The Increase in Terror Activity, an Iranian Diversion attempt?

August 14, 2006 in Ahmadinejad, Al Qaeda, Anti-War Crowd, Border Security, Democrats & The Left, Egypt, European Union, Global War On Terror, Hamas, Hizbullah, Illegal Immigration, Iran, Israel, Palestinians, Syria, Terrorism, U.S. Foreign Policy, UN

The past few months have seen a dramatic increase in terror and possible terror related activity both here and aborad. On June 2nd, British Police executed warrants looking for a chemical device that has never been located, if it indeed ever existed. On June 3rd, Canadian police thwarted a Massive terror operation potentially far more devistating than the Oklahoma City bombing in 1993 and included plans to raid the Canadian Parliament building and decapitate the PM. The 17 Canadians arrested may have had ties to two Georgia men held on charges of supporting terrorism. Syed Haris Ahmed, 21, was arrested on March 23 for allegedly providing material support of terrorism. Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 19, was arrested on April 17, 2006 in Bangladesh and then was handed over to the FBI and put on a plane to New York where he was charged with lying to federal officials. The U.S. Justice Department said the two suspects had traveled to Canada on March 13, 2005 to meet with the Canadian suspects.

July 11th terrorists succeeded in bombing commuter trains in Bombay India. Though to my knowledge a specific terror group has not been identified, does it really matter if Al-Qaeda, Hizbollah, or Lashkar militants is responsible? Hundreds of people are dead because of Islamic fundamentalism. 

Last week the terror plot uncovered in England resulted in arrests of 66 individuals in 3 countries on 2 continents. Again Al-Qaeda connections are suspected but not certain. Again it doesn’t really matter if the one calling the shots does it from a cave in the Afghani mountains or the Iranian presidential residence. The results would have been the same had not law enforcement and intelligence communities acted on information from a variety of resources including the infiltration of the group by a law enforcement agent (Frankly I wish that information had remained classified).

Also last week there were 11 Egyptians who violated the terms of their student visa’s. All of which have been captured or turned themselves in. These students may or may not have had any ties to terrorism, however you must admit that their disappearance either by design or not, certainly captured the attention of lots of people who would otherwise have been searching for those who do have ties to terrorism.  Despite the FBI insistance that the students had no ties to terrorism, two were arrested while working in a Baltimore Pizza shop, where Two other Egyptian men were arrested last year in another terrorism investigation. Just another amazing coincidence I am sure..

Another incidentof note last week involved the purchase of large quantities pre paid cell phones and laundering money for Hizbollah. The pair arrested in Ohio had 6oo Trac Phones, over $10,000 in cash, and worked for someone under investigation by the FBI for terrorism related charges.  

This morning we find out about another arrest of individualswith over 1,000 of the pre-paid phones as well as pictures and video of a bridge connecting the the Michigain peninsulas.  

In May I had a post entitled Euro Jihadists pose serious threat, which essentially shows the danger of the terrorists recruited for insurgency in Iraq by Zarqawi that have been sent home to wage thier terror war in Europe. The threat is not limited to Europe, as Citizens of various European countries many can enter the US without a Visa. Using only their passport they can enter the US for visits for up to 90 days. Despite the increased threat from these jihadists, there is no effort that I am aware of to address this vulnerability.

I am not saying that those arrested are part of what Zarqawi had recruited, but simply that there is an awful lot of “terror related investigations” that are known to the public. How many are underway that the public doesn’t, and shouldn’t, know about.  Liberals and the Kos Kids will be calling this another attempt by the Fear mongering Administration to ratchet up the rhetoric to divert attention away from real issues. Note however that all the investigations I mentioned were made public by Local or State law enforcement, or Foreign Intelligence & Law Enforcement Agencies. We all know the old saying of where there is smoke there is fire, right now there is one hell of a lot of smoke out there.   

My personal opinion on all of this is that Iran is using ties with the various terror organizations and fundamentalist Islamic networks to saturate our law enforcement and intelligence communities in an effort to divert attention away from confronting them on thier nuclear weapons program. Exploiting our immigration laws, inserting red herrings, increasing activity by those more directly linked with terrorism and potentially executing terrorist plots to capture our attention and our focus. If this is the case, they would have to know that they can not maintain this level of activity indefinitely. They may therefore be far closer to developing nuclear weapons than anyone is willing to admit.

Others Blogging

Michelle Malkin, Wizbang, Sticky Notes, Assorted Babble, Gina Cobb

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