Ashcroft seeks to distract and terrorize with "shopping mall" plot

This is a pile of bullshit put together using "secret evidence" extracted from detainees through torture. No doubt, "Torquemada" Ashcroft got exactly the story he needed.

It's springtime in America, folks.

First they came for the Muslims...

trying to get the economy going they thought -- shopping mall - and the slogan could be "if you stop shopping at hte shopping mall, the terrorists have won!)

would this help Bush?

I just don't see how that, or any other terrorist attack in America between now and the election, is a boon to *'s re-selection efforts.

Perhaps I misunderestimate the wonder-working power of Karl Rove....

I just don't see how anyone could be so gullible as to give this obvious bs any credence whatsoever.

As the election grows closer they are gonna play the terrorism card constantly. And who knows, maybe the june 30 deadline was set to put the country into total chaos during the election, therefore focusing America on war war war and our war president and terrorism and war and on and on...

Planning on blowing up a mall in the most hotly contested swing state? This has Rove's finger prints all over it. These guys don't do anything that's not filtered through a political prism as Wes Clark likes to say.

...they seem to have the taxi biz sowed up.

I wonder what mall they had in mind?

Have you ever heard of a Somalian al Qaeda member before?

Didn't think so.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

?

I suppose the FBI would have got TONS of valuable information from torturing that terrorist suspect Richard Jewell, eh? Only problem is, HE WAS INNOCENT, wasn't he? The next time it's Computer Hour at the asylum, stay away from DU, OK?

Computer Hour at the asylum

THAT was funny! Thanks for the chuckles!

So you think torturing civilians that were rounded up out or their bedrooms IN IRAQ have anything to do with blowing up shopping malls in OHIO?

What is your IQ, pal?

A lot of malls these days are owned by the "Westfield Shopping Town" corporation. The guy who owns this company also happenned to purchase a certain piece of Manhattan real estate about 6 weeks before the existing buildings were demolished, supposedly by airplane.

announcement live on C-Span today, I heard a reporter ask him how far along this terrorist was in his plans to strike a mall. Ashcroft answered that we take all threats seriously and that he couldn't go into detail about this, blab, blab, blab. When he wouldn't give an answer, I knew this was bullshit. Probably the would-be terrorist had an "intent" to "think" about it. Good God!

Tweedledum and Tweedledummer remind me of a recent Onion headline:

Good Cop, Bad Cop: Both Racists.

;)

COLUMBUS, Ohio A Somali national charged with plotting to blow up a shopping mall loved the freedom he found in the United States and never spoke badly against the country, his brother said Monday.

"He really hated terrorists," Mohamed AbdiKarani, 17, told The Associated Press. "You know how (President) Bush hates terrorists? I think he hates them more."

His brother, Nuradin Abdi, has a son and daughter and his wife is pregnant, he said.

"He loved it here. He never had as much freedom," AbdiKarani said. "He said it's good to raise his kids here."

more...

http://www.ohionewsnow.com/Global/story.asp?s=1939980

I don't have any specific information for you about why you should duck, but you never know. Can't hurt anything, right?

we shouldn't let any african-looking person (especially one with a muslim surname) roam around in public without being under surveillance.

Especially in a shopping mall. If they're not ripping something off, they're going to blow something up.

/sarcasm OFF

has been in custody for seven months or so?

Seems Asscrack is more than willing to divulge state secrets when it promotes his master's agenda?

OK, let's logically deconstruct this article:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/06/14/terrorism.indictment/index.html

"It is alleged that Abdi, along with admitted al Qaeda operative Iyman Faris and other co-conspirators, initiated a plot to blow up a Columbus-area shopping mall. It also is alleged that in pursuit of this plot, Abdi received bomb-making instructions from one of those co-conspirators," a Justice Department statement said.


Who are the co-conspirators? If they are in custody, why weren't their names and information about their indictments released? If they aren't in custody, why is the Justice Department broadcasting loud and clear to everyone in the world that we are on to these guys?


In addition to the material support and conspiracy charges, Abdi is charged with two counts of visa fraud. In one case, Abdi claimed he was traveling to Somalia, when, in fact, he traveled to a terrorist training camp in Ethiopia, officials said.


OK, makes sense, I guess. But, assuming this camp exists, why haven't we put it out of business?


Federal prosecutors said Faris checked out the chances of destroying a New York bridge


Why did this guy go from planning to blow up a bridge in New York (and to derail a train near DC) to planning to blow up a mall in Columbus? Did he find out that big city life just didn't suit him or something?


and tried to buy equipment for proposed al Qaeda attack while appearing to be a law-abiding trucker,


Those crafty Kashmiris and even craftier Somalians!


according to court documents documents unsealed last year in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.


Last year? So why is this new indictment being announced in a critical battleground state far from Virginia a full year later?


Sources told CNN that al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is in U.S. custody, told his interrogators the target was the Brooklyn Bridge.


I guess some interrogators will buy anything, huh?

it's a reminder for the very dumb

"America under Attack". Ohhhhhh, pleeeeeeze

The FBI and Justice Department have NO credibility left, how can any rational, logical, sane person swallow this swill?

Wolf Blitzer, uber-whore,
"This is very... (submit one)
(a) troubling
(b) alarming
(c) chilling
(d) sure to keep the public distracted from torture memos and comparisons between Reagan and Dubya."

Christ almighty...

Trying to keep the American people from focusing on his role in the attempt to legalize torture...

Besides, even if the Somalian guy is cleared, there are no consequences for the Justice Department for malicious prosecution of terrorist suspects - thanks to the Patriot Act.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/politics/8922282.htm?1c

Abdi ran a small cell-phone business and was living in Columbus before he was taken into custody Nov. 28 by agents with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. His wife, who was due to have their third child this month, maintains that her husband is innocent and is being targeted because he's Muslim.

Federal authorities on Monday wouldn't reveal details of the alleged plot, including the identities of other co-conspirators. Prosecutors said Abdi wasn't targeting a specific mall, and that an attack wasn't imminent.

Asked whether Abdi had contact with members of al-Qaida overseas, Ashcroft declined to answer. But he pointed to Abdi's association with Faris, whose relationship with top operatives of the terrorist group is a matter of public record since he pleaded guilty last year.

http://www.10tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1939267&nav=LUERNtKt

The FBI did not tell mall operators in Columbus about the plot. They thought the national terror alerts levels were enough, to keep the malls vigilant about security.

http://www.10tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1940430&nav=LUERNu8f

As the day goes on 10TV has learned more about the man accused of being behind this mall-bombing plot.

Abdi, his pregnant wife Sophia and his two children aged two and one moved from a north Columbus apartment complex Sunday. It is unclear why she moved but 10TV does know the family has had some financial setbacks since Abdi's arrest in November.

Family members say Abdi hasn't left the country in the last five years, that he has been a devoted husband, father and business owner. They say they are hoping this is all a huge mistake.

http://kdka.com/local/local_story_166171403.html

While the attorney general refused to discuss how far along the plot was to blow up the mall, sources close to the case say it was not that far along -- and that the strongest part of the case against the suspect arrested today is the immigration case.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/15/national/15terror.html

The indictment against Mr. Abdi makes no mention of the alleged plot to blow up a shopping mall. That reference was contained in the motion filed by prosecutors to keep Mr. Abdi in custody. The government's motion said that Mr. Abdi, Mr. Faris and other co-conspirators "initiated a plot to blow up a Columbus area shopping mall, and accepted bomb-making instructions from one of those co-conspirators."

Abdi's indictment is here:

http://www.dispatch.com/2004/06/14/indictment.pdf


**********


Note that this indictment was sealed on the 10th (a Thursday), but that Ashcroft decided to open this indictment at a press conference in Columbus, Ohio today.

A cynical person might suggest that a Monday press conference in a battleground state crowing about a supposedly foiled terra'ist plot to bomb an Ohio shopping mall would have more of a political effect if it took advantage of the Monday news cycle rather than the Friday or weekend news cycle.

Or an intelligent one...

;-)

Punt! :kick: