Not All Aiders and Abetters are Equal

Jewish World Review ^ | 6/9/2014 | Mark Steyn

[Former Fetus]

Ever since 9/11, the United States has taken an expansive definition of "aiding and abetting" terrorism. To cite merely the latest example, this morning a chap called Khairullozhon Matanov appeared in US District Court in Boston. Who is Mr Matanov? He's a 23-year-old cab driver from Quincy, Mass, and a Kyrgyzstan national. He appears to share the same general view of "the horror that is America" as the acclaimed war hero Bowe Bergdahl, so there's no reason to hold that against him.

But he was also a buddy of the Tsarnaev brothers. On the evening after the Boston Marathon bombing, he had dinner with his friends in a local restaurant. A few days later, after his chums were publicly named as suspects, he tried to get a hold of them by phone, unsuccessfully.

The FBI has recovered some of these files, which it said "contained violent content or calls to violence."

But as the Guardian story emphasizes:

The document does not accuse Matanov of being involved in the 15 April 2013 bombings.

Likewise, the Fox story:

He isn't charged with participating in the bombing.

>>SNIP<<

For this, he's looking at forty years in the slammer:

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Now consider another US resident - an American national called Barack Obama. To the best of my knowledge, he hasn't had dinner with terrorists but he and his subordinates have been in close contact with them, including extensive negotiations to pay Bowe Bergdahl's Haqqani kidnappers a ransom, doubtless well in excess of the three-and-a-half grand a year Mr Matanov was wiring out of the country.

>>SNIP<<

the Rose Garden video itself, complete with invocations of Allah in Arabic, is a much more effective jihadist propaganda tool than any of the garbage on Matanov's computer.

[Former Fetus]

Great article, as usual, from Mark Stryn!