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Fishing for terrorists
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by YankeeJim | October 28, 2010 at 05:40 am
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This is tricky business. What is it that put the FBI and Homeland Security on the trail of Farooque Ahmed, the Pakistan American who is now charged with terrorism?
The government was monitoring for terrorist activity by first fishing in the ponds and streams of terrorism around the globe. They picked up a nibble, and employing their fish-finder technology, they traced a lead downstream and it crossed the ocean into the land of the Rappahannock river in Ashburn Virginia.
There is a Muslim pond there in which some immigrants swim including some people from Pakistan. Most of the people in this pool are fine residents of the community where they are working citizens.
One working citizen was Farooque Ahmed, a naturalized citizen, who was likely disturbed by the way he perceived members of his community are being treated in the world. His feelings were apparently so deep and intense that he reached to al Qaeda and radical elements of his faith.
He crossed over from being a fish in the pond to being contaminated with hate. He became a terrorist.
The process of fishing in the community pond for more Farroques is difficult because there is a tendency to profile a community. On the other hand, there is sufficient evidence that somewhere in the pond are more people like him. It is better to find them and eliminate them than to let them pollute the waters with more like him, and worse, let him escape to commit violent crimes against the greater community and nation.
Because Farooque appeared to be just another working professional in the community, makes looking for terrorists especially difficult.
“Feds arrest N.Va. man in D.C. Metro bomb plot
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Arrest in alleged bomb plot against Metro
A Virginia man has been arrested and indicted on charges he tried to help people he believed were al-Qaeda operatives in planning to bomb Metro stations in and around Washington, D.C.
By Peter Finn, Spencer S. Hsu and Caitlin Gibson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 28, 2010; 12:03 AMFederal law enforcement authorities arrested a Northern Virginia man Wednesday in connection with an alleged plot to carry out terrorist bombings at stations in the Washington Metro system.
Farooque Ahmed, 34, of Ashburn conspired with people he thought to be al-Qaeda operatives to bomb the Arlington Cemetery, Pentagon City, Crystal City and Court House stations, according to a federal indictment.
An Obama administration official said Ahmed, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, first drew the attention of law enforcement officials by seeking to obtain unspecified materials. He later became the target of an undercover sting, officials said.
According to the indictment, federal agents posing as Islamic radicals began meeting with Ahmed in April. At the meetings, held in Northern Virginia hotels, he allegedly agreed to conduct video surveillance of the stations and suggested the best time to attack and the best locations to place explosives to maximize casualties. He is also accused of later turning over video and sketches he made of the stations.
Officials stressed that the public was never in danger. Still, Neil H. MacBride, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said it was "chilling that a man from Ashburn is accused of casing rail stations with the goal of killing as many Metro riders as possible through simultaneous bomb attacks."”
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Bill McCoy (not verified)at 06:07 on October 29th, 2010
There is nothing wrong with profiling if you have probably cause -- like we do with Muslims. If the Muslim community doesn't like profiling then they should police themselves and turn in suspects. When you subtract the Muslim component from the terrorism equation terrorism goes to nearly zero. If Scots evidence terrorism then profile me -- good citizens understand.