Legal experts warn about significance of 6 (Fort Dix) arrests

[Newsjock]

Source: McClatchy-Tribune

Wary of a number of federal anti-terror cases that proved to be overblown, two legal experts cautioned about attaching too much significance to Tuesday's arrest of six Muslims for plotting to attack Fort Dix.

The federal government's strategy to aggressively intervene early with any suspected terrorism plot, no matter how small, has sometimes resulted in prosecutions that failed to live up to their initial billing.

"The fact is that most of those arrested (in the past) are small fry and wannabes," said Daniel Benjamin, a terrorism expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "That's a reflection of the fact that al-Qaida has a hard time getting people in here and has higher priorities."

Federal prosecutors in New Jersey were quick to note that the six men arrested Tuesday — all from the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East — had no known ties to international terrorists. The arrests were initially announced from the White House, attaching a significance that implied it was more than a homegrown conspiracy.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4787622.html

[LeftCoast]

1. Sometimes?

"...has sometimes resulted in prosecutions that failed to live up to their initial billing." Show me one that did. I can't think of a single case.

[Erika]

2. I have to give it to Michael Savage tonight

He said they were attention seeker morons who were losers and totally incapable of doing us harm.

[aquart]

4. Us harm? Correct. But they ruined their families.

I am obsessed with the idea of that poor family-owned pizzaria, all the work that went into it, ruined because daddy bred a jackass. Everybody's livelihood is down the drain.

[Canuckistanian]

15. Really?

He's usually the first to blow stuff out of proportion.

After all, it fits in with his "Muslims are trying to kill us all" theory.

[Beelzebud]

18. Honest question. Why would you listen to Michael Savage?

I mean really. Who gives a shit what that bigot thinks about anything?

I guess I just dont' understand why people sit around and listen to someone they don't like. You give him an audience...

[babylonsister]

3. And there was the wh talking head, claiming how great the system

works. And probably lying about the whole morass. She also equated this to last August and the gung-ho, bang-up job that was done there; who ever got indicted for that? We're still measuring toothpaste, but why?

[aquart]

5. Toothpaste? Measuring? I'm lost.

[Warren Stupidity]

9. At the stupid airport search and seizure line.

Preventing all liquids and gels not in approved containers from going on an airplane as it is well known that a huge bomb can be made from contact lens solution.

Actually toothpaste went back on the we don't give a shit list.

The point is that all that happens is we get another assault on our liberty, another small outrage of state intrusion into our private affairs.

[Screwfly]

7. Should we like

call these dumb and dumber, wannabe mass killers the Pizzeria Six?

[peekaloo]

16. My sister just got flagged yesterday for holding over 4 oz. of toothpaste.

She got lectured that you can buy smaller tubes and that by carrying a larger tube she was considered "suspicious".

I'm guessing the whiter the teeth the more you hate 'Murka.

[Rottenmac]

6. Wasn't there recently...

an arrest of some anti-government, homegrown (read:white) types who had thousands of rounds of ammo, lots of guns, and oh... i dunno... SEMTEX or some crap???

Just because they are white doesn't mean they AREN'T terrorists. McVeigh was raised here, and we all know what happened then. IMHO if you have C4 or Semtex or some other military-grade explosive, then YOU should be getting announced at these WH briefings, not some wannabe terrorists who can't get their spit together.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

13. Yup.

Down in Alabama. Of course, that was totally different, since the actors had less melanin in their skin and "god-fearing" last names. I am sure they went to the "right" churches, too.

[Eagle_Eye]

8. I think the Bush administration is making a big deal over six morons

This looks like a big, very big, public relations extravaganza to justify expanding the Patriot Act. I would predict even more phone taps, reading people's mail, and now screening home movies for "terrorist activities."

[Massachusetts]

10. "public relations extravaganza to justify expanding the Patriot Act"

AGREED

[Thor_MN]

11. A pathetic PR stunt to get the "War on Terra" back online.

Probably should expect legislation for a ban on pizza deliveries not made by Halliburton soon.

[underpants]

12. Funny how law enforcement was able to take care of this

and how THEY all tell us that the best way to deal with this is to use gunships and carpet bombing.

This has to be about the only pizza delivery guy near a major military base who ISN'T a military guy trying to make some extra bucks. I was told that at Ft. Hood during the 90's there was a frequency to call in pizzas and the Joe delivering them would bring it to the map coordinates you provided. Literally drive a pizza up to your tank or Bradley out in the field. At least that is what I was told

[jmowreader]

20. It was there during the 1980s too

It's probably still there, too.

The frequency is Range Control's Radio-Wire Integration push. An RWI unit connects a radio (it was an RT-524 when I was there) to a telephone. You can call the PX pizza parlor on RWI--the phone line is Class C and won't call off-post--and order a pizza to be brought to your grid.

Consider this before you start ordering pizzas over RWI: Fort Hood's downrange area is larger than Rhode Island. Joe might be able to deliver your pizza right to your Bradley, but it's gonna be cold by the time you get it.

Oh yeah...your first sergeant will probably tear you a new asshole for breaking communications security regulations by transmitting your location in the clear.

[dysfunctional press]

14. a potential terrorist attack on a military base by 6 guys from albania...?

those albanians obviously aren't exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer...i wonder why poppy would have sent them on such a fool's errand?

[Igel]

17. Not all were ethnic Albanians.

And I saw reports for the others were that they came from the territory formerly known as Yugoslavia.

One rumor is that they're from Macedonia. Fairly large Albanian presence there, and the Macedonians had a bit of a problem with "unrest"--churches and monasteries being burned and bombed, that kind of thing. Like what the Kosovar did to the Serbs in Kosovo. And, in both places, an attempt to say that Slavs never *really* lived there, all the evidence and documentation to the contrary.

[Jim Warren]

19. Something stinks about this

Attack a military base with six guys?????? Absurd.

Why would anyone with a such small group go after a target where they keep the men with guns? If this were for real why wouldn't they attack a soft target where some chance of success were possible? Just makes no sense.

[WinkyDink]

21. These are going to be 6 schmoes.