Breaking: John Ashcroft says U.S. disrupted plans to attack U.S. with "dirty" radiation bomb.

[Dales]

Breaking now. Details shortly

[Dane]

He didn't "come here", he was born here.

Also, according to the info on this thread, he is Puerto Rican. That makes him a US citizen even if he hadn't been born in Brooklyn.

Have "pity" for the Tancredo cultist. He can't put an anti-Mexican spin on this.

You could hear Tancrapo Fan's panting over that prospect.

[Sabertooth]

Comment: Jose Padilla? I thought he came here just to do the jobs that Americans won't do or are too lazy to do. Like nuke the place?

It's my understanding that Padilla is a citizen. What evidence do you have that he is an immigrant? He could very well have been born here.

I realize you were cracking wise, but I think your comment was incautious. This story doesn't appear, at this point, to have anything directly to do with Illegals or immigration.

Looks more to me like the issue is the Islamofascist 5th Column in this country, and whether or not current efforts to deal with it are sufficient.

We dodged a dirty nuke this time. What else is out there?

[Jefferson Adams]

The Patriot Act does have sunset provisions.

LOL. Right. That makes me feel LOTS better.

And Social Security numbers will only be used for SS & tax purposes.

And the income tax is temporary.

ROFL.

Baaa-aaa-aaaa baaa-aaaa-aaa baaa-aaa-aaa.

[E Rocc]

Only bigots judge whether someone is a citizen by his last name.

The way I heard it he's of Puerto Rican descent, which makes him as much a citizen as Lindh.

Hmmm....that's two that don't fit "the profile". Three if you count Hiram Torres and four if you count Moussari.

The "Know Nothing Party" has made a huge comeback since September.

-Eric

[PoppingSmoke]

"Wouldn't someone be making that accusation no matter which day they released this info?"

No not all. If they arrested him on May 8th, then the feds had all they needed then. Now lets give the feds a break. They would have to interrogate him so lets give them three weeks. Though it would have made no difference if this was announced May 9th. If there was somthing more going on no announcement would have been made at all until all persons involved were arrested. This could have broken sooner. My belief and its only a belief right at this point, and is subject to change, is that our boy was declared an "Enemy Combatant" because of legal considerations, even to include the lack of evidence. On the other hand, to me personally, even if he was on a early recon and he was the only one involved. Then as an American Citizen, its high treason. However, this is nothing new. we have known about the enemy amoung us for a long time. The Administration could have released this sooner. My bet is that the folks at AQ already knew of this arrest.

[Thud]

Dirty bombs are pretty much a myth. The Iraqis worked on the concept and gave it up as not worth the effort. A fizzly old xSoviet nuke is a different story - those things could be radiological disasters even if their yield is down to several tons of HE equivalent, as opposed to several thousand tons.

My money, if we get hit with a radiological device, is on theft of a domestic high-energy radioactive source used in medicine or food-processing (irradiation) and its covert exposure in an area with lots of people. That would kill the user and Al Qaeda is short on trained people willing to die that way, so it isn't likely. But it would be the same MO as 9/11 expedient use of hijacked civilian equipment as ersatz weapons of mass destruction, and avoids the necessity of having to import anything massive, bulky and susceptible to detection.

[rhombus]

Connecting the dots or just good PR? -- either way we need both. Way to go!

[Dales]

That sounds common! ;-)

[browardchad]

My objection to screening by ethnicity is that IT WON'T WORK.

Yes, and no. There is nothing wrong with screening the most obvious candidates (Middle Eastern men between the ages of 17 and 40), as long as there are other standards in place; such as point of origin (in this case, Pakistan), length of time spent outside the country, frequency of travel on other than verifiable business-related activities, and attention to a passenger's demeanor (Richard Reid comes to mind).

What it boils down to is actually COMMON SENSE (as opposed to the current "culturally sensitive" agenda), and a centralized database of the usual suspects as well as all visa holders, and access by those state department employees overseas who issue visas (these employees should also be subjected to background screenings).

All of this expands the "profiling" rather democratically, so no single group can say they are being targeted. If individuals sue, better to bear the finanacial cost than the potential cost in human lives.

[spetznaz]

Actually he is an American Citizen...which is a true shame!

[AmishDude]

We're just kidding. That's college-level stuff -- sophomore level, usually, although talented students will take it in their freshman year.

[Sabertooth]

I am still wondering about the black stockbroker, a protege of Jesse Jackson's, who was arrested in Florida with two Arabs trying to do an illegal arms deal.

I missed that. Gotta link?

[kassie]

It seems as though I've spoken too soon. What no Billy Bob?

[Miss Marple]

I have no objection to paying special attention to Middle Easterners. I do not think ordinary appearing Americans should get a free pass, however. As we see with this example and the others cited, they will use the ordinary appearing non-Arab to do the work. And I will bet there are a lot more of them than people think.

[rwfromkansas]

bump

[Squantos]

Personally I can't tell from seven meters a good muslim from a bad muslim myself. And if the good muslims don't get a handle on the bad muslims themselves soon then they surely won't like my solution if forced .

Stay Safe !

[PISANO]

Well it was only a matter of time but the STORY will be this: How can we TREAT an American citizen like this (hello ACLU) when the story should be; 100's or maybe 1000's of lives saved by FBI CIA cooperation!

[wardaddy]

The Patriot Act does have sunset provisions.

I am glad for that but I have seen FReepers lamenting that some of the new edicts do not. I'm not sure which because in all honesty, being somewhat of a pragmatic Bush supporter, I don't birdog this stuff like my erstwhile Libertarian compadres. Thanks.

[E Rocc]

My objection to screening by ethnicity is that IT WON'T WORK. I have repeatedly pointed out the cases of John Walker Lindh and Richard Reid, and now we have Jose Padilla. I imagine sooner or later we will have some arrests that are blonde, blue-eyed Sven types as well. These people have been recruiting in our country for a long time.

The connection with a gang member is especially disturbing. I think there is a real danger in that connection.

To those who think profiling would get 90% of the terrorists, I would remind you that the 10% can do a heck of a lot of damage. I want to catch them ALL.

Bingo. The second most dangerous thing about ethnic screening is that the smart groups (in other words the really dangerous ones) will use people that don't fit it. It's already clear they have some. Perhaps the next Jose Padilla doesn't change his name, or even declare his faith....but serves as a sleeper.

The most dangerous thing is the idea of government prejudging people by their race or religion. That undoes fifty years of work in this country and nearly as many years of work on our image abroad. America's reputation among those in the know is largely based on the idea that we look at people as individuals first, and members of groups second.

-Eric

[hchutch]

In all of these instances since 1979 (the storming of our Emabssy in Iran), the attacks or attempted attacks have been carried out by Islamic extremists from 17 to 45 years of age. As a result, a rational person would probably consider that we this sector poses a higher-than-average risk of being involved in a terrorist action against the U.S.

At least, that's my take on the matter.