AQ recruiter: What if we smuggled four pounds of anthrax across the Mexican border?

This clip’s been making the rounds for months but I didn’t post it simply because it’s often hard to tell meaningful jihadist threats from anti-American embellishments to the local Friday sermon. This one’s so chilling, though, that the Washington Times decided to ask around. Verdict: Meaningful.

A U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said al-Nafisi is a “person of interest” and a veteran recruiter for al Qaeda. Misidentified on some blog sites as a professor, he is a Kuwaiti dissident and al Qaeda associate who is thought to have communicated with senior al Qaeda leaders in recent years, the counterterrorism official said. The recruiter is also said to have close ties to Mullah Mohammed Omar, the senior Afghan Taliban leader now thought to be in Pakistan.

Al-Nafisi “is a significant ideological player in terrorist circles, and that makes him dangerous because he can inspire his followers to do extremely bad things,” the official said…

“It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that terrorist organizations would utilize the border to enter the U.S.,” said a DEA official who also asked not to be named because of his involvement in ongoing intelligence operations. “We can’t ignore any threat or detail when it comes to al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations bent on attacking the U.S.”

It shouldn’t surprise anyone, but it’s received wisdom among immigration activists that the terror threat from Mexico’s side of the border is disingenuously inflated by the right to justify border enforcement. Here too, I guess, we see the difference between preemption and waiting for an attack to happen before taking appropriate measures. Note the death toll estimated by this turd, leering all the while. Some difference.

On a related note, if you missed Ace’s post about the media’s transparent double standard on the Bin Laden tape released today, make amends. It’s remarkable how sincere Osama’s grievances against America were when Bush was president and how instantly insincere they are now. All part of the Hopenchange magic.

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