Set aside for minute about whether or not you actually believe that an alleged terrorist plot, like the one that was busted in New Jersey targeting Fort Dix this past week could indeed actually work, lets look instead at how these wannabes seemed to foil themselves.
As I understand it, the six men indicted, five for the actual plot itself and the other for helping them to secure arms to achieve their goal appear to have no formal training, no formal leadership and most peculiar of all, no timetable for attempting to execute the plot in the first place. Also, the fact that Fort Dix became the eventual target because one of the alleged plotters delivered pizzas to the fort really got me curious about looking at this alleged “plot” a bit more closely for the details on how it unraveled.
For starters, and most mind boggling of all, the plot was ultimately exposed because their cover was blown by a Circuit City clerk who had been asked to dub a DVD that showed 10 young men “Shooting assault weapons at a firing range in a militia-like style while calling for jihad and shouting in Arabic ‘Allah Akbar’ (‘God is Great’).” This past January the clerk contact authorities, and within six months, the FBI had placed two cooperating witnesses within the terror cell, and both recorded meetings and phone conversations with the plotters.
The plotters themselves hail from Yugoslavia, Turkey and Jordan, and all seemed to have very normal, very comfortable lives within the safe confines of the United States. They had jobs and went to schools and participated in their communities, but despite being part of the American fabric of life so comfortably, the Internet seemed to draw them closer to jihadist ramblings that apparently led this group to a conclusion that they could serve Allah by killing Americans. Now that belief itself isn’t far fetched, as unfortunately we seem to hear cases of this hatred for Americans on a daily , sometimes hourly basis, but the nature of this particular circumstance doesn’t seem to fit the normal “mold” of hatred. This “plot” was apparently not sanctioned by al-Qaida or any other foreign interest, but inspired seemingly merely by words. This is both scary and intriguing. Were their existences legitimate as citizens that were “turned” by what they were able to access via the Internet, or was their plot carefully calculated over a period of time to in essence “hide in plain sight?”
Does this mean that the focus and vigilance toward preventing the next “big attack” will now shift a bit toward the possibility that we must now recognize that future attacks can grown from small seeds from within the United States itself, or even that smaller attacks altogether will becomes the “norm” for these jihadists because of the fear that they will bring? Worst of all in these scenarios, it would be virtually impossible to connect plots of this nature to a traditional terrorist mastermind such as Osama bin Laden.
Clearly, the biggest positive to come out of these arrest is the value of all of us as Americans being alert to our surroundings, and that the reporting of something that may seem insignificant at the time may very well be the start of the next disaster or attack on our own soil. It also speaks volumes about the willingness of law enforcement to treat every threat as serious and investigate it through to its conclusion, which in this case ended well for Fort Dix, New Jersey and the entire United States. It hopefully will inspire others to do their duty as well by reporting suspicious activity, and to be perfectly honest, don’t underestimate how hard it will be for potential terrorists to move about within the United States if they no longer feel that they can easily “hide in plain sight”, which apparently these six conspirators had been able to do quite easily by creating very American, comfortable lives for themselves.
Now the fact that three of the conspirators were in the United States illegally reignites the debate about the connections between our border security and homeland security, but it doesn’t have to be just another “finger pointing” debate. Since investigators were so diligent and patient, and as FBI Special Investigator J.O. Weiss said “we dodged a bullet on this one”, maybe this will become the opportunity to have open debate and review over how good information leading to even better results can be used to convince the American people just what tough steps and decisions are necessary to secure our borders and ultimately lessen the opportunity for something like this to actually happen.
Yes, as Special Agent Weiss said, all of America did indeed dodge a bullet here. Many polls believe that Americans in large numbers believe another deadly attack is inevitable on our soil, so if we pay closer attention to the diligence and execution necessary to uncover and foil these potential plots, we should all feel more confident and secure that all necessary steps are being taken to ensure our safety, here and abroad, and we as Americans can make the difference between success and failure for these “jihadist wannabes.”
