Currently, FOXNews only has the headline on its main page (no accompanying text), so I’ll update as more info becomes available.
(h/t Sara, who notes in the comments that AG Gonzales has scheduled a news conference for the morning to lay out the details, and that undercover work was involved in nabbing the plotters).
****
update: From ABC News / AP:
FBI agents investigating terrorism-related activities were conducting a number of raids and had made several arrests Thursday, the bureau’s director said.
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III told CNN that it was an ongoing operation and that more details would be released Friday. Local television was reporting that agents were raiding a warehouse in Miami’s Liberty City section.
“There is no imminent threat to Miami or any other area because of these operations,” said Richard Kolko, spokesman for FBI headquarters in Washington. He declined to comment further.
Several terrorism investigations have had South Florida links. Several of the Sept. 11 hijackers lived and trained in the area, including ringleader Mohamed Atta, and several plots by Cuban-Americans against Fidel Castro’s government have been based in Miami.
Jose Padilla, a former resident once accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive bomb in the U.S., is charged in Miami with being part of a North American terror support cell to al-Qaida and other violent Islamic extremist organizations. He has been in federal custody since 2002 and is scheduled for trial in September.
Padilla was originally designated an “enemy combatant” and held for 3½ years without charge by the Bush administration shortly after his May 2002 arrest at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
More:
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was scheduled to hold a news conference on Friday to discuss the raid. A simultaneous news conference was to be held in Miami.
Cedric Thomas, an owner of Thomas Produce Market, told The Miami Herald the area around his store was teeming with federal agents.
“There is a ton of guys in uniforms moving around, blocking the streets,” Thomas said.
****
update 2: More, from ABC:
ABC News has learned that federal agents, including the FBI, are launching a series of raids tonight targeting a suspected terror cell based in Miami. According to sources familiar with the investigation, the group allegedly planned to bomb the FBI building in Miami and the Sears Tower in Chicago.
The group has been under surveillance for some time and was infilitrated by a government informant who allegedly led them to believe he was an Islamic radical. The suspects are described as African Americans and at least one man of Caribbean descent.
Doesn’t exactly match the traditional profile of an al Qaeda cell, but let’s wait and see how things develop.
Were members of this cell were connected to any mosques or Islamic Centers? Are they home grown terrorists? Imports? Have they been to prison? Do they have connections to any Canadian cells? Questions, questions…
More from Charles Johnson (who has video of Mueller on CNN) and Allah—who notes that FOX quotes government officials as saying “…the men were plotting ‘to wage jihad in conjunction with Al Qaeda’”, and who points to this Times of London piece, which broaches some of the questions I raised above:
One aim is to create an army of “white-skinned†militants, men born in Europe and America who can convert to Islam and become harder for the authorities to detect as they cross the world on their missions, including suicide attacks…
Experts were struck by how the network was radicalising non-Arabs to alter the profile of its operatives. This included using women recruits, such as the 38-year-old Belgian waitress, born to a white, middle-class Christian family, who died in a suicide attack against US troops in Baghdad last November.
See also, this, from the AP, June 14:
U.S. counterterrorism officials say they are uncovering homegrown Islamic radicals inside the United States who lack formal ties to al-Qaida and operate independently.
Those independent qualities  combined with the radicals’ ability to organize and plot on the Internet  make them particularly difficult to disrupt, retired Vice Adm. John Scott Redd, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday.Redd pointed to what he said were three potential homegrown organizations that have been disrupted in the U.S. in just over a year:
-Two Atlanta-area men, charged earlier this year in a terrorism case, have been publicly linked to some of the Canadian suspects.
-In Torrance, the head of a radical Islamic prison gang and three others were indicted last year on federal charges of planning terrorist attacks.
-In the farming town of Lodi, a young Pakistani man faces at least 30 years in prison for supporting terrorism by attending an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan in 2003.
Showing how the government’s mission has changed, Redd said that before 9/11 the FBI wrote 25 intelligence-information reports a year, but now the bureau produces more than 1,000 annually.
[…]
Redd said the merger between al-Zarqawi’s group and al-Qaida’s central organization gives terror leaders a more diverse pool of “battle-hardened.”
Whatever. So long as FISA warrants were obtained and all the proper paperwork was completed in triplicate. Otherwise, we’re no better than those we claim to fight.
Except, of course, for the plotting to blow up buildings part. But that’s really just incidental.
(h/t Allah and STACLU)
****
update 3: The Kossacks react (via LGF); so do the patriots at DU, who can sniff out when the feds are trying to keep a brother down (h/t Bob Owens); meanwhile, Allah emails:
The AP report I’m looking at says they weren’t linked to Al Qaeda—which is true. Apparently they thought they were hooking up with AQ when in fact it was undercover feds.
I’ve added video of the Fox jihad report.
****
update 4: The Miami Herald is saying as many as 12-15 people are involved.
One suspect was from GA Tech. One of those arrested in connection to the Canadian cell was from GA Tech.
Somebody needs to do some investigative work involving mosques around GA Tech.
And all other eng. schools for that matter.
How long is this administration going to occupy the United States. Our presence here is creating terrorism. I will not rest until we have withdrawn completely from inside the borders of America.
—John F. Kerry
I don’t know why they think this police work is going to help. Instead, lets speculate that supicionless NSA sweeps were instrumental in finding this out, That sounds better than suspicion-based investigation.
men born in Europe and America who can convert to Islam and become harder for the authorities to detect as they cross the world on their missions, including suicide attacks…
There is NO terrorist threat! Move along…
Wow, I was standing right next to the spot where 20 megatons of dumb landed, and didn’t get a scratch! Durrrrrrrrrr……
For those interested, the NSA program would have passed info on to the FBI, who would have then obtained warrants for those inside the US, and would have proceeded w/ the investigation. That is, if the NSA was involved at all in pinpointing an area of concern.
It could be we received info from arrests made the Canadian investigation, or from some other source.
For my part, I don’t really care how it was done—just that it was done.
But I’m old-fashioned that way.
Jeff
Count me as old-fashioned, too.
5…4…3…2…1 the whining begins that the plots are only in response to Bu$Hitler Imperialism, Abu Gharib, Haditha and, of course, support of Israel. Add to it that terrorists are driven to bombing civilian centers because we don’t have affirmative action programs to arm them with F-16’s and bunkerbusters.
We need to change direction, Anbar Province, uh, we have to change direct, international community, stay and pay, easy to sa-, yeah, Washington DC, eh eh eh, I say Stay and Pay, no plan, that’s the thing, public two to one against, that’s what I support. Okinawa, three hundred million dollarssSS, Gates, education no chi, eh eh eh grandchildren. On the floor.
Anbar Province.
I believe this and feel so strong.
Just a reminder of the fact that they are coming to get us–regardless of whether or not our soldiers are in Iraq.
actus, you’re so self-possessed and comfortable with your own ‘turd-ness’, if I may create a neologism. It’s really awe-inspiring.
Respect.
Well then, they shouldn’t be making any arrests yet…right? Surely we should have waited until one of them was found standing in front of the Sears Tower with a match and a stick of dynamite in his hand. Heaven help us if no stockpile of dynamite and/or matches is ever found.
Bush lied/the Sears Tower still stands…hmmm, I don’t like the sound of that, it needs work.
Obviously the raid was planned to take the spotlight away from Kerry’s successful political maneuver..
Hmm..
Obviously the raid was planned to take the spotlight away from Murtha’s successful political maneuver..
OK then..
Obviously the raid was planned to take the spotlight away from Dean’s successful political maneuver..
Well, the timing of this is certainly suspicious.
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
“The timing of this raid raised suspions accross America today.” There’s the lede for the MSM.
The other advantage of criminal work: conspiracy liability.
Well damn. Sounds like we need to hurry and build that fence along the Mexican border to keep these people out!
Indeed. When they investigate people about whom they have “suspicions,” that’s just profiling, and that’s wrong.
There were explosive devices found outside the GT dorm last October. The 9/11 crew spent time in South Florida and Atlanta suburbs. Jamat ul Fuqra (which this group reminds me of) is supposed to have a training compound in Commerce, GA…a little over an hour from ATL.
My guess is that W released the hounds on these Miami dudes because he was pissed that Duane Wade was getting foul calls on his foul shots.
“Now godammit, Dick! Napinsky never touched Wade. That call was absurd.”
“Yeah, hey Al, why don’t you get your biggest microscope and stick it up someone’s poopchute down there in Miami. I don’t care who you arrest, just make it stick. And say hello to my little friend while yer there. heh heh hehe heh heh. Fuckin’ refs.”
actus, would you mind sourcing your NSA thing? Last I was keeping track, there were two separate “surveillance” “issues” going around: the one related to phone numbers associated with al Qaeda members and other suspected terrorists (that was the NSA one) and the collection of phone numbers generally (that was NOT the NSA one and was also being treated dismissively because the major phone companies hadn’t had any requests from the government for their call records). Am I behind the news cycle again?
Yeah, but all us wingnuts were ridiculed because it was nothing, remember?
South Florida—that’s where Abdullah al-Muhajir (popularly known as Jose Padilla) was recruited.
But none of that means anything, and suspecting them is just racism and Islamophobia.
Feh. More bedwetting, sheeple.
Yes…I remember
If you say so. Somehow I don’t think the popular view of profiling helped too much in this case.
I think we have enough to declare GA an insurgent stronghold. Won’t be the first time.
What amazes me still in these days that there remain fixed in a daze, unable to understand what it means to be a step ahead of the terrorists. The whole, you didn’t hold your mouth right, cheater, cheater, no fair to us criminals/bad guys/terrorists thing, is beyond comprehension. I guess I keep assuming that the whiners apologizing for anything anti-Bush, actually like living somewhere that the UN or NATO or ….. haven’t screwed the pooch.
But we torture… TORTURE!!! Don’t you understand?!?!? We deserve it!!!!1!!1!
well, as long as it’s not where I live. Then it’s just wrong, you know?
”…that there remain fixed in a daze,…” It should have said idiots fixed in a daze.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could simply forget adding idiot to the solution?
We try, but he keeps commenting.
Here’s the textbook Kossack response:
Actually, those were just dry ice and water in plastic bottles. Some idiot nerd made them then threw them away, one blew up when the janitor emptied the trash. Just sayin’.
We know this kind of activity is going on around us; only rarely does it come to our attention. I live in Chicago and one thing that drives me mad is that the local ‘investigative’ news media never seems to get around to covering it–but they’re sure out in force during Sweeps week, busting dirty greasy spoons left and right. That’s the kind of ‘hard-hitting’ reporting we get around these parts.
For my money, if the media want to earn their salaries, they should check out the literature in the local mosques. I wonder what that looks like translated into English… Apparently, the Saudis are shipping it into the US by the ton. Hamas has connections to a mosque in Bridgeview, fer crying out loud. And who’s to say that’s the extent of the terror connection here?
But you knowm that when the shit hits the fan, those reporters will claim complete surprise.
Uh, personally, I think this was a clever ruse by Kos to divert attention from his current troubles.
He’s right, you know.—Sudan, Darfur.
Oh? That’s not what he meant? He was talking about some weird racism conspiracy theory here in the US? Whadda loon.
I’ve just been waiting on the word, actus, I am loading my shotgun now.
We might want to look a little deeper into the incident, though. Just sayin’.
Never happen. Too dangerous for the press’ preconceptions.
Don’t know why they didn’t run into actual Al Qaeda… there were plenty there. Anyway, they don’t really feel NOI or the breakaway 5 percenter converts are real muslims… unless the ACLU and CAIR need a test case for those terrorists here who are US citizens. I don’t know any black people who would drive a truck with bombs (shoot each other all day, but not the truck). Notice those groups never asked for separate prisons for Muslims yet… can’t get converts that way.
MOUSSAOUI Contacts a Commercial Flight School
51. On or about May 23, 2001, ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI contacted an office of the Pan Am International Flight Academy in Miami, Florida via e-mail.
Hijackers Open Bank Accounts
52. In Summer 2001, Fayez Ahmed (#175), Saeed al-Ghamdi (#93), Hamza al-Ghamdi (#175), Waleed al-Shehri (#11), Ziad Jarrah (#93), Satam al-Suqami (#11), Mohald al-Shehri (#175), Ahmed al-Nami (# 93), and Ahmed al-Haznawi (#93) each opened a Florida SunTrust bank account with a cash deposit.
http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/moussaouiindictment.htm
I just like this bit from the AP:
And also on account of, he doesn’t want to look like uh idiot once more investigating is done.
“Sears Tower blown up: Women, minorities hurt most.”
but but but why Chicago?!!?!
Haven’t we done enough for you Al-Queda? Strong Democratic machine in the city? Democratic governor? Two solid democratic senators- one who even went out on a limb for you to claim Guantanimo was akin to a Soviet gulag? Solid blue for Gore and Kerry? How much more do we have to do to prove we hate Bush?!?!
Is it Hastert? Hyde? Those damn suburbs!!!
Damn. I’ve never seen anyone or anything so thoroughly flunk every test for intelligence. Not even Jeff’s spambuster words.
TW: WTF!!!???
See what I mean?
Mosque pamphlet titles?
The Zawahiri beard: Tips for more width
Video Do’s and Don’ts: Part One, Background
I think we have enough to declare GA an insurgent stronghold. Won’t be the first time.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – the flames of the War Between the States still burn hot within the Actus.
This mad-on against things Southern: curious, curious indeed.
Broad spectrum of society, no doubt.
presione uno para el inglés
Master: standby
War on black people? I thought we were killing them all by drafting them and sending them to the front lines of Iraq.
From Jeff’s link to reax at DU:
You have to give it to them–there’s crazy and then there’s lefty, crazy-as-a-shithouse-rat crazy.
From an article by Yahoo! News:
The newsarticle says that the militants apparently have no connection with al-Qaa’idah. Well, duh!
This isn’t said often enough but the networks of terror run on a cell basis. Terrorists establish a base, hatch a plot, gather supplies, train, and then attack. Financies, logistical support, materiel, and personnel can come from a wide variety of sources.
Except for Iraq, for all intents and purposes al-Qaa’idah no longer functions. We destroyed their base in Afghanistan. Its leadership has been eliminated. Its financial resources have been disrupted. But this does not mean Islamic terrorism has stopped. The difficulty with eliminating these networks of terror is that they can be very local with little international links.
The web of terrorist cells is an amorphous gathering of basically autonomous cells.
After all, al-Qaa’idah isn’t even the only international network of contacts and resources for terrorist activity. Hamas, Palestinian terrorist groups, Hezbollah, Kashmiri terrorist groups, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, also operate throughout the world. We should also not forget criminal networks that are otherwise not terrorist: drug cartels, smuggling rings, pirates. They also help terrorists.
We need to stop obssessing about al-Qaa’idah and realize that we are threatened by many people and many groups. We should not try to put a name to this ever-changing, flexible web of terrorist networks.
Damn. I misread the stories. There’s no GA Tech connection; it was just tossed in as a reference to past arrests.
“I think we have enough to declare GA an insurgent stronghold.”
Hummmm, Makes me wonder if Anus is a member of Townhouse. (one of the dumber ones.)
If there is another successfull terrorist attack in the US, will the lefties( MSM not excluded) refer to the perps as insurgents?
– They’ll probably refer to them as “peace loving muslim freedom fighters” if Kos gives them that days talking points…..
Just as an aside….How much longer before “Crazy as a demented Progressive” become’s a common phrase?….
I’d say its more that except for Iraq, al-qaeda is now an ideology, not an organization.
Bag Bang Hunter  That’s redundant, son. I’ll stick with “liberals aren’t, and progressives don’t”…
I completely agree with that.
The sooner we can disabuse people of the notion that al Qaeda, and only al Qaeda, are the chief functional terrorist threat the better.
The cellular nature of the threat is larger than ever. Fortunately, a lot of the people involved in these things seem to be complete idiots.
Only tangentially related: I still think something weird was going on last fall at Oklahoma University. And I don’t mean the typical Sooner behavior.
That canada thing did have a taste of columbine, rather than just 9/11.
Steve,
I think that was due mostly to Adrian Peterson’s ankle problems.
Seriously, the AQ message, and for that matter, the message of the lefties is that if things are not exactly as you would have them be, then it’s not because of your screwed up choices or centuries of history–it’s because someone is keeping you down.
That’s a dangerous meme.
Using some old HS math theorem, If according to the Miami Herald 12-15 were involved and I use the numerical logic of the sinestrosphere, then there are no less than 36-35 involved.
Unfortunately, it won’t be enough of the traitorous BDS pinheads stalking the halls of blog.
As in, “They ought to be infuckeencluded!”
steve-
Being a former OU football player and alumni, I happened to be at that game. I remember hearing the blast, and thinking that something wasn’t quite right. After the game, we were told that we had to exit the premisis immediately and not go near the site of the explosion. After the initial investigation, a lot of people tried to link the perp to al-Quida and other terrorist organizations, but to no avail.
Besides, the guy was from texas anyway. and we all know how they are.
V
BTW, I was wondering if actus was one of those “i wouldn’t shoot a man who raped my daughter and murdered my wife” or simply delusional to the fact that, had we done things his way, a lot more buildings would be getting memorials erected to them.
Just a thought.
Oh, and DONT QUESTION HIS PATRIOTISM!
almost forgot that.
And the New York Times publishes the names and headshots of government informants that have infiltrated terrorist cells in 5…4…3…
BECAUSE OF THE PUBLIC INTEREST!!!!!
I’m coming to believe that actus is either heavily sedated or some kind of turing test.
tw: board, b.o.r.e.d.
Hey There,
My name is Karen Shacham and I work with CNN Pipeline in Atlanta.
I thought you might be interested to know that CNN Pipeline will be featuring FBI Director Robert Mueller giving a speech to the City Club of Cleveland regarding home grown terrorism. He is expected to have a short press conference afterwards. Both will be LIVE on CNN Pipeline at 12PM.
CNN Pipeline is an online, commercial-free, multiple live-news feed. It showcases four simultaneous news feeds from around the world and an on-demand function that allows you to select from a variety of news stories.
Please let your members know that they can go to http://www.cnn.com and click on the CNN Pipeline link to watch it *live* and get a two week free trial.
Thanks,
Karen
There’s a goddamned war on black people.
I can see it already “FREE THE MIAMI SEVEN.” Margaret Cho will blog about it.
Groups defining “hate crimes” for the DOJ include:
American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Anti-Defamation League
People for the American Way
Southern Poverty Law Center
http://www.usdoj.gov/crs/pubs/crs_pub_hate_crime_bulletin_1201.htm
Reality-based neo-cons disenfranchised?
According to Larry Elder, more white churches burned in recent decades than black churches or mosques.
Real data on racism and crime in America would be eye-opening, I think – potentially healing, uniting.
“..most blacks lifted themselves out of poverty but liberal politicians and black “leaders” have claimed credit. One side effect is that many whites wonder why blacks cannot lift themselves out of poverty like other groups, when that is in fact what most blacks have done.” – Thomas Sowell
“As is true of most the Left’s values, this ideal of favoring the little guy in a courtroom runs directly counter to a basic Judeo-Christian value. Exodus 23:3 expressly prohibits it: “Do not favor the poor man in his grievance.” – Dennis Prager, “The Left hates inequality, not injustice”
“Despite the headlines yesterday, violent crime in the US remains below levels in the 70’s 80’s and 90’s and below that of Europe, Canada and Australia.” – http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2006/06/no-surprise-media-distorts-violent.html
I can see Pam Zenkman or Dave Savini chasing after some imam now … “Sir, sir! Can you comment on what we found?”
Heh. Indeed.
Carin as your (not) attorney, I advise you to hurry and TM this “Free the Miami Seven” and at least profit from the t-shirt sales. maybe you could get a bong or a knotted dreadlock cap with this inscribed on it?
I see the Elvis Costello video now:
“Free, free, free… the Miami Sev-en.”
Naw, it just doesn’t scan.