By Alex Constantine
Time Magazine: "The group indicted for terror plans appears to have had more in common with homegrown cults than al-Qaeda terrorists...." ---
"Not one of them is a converted Muslim. ...
> One mother showed her son's Bible with notations
written in it in his ?> own handwriting.
> Not one of them is a converted Muslim. ?
The arrested men appear to be part of a cult organization
proclaiming
itself to be Muslim - although a member of the same religious
group
says it is, in fact, based on a homebrew of Islam and
Christianity, and
calls itself "Seas of David."
Time to start rounding up the followers of Falwell and Robertson.
Conflicting
There were conflicting reports about the identity of the
arrestees.
Law enforcement sources told CNN that the seven suspects were
Muslim extremists.
But another enforcement official denied that the group had
any links with Al-Qaeda or other foreign terrorist
organizations.
"These people were not related to Al-Qaeda," he told the
American all-news network.
Residents said the arrested men appeared to be part of a CULT of at least a dozen people.
They said the men were sleeping in the warehouse, dressing in military-like clothing and doing exercises.
A man identified as a member of the "Seas of David" religious group told CNN on Thursday that five of his fellow members were among those arrested and that they had no connection to terrorists.
"We are not terrorists. We are members of David, Seas of David," said the man, identified as Brother Corey. "We study and believe in the word of God," he told CNN.
"This is a place where we worship," he added.
Brother Corey said the "Seas of David" blends the teachings
of Christianity and Islam.
"We study Allah and the worship of the regular Bible."
He said his group had connections in Chicago.
"We have soldiers in Chicago," he said clarifying that by soldier he meant: "We train through the Bible... not only physical but mentally."
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1207412,00.html
The Miami Seven: How Serious Was the Threat?
The group indicted for terror plans appears to have had more in common with homegrown cults than al-Qaeda terrorists. Which doesn't mean they weren't dangerous
By TONY KARON
SUBSCRIBE TO TIMEPRINTE-MAILMORE BY AUTHOR
Excerpt: The One Percent Doctrine
Related: A Misdirected War on Terror?
Related Blogs: Click here for blog postings from around the
web that are related to the topic of this article.
Posted Friday, Jun. 23, 2006 The Federal government has
indicted seven men arrested in Miami on charges of conspiring
with al-Qaeda to conduct terror attacks inside the U.S. Among
the ostensible targets named in the indictment was Chicago's
Sears Tower.
But was this a credible terror conspiracy?
As the story unfolds, here are four skeptical questions worth
pondering.
Was this an al-Qaeda-linked plot, or were these men simply wannabes?
From initial reports and the contents of the indictment, the
latter seems most likely.
The arrested men appear to be part of a cult organization
proclaiming itself to be Muslim — although a member of
the same religious group says it is, in fact, based on a
homebrew of Islam and Christianity, and calls itself "Seas of
David."
Its members, mainly Americans and Haitan immigrants, clearly
have an enthusiasm for emulating and following al-Qaeda.
But their only "connection" with al-Qaeda appears to have
been the fact that a government informant who had infiltrated
their ranks had apparently convinced the alleged conspirators
that he was, in fact, a Qaeda operative.
The oaths of allegiance to the organization alleged by the
indictment to have been taken by the accused were
administered not by any representative of the organization,
but to a U.S. government agent posing as a Qaeda operative.
Were they behaving as professional terrorists?
No, at least not according to the initial flood of reports
that portayed them as strutting around a poor black
neighborhood in military-style uniforms, wearing turbans,
standing guard around the abandoned warehouse in which they
lived and conducting late-night exercise drills, while
telling neighbors that they had "given their lives to
Allah."
The basic habit of trained terrorists is secrecy and stealth;
they do their utmost to fit in with their surroundings rather
than stand out. The Miami seven, according to reports thus
far, seemed to have been doing the exact opposite, behaving
more like a Hollywood B-movie version of terrorists than the
real thing.
Can amateurs and wannabes pose a real terror threat?
Yes, very much so. The London bombings last summer were
carried out by a self-taught group of British-born men who
had no direct connection with al-Qaeda, yet sought to emulate
it.
But that grouping, perhaps having learned from the Qaeda
terror manuals widely available on jihadist web sites, seem
to have observed many of the same principles of secrecy that
a group like the 9/11 plotters would have . Friends, family
and neighbors were shocked to learn that young men in their
midst who seemed no different from any others turned out to
be terrorists.
The extent of the danger represented by such groups depends
on their capacities:
Are they able to operate undetected?
Do they have the means to carry out attacks?
Do they have workable plans for such attacks?
Was this really a plot?
The indictment accuses the men of plotting to blow up FBI
offices and the Sears tower.
They apparently gave the government informant, whom they
believed was their Qaeda contact, photographs of FBI and
other law enforcement facilities in Florida, indicating that
they had done some surveillance.
The indictment refers to a desire by the group's leader to
attack the Sears tower, and a request for a video camera in
order to conduct surveillance mission to that end, although
it doesn not suggest such a mission actually took place. From
the indictment it is clear that the men had no shortage of
ambition, asking for al-Qaeda training to wage a "full ground
war" to "kill all the devils we can."
To his end, the group asked the undercover agent for a
wish-list of equipment that included boots, uniforms, machine
guns, bullet-proof vests, radios and vehicles — as well
as $50,000 in cash. The group's leader also provided the
government agent with "a list of shoe sizes for the purchase
of military boots for his 'soldiers'."
The idea that these seven men could wage a "ground war" in
the U.S. seems to have more in common with the fevered
thinking behind various deadly cults over the years than with
the operations of international terror networks.
Fevered minds can be very dangerous, of course.
But the threat they present is quite different from that of
transnational terror groups.
After all, the government appears to have had no problem
infiltrating and exposing this group, which was hardly making
itself inconspicuous or impregnable — unlike the New
York subway plot reported in TIME this week, whose
perpetrators slipped into the U.S., conducted their
surveillance, prepared the operational details of poison gas
attacks, then aborted them on instructions from al-Qaeda
leaders and departed America, all with U.S. security none the
wiser.