The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
Help the SPD Crack This Case
“Two men were arrested late last night and are charged by criminal complaint with terrorism and firearms related charges,” the Seattle Police Department announced in a Thursday press release:
The complaint alleges that Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, a/k/a Joseph Anthony Davis, 33, of Seattle, and Walli Mujahidh, a/k/a Frederick Domingue, Jr., 32, of Los Angeles, took possession of machine guns that they purchased and planned to use in an attack on the Military Entrance Processing Station (“MEPS”) located on East Marginal Way, Seattle.
The charges are federal, and the press release quotes Todd Hinnen, acting assistant U.S. attorney general for national security, as saying the suspects were “driven by a violent, extreme ideology.”
It remains a mystery just what that ideology is. Another police statement, released “to the Seattle Police Department’s various demographic advisory councils and community stakeholders,” informs those councils and stakeholders:
We would like to reiterate that this investigation was based on the individuals’ behaviors and actions and that their behaviors and action are not reflective of any ethnicity or religion.
Seattle’s KING-TV reports that “according to the FBI, Abdul-Latif was outwardly angry about the current United States military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, and even in Yemen. Charging documents show Abdul-Latif believed ‘murdering American soldiers was justifiable.’ “
So maybe he was a peacenik or an isolationist a few steps more extreme than Dennis Kucinich or Ron Paul. Who can tell, really? Though we did note this in the KING report:
Abdul-Latif believed the attack at the MEPS would inspire other Muslims with similar feelings.
“Imagine how many young Muslims, if we’re successful, will try to hit these kind of centers,” said Abdul-Latif in a recording. “Imagine how fearful America will be, and they’ll know they can’t push the Muslims around.”
It’s just possible that Seattle’s finest are missing a clue here.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.
(NOTE: The excerpt above is from the 6/27/11 BOTW Archives.)
