“The FBI said Thursday it is investigating a Nevada man’s claim that he picked up a conversation in Arabic on his cell phone during which someone said there would be a ‘hit’ on the ‘day of freedom,'” ABC News reports.
‘We’ve initiated a full-scale investigation to determine if this constitutes a threat, and if so, what kind of threat,’ said FBI Special Agent Daron Borst in Las Vegas.
Borst said agents have interviewed the man who reported the conversation, Michael Hamdan, and planned to question him again today.
Hamdan said he was trying to call his wife on his cell phone Saturday when he heard Arabic voices. Hamdan, 54, said he’s a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Lebanon and speaks Arabic.
‘They said in Arabic, not even a word of English, “We are in the city of corruption, the city of prostitution, the city of gambling, the city of unbelievers,”‘ Hamdan told The Associated Press late Thursday. “‘We are going to hit them on the day of freedom.”‘
Hamdan said the call lasted about 90 seconds before the line went dead. He said he believes the men were talking about July Fourth.
If Mr. Hamden’s story pans out — and his having come forward forces a cadre of filthy Islamistofucks* to change their plans (“Al Qaeda operatives’ Vegas to-do list: drink heavily, gamble often, frequent prostitutes, curse infidels, shave body hair, mumble scripture, blow shit up in Sin City”) — he needs to be dipped in bronze and a have a parade thrown in his honor. Hell, I’ll buy him a big screen teevee my own self.
Elsewhere, the FBI is warning that terrorists may be planning to use tanker trucks to target Jewish neighborhoods and synagogues.
But that doesn’t make this a religious war. Nope. Not at all.
*[for da Poorman!]
<i>…filthy Islamofucks … But that doesn’t make this a religious war. Nope. Not at all. </i>
Uh, Jeff, what was Mr. Hamden’s religion? The article doesn’t say, but at the risk of racial profiling, I say there’s a good chance he himself practiced the I-word.
Even if it turns out he’s a lapsed Scientologist, I still wouldn’t give the motherfuckers the (dubious) honor of calling their pitiful temper tantrum a “religious war”. It’s just a war against muderous assholes, all of whom are going to get royally fucked. All the bastards are Muslim, but Muslims don’t all support the bastards. Not even close.
(Liberal creditials polished, I return to brood in my Tower of Tolerance.)
Unforunately, the bastards themselves say it’s Islam at war with the United States. We can ignore their declarations all we want, we can point to the handful of reasonable and sane Muslims all we want, but it doesn’t change the reality.
Point taken, an true enough. But I shouldn’t let the bastards frame <i>our</i> side of the conflict so easily. And while the number of reasonable and sane Muslims, while I’d imagine more than a handful (unless thay are quite small), may not be quite as helpful as we’d like, I’d imagine that most occupy a squishy middle ground. We’d gain more by reserving our condemnation for the truly deserving.
Jeff,
I mean you no disrespect whatsoever, but I’m curious. Why would Hamden’s warning piss you off, when the FBI’s warning doesn’t evoke the same sentiment?
My second question is not for you but rather speaks to the presyumption that the alleged conversation must necessarily be implicating Las Vegas… Why not Atlantic City? There are three active nuclear reactors in New Jersey–none in Nevada. We’ve “lost” 25 or more sleeper agents who entered port cities in shipping containers and there are believed to be several shoulder launched missiles “lost” in the U.S. too… My instinct tells me they’d stay on the East coast–it’s much easier to be “lost” in the crowd there than it is in Vegas.
T.L.–
Sorry if it came across that way, but I’m not pissed off by Mr. Hamdan’s warning. I’m thrilled by it. I hope more Arabic speaking people begin coming forward like he did. The parade, the teevee, the bronze… All serious. This guy is a hero. I really believe that.
Andrew: I’ve been pretty consistent with the label “Islamofucks” or “Islamofascists,” etc—meaning those Islamists who are actively engaged in jihad against the West and Jews and &tc. I’ve changed it to “Islamistofucks,” though (cause I like the sound of it) Thanks!
I guess you probably have been pretty consistant, it’s just that last one that got my super-sensitive liberal indignance sense tingling. I believe I can give “Islamistofucks” my Diversity Tolerance Seal of Approval. And I’ll cancel your reservation at the manditory muti-cultural re-education camp. Carry on, then. Everything appears to be in order. My work here is done.
I know I’m going to be called a skeptic, paranoid, or worse, but I saw this fellow on TV and all I could think about was our brave US Forest Service lady who tipped us off to the Colorado fire (that she set). Munchausen syndrome by proxy perhaps?
Always a chance he’s a crank or an attention hound. Which is why I qualified the original post with “If Mr. Hamdan’s story pans out.”
What do you hope for here, given the implications of either scenario?
Sorry about the confusion Jeff.
To be honest with y’all, I don’t trust “them” or “us” anymore. Pretty pathetic, eh? But I don’t.
The FBI, it pains me to say (since my gradfather worked for the Bureau, hell, even headed up the field office in Colorado) has been behaving erratically at best, the DOJ has turned into a legal bimbo with an insufferably bad attitude problem, and this administration’s credibility is shot all to hell with me…
The best I can come up with these days are prayers for alert citizens to take up the slack and warn local PD’s of suspicious behaviour–the rest, it seems to me, is nothing more than a tremendously expensive waste of time.
“If Mr. Hamden’s story pans out—and his having come forward forces a cadre of filthy Islamistofucks* to change their plans. . .”
. . .then the jihadi will have skittered away like cockroaches when the lights come on, there will have been no attack, and Mr. Hamden’s warning will have been another false alarm.
<i>That</i> is the basic Catch-22 of any successful warning that disrupts an attacker’s plans and makes them slink off to bide their time for another day and another target.
…which is better than an actual attack, of course.
<s>Hamden</s> HamdAn is Lebanese, and speaks Arabic, but that doesn’t mean he’s Muslim. One of my best friends is a Christian Lebanese with an “Arabic” name who hates Muslims and thinks Ariel Sharon is just peachy (dating back to 1982 when he was the Israeli Defense Minister during the Israeli military campaign into Lebanon, which most Christian Lebanese welcomed as a means to throw out the Syrians).
I would like to know if <s>Hamden</s> HamdAn is a Christian Lebanese. If he is as I suspect, then I would further postulate that his claim has some merit.
Jeepers…I just noticed that his name was “Hamdan.” I cut-n-pasted from Jeff’s third-to-last paragraph…boy, do I feel stupid, trusting old protein boy like that! Never again!
I have no earthly idea what you’re talking about, Doubting.
Do I get a free t-shirt or something? Our hero failed a lie detector. This from Saturday’s Las Vegas Review-Journal:
FBI agents questioned Henderson resident Michael Hamdan for five hours Friday afternoon before confirming they did not believe his assertion that his cell phone intercepted a conversation in Arabic about a planned July Fourth attack.