{"id":9288,"date":"2006-12-08T15:48:50","date_gmt":"2006-12-08T20:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/9288.html"},"modified":"2006-12-08T15:48:50","modified_gmt":"2006-12-08T20:48:50","slug":"federal-officials-break-up-alleged-bombing-plot-in-chicago-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/federal-officials-break-up-alleged-bombing-plot-in-chicago-area\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal officials break up alleged bombing plot in Chicago area"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s always encouraging when law-enforcement officials catch a would-be bomber<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Muslim convert who talked about his desire to wage jihad against civilians was charged Friday in a plot to set off hand grenades at a shopping mall during the Christmas rush, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Investigators said Derrick Shareef, 22, was acting alone and never actually obtained any grenades.<\/p>\n

“He fixed on a day of December 22nd on Friday … because it was the Friday before Christmas and thought that would be the highest concentration of shoppers that he could kill and injure,” said Robert Grant, the agent in charge of the Chicago FBI office.<\/p>\n

Officials said Shareef had been under investigation since September, when he told an acquaintance that “he wanted to commit acts of violent jihad against targets in the United States as well as commit other crimes.” The acquaintance immediately informed the FBI, officials said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently, Shareef planned to set off four hand grenades in garbage cans at a shopping mall in Rockford, about 90 miles northwest of Chicago. Officials said other “potential targets,” which Shareef allegedly discussed, included government facilities such as courthouses and city hall.<\/p>\n

He was taken into custody after meeting an undercover agent in a parking lot to trade stereo speakers for hand grenades and a handgun.<\/p>\n

Obviously, this sounds like very good news, and kudos go out to the federal officials who caught this guy before he could do any real damage. That said, I hate to sound cynical, but I feel like we’ve been here before.
\n
\nIn August, for example, we learned of a “plot” to hijack 10 airplanes bound for the U.S. from the U.K. The initial reports sounded extremely serious, but subsequent details suggested the “plot” was not quite what it appeared to be<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was hardly an isolated incident. When Abu Zubaydah was captured in Pakistan in March 2002, the president described him as al Queda’s chief of operations and emphasized the significance of his capture. Bush was wrong<\/a>. The plot to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge wasn’t quite what it was cracked up to be<\/a>. Jose Padilla was not actually prepared<\/a> to detonate a dirty bomb in DC. The “Miami 7,” described by Dick Cheney as “a very real threat<\/a>,” turned out to be more of a joke<\/a> than a danger.<\/p>\n

The result, unfortunately, is the boy-who-cried-wolf problem. When one of these stories is exaggerated, it’s an accident. When it happens repeatedly, one has to start wondering if perhaps Bush administration officials simply do not deserve the benefit of the doubt.<\/p>\n

I’m not saying this Shareef guy in Chicago was harmless. It’s likely he really planned to do harm, I’m glad he was caught before anyone got hurt, and I give law enforcement officials all the credit in the world for doing what they do. But hearing about another success story now leads me to wonder, “What are we going to learn about this in a couple of days that makes it seem a lot less serious?”<\/p>\n

Just a few years ago, this would have been considered the height of cynicism. Now, given the administration’s stunning record of acting in bad faith<\/a>, it’s practically irresponsible not<\/i> to wonder.<\/p>\n

Post Script<\/i>: By the way, remember how many times Bush mocked the notion<\/a> that effective counter-terrorism relies on intelligence gathering and law-enforcement operations?<\/p>\n

Update<\/i>: Lance reminds us<\/a> in comments that Shareef was caught without NSA warrantless wiretapping, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s always encouraging when law-enforcement officials catch a would-be bomber. A Muslim convert who talked about his desire to wage jihad against civilians was charged Friday in a plot to set off hand grenades at a shopping mall during the Christmas rush, authorities said. Investigators said Derrick Shareef, 22, was acting alone and never actually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}