Terrorism Close To Home

Interesting things happening in the Bay State… for starters, a foiled terrorist plot planned by a Sudbury resident…

A 27-year-old man from Sudbury has been arrested on charges he planned terrorism attacks inside and outside the United States, including a plot to use automatic weapons to open fire at shoppers and emergency responders in shopping malls, federal prosecutors said today.

Tarek Mehanna, of 6 Fairhaven Circle, is accused of conspiring with Ahmad Abousamra and others to obtain the automatic weapons needed to carry out a mall ambush in which they planned to open fire at random, said Acting U.S. Attorney Michael K. Loucks. Mehanna was already out on bail from a federal arrest last year, charged with lying during a terrorism probe.

Mehanna was arrested at his home at 6 a.m. this morning and booked at the Sudbury police station before being turned over to federal authorities. Federal agents have searched Mehanna’s home and say he is a U.S. citizen. A bail hearing has been scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in federal court.

Abousamra left the United States for Syria on Dec. 26, 2006, officials said. He said he would be back within a month after visiting his wife, but has never returned, officials said.

“At this time we don’t believe there are any active terrorist cells in this area,” said FBI special-agent-in-charge Warren T. Bamford.

The plot included plans to fire at emergency responders, but was abandoned because the men could not obtain the weapons, authorities said. They declined to name the mall or malls the men were targeting.

Any how about the kooks in Amherst…

This quaint leafy town in Western Massachusetts is known for its diverse mix of college students and retirees, a former farming community characterized by suburban small talk just as much as cultural institutions. But it is never one to shy from foreign policy, either.

“We like to set our own foreign policy,’’ said Ruth Hooke, a retired University of Massachusetts professor, a Town Meeting member, and participant in Pioneer Valley No More Guantanamos, a local chapter of a national movement calling for the release of detainees imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay.

Hooke and others want to welcome at least two of the detainees to Amherst, population around 30,000 depending on whether classes are in session.

Under a petition Hooke submitted to the town’s Select Board – approved by a 2-1 vote Monday night – the town will call on Congress to rescind its ban on detainees resettling in the United States, and will welcome Ahmed Belbacha, originally from Algeria, and Ravil Mingazov, arrested in Pakistan, to Amherst. The measure will go before a Special Town Meeting on Nov. 2.

Cuba is a long way from Pioneer Valley, but Amherst has tackled foreign policy before, voting in the past against the war in Iraq and for the United States to engage in diplomatic talks with Iran.

Hooke noted that Amherst has a sizable refugee population. And thus it was only natural that this town, home to UMass and two private colleges, would open its borders once again, possibly making its local government the first in the country to debate the issue.

“This is a typical Amherst thing to do,’’ said Jonathan Tucker, the town’s planning director. “Amherst has a long history of engaging in foreign policy, and it’s not out of character for a New England town to believe it has as much a right to weigh in on foreign policy as the federal or state governments.’’

I hope Amherst’s dabbling in foreign policy doesn’t blow up in their face.

Kerry Attacks Bush on Terror Alert System

Senator John Kerry is trying to convince himself and Americans that President Bush used the terror alert system for political purposes in 2004.

Kerry said in an interview with the Herald: “We had red alerts and orange alerts and all these alerts. We haven’t had an alert since the election.”

Republicans immediately attacked the statement, saying Kerry has a misguided viewpoint on the war in Iraq.

“Sen. Kerry’s suggestion that the terror alert system is a political tool provides a unique insight into the fundamental misunderstanding he and Barack Obama have about the threat America faces,” Republican National Committee spokeswoman Blair Latoff said. ‘It is extremely disappointing that there are those who still believe that protecting Americans is a partisan issue.”

Kerry made the comments while discussing the difference between the political climate now and during the 2004 election, when he challenged President Bush.

“The economy I had in ’04 was a pretty good economy, and today it’s obviously down in the dumps, and we were one year into the war in Iraq and I was saying it was wrong, and we had red alerts and orange alerts and all these alerts. We haven’t had an alert since the election,” Kerry said.

“And we’re now six years into the war and everyone sees the handwriting on the wall. So we have a very different mood today. For those who say timing is everything in politics, it is.”

I won’t waste time trying to convince people unwilling to be convinced that Kerry’s suggestion is just plain stupid. However, Senator Kerry should ask himself why it is that increased terror alerts would have helped President Bush instead of himself. Could it be that Americans know that Senator Kerry (or any democratic president for that matter) would be less effective, if not ineffective in executing the War on Terror?

Rep. William Delahunt: Terrorist Sympathizer?

This video (featuring the 10th Congressional District’s own Rep. William Delahunt questioning Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff David Addington) is appalling. If you haven’t seen it yet, it is very telling about the Democrats’ general view on fighting terrorism:

You got that? Addington said he couldn’t discuss what kinds of techniques are being used to interrogate captured terrorists because to do so publicly would give al Qaeda inside knowledge. This point is not contested by Delahunt, but he seems pleased by the idea.

Boston Maggie, one of Delahunt’s constituents, is calling for his censure, and also has other updates to this story.

Even MIT Has Stupid People

When you think of what kind of person gets into MIT, you rightfully assume that said person is pretty smart.

But even MIT has its idiots.

Enter Star Simpson, MIT sophomore, who decided, ‘hey, let me wear something that looks like a bomb and walk into Logan Airport!’

An MIT student will face a judge today after she showed up at Logan International Airport with a wired and lit-up circuit board strapped to her chest.

Star Simpson, 19, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology sophomore, is lucky she cooperated with state police, Massport spokespeople said.

“If she hadn’t done exactly what they told her to do, she’d be lying in a morgue right now instead of sitting in a cell awaiting arraignment,” said spokesman Matthew Brelis.

Simpson claims the device was “a piece of art.”

Simpson, a native of Hawaii who studies electrical engineering and computer science, is to be arraigned in East Boston District Court today.

Simpson showed up in Terminal C at 8 a.m. today wearing a device with lights and wires strapped around her hooded sweatshirt, according to Massport. The device was connected to a hand-held putty device, said Massport spokeswoman Lisa Langone.

The more you learn about Simpson, the more you realize she’s a bit of a kook.

Simpson, who is pictured on her MIT Web site with short black hair and an Army-green tank top, describes herself as “an inventor, artist, engineer and student.”

“I love to build things and I love crazy ideas,” she writes.

Simpson studies computers and how they work and she also works in a student-run machine shop, according to the site.

Before she enrolled at MIT, she traveled the world “saving the planet from evil villains with my delivered-just-in-time gadgets,” according to her site.

I’m sure her parents are really proud.

I won’t debate the seemingly evolving definition of art, but designing a fake bomb and walking into an airport–not mention Logan Airport, the launch point of two of the hijacked 9/11 planes–is not art. It’s not. Suicide perhaps, but not art. You have to be a complete idiot to not only conceive of the idea, but to execute it as well.

I suppose even MIT has stupid people.

Lock her up; we can’t have people that dumb walking around.

Massachusetts Reps Against John Doe

It is a disgrace–but not a surprise–that only one of the Massachusetts Democrats in the House of Representatives voted in favor of all of us “John Does.”

House Republicans yesterday surprised Democrats with a procedural vote to protect public-transportation passengers from being sued if they report suspicious activity — the first step by lawmakers to protect “John Doe” airline travelers already targeted in such a lawsuit.

After a heated debate and calls for order, the motion to recommit the Democrats’ Rail and Public Transportation Security Act of 2007 back to committee with instructions to add the protective language passed on a vote of 304-121.

All 121 of the “no” votes were cast by Democrats, while 199 Republicans and 105 Democrats voted in favor.

And who among our ten representatives voted for protecting “John Doe”? Again, not a surprise, it was Rep. Stephen Lynch representing the 9th District.

As for the rest of them, John Olver, Richard Neal, James McGovern, Barney Frank, Marty Meehan, John Tierney, Ed Markey, Michael Capuano, and Bill Delahunt…thanks for letting us know who you care about more than your constituents.

And go screw.