Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich clashed on the issue of terrorism, with Paul suggesting that terrorism should be handled more often as a matter of law enforcement, citing the response to Timothy McVeigh. Gingrich’s retort, which drew some applause, was blunt and seemed somewhat effective: “Timothy McVeigh succeeded.”
I didn’t raise my son in that way. I feel bad about this situation.Carmen Sosa, mother of NYC “lone wolf” bombing suspect Jose Pimentel • Apologizing for her son’s behavior while speaking with reporters outside her Manhattan home this morning. Regarding the NYPD’s actions in this incident, Sosa praised them. “I think they handled it well,” she said. If it helps Ms. Sosa, the FBI didn’t exactly treat this case very seriously, a sign it may not be a strong case. source (via • follow)
They felt the NYPD’s evidence, and Pimentel’s actual threat, was shaky. If given the opportunity, could Jose Pimentel have actually pulled off a terror threat? The NYPD seemed convinced of this, but the FBI wasn’t quite so sure. On top of this, they felt the evidence was a little rough around the edges — particularly the use of a confidential informant, who recorded hours of conversations with Pimentel, but may not be the most reliable witness to whatever happened. As one law enforcement official, speaking off the record, put it: “If the FBI declines a case, it’s not a strong case.” Think it’ll hold up? source
Bloomberg press conference will begin shortly. Watch live here. More info is coming out on the terror threat, which involved a man suspected of bombing government officials and police cars; here’s the latest AP story. EDIT: Fixed links.
The authorities have arrested a man who law enforcement officials believe was planning to build and detonate a bomb in New York with government workers as the target, a person briefed on the case said on Sunday.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly of the New York Police Department, and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.were expected to announce the charges against the man at 7:30 p.m. at a news conference at City Hall.
We’ll cover the press conference, all.
» A terror group takes responsibility: A terror group known locally as Boko Haram seems to be taking advantage of the weakness of the country’s central government in Northeastern Nigeria, planning attacks to escalate sectarian violence and going after government buildings and police stations in the process. “There’s that fear that something might possibly happen again,” said Nigerian Red Cross official Ibrahim Bulama. The group has threatened to continue its attacks “until until security forces stop their excesses on our members and vulnerable civilians.”
I would have a policy that we do not negotiate with terrorists. Now, then you need to look at the whole situation and examine the facts.Herman Cain, answering a question from Anderson Cooper as to whether he would, as he’d earlier intimated, be comfortable authorizing a hostage swap along the lines of what went down between the Israelis and Palestinians today — the hypothetical situation was an American soldier being held hostage, and his holder demanding the release of all Guantanamo detainees. Similar to Cain’s recent contradiction on his remark about an electrified border fence (he said it was a joke, but that he might still want an electric fence), he seems to want it both ways in an awkwardly compressed way. If you say you can’t negotiate with terrorists, isn’t that sort of the end of this question?
In a recent newsletter called HuffPost Hill, The Huffington Post attacked U.S. government officials for their killing of radical Islamic terrorists Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, despite the fact that these to so-called Americans have tried and in some cases succeeded in killing countless… [more]
We’ve covered this story before and have made clear that there’s a balance here. But the problem that we see here is one of due process. HuffPo’s report is slanted in a way that sharply pins the story on an angle that frustrates many among the left. But it’s another thing entirely to paint HuffPo as anti-American because they disagree with something the U.S. government did. Here’s the issue, as many on the left see it: There’s this thing called due process for U.S. citizens, and they feel that Obama basically ignored it in hopes of stopping someone who was seen as greatly influential in al-Qaeda, a man who despite that had American parents who didn’t want the U.S. government to simply drop a bunch of bombs on him. “The question then is, why The Huffington Post is so eager to support a terrorist and murderer?” That’s just as slanted as HuffPo’s take. They’re not “eager to support a terrorist and murderer,” but they think that due process has a place in the war on terror, even for perceived enemies of the state. And they’re not alone. Glenn Greenwald’s been heavily against this, too.
Looks like his trial just hit the skids.
(Source: inothernews)
Wrote a thing.
Hat tip to this headline writer.
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Iranian bombing plot stymied by FBI: American officials reported today that the FBI infiltrated and derailed a terrorist plot backed by Iran. The plan involved paid collusion from an elite Iranian security force to the Zeta drug cartel of Mexico (unbeknownst to the Iranians, the contact they believed to be with the Zetas was cooperating with the FBI). The intended outcome was a bomb going off at a Washington D.C. restaurant, which would have killed Adel Al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States. This is big news, as a publicly disseminated example of Iran as a state supporter of terrorism; it has been viewed as such by the U.S. State Department since 1984. source
The United States is committed to holding Iran accountable for its actions.Eric Holder, holding a press conference where he held Iran in low regard; he wasn’t holding back a story that would have a strong hold on the press for the rest of the day: That the U.S. held two Iranian suspects in their custody, who the U.S. believes hold the key to an assassination plot involving a Saudi diplomat, as well as a number of related plots. Hold the phone!
Although not widely known, Jamaicans have been involved in some of the worst or potentially devastating acts of terrorism of the last decade.A recently-uncovered Wikileaks cable from a U.S. diplomat in Jamaica • Suggesting that Jamaicans are a serious terror threat … a claim that the diplomat makes by linking three separate notable terror incidents in the past decade to people of Jamaican descent: Shoe bomber Richard Reid (his parents were Jamaican), D.C. sniper co-conspirator Lee Boyd Malvo and 2005 London bomber Germaine Lindsay. As Talking Points Memo points out, the ties are weak at best, making this 2010 diplomatic cable a bit of a bizarre footnote in the annals of Wikileaks — one with plenty of bizarre footnotes already. source (via • follow)
Look, I don’t want to kill someone. But if you threaten my family [and] one of our lives is in danger, I’m doing all I can to kill you. No apologies.CNN contributor Roland S. Martin, commenting via Facebook on the U.S.-led attack that killed Anwar al-Awlaki - Yahoo! News (via brooklynmutt)
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