Domestic Terrorism Raids In Miami
By Captain Ed on War on Terror
Captain's Quarters
CNN has breaking news on a series of FBI raids in Miami that involve domestic terrorism. Not too many details have come out yet, but several arrests have been made:
<<< FBI agents were raiding sites in Miami, Florida, on Thursday in connection with a domestic terrorism investigation, law enforcement sources said.
The FBI said one search warrant was being executed in the Liberty City area of Miami. Officials said no weapons or bomb-making materials had been found in the searches so far.
"We are conducting a number of arrests and searches, and we'll have more about that when the operation is completed, probably tomorrow morning," FBI Director Robert Mueller told CNN's Larry King in an interview to be broadcast Thursday. >>>
Domestic terrorism means that the threat involves American citizens. This could be militias, or perhaps enviromental or animal-rights nutcases. It could also have something to do with the Cuban community, but that sounds a bit far-fetched. However, one possibility is the Puerto Rican separatists. (please see my last update)
More as it develops ...
UPDATE: Via Hot Air, the "domestic" tag looks more like the so-called second wave of homegrown Islamists. ABC News reports that the targets involved -- the FBI building in Miami and the Sears Tower in Chicago. The suspects are not all Americans, either:
<<< According to sources familiar with the investigation, the group allegedly planned to bomb the FBI building in Miami and the Sears Tower in Chicago.
The group has been under surveillance for some time and was infilitrated by a government informant who allegedly led them to believe he was an Islamic radical. The suspects are described as African Americans and at least one man of Caribbean descent.
Sources say the arrests reflect the government's concern about so-called "homegrown terrorists." It's a threat FBI Director Robert Mueller discussed during a recent speech in New York. >>>
It's not domestic terrorism in the prior sense of the term, and it's remarkably similar to the Toronto operation that the Canadians busted a couple of weeks ago.
UPDATE II 8:03: Larry King has Robert Mueller on his show now. He addressed the Suskind revelation about the subway plot by saying it was "no longer a threat". Mueller now is talking about homegrown terrorists, but not specifically about this story yet.
UPDATE III: King played Hillary Clinton whining about the cuts to New York City in the grant money from the DHS and demanding that King ask Mueller about them. Laughable. First, Congress controls the money for the program, and they cut (funding across the board - that's why New York saw a reduction - they receive a disproportionate % of the total to begin with - [my edit]). Second, now that we see that Miami and Chicago got targeted by this cell, we can see why the DHS wants to start spreading that money around to other large cities in the United States. Talk about events catching up with you ...
UPDATE IV: King finally got around to asking Mueller about the story -- it apparently got handed to King during a commercial break, which says something about his show preparation -- and Mueller would only confirm that an operation had commenced in Miami.
UPDATE V: The AP has updated its initial report, and the sense of homegrown Islamists has further confirmation:
<<< Residents living near the warehouse said the men taken into custody described themselves as Mulims and had tried to recruit young people to join their group, which seemed militaristic.
The residents said FBI agents spent several hours in the neighborhood showing photos of the suspects and seeking information. They said the men had lived in the area about a year.
The men slept in the warehouse, said Tashawn Rose, 29. "They would come out late at night and exercise. It seemed like a military boot camp that they were working on there. They would come out and stand guard."
She talked to one of the men about a month ago: "They seemed brainwashed. They said they had given their lives to Allah."
Rose said the men tried to recruit her younger brother and nephew for a karate class.
"It was weird," she said. >>>
Weird indeed. If they were out recruiting in this manner, it probably launched a few dozen tips from their neighbors. If this turns out to be the case, the FBI may have saved the prototerrorists' lives; they would be too inept to build a bomb without detonating it themselves.
UPDATE VII: The Hot Air link above now has a video from Fox noting the jihadist planning of the terrorists. Plus, Rick in the comments wonders just how long it will be before the New York Times notes the "broad strata" origins of the suspects. CNN now also reports that one suspect had taken an "oath to al-Qaeda".
UPDATE VIII: Via the Commissar and Hot Air, NBC News says the group identified themselves as Black Muslims:
<<< The men — part of a radical Black Muslim group — were planning terror acts in Miami and Chicago, officials say…
Benjamin Williams, 17, said the group had young children with them sometimes.
“We were under the assumption that they were opening up a garage business,” he said, adding that they wore normal clothes “but sometimes they would cover their faces. Sometimes they would wear things on their heads, like turbins." >>>
UPDATE IX: The Miami Herald says 12 to 15 men were involved, not just seven (thanks to Allahpundit once again):
<<< A man who lives across the street from the warehouse where the search warrant was served described the suspects as an unusual group of men, almost cultist, who wore military-style clothes and kept to themselves.
''They reminded me a lot of the followers of Yahweh Ben Yahweh,'' he said, referring to a cult that flourished in Miami's Liberty City in the 1980s and spawned a reign of terror in the neighborhood.
''They have like a purpose or something,'' said the man, who would not give his name for fear of retribution.
The 12 to 15 men in their 20's and 30s appeared to be from Haiti and from the Bahamas.
''I bet they've gone across the water'' he said, believing some had escaped the federal agents. >>>
Somehow, I suspect that anyone who tried to leave the country never made it to their destination.
UPDATE X: Val at Babalu Blog rightly calls me out for suggesting that the Cuban-American community may have been involved as nothing more than sheer speculation, via e-mail. I apologize for that; it's what happens when calculating all of the potential vectors of "domestic terrorism" without thinking things all the way through. Blogs have the important quality of immediacy, but some immediacy shouldn't get committed to pixels, as it were. I have tremendous admiration for the Cuban-American community and their struggle against the fascist dictatorship of Fidel Castro, and I blew it by my insinuation that they present a potential danger to our country on the basis of no information at all. Please accept my apologies. It won't happen again ... but if it does, Val's going to call me on the carpet, and I'm grateful for that. Also noting this was Liberal Catnip and The Florida Masochist, the latter also by e-mail. They're all correct.
cnn.com
hotair.com
abcnews.go.com
news.yahoo.com
captainsquartersblog.com
miami.com
babalublog.com
liberalcatnip.blogspot.com
thefloridamasochist.blogspot.com |
