Breaking: Feds disrupt terror attack planned for Chicago-area mall? Update: “Violent jihad”; Update: Affidavit alleges video will
posted at 12:26 pm on December 8, 2006 by Allahpundit
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John Little e-mails to say that ABC News is working on a big one:
ABC News has learned a Chicago-area man has been charged with plotting a terrorist attack.
Sources say the man is accused of planning to use firearms and explosives to attack a specific mall in Rockford, Ill. The alleged plan was to target this mall during the holiday shopping season.
Supposedly, he’s not tied to any organization.
Standby for more.
Update: “The plan was allegedly ideologically motivated,” according to MSNBC.
Update: The CBS affiliate in Chicago says the case has “national security implications,” but notes that the suspect had “ideas and desires, but no means.” They were probably watching the guy and set up a sting where he tried to buy weapons from them. That’s how the Mounties busted the terror cell in Canada earlier this year. We’ll see.
Update: Could this be him? It says he’s a suspect in two Chicago-area attacks, but the motive is some grudge against the police. How would that have national security implications?
Update: The left accused the feds of much ado about nothing in the Miami bust. They won’t like this, then: “Law enforcement officials added that the alleged plot was not on the level of 9/11, and even ‘three rungs below’ the recent Miami plot that was disrupted.”
Update: MSNBC has a teaser up claiming he was planning to use hand grenades.
Update: He’s 22, which means it’s not the guy I linked above.
Update: His name is Derrick Shareef.
He was apprehended after meeting with an undercover agent in a Rockford store parking lot to trade a set of stereo speaksers for four hand grenades and a handgun, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
Shareef was charged with one count of count of attempting to damage or destroy a building by fire or explosion and one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, authorities said.
Shareef allegedly planned to set off the grenades at the CherryVale Shopping Mall, near Interstate 90 and Interstate 39 on Rockford’s east side. The mall has about 130 retail stores and is owned by a Tennessee-based company, authorities said.
Authorities reported that the mall was one of several potential targets Shareef allegedly discussed with undercover agents, and the others were primarily local government facilities.
A hand grenade constitutes a weapon of mass destruction?
Update: Drudge is teasing it now. An informant claims Shareef wanted to commit “violent jihad.”
Update: The affidavit’s up at the Smoking Gun. I’m going to start you on page six, where he denounces the “kafir,” talks about stabbing Jews, and blames it all on Israel’s war with Hezbollah.
Update: Page seven: “The garbage going to be shrapnel.”
Update: Bottom of page eight — they claim he made a video will in anticipation of martyrdom.
Update: They’re having a press conference now. The lead agent says he planned the attack for December 22nd, the Friday before Christmas, because that’s when he figured the mall would be most crowded.
Update: More from the presser. He was a convert to Islam and was influenced by jihadist websites.
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Where are those jihadist websites that this guy found so influential?
dapro on December 8, 2006 at 6:26 PM
Shep(weenie) Smith and Centanni , on FOX, just glossed over the granade terrorist quoting FBI, or ?, ‘he had no money so he had to be working alone, no help from ‘overseas’.
What’s up with these chickensh*ts?
shooter on December 8, 2006 at 7:23 PM
BUT, it is a FEDERAL CRIME to write or say you’re going to assassinate the President.
The artist that drew his ‘likeness’ while said terrorist was in court today sure made it look like he’s a black man …with a beard of course.
shooter on December 8, 2006 at 7:42 PM
To All the folks commenting about bombing Mecca:
It is meant to say that the only good Muslim is one who isn’t with us any longer. Therefore, he can commit no violence. After all, Islam the the religion of LOVE AND PEACE. s/
Why is anyone surprised that this Rockford bomb threat is a Muslim. Beware of them all. They want to kill all of us.
Maybe some day the libs will understand that.
bjb on December 8, 2006 at 7:42 PM
Gee, and I thought Islam was a religion of peace.
Sure had me fooled. /Sarcasm
Don’t worry Shareef, CAIR will come to your aid.
and the ACLU will take your case pro bono. /More Sarcasm
byteshredder on December 8, 2006 at 7:43 PM
Notice they always want to target malls in the suburbs; afraid there might be too many packing in the big city malls. I would warn any potential jihadists out there that here- in Texas- there are plenty of people making use of the concealed carry law; even in the suburbs. And we will put you down quick.
Mike O on December 8, 2006 at 9:00 PM
Radical Muslims will continue with this behavior; this revolutionary idealism that will never work - i.e. they will continue to PWN their own… by USA proxy…
: )
Sit back and enjoy the ride, I suppose…
Even if they off 250,000 Americans with one lucky strike or if they get off 1 dirty bomb… PWN-age for Muslims worldwide will continue.
ar_basin on December 8, 2006 at 11:01 PM
Sadly
ar_basin on December 8, 2006 at 11:01 PM
Sounds like another “isolated incident” to me. What? Have there been like, 3,496 isolated incidents this year or what?
What a coincidence!
We’re at war with islamists. He’s an islamists dressed like a civilian. Hang him as a spy. Nuff said.
Mojave Mark on December 8, 2006 at 11:42 PM
Just catching the reairing of H&C because I missed the beginning earlier, and boy is Colmes desperate to try to downplay this. One of those rare times when Alan seems as bad as the rest of his crew and you’re just watching like “how stupid can you be?”….. B-b-but he wasn’t funded… b-b-but they said he never posed a threat. B-b-b-ut he never had the weapons. THAT’S BECAUSE THERE WASN’T AN INFORMANT! I hate to go all Smokey Bear on you but “only YOU can prevent terrorist attacks”, the government ain’t gonna do it.
And by the way, they’re showing courtroom sketches and I believe I can confirm my initial theory that he is a black man, and contrary to the quotes in the affidavit he wasn’t saying “ni**ers” all the time, as a racist statement towards blacks, he was likely saying “ni**as”, in reference to any people, the way younger generations of ebonics speaking black youths do.
By the way, I still see nothing at Kos, but this headline at HuffPo (don’t think I need to explain the numerous things annoying about it)
RightWinged on December 9, 2006 at 12:10 AM
lol, a HuffPo commenter blames the FBI for this:
more idiocy
Another blames it on a town that just drives people looney:
and this logic:
and
Remember folks… just because these people are retards, doesn’t stop them from voting. I don’t know how you counter these people when the media creates more every day, but don’t ever forget that we need to cancel the votes out of millions of these people.
RightWinged on December 9, 2006 at 12:17 AM
Hey R.W., it’s pretty scary, huh? All we need is 51 percent of the voting public to think like the morons you qouted and it’s all over. They actually think that if we give up Israel the jihadis will all of a sudden love us and stop tryin’ to kill us. They have no clue about what islam is and how it spreads. They refuse to believe that the jihadis wanna take over the entire world, like the plot of a bad James Bond movie.
This mall bomber clown was just a victim of an oppressive society. Hey, Shareef, pack your bags and move to the Sudan. Wait’ll ya see how you’re treated THERE by your fellow mooosleems.
Tony737 on December 9, 2006 at 8:48 AM
Ah, looks like we’ve found some winners for biggest HuffPo idiots of the day (again, keep in mind, THESE PEOPLE ARE THE BASE OF THE PARTY COMING IN TO POWER. IT IS THEIR VOTES THAT GOT US WHERE WE ARE)
Having been to cherryvale, I say “oh the humanity”.
What is the follow up on the liquid or shampoo bombers, or the guys in florida or so many of these cases where nothing was actually done? Sure it is good to stop them, but it always seems to be some absurd plan with little chance of happening. They are always muslim though. I was hoping to hear about fitzgerald regarding serious anti-american activities, such as undermining CIA attempts to stop real weapons of mass destruction. Rove is still free from his obvious involvement in the plame outing.
The right wing trolls will be quick to slander, but these stories never seem to amount to much. It has been amusing to note, that so many of the trolls have slithered away recently, nothing like reality and democracy to send them away.
I am not muslim, but if I said I wanted to take out the Denver broncos at a game with a RPG and was willing to trade a playstation for RPGs, would that make me a terrorist or just some nut?
Also, thinking critically and knowing physics, the reality of 9/11 blows up much of the reasoning of the ‘war on terror’.
By: wtf on December 09, 2006 at 03:17am
RightWinged on December 9, 2006 at 9:52 AM
crap, screwed up the quotes:
and
RightWinged on December 9, 2006 at 9:53 AM
screwed up quotes.. hopefully revised comment will show up shortly (lil’ help?)
RightWinged on December 9, 2006 at 9:53 AM
(actually AP or Bryan or Ian, I’d appreciate if you could just delete that 9:52 AM comment, because I don’t want there to be any confusion about what I’m saying and what the deranged liberal said, especially as it pertains to his hypothetical. FOLKS THAT’S A DERANGED HUFFPO COMMENTER - NOT ME)
RightWinged on December 9, 2006 at 9:57 AM
…well…didn’t see it…trying, for blood pressure’s sake, not to watch *EVERY* outrage on common decency and simple logic.
Puritan1648 on December 9, 2006 at 11:02 AM
From remarks echoed here by RightWinged (and, thank you, RW)
…to which RW adds (I think rightly):
…people actually *BELIEVE* that crap!
“Get over it, nobody lives forever.”!!! Copious thank yous from an old fart to a generation raised in a fat country in comfortable homes on video-game mayhem and casual cinematic violence. It’s easy to be dismissive of the sufferings of others — *YOUR OWN COUNTRYMEN* — going about innocent seasonal activities if you’re like I was when I was *FIVE YEARS OLD*…I used to think that getting shot meant that you grabbed your arm and fell down, and you were out of the game…then someone called another game and you came back to life.
…these b*stards haven’t had to do anything the least bit challenging in their lives, and the sufferings of others are only inconveniently theoretical to them. They don’t see that, with a *VERY* little effort — the sort they like to expend — we can actually *STOP* these maniacs and their thwart their inhuman designs.
..then, of course, the news would be boring, and we can’t have that, can we….
The guy who posted “you don’t see them launching all out assaults on anyone remotely connected with the people who persecuted them” hasn’t been reading the papers for the last five years, obviously. Yes, the US suffered. By that, it means that this zero — I’m asuming that he’s an American, as he has the casually dismissive attitude of a pampered American Leftist housecat, over-educated and under-experienced — has neighbors who may have suffered in 9/11, and *COULD* have more neighbors who suffer in subsequent 9/11’s.
That *ANYONE* would fail to be outraged by some Islamist bozo — of *WHATEVER* color or stripe — planning to frag Christmas shoppers only goes to show you how it was that Gore or Kerry even got *CLOSE* to being elected, and how the Dems recently won control of the national legislature: our electorate is lazy, ill-informed, indoctrinated but not very well educated, and — in some signal cases — suicidal.
I’m sure, as I’m certain all here are, that had Mr. Shareef actually overcome his intellectual and personal faults as a carbon-based life form and actually accomplished his foul purposes, we’d've all been treated to more rampant BDS sounding like “How come you didn’t prevent *THIS* attack?!?” As it is, it will go as under-reported as the Florida conspiracy, and I’m waiting for the race-huckster industry to be heard from.
We *SHOULD* be very closely monitoring the Nation Of Islam…and CAIR…and all those little walking landmines in Dearborn…and *ANYONE* who would even *THINK* of this sort of thing…and we should be encouraging people to rat out their friends who even suggest that they’re thinking of this sort of thing.
Decency is dead in America…because the concept of objective right and wrong are dead in America. Everybody’s just trying to “beat the system”.
Puritan1648 on December 9, 2006 at 11:28 AM
Well said!
How ironic.
This kind of argument - that we can’t defend ourselves or even speak up about a problem because we haven’t “suffered enough” - is typical enough. It comes from the usual place, the idea that moral authority is accrued through suffering or bad acts perpetrated against them on either an individual or a “collective” basis (where collective is defined in the eye of the beholder).
But what’s ironic is, for those who think we haven’t suffered enough, for those who think our comparative degree of suffering is so insignificant, so worthy of contempt, they sure seem overly determined to avoid any more of it.
(”Let’s see: maybe if we throw Israel to the wolves, they’ll stop coming after us…”)
RD on December 9, 2006 at 12:45 PM
Not that he’ll ever see it, but to the HuffPo nitwit who mentioned OK City, McVeigh didn’t do that I the name of Christ, and Christians deplore his act of terror. Your mallbomber, had he carried through, would’ve been doing it in the name of Allah and millions of muslims (and lefty socialists) would’ve cheered for him. Wake up, next time, a moosleeem terrorist might just target your precious freakin’ Starbucks … while you’re IN IT.
Tony737 on December 9, 2006 at 12:55 PM
[linyguy]
I agree with your impulse to keep the dangerous rhetoric to a minimum, but I did want to point out:
Nuke Mecca = may be bad
genocide of Muslims = may be bad BUT
Nuke Mecca NOT= genocide of Muslims.
Nuking Mecca is no more genocide of Muslims than nuking the Vatican is genocide of Christians, even if done during a particularly busy Hajj-frenzy.
Nor is it even genocide of Sunni Arabs, though it might constitute genocide of the Quraish or some other tribe indigenous to the immediately surrounding area.
I wanted to mention this because some on this board defend Tom Tancredo, and we know Tancredo has suggested that threatening Mecca with mutually assured destruction by a thermonuclear device is not off the table. And, though that comment might rightly be associated with excessive alarmism, I don’t think it deserves to be equated with genocide.
I would equate it more with the destruction of Dresden and Berlin, than with something like Rwanda or Darfur, let alone the ovens at Auschwitz.
On the other hand, the nuking of all Israeli cities by Armadillo-jawed would qualify as genocide in my book since there are so few Jews left in the world - the Jews of Israel come awfully close to half of all Jews left worldwide - and the Jewish population in the area is so closely jammed together.
Fair enough?
Me neither. Something quoted from HuffPo by RightWinged seems appropriate here:
Yes. Didn’t see any comments from any of the usual trolls on this thread until someone else stepped out of line; so it looks like they’re relegated to policing actions. Which is fine, as long as they don’t use it to extrapolate nonsense…
No, but this was only possible because we had utterly defeated and destroyed the ideology of Nazism. How does one propose to defeat and destroy the equivalent ideology that fuels both terrorism and the peaceful jihads (demographic, Sharia agitation, etc.)? Assuming one can even identify the enemy by name?
And how to do that when the leader of the movement - in this case, the prophet Muhammad - is no longer alive to defeat in battle? (For surely there would be no Koran, and no Islam today, if his cult had been put out of business back in the day.)
Some argue there is an analogy to the mythical protection afforded the Ka’aba by Allah, The One, which claims that not even a nuclear device is capable of destroying it because it is protected by Allah himself:
That this House, the kaaba, throughout time was under the protection of Allah, even when armies marched with elephants against it and the people fled to the hills, their fleeing was done with the understanding that Allah would protect His city, and protect He did.
RD on December 9, 2006 at 1:47 PM
[RD] Some argue there is an analogy to the mythical protection afforded the Ka’aba by Allah, The One, which claims that not even a nuclear device is capable of destroying it because it is protected by Allah himself…
And they are as sure of that as they are that you & I are the sons/daughters of apes and pigs, and that their pedophile-in-chief was a role model for human behavior.
As am I. I am equally as [un]sure of the one as I am of the others…
RD on December 9, 2006 at 2:16 PM
In another thread about Saudis giving money to terrorists the following was said:
Check the thread if you like but what was more disturbing were responses from posters when a couple of posters objected to this.
As I have mentioned before reasoning with people who fall in the 60% political middle is not helped when this is entertained in any sense. If that is really your beliefs I don’t want to be associated with you.
Like Lemmings running off a cliff this type of rhetoric and defense of it makes you (if the shoe fits, wear it and be appropriately offended I don’t care) sound more and more like the nut jobs on the far left.
Bradky on December 9, 2006 at 3:30 PM
…an idea just occured to me:
Why don’t we start hiring and dispatching collectors to begin gathering in all of the money lost to this nation through the non-payment by default of student loans. We can pay these fellas 10% of what they collect, and leave it up to them what means they use to collect.
…and, we pay this new “found money” — millions yearly — two a fund to help indigent American muslims make the Haj, and for citizenship education to help immigrant muslims. We can also send some bucks to help the poor of the West Bank and Gaza (stopping any appropriations we have going there now through normal overseas aid, you understand).
That way, maybe, some of these morally relativist bloggers might finally think that they’ve got a stake in the War on Islamist Terror.
…and, if a number of the collectors were themselves muslims, all the better. Turn muslims from being the “eternal victim” to someone in contention for these morons’ bucks!
Imagine how all the bozos out there, pursuing all of those theoretical and utterly unmarketable degrees on their way to law school or public television, would like having to actually pony up every penny…oh…and on-time, as you then hire guys to ensure that the payment process goes smoothly…mustn’t stint in supporting those poor jihadis.
…maybe we can get AFSCME and NEA to chip in some of their members’ dues…and the PCUSA and Episcopal and UCC churches, all worried about that wall the Israelis want to build, can put up (or shut up) from their tithe-based operationg budgets.
…I’m all for equity and social justice…I even believe that it can be profitable….
Puritan1648 on December 9, 2006 at 4:39 PM
:-)
RD on December 10, 2006 at 12:07 AM
[Bradky]
Okay - I just did. Last comment posted December 8 at 2:35 PM. Here’s what I saw:
. Only ONE poster - you - objected to that suggestion from CyberCipher.
. Only ONE poster - CyberCipher, the author you challenged - responded to your objection.
That’s actually good news on the question “should we be alarmed?”. Since no one else responded, positively OR negatively, to your objection, the whole episode falls into the “predictable and to be expected” bucket (unless you think it’s somehow unusual for the poster to respond personally after you engage him/her in debate).
The only other post attacking violence in general was the one-line bait “Violence is the answer to all our problems.” As you notice, that bait did not challenge CyberCipher’s suggestions any more directly than it challenged the other posters’ comments. And if you read carefully, you’ll notice IT was the post people responded to, not yours. I’ve re-read the posts from others attacking the bait, and I couldn’t find even a single comment uttered in support of point 2, 3 or 4 on CyberCipher’s list. (Point 1 - “Gather resolve to address root problem” - is hardly controversial by itself.)
The fact that CyberCipher responded to both you and the bait may appear to merge the two, but it actually doesn’t. Re-read the posts and you’ll have to agree with me that any concern on that front is unwarranted.
So as far as the rest of the commenters go, I think you’re still on good terms. Great terms. The best of terms. Nothing to be concerned about there whatsoever.
RD on December 10, 2006 at 12:07 AM
It might be a useful “motivation” for the “moderate” Muslim leadership to be told, sub rosa, that, should a nuke (or any other WMD of equal killing force) hit any Western city, then Mecca would be given 24 hours to evacuate its citzens, after which the Ka’aaba -and surrounding city- would be vaporized. As their punishment for not having controlled their own jihadist maniacs. Terrorist “heroes” whom they have spawned, funded, lionized, and cheered to that deadly possibility.
The world’s Mohammedans, from the Saudi “princes” to Paki Prez Musharref, need some SERIOUS incentive to “help” prevent our side from losing a million of our people in one eye-ball melting Islamic Bomb flash.
The fear of losing their precious meteorite might do it.
It should at least be discussed as a viable retaliation measure (which is what Tancredo has tried to do) by the West, if only to sow the dread of it in the seats of Islamic governance, from Fez to Jakarta.
And get their secret police forces working to prevent it along with our own.
In the words of Sean Connery (in “The Untouchables”):
“They put one of yours in the hospital, you put one of theirs in the morgue.”
Transposed into Jihad:
“They incinerate one of your cities, you bake their cult’s corrupting core.“
profitsbeard on December 10, 2006 at 1:41 AM
He’s a Muslim. What a surprise. I wonder if he’ll take his oath at the trial on the koran.
Timber Wolf on December 10, 2006 at 1:50 PM
When it is reported that this guy is Black is when we who decry the actions of this terrorist will ALL be cited as being Racists as that is the only thing relevant to the liberal mind.
The day that Chitcago takes a terrorist hit I will not be at all surprised.
DannoJyd on December 10, 2006 at 5:33 PM
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