Terrorism | Boots & Sabers

Terrorists Among Us

by Owen | 2135, 31 Oct 1717 | Crime, Culture | 5 Comments

This attack was simple, unsophisticated, monstrously deadly, and indefensible.

(CNN)Authorities found a note, written in English, claiming the suspect in Tuesday’s attack in New York did it in the name of ISIS, a senior law enforcement official told CNN.

The note was found in the truck police said was used in the attack, the source said.

Eight people were killed and almost a dozen others were injured when a man in a rented flatbed pickup drove down a busy bicycle path Tuesday near the World Trade Center, police said at a news conference.

“This was an act of terror, and a particularly cowardly act of terror,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “aimed at innocent civilians, aimed at people going about their lives who had no idea what was about to hit them.”

The 29-year-old suspect was identified by two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation as Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov. He is from the central Asian nation of Uzbekistan and came to the United States in 2010, sources told CNN.

Father of NY/NJ Bomber Warned FBI

by Owen | 0730, 23 Sep 1616 | Culture | 0 Comments

Credit to this father for trying to warn authorities. It takes courage for a Muslim man to report his own son to authorities. We need more courageous men like this to push back the terrorists among us.

The father of the man charged with setting off bombs in New York and New Jersey informed the FBI in 2014 about his son’s apparent radicalization, he said.

Speaking to The Associated Press early Friday in a telephone interview, Mohammad Rahami, father of alleged bomber Ahmad Khan Rahami, said his son underwent a personality shift after visiting Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2013. Speaking in Urdu, Mohammed Rahami said his son was not the same after that trip.

“I found a change in his personality. His mind was not the same. He had become bad and I don’t know what caused it but I informed the FBI about it,” he said.

The elder Rahami said he doesn’t think the FBI took any action against his son at the time. He said he and his family were in a state of shock following last weekend’s blasts, which injured 31 people.

“I condemn the act of my son and I am sad over injuries caused to people,” he said, adding that he was cooperating fully with investigators.

Accused NY/NJ Bomber Arrested for Stabbing

by Owen | 2159, 19 Sep 1616 | Culture, Law, Politics | 0 Comments

This guy sounds like a real peach.

The 28-year-old man suspected of planting bombs in Manhattan and New Jersey over the weekend was previously arrested for stabbing a person in the leg and possession of a firearm in 2014, DailMail.com has learned.

But a grand jury let him walk, despite a warning from the arresting officer that Rahami was likely ‘a danger to himself or others.’

Ahmad Khan Rahami, who was arrested on Monday in Linden, N.J., after a manhunt ended in a shootout with police, was also a deadbeat dad who didn’t like America and hated gays, according to the mother of his young daughter.

Rahami is accused of planting multiple homemade bombs in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, which injured 29 on Saturday night, as well as explosives near a train station in Elizabeth, N.J. that were disarmed by law enforcement on Sunday.

So he was vocal about hating America, traveled multiple times to Afghanistan, and was arrested for a violent crime. I’m no anti-terrorism expert, but it seems like we spend billions of dollars on government people who should have noticed this guy.

Terror Strikes America

by Owen | 0643, 19 Sep 1616 | Culture, Foreign Affairs | 0 Comments

It appears that the only thing that saved lives in a massive, multi-state, coordinated terror attack was the terrorists’ own incompetence.

New York police say they’re looking for 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami in connection with the Chelsea bombing over the weekend.

[…]

The intense investigation into the weekend bomb blasts in New York and New Jersey is leading authorities to signs of a possible terror cell in those two states, law enforcement officials told CNN Monday.

The ongoing investigation, which includes two bombs in New York City and devices in two cities in New Jersey, has given authorities leads on specific people who are urgently being sought.

Also on Monday morning, a federal law enforcement official said BBs and ball bearings were among the pieces of metal that appeared to be packed into both pressure cooker bombs in New York.

One of those devices exploded on 23rd Street, but the fact that it was partly under a metal trash container may have diminished the force of the blast.

The latest developments came just hours after a backpack containing multiple bombs was found Sunday night near an Elizabeth, New Jersey, train station, according to the FBI and the city’s mayor.

“peer-to-peer terrorism”

by Owen | 2151, 15 Jun 1616 | Culture | 0 Comments

Which requires a peer-to-peer response.

It’s basically peer-to-peer terrorism. And that makes it nearly impossible to fight, because there is no military headquarters to bomb, just like there is no single server to take down in a p2p network.

They’ve basically crowdsourced terrorism.“

Hat tip Shall Not Be Questioned.

Obama Speaks

by Owen | 0611, 7 Dec 1515 | Foreign Affairs, Politics | 3 Comments

And America largely ignores. What strikes me most about Obama’s speech last night is how little people are noticing today. Part of that is because he mostly just reiterated what he’s already said. Part of it is because America has tuned out the president and his professorial lectures about what he perceives as our “shared values.”

The only tangible thing I can see from his speech was this:

And he called on Congress to take several steps: Prohibit people on the so-called “no-fly” list meant to keep terrorists off airplanes from buying a gun; curb Americans’ access to “powerful assault weapons”

No. The no-fly list is useful, but it is a list that the government puts people on without any due process. We can not strip people of constitutional rights just because the government puts them on a list on suspicion of criminal activity. Imagine, if you will, if Obama was advocating people on the no-fly list being stripped of their 1st or 4th Amendment rights… we wouldn’t stand for it. We shouldn’t stand for stripping people’s 2nd Amendment rights on that basis either.

Jah’Keem Yisrael

by Owen | 2148, 27 Sep 1414 | Culture, Law, Politics | 2 Comments

It is looking more and more like the motive was not work related.

He had recently converted to Islam and started the page under the name Jah’Keem Yisrael. The cover photo appears to be of fighters holding weapons. The postings include numerous all-caps messages about Islam and quotations from the Quran, but make no reference to job dissatisfaction.

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