme Muslim doctrine within the U.S.
"Al Qaeda is depending today upon the spontaneous emergence of these jihadist cells that are not tethered to the leadership of Al Qaeda by either telephone or e-mail," terror investigator and author Steve Emerson told FOX News.
But others say the threat of homegrown Islamic terrorism is overstated.
In "none of these cases brought in the United States did the government ever produce any evidence suggesting that someone had prepared a bomb," says Jim Wedick, a former FBI agent. "Someone's actual ability to do harm needs to be taken into the equation."
Wedick consulted with the defense on the Liberty City Seven case.
"The solution is not to treat the whole Muslim community as a suspect community," says Hussam Ayloush, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "This is not about ignoring a threat, but this ... should not be about exaggerating any threat in a way that promotes certain political agendas."
Kelly says the threat is real and the only way to combat it is through prevention.
"Just imagine if the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11 were arrested on Sept. 10," he says. "How would that have been characterized?"
Wild Thing's comment........
There is a preview video at the Fox site HERE
Posted by Wild Thing at March 29, 2008 03:44 PM
Comments
I'm afraid that NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is correct when he says that "The public is getting complacent" when it comes to the real threat of terrorism. The Wall Street Journal has an editorial today about the severity and seriousness of the threat of terror.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey while talking about terror told the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco that even he had no idea of the extent of the threat. And, it continues, "Speaking of what he hears in his national security briefings, Mr. Mukasey said, "It is way beyond – way beyond anything that I knew or believed"."
The full editorial is at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120674959280273345.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks
The WSJ editorial cites a New York Sun editorial on the Mukasey speech.
http://www.nysun.com/editorials/mukaseys-emotion
Al Gore contends that those who doubt global warming remind him of those who doubt that man landed on the moon or who believed the world is flat. Well, those who deny the reality and extent of global and domestic Islamofascist terror and that we need to be at war with this enemy remind me "of those who doubt that man landed on the moon or who believed the world is flat."
Posted by: Les at March 29, 2008 07:02 PM
Les, thank you so much for the links. I agree so much, "The public is getting complacent". It sure is.
I know people get busy, have a lot on their plate so to speak with just the living of life. I do too,but as long as I live I will never understand two things no matter what.
1. How a person can live in this country and not be grateful every day to those who gave us our land of the free, the brave men and women from all the past service up to today. Maybe they can't thnk of it every day but by God I expect them to think about it every other day.
2. How anyone that has a brain cell, even if they don't put the tons of attacks by Muslims on American's ( civilian and military) over the many years together as all coming from Islam. If they forget about the ones that were out of our country etc.that is bad enough.
But how on earth can they, anyone not feel in their bones how important it is to know the enemy and not bs about it one second more.
I mean no one is asking them to enlist, to fight, but at least admit who the enemy is (Islam) and who those are that are willing to sacrifice all to fight back.
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 29, 2008 07:27 PM
"Welcome to the Palmetto state's Dept. of Corrections Ahab...CHAIN GANG time!" Pipebomb vs. firecrackers my ayatollah assahola patriots!
Justice = GIT 'R DONE 2008!!
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at March 29, 2008 11:49 PM
2bornot2b?
How many ACLU traitors (Arabs Communists Liberals United) will defend these saboteurs in a time of war pro bono?
Will their Florida colleges... red shirt them in Jihad 101 for future ?
2bornot2b?
Posted by: 2bornot2b? at March 30, 2008 12:56 AM
Complacent? Oh yeah, we've become complacent.
There is an old saying, "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."
I don't know why Americans would want to have another terrorist attack on this land--it boggles the mind. Why would you want to possibly die?
I think had Bush not won the last election, we would have been attacked again and I think they are just laying in wait, kind of like a lion does to it's prey, and see who we elect before they pounce.
A weak dummycrap will not be able to handle it. Talking does NOT work with these death loving morons. You have to strike, as they do. Like a cobra.
Posted by: Lynn at March 30, 2008 07:45 AM
