I can understand how the terrorists might get in. I was
at Fort Huachuca in ‘70 and was robbed by 4 thugs in an
enlisted mans restroom for my last 5 bucks. I don’t know if they were Muslim however.
gary on November 26, 2007 at 5:49 PM

Did they have short hair and long beards? How about a CAIR T-shirt?

Too much to do to provide a full post today, but I wanted to link to some stories of interest, leading off with the (nonexistent) plot to attack Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The Washington Times first broke the story: Fort Huachuca,…

Check out “The Teeth Of The Tiger” by Tom Clancy…

After all, a plotline of his inspired/mirrored an earlier terrorist attack.

Frozen Tex on November 26, 2007 at 1:11 PM

Good book. And when I read it, I wondered why terrorists never did exactly what Clancy suggested. (Of course, in an earlier novel he also suggested flying planes into buildings …)

But I think it goes back to my last post: such attacks don’t appeal to the fanatical need for symbolism. It’s not enough to create mass death or chaos. It has to be symbolic. Spectacularly symbolic.

It has to mean something to them. Attacking the Galleria or Joe’s Crab Shack just doesn’t cut it for them.

Which is a very good thing. Can you remember the weeks of the DC sniper hunt? Or the anthrax attacks? They proved just how easy it is to have massive impact, with limited risk, and only a handful of participants. A single trained sniper, operating simultaneously in a dozen major cities, could cripple our economy.

Or just one whack job with lots of anthrax and a couple rolls of stamps.

But for whatever loony reason, thinking like that just doesn’t appeal to them. Wasted attacks on the Pentagon or targeting centers of economic power … or suicide attacks on U.S. military bases … is more their speed. They haven’t figured out what they could do, if they wanted to.

Yet.

Riddle me this: Why would 60 terrorists, having successfully infiltrated and armed themselves to the teeth with high explosives, waste their efforts in an assault on a fort?

Pure symbolism.

Attacking an American military base on American soil would be an enormous propaganda victory. Or at least they would think so. And it probably would be perceived that way amongst Al-Queda’s target recruiting population.

This hypothetical attack strikes me as representing exactly the way these people think.

You’re applying logic and reason to the illogical and irrational. To them, symbolism always matters more than results.

If they cared about results, a couple dozen Beslan-style school shootings all on the same day would be effective and relatively easy to accomplish.

But they’ll never do it. It’s all about the symbols. Just like the Pentagon and WTC.

God help us if they ever start thinking as clearly as you, and start prioritizing actual results.

Would those 60 people want to attack an American Military/Intelligence training facility? Yeah, Seeing as how a few cought bad guys planned an attack in Jersey.

Recently, a local TV station up here in New England documented an investigator carrying nuclear material back and forth across the border many many times.

The report was issued in May. What have our jihadi friends been up to since then?

Probably taking Engineering classes at the University of South Florida.

Still, I’m sure there is a shred of thruth in there somewhere. Maybe 6 guys with handguns were smuggled across by a guy who knows a guy, who has a brother in a drug cartel. Maybe there is drug-runner startup that is looking for new capital/weapons, although 1.2 million seems a bit low.

It’s probably unlikely, unless there have been some conversions to Islam. Maybe the Islamists are teaching the drug scum some new terror tactics, new ways to carry out beheadings.

Either that, or they think that we are just so weak (politically) on the border issue that even something like this won’t put a dent in their trade.

Forget Hollywood. Troops do not go around with loaded weapons 24/7.

LakeRuins on November 26, 2007 at 1:31 PM

SHHHH!

Military plates/bumper stickers keep pinheads who don’t know this from acting stupid with me in traffic.

Yeah, I don’t think that happened, either.

HOWEVER, I agree with Allahpundit that this sounds a little far-fetched. It sounds too much like the crazy stories the Iraqis tell.

Carefull, at midnight tonight 107.5 Iraqi ninjas in black clothes will attack the compound with laser guns and 25 T-90 tanks! Their goal is the capture of that product you call, “deodorant”, from your PX.

According to the DEA, the sub-source identified Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel as the drug lords who would assist the terrorists in their plot.

This led the DEA to caution the FBI that its information may be a Gulf Cartel plant to bring the U.S. military in against its main rival. The Sinaloa and Gulf cartels have fought bloody battles along the border for control of shipping routes into the U.S.

Unless and until some of these guys are actually arrested, I think that’s the most likely explanation.

now, if this were real, I can see smuggling the heavy weaponry in instead of buying it, though. I don’t think there are a lot of American arms dealers ready to deliver off-the-books RPG’s to dodgy Afghanis and Iraqis. There’s a fair amount of weapons traffic going south, but probably not as much as the media likes to tell you. I suspect a lot of it comes from other former communist (or currently communist) sources.

Forget Hollywood. Troops do not go around with loaded weapons 24/7.

LakeRuins on November 26, 2007 at 1:31 PM

Even in RVN most troops, when on base, most of the time, were not armed.

… and the anti-tank missiles could be giant pointy rocks.

Bring it on. Our troops are waiting.

fogw on November 26, 2007 at 1:24 PM

Yes, but so are our imbecilic liberals, the difference is the libs are waiting with open arms…the troops are waiting with loaded arms…

Bring it on. Our troops are waiting.

fogw on November 26, 2007 at 1:24 PM

Two-four fire mission.
Battery adjust.

According to the source who spoke with DEA intelligence agents, the weapons included two Milan anti-tank missiles, Soviet-made surface-to-air missiles, grenade launchers, long guns and handguns.

“FBI Comment: The surface-to-air missiles may in fact be RPGs,” the advisory stated.

… and the anti-tank missiles could be giant pointy rocks.

Bring it on. Our troops are waiting.

The Debka analogy seems about right to me. Rumor=newsflash…DEA/FBI is going to check up on it even if they think it was bogus in a CYA move.