The seven-count indictment details a conspiracy that commenced in 2006 and continued until just before the arrests. It alleges that the defendants trained for battle in the U.S., planned to die as "martyrs," and raised funds to support their training and recruit others to their cause overseas. It also accuses Boyd of taking one of his sons to Gaza in March 2006 to introduce the young man to individuals who "believed that violent jihad was a religious obligation." A year later, Boyd and several of the other defendants apparently went to Israel in an unsuccessful effort to wage jihad.
U.S. Attorney George Holding, in arguing that the men be held without bond pending trial, said, "These charges hammer home the point that terrorists and their supporters are not confined to the remote regions of some faraway land but can grow and fester right here at home." FBI Special Agent Owen D. Harris said that the arrests "show there are people living among us, in our communities ... around the U.S. that are honing their skills to carry out acts of murder and mayhem."
The importance of all this appeared to be lost on members of the O-Team as they scurried around preparing for their mini-Oktoberfest. Unfortunately, the arrests in North Carolina are but the most recent case in a growing phenomenon of "homegrown" terror. Since the attacks of 9/11, law enforcement officials have unearthed more than a dozen terror plots by American citizens and other individuals living in the United States and professing radical Islamic beliefs. And it's getting worse.
Last month, the federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., disclosed that Bryant Neal Vinas, a 26-year-old New York native, had admitted to launching a rocket attack against a U.S. base in Afghanistan, trying to kill American military personnel and providing detailed information on the Long Island Rail Road to al-Qaida leaders for an attack on the transportation system. He faces life in prison when sentenced.
On June 1, a Tennessee man, Abdulhakim Muhammad, was apprehended. He is suspected of shooting two soldiers outside a U.S. Army recruiting station in Little Rock, Ark. One of the soldiers, Pvt. William Long, was killed. Muhammad is charged with capital murder.
In May, four New York men were arrested for plotting to blow up two Jewish community centers in the Bronx. That same month, Oussama Kassir was convicted of plotting to set up a weapons training camp in Bly, Ore., to teach al-Qaida followers to make bombs and poisons and to commit murder.
And in February, Abdifatah Yusuf Isse and Salah Osman Ahmed were indicted. They are suspected of recruiting Somali refugees in Minnesota to fight with Islamic groups in their homeland. An estimated 20 men from the Twin Cities are suspected of going to Somalia to fight in the Islamist al-Shabab insurgency.
Given the silence from the Obama White House, it is uncertain what our current head of state thinks about these crimes. Now that the "beer summit" is over, perhaps our commander in chief can move on to more important but less tractable issues, such as protecting us from radical Islamic terrorists who want to kill us.