Ok .. Do You Believe In The Death Penalty Now?

[Turfgrass]

The FBI has arrested three men in connection with a plot to smuggle a surface to air missile into the United States.

You do understand what a successful strike with a surface-to-air missile would do, don?t you? Not only would it kill the 100+ people who happened to be on the targeted airliner, it would also instantly destroy the air travel industry in the United States. Within 24 hours Americans would signal their fear by ceasing almost all air travel. Within one week after people stop flying, airlines would start laying off workers by the tens of thousands. Businesses which support the airlines would follow with tens of thousands of additional layoffs. Wall Street would register its fears with an immediate and alarming drop in stock prices.

We?re talking a near economic paralysis here folks, all because one Islamic goon managed to bring down a commercial airliner with a missile.

Some think that this surface-to-air missile might have been intended for Air Force One. Air Force One has defense mechanisms for these devises ? and the Islamofascists know this. Nevertheless, the same scenario would apply if such a missile were fired at our president while in flight.

The people who were arrested are not U.S. citizens. They are enemy combatants in World War IV, the war between Islamic terrorism and the United States. As enemy combatants they are not entitled to any access to American courts or to the protections of the U.S. Constitution. We?re told, though, that the suspects are going to appear in a federal court today. They are enemy combatants found on our soil with weapons that they intended to use against our people. The man who is charged with actually selling the missile reportedly said that ?Americans are bastards.? Fine, let?s show him what ?bastards? we really can be. Slam these SOBs into the military justice system, try them, and then execute them.

 

[yyz]

Air travel would go on.

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

I wonder if stopping muslims carrying rocket launchers would be racial profiling

 

[ferdville]

If air travel went on it would be a mere fraction of what it is now - travel only by necessity. Look what 9/11 did to the airline industry. The fact that there are guys walking around with missle launchers on their shoulders would make me thing very hard about flying.

 

[AR182]

news leak blows big opportunity

news leak blows big opportunity

it's unbelievable that people can't keep their mouths shut.


The bust of arms dealer was supposed to be kept secret and another step in the hunt for Al Qaeda operatives

Aug. 13 ? While publicly congratulating themselves over the bust of an international arms dealer in an alleged plot to sell Russian-made surface-to-air missiles, top Justice Department officials are privately fuming over a premature news leak that may have blown a rare opportunity to penetrate Al Qaeda?s arms-buying network, NEWSWEEK has learned.

THE FBI?S ARREST of London-based arms dealer Hemant Lakhani, 68, at a hotel room near Newark Liberty International Airport this week was supposed to be only an interim step in what officials hoped would be a far more meaningful long-term operation, law-enforcement sources said. The bureau?s plan was to quickly flip Lakhani, a British citizen of Indian extraction, and then use him as an undercover informant who could lead agents to real-life Osama bin Laden operatives seeking sophisticated weapons.
But those plans went awry late Tuesday afternoon when the Feds learned that the BBC was about to broadcast a sensational report on Lakhani?s arrest by one of its star correspondents, Tom Mangold. The BBC story, based on an apparent leak from a law-enforcement source, had some key details wrong. For one thing, it falsely claimed that the arms dealer?s attempted sale of a shoulder-fired SA-18 missile and launder was part of a plot by terrorists to shoot down Air Force One?a target that never actually came up in the discussions.
But even so, U.S. law-enforcement sources tell NEWSWEEK, the damage was done. The FBI had to abort its plan to recruit Lakhani as an informant and instead charged him today in federal court in Newark, N.J., with weapons smuggling and with providing material support to terrorists. Also arrested in the case were two alleged confederates?a New York City jeweler and a Malaysian businessman?who were charged with conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transfer business.
The U.S. attorney in Newark, Christopher Christie, today called the arrest of Lakhani ?an incredible triumph? during a press conference on the courthouse steps.
But in Washington, senior Justice Department officials were ?not happy,? said one law-enforcement official. ?We didn?t want this to get out before we could determine whether this guy would cooperate or not.? For all the hoopla over the case, the official confirmed, it was essentially a government-arranged ?sting? that never involved any contact with actual terrorists.
Christie and some other federal officials played up the importance of the case today?the product of an elaborate 18-month undercover operation involving informants and investigators working for the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Russian FSB. They noted that Lakhani, in taped conversations with undercover operatives, expressed his hostility for the United States, his sympathy for bin Laden and his willingness to work with terrorists to supply them with the weapons they needed to shoot down airliners.
But the ?terrorists? in the case were essentially all actors?undercover informants playing associates of terrorists for the purposes of making a case against Lakhani, an international arms dealer who, according to Christie, has a history of alleged criminal activity. According to a copy of the complaint unsealed today, the case began in December 2001 when an informant for a Joint Terrorism Task Force in New Jersey began to have conversations with Lakhani about his interest in buying antiaircraft guns and missiles on behalf of an unspecified Somali terrorist group. The Feds then wired the informant, who ultimately had more than 150 recorded conversations with Lakhani in Urdu and Hindi.
In one such conversation, on Jan. 17, 2002, Lakhani stated that bin Laden ?straightened them all out? and ?did a good thing,? according to the complaint. In a later meeting, on April 25, 2002, the informant told Lakhani that his backers wanted the missiles for ?jihad? and a ?plane,? saying they wanted ?to hit the people over here.? Lakhani allegedly replied: ?The Americans are such bastards? and toward the end of the meeting said: ?I am ready to work with you.? (And yet another meeting, on Aug. 17, 2002, the informant told Lakhani that his buyers wanted to purchase an ?Igla-S? portable antiaircraft missile system in time for ?the anniversary??an apparent reference to September 11.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security agents then arranged to involve the Russian FSB, that country?s security service. When Lakhani flew to Moscow last month to actually inspect the missile he would be buying, he met with two FSB agents posing as missile suppliers who showed him what they said was an actual surface-to-air missile. In fact, it was a fake. The snookered Lakhani then arranged for the missile to be shipped from St. Petersburg and made a commitment to the two FSB undercover operates to buy 50 more such weapons as well as a multiton quantity of C-4 plastic explosives.
Federal law-enforcement officials say Lakhani?s activities underscore the ease with which terrorists can obtain dangerous weapons that can represent a real-life threat to commercial airliners. (Indeed, at one point, according to the complaint, Lakhani even pointed the U.S. informant to the Dec. 6, 2002, issues of NEWSWEEK and Time, both of which contained articles about an attempt by terrorists linked to bin Laden to shoot down a commercial aircraft with a shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile in Kenya the previous week. Lakhani allegedly boasted, ?ours is much higher,? reference to the quality of the Russian surface-to-air missile he thought he was supplying.)
But at the end of the day, officials say, the Lakhani case remains a story about potential threats?and not the real-life terrorists they had once hoped to nail.

 

[gardenweasel]

very interesting,turf

very interesting,turf

i can`t wait to hear the civil liberties clowns start to cry about this bastard`s rights......

it`s no secret that 9/11 was a major precursor to our current economic situation.....

something like this would be an economic disaster....just when it looks like the economy might be starting to right itself....

which leads me to this question....if something like this ever came to fruition and they knocked one of our passenger jets out of the sky,how hard do you believe that the government would try to cover the fact up?.....i mean,if at all possible,try and attribute it to some sort of natural causes,like american airlines flight 587 that crashed in rockaway,ny in 2001?.....

i totally understand why they would do it....turf basically spelled it out....there are conspiracy theorists out there that still believe that the rockaway crash was a terrorist act.....

 

[dr. freeze]

that was my thinking....why are we announcing this stuff????

they need to clean up these leaks...and also start fining NEWSWEEK and other organizations who seek these classified leaks....press should be a little more responsible....after all, there are only our lives and our freedoms at stake....

look at the repercussions of 9-11....billions and perhaps trillions of dollars are the cost....that in itself has had an enormous impact on our economy....transportation costs have gone way up and insurance and other companies took big hits as well as the gov't itself

we are best served not knowing how exactly the war on terror is going...hey throw us a bean once in a while but keep this stuff under the table and hunt these MFers down one by one....

btw i think our CIA and FBI and whoever else is involved are doing a fabulous job catching these guys throughout the world....two organizations which were in shambles pre-9-11 have really come together and are being much more effective....these guys not only watch over us here at home but as can be seen are all over the globe....quite a task it is and these guys are heroes as much as anyone cuz their lives are at stake day in and day out.....and i feel for their families having to live under so much stress

 

[dr. freeze]

Re: very interesting,turf

Re: very interesting,turf

i
i totally understand why they would do it....turf basically spelled it out....there are conspiracy theorists out there that still believe that the rockaway crash was a terrorist act.....

yeah i thought so too....that was such a peculiar incident....

best for us not to know though.....ever since that incident in Middle East or Africa wherever it was where they shot that RPG i have been nervous on takeoff and landing....but hey, i guess it would be a quick death and one would never know it at least

 

[bjfinste]

You have to wonder how much these leakers get paid for this information. I can't fathom how they can put national security at risk to leak sensitive information to someone they know in the press, so my assumption is that they are well paid.

 

[Nolan Dalla]

Originally posted by dr. freeze one....

btw i think our CIA and FBI and whoever else is involved are doing a fabulous job catching these guys throughout the world....two organizations which were in shambles pre-9-11 have really come together and are being much more effective.


REPLY: I have been extremely critical of the intelligence community of this country for many years, perhaps more so than anyone at this forum. However, I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. Well said.

Nolan Dalla

 

[dawgball]

To answer the question posed, no I do not believe in the death penalty for this act. I am pretty far right in most of my thinking, but the death penalty is not something I agree with.

 

[anywaves]

Anytime

Anytime

I read this political warfare stuff I want to find some island with a good break and surf out each day until I die!

Man, I wish all the bitter people in the world would find a peaceful hobby!

 

[nostromo]

Less Than Meets the Eye?
U.S. Government Sting Operation Criticized as Setup

By Brian Ross
abcnews.com


Aug. 13? Administration officials are leaving out key facts and exaggerating the significance of the alleged plot to smuggle a shoulder-launched missile into the United States, law enforcement officials told ABCNEWS. They say there's a lot less than meets the eye.

The accused ringleader, British national Hemant Lakhani, appeared today in federal court in Newark, N.J., and was ordered held without bond on charges of attempting to provide material support and material resources to terrorists and acting as an arms broker without a license.

Outside the courtroom, U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie called Lakhani an ally of terrorists who want to kill Americans.

"He, on many occasions, in recorded conversations, referred to Americans as 'bastards' [and] Osama bin Laden as a hero," said Christie.

But what he did not say was just how much of the alleged missile plot was a government setup from start to finish.

For example, Lakhani had no contacts in Russia to buy the missiles before the sting and had no known criminal record for arms dealing, officials told ABCNEWS.

"Here we have a sting operation on some kind of small operator ? who's bought one weapon when actually, on the gray and black market, hundreds of such weapons charge hands," said military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer.

Court documents show much of the case is based on the government's key cooperating witness, an informant seeking lenient treatment on federal drug charges, officials told ABCNEWS. He was the first person who led the government to Lakhani.

?Something They Created?

The missile shipped into the New York area last month was not a real missile ? just a mockup ? also arranged entirely by the government. The government also arranged the meetings at a New Jersey hotel and elsewhere, where Lakhani allegedly told undercover agents posing as al Qaeda terrorists about his support of bin Laden.

"One would have to ask yourself, would this have occurred at all without the government?" said Gerald Lefcourt, a criminal defense attorney.

In London today, Lakhani's neighbors described him as a quiet man who worked in the garment industry and had faced serious financial problems.

"I would have hoped the United States is thwarting real terrorism and not something manufactured because here all they're doing is stopping something they created," said Lefcourt.

Government officials said the case will show that Lakhani went along with the scheme willingly and was not entrapped. But the question remains whether any of this would have happened if the government had not set it up.

 

[StevieD]

While we are at war against terrorism why would a terrorist go on trial in a federal court? Seems to me this case belongs in a military court.

 

[ozball]

Stevie,

why, while the US is in a "War on Drugs", are drug possession cases not held in military courts?

ozball

 

[StevieD]

Good point Ozball. I never considered that the US was taking the War on Drugs serious. Too much of a money maker. I do believe that after all is said and done that we, meaning the Government, is taking the War on Terrorism seriously.

 

[Chanman]

"The B*tch Set Me Up"

"The B*tch Set Me Up"

Oh that Sux nostromo. Another Racist US Govt abuse of someone's rights. It was just a MOCK missile. I guess the perp just TRAVELlED TO NJ FOR A VACATION- (insert witty comment.)
Gee I was thinking of buying a missile- don't know what for- but I'd better watch myself as someone may take it wrong!
Sitting w/a thumb up their *ss hasn't worked for us in the past.
There is Nothing as cowardly as killing innocent men, women & children.

In London today, Lakhani's neighbors described him as a quiet man who worked in the garment industry and had faced serious financial problems

So let him explain his actions

 

[gardenweasel]

it`s my fault...

it`s my fault...

i said i couldn`t wait for the civil liberties clowns to start crying...

well surprise,surprise....i don`t have to wait.....there`s always an attorney willing to sell his soul...

is anyone here saving up for their first stinger?......would look great on the wall of your family room....

i don`t think any gov`ment official.....anybody on this god forsaken planet that could scam me into buying surface to air missiles....

lmao.....absurd to the max...

 

[freelancc]

opps.... i thought this was the Arianna Huffington thread..

 

[SixFive]

yes, and I have all of my life. Since they aren't citizens, they should go before the tribunal rapidly and be convicted if they are guilty then placed in front of the firing squad. I think rapid and final justice would mean a lot. Why all this pussyfooting around? Screw these guys!! I'm still all for profiling this Arab Muslims as well. I know if I saw one walking in my neighborhood I wouldn't be happy. White, black, asian, hispanic, I don't look twice. Arabic, however, I'm looking to see if he has on bulky clothing. Fire up these bastards!