Friday, December 11, 2009

"We Are Here for Crusade"

"Five Catholic men from Northern Virginia, who were arrested Tuesday in Italy, traveled abroad hoping to work with crusader groups to battle marauding warlords and their armies in Somalia & the Sudan...

Oh, wait. Those fives guys who were arrested aren't Catholics, they're Muslims. U.S. Muslims, traveling to Pakistan, looking for the Taliban (or someone like them), proudly declaring "we are here for jihad" (video), and wishing to fight against U.S. troops.

From a disquieted WaPo:
"The men, who range in age from 19 to 25, were identified by Pakistani officials and sources close to the case as Umar Chaudhry, Waqar Khan, Ahmad A. Minni, Aman Hassan Yemer and Ramy Zamzam. Chaudhry's father, Khalid, was also arrested in Pakistan and was being questioned, authorities said. The young men all are U.S. citizens, and some were born in the United States.

Several sources with direct knowledge of the investigation said that Zamzam, a dental student at Howard University who did well in school and was involved in a much-praised project to raise money to build mosques, is the man in a video the men left behind. Law enforcement officials said the video had jihadist overtones, and a prominent Muslim leader described it as a farewell statement.

The video quotes Koranic verses, cites conflicts between Western and Muslim nations, and shows wartime footage.

Pakistani police officials said Thursday that the video, which was played for FBI agents and Muslim leaders at a lawyer's office last week, was one of several videos the men left in the United States. All the videos made it clear that the men were intending to train for jihad, the Pakistani officials said."

Good thing those 5 guys weren't a bunch o' scheming, right wingnut, bible verse spouting Christianistas or the MSM might go 24/7 apesh1t ballistic with in depth investigative reporting.
"David H. Laufman, a former terrorism prosecutor in Alexandria federal court -- where any U.S. charges against the men would probably be filed -- said that if the allegations from Pakistan bear out, the case "underscores the persistent and dynamic nature of the threat of domestic extremism."

But he praised the families of the men for coming forward. "There is no better way for the FBI to have an early insight into an unfolding security problem."

Amen to that.