TheKCRAChannel.com – News – 5th Person Detained In Lodi Terror Investigation __ Does anyone find this fishy? Funny how this happens just before the Patriot Act is up for renewal.
And out-of-towners should note that grabbing these guys and moving them to Gitmo would be an upgrade from Lodi. Very suspicious.
That said, if these guys are actually terrorists I wonder what border with Mexico they waltzed across to get here?
U.S. attorney McGregor Scott stressed that investigators did not find the men in the middle of executing a specific plan.
Scott declined to answer questions about whether the Lodi men were part of an active terrorist cell or the extent of any al-Qaida activity in the region.
Excellent point about timing relative to the Patriot Act. The last time that happened, the ATF was up for a budget review so they invited the media to their arrest in Waco.
You’ll eat your words if they are really found tied to terrorism. I would rather be safe then sorry. Unfortunatly you have to give up some freedom to be safe. It would be really great if this was not so, but this is the world we live in.
Watch the press conferences at an “event” like this, too. You usually get to see a US Attorney who’s deciding when he’s going to run for governor or the Senate.
Not that I’m cynical, you understand.
I do find it fishy. It’s the same game that was played with the terror alerts during the elections. This just feels wrong…
You know I wouldn’t be too worried about the Patriot Act if it were limited to terrorists and terror suspects. But as it stands, they can use it against anyone at any time for anything.
I love this country but I’m not comfortable with that. Do you know that if you are caught with a controlled substance (i.e. a $5 bag of weed) you can be charged as a terrorist. Yep.
Chill’n with your friends = $30
Weed = $5
Getting caught = Free
Being brought up on terrorist charges and treated the same as the people who helped bring down the Twin Towers… = WTF???
I don’t even smoke and I’m nervous. What’s next?
Later,
M H
“U.S. attorney McGregor Scott stressed that investigators did not find the men in the middle of executing a specific plan.” So I suppose the plan is to charge them with conspiracy to be Muslim.
Yep. Lodi is definitely a place only terrorists would want to live.
And it is rather strange that there’s a coincidence with the Patriot Act.
More important, it’s interesting that the government just starts these inquisitions without spending enough time to see if they are based in fact. In Arizona, a kid with a very small amount of Ricin that he made as a personal weapon from a recipe on the Internet set off a statewide homeland security alarm.
After the police spent all the money mobilizing everybody, they decided it was nothing.
Congrats on your Mac-Intel column. I’ve been following you on this subject.
“I would rather be safe than sorry…”
I light of the USA PATRIOT act, and “Three-Strikes” laws, sexual offender/Megan’s Laws, and the above, I would like to propose the ultimate solution:
“No Strikes and Your Out” Laws
That’s right! No longer need you be convicted of any crime, violent or otherwise! You don’t even need to be accused! In this new, exciting social structure, we will simply all be incarcerated at birth!
No Crime (we’re all behind bars)! An incredible boon to industry – workers who can’t leave, consumer who can’t choose “the other guys”!
No terrorists! No High-jacking! Heck, No Gum on the Sidewalks!
An incredible savings to local governments! No roads, facilities, utilities, schools, civic or senior centers!
Coming soon to a nation near you, it’s
“No Strikes and You’re Out!”
Reverand Martin Niemoller.
They were arrested for lying to the FBI. That’s it, so far.
The Patriot Act hasn’t even entered into it yet.
You should read the Affidavit the FBI filed against them (from the set of links in the middle of the article). The main suspect and his father admitted that he went to a terrorist training camp, with the eventual intention of harming Americans.
There’s also no information about whether attending a terrorist training camp is against the law (I assume it is), and if so, whether it breaks pre 9/11 law, or the Patriot Act. Either way, he attended the camp 2003-2004, which would seem to be an obvious no-no after 9/11. Travelling to the Middle East to attend a camp is a lot different than checking out a book, and indicates a level of malicious intent that should be investigated by law enforcement. Putting such people in jail for a couple years seems an obvious way to take a potential terrorist out of play, and to discourage non-malicious people from training at terrorist camps just for fun.
There are lots of sensible tools in the Patriot Act, like “floating wiretaps” and “national search warrants”, that reduce unnecessary red tape and can make law enforcement more effective when time is of the essence. There are also lots of bad powers and tools in the Patriot Act that should be allowed to expire, like the library provisions. And the new power of “administrative search [arrest?] warrants” is too open to abuse. The pendulum should start swinging back the other way.
My complaint isn’t about the arrest or that they are innocent. Rather, the government shouldn’t be publicizing every arrest. This is a war, not a mafia racket. You shouldn’t be publicizing tyo the enemy the status of all their troops.
Milo,
Many thanks.