UPDATE:
A complete breakdown of the plot and the conspirators at Bill Roggio’s Long War Journal:
On Wednesday, Tarek Mehanna of Sudbury, Massachusetts, was charged in federal court with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. We’ll likely be able to learn a significant amount about his ideological leanings, motivations, and radicalization, as Mehanna kept a fascinating blog; similarly, Mehanna’s friend and ideological cohort Daniel Maldonado kept a blog that yielded some important insights into his own radicalization. This article is concerned not with Mehanna’s radicalization, however, but with what authorities have alleged in the present case.
Key players. There are five individuals who play significant roles in the affidavit in support of a criminal complaint filed by FBI Special Agent Heidi L. Williams (all page numbers in the following analysis refer to her affidavit). Tarek Mehanna is the accused in this case, a 27-year-old pharmacist from Massachusetts. Ahmed Abousamra is a 28-year-old who grew up in the Greater Boston area, whose father is described by the Boston Globe as “prominent doctor and Muslim community leader.” Daniel Maldonado is a friend of Mehanna and Abousamra who pled guilty two years ago to undergoing terrorist training in Somalia. CW2 is a cooperating witness who had known Mehanna for 15-20 years and was originally part of the conspiracy, but started cooperating with the government in 2006. Individual A is a white convert to Islam “who worked as a teacher in an Islamic School in California,” and “had received religious training in Yemen, and had also attended a terrorist training camp” (18).
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/10/the_governments_alle.php
Whether homegrown or imported, there’s always one common denominator: They’re all muslim. Every one of them.
Another one of Janet Napolitano’s “man-caused disasters” has been thwarted.
A 27-year-old Massachusetts man has been charged with conspiring with others to support and plan violent jihad in and outside the United States, including terror plots to attack U.S. shopping malls and U.S. military in Iraq.
Federal officials in Boston say Tarek Mehanna of Sudbury worked with others from 2001 to May of 2008 to provide support and resources in a conspiracy to “kill, kidnap, main or injure” people in foreign countries and to kill prominent U.S. politicians.
Mehanna was charged in a complaint with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, according to the Department of Justice.The complaint further alleges that the co-conspirators attempted to radicalize others and inspire each other by, among other things, watching and distributing jihadi videos.
The charges accuse the suspects of talking about their desire to participate in Islamist holy war and of their desire to die on the battlefield.
The case comes less than a month after an Afghan-born man, Najibullah Zazi, was accused of plotting a bomb attack against the United States.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,568823,00.html
More here: http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/local/arrest_in_terror_related_matter_102109
Too bad Napolitano can’t squeeze in some Islamic terrorists in between all the “right-wing extremists” (Iraq War veterans like me) on her Domestic Threat Assessment.
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/enemies-of-obamas-state/
Our borders still leak like seives, the TSA, State Department, and Homeland Security are too timid to “profile” because we might “offend” a shitbag like Mehanna.
By the way:
The Senate gave overwhelming approval Tuesday to a final $42.8 billion fiscal 2010 Homeland Security spending bill after an extended protest by Republicans over the removal of provisions during closed-door conference talks among House and Senate appropriators.
……conferees dropped a provision that would have required the Homeland Security Department to build 700 miles of double-layered reinforced fencing along the southern border.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C reminded senators that a majority of the Senate voted to include the provision in the spending bill.
One of the dropped provisions to draw protests would have permanently reauthorized the E-Verify electronic system employers can use to verify the legal status of their workers. Another would have required employers to take action if the Social Security number provided by a worker did not match records with the Social Security Administration.
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=43844&dcn=
Yep, the country’s in good hands.