Dix Six: Is "stupid" a crime?

I keep hearing people refer to the six men charged with cooking up a lame scheme for "jihad" at Fort Dix as "terrorists." Yet, none is convicted, let alone even charged, with committing acts of terrorism.

Fact is, these men didn't actually do anything but talk, and I for one didn't feel terrorized until caped crusader U.S. Attorney Chris Christie made hay announcing indictments based on the FBI investigation.

Now, it looks like there could be a snag in the prosecutor's plan. The smartest of the wannabe jihadists, the seeming idea man, was an FBI informant. I can't see how entrapment wouldn't be an issue here, except that media hysteria feeds good old American bigotry. The worst of the alleged suspicious behavior seems to have come from the FBI informant. And, curious:

Also, one of the men, Tatar, called a Philadelphia police officer in November, saying that he had been approached by someone who was pressuring him to obtain a map of Fort Dix, and that he feared the incident was terrorist-related, according to court documents.

The fact they were arrested on conspiracy charges while "on their way" to buy assault weapons from an FBI operative who offered them reminds me of the Tom Cruise movie, "Minority Report," where future America imprisoned people for what psychics saw them doing in the future.

The story looks more and more like one of those illusions that's either a chalise or two faces, depending on how long you stare at it. Still, this Christie quote in the Asbury Park Press follow story made me ponder:

The investigation into a potential attack at Fort Dix began more than a year ago when an unidentified clerk at a Circuit City electronics store tipped off authorities to a video showing 10 men shooting weapons at a firing range and calling for jihad, prosecutors said. ...

While Christie credited the tip for spurring the investigation, he said Wednesday that it seemed unremarkable at the time.

"There was nothing different about it," (seriously?) he said. "We didn't know if there was a case here or not. Did a light bulb go off over my head when I saw this? No."

Then, what would it take to make a light bulb go off over Christie's head, I wonder, if not 10 New Jersey residents shouting "jihad" while shooting guns, as is his scary story today on this? If the terror threat story is true, then it would seem also true it was bloody hard last year to divert Christie's focus from politics to risks his constituents would be killed. Last year, Christie's boss Alberto Gonzales and the White House were firing his colleagues who refused to play partisan games with our U.S. Justice offices.

Christie now claims these men are oh-so dangerous, yet it took more than a year for Christie's "light bulb" to go off. Wuh? Was he too busy plotting his own future political candidacy by creating his version of "imminent threat" hysteria on white-collar political corruptions? And what about the other four men playing jihadist with paint guns in the tape? I don't assume the two informants are upstanding citizens -- the FBI usually taps them because they need absolution from some other crime -- but that still leaves two others unarrested. Are we not supposed to wonder who they are?

This just in: Cannonfire blog expresses similar suspicion and adds, "... maybe the Dix six were hauled in precisely because they lacked the testicles to play their assigned roles. Consider: These guys could have been dragged off at any time. They were working illegally. They drove without licenses, and they received citations frequently during the "planning" period. I couldn't get away with that kind of behavior and neither could you, but these guys had a stay-out-of-jail card."

That is odd that none of the local authorities who presumably (typically) are not in on a federal sting but who knew of immigration and DMV violations for perhaps years didn't raise the red "terror" flag. The rest is a bit of "conspiracy theory," yes, but I do stop to wonder for a minute, what if? Christie doesn't head the FBI, nor anymore does his boss, still for the time being the embattled Gonzales. Robert Mueller is head of the FBI, which as of 2004 answers to and is directed by the White House through the Director of National Intelligence, not the Attorney General. Details in comments) I'm not saying I think this is the case -- in fact, I doubt it -- but what if it was a setup of some type to create some violence on the homefront to make us fear Muslims? It's not as if plots (bay of pigs) haven't been hatched by renegade intel before. Would Christie necessarily be in on such a plan under the new accountability structure?

It's sad to say, but haven't we learned we can't believe anything that comes out of this White House? The boy cried wolf one too many times.

Help me here, please. There was a similar "Muslim terrorist" scare about six months ago, somewhere I can't remember, that within days looked more like the would-be "terrorists" actions were just misinterpretted acts of stupidity. Anyone remember this story?

Thanks, Blue Jersey's huntsu.

There's the repeated political use of terror alerts which suspiciously stopped right after the 2004 election.

There's the "home grown" Florida terrorists who the government claimed wanted to destroy the Sears Tower in Chicago but had no plan, no weapons and the only contact they had with al Qaeda was with the FBI informants.

I wonder what money and perks the FBI paid the two Dix informants.

MoJo Blog adds Lackawanna Six, John Walker Lindh and Jose Padilla to the list of FBI and DoJ screwups.