7 Replies to “U.S. Army veteran is ARRESTED on charges of ‘conspiring with al Qaeda and plotting to use a weapon of mass destruction’”

1. Since the news media won’t tell us, the surname ‘Harroun’ is Muslim.

2. This is a farce.

   If you get high enough up in the pyramidal hierarchy you can do anything. You can do things that are illegal for everyone else in society. As president, director of the CIA or Secretary of Defense you can support, rebel groups on & off that at times kill American citizens or plan to do so in the future. You can support these same groups when your chance of attaining a greater good is slim to none (& Slim left the room).

   I am for the U.S. overthrowing Assad. We owe him big time. He gave support to Hezbollah that bombed out embassy in Beirut & blew up the Marine barracks. He directly or indirectly supported Al Qaeda in the Al Anbar Province during the Iraq War. He has done everything possible to stick it to us in the U.N.

   Syria losing its’ air or land bridge to Hezbollah & losing its’ Syrian Ally will have significant benefits. It might be worth overthrowing Syria even if it is replaced by the ‘feared’ Islamic Caliphate led by The Muslim Brotherhood, Salafis or someone else. Sure a Caliphate might be worse than the present Iranian threat. But unless we meet the Iranian threat we won’t make it to the morrow to worry about the Caliphate. The Iranians are a threat if they do not start lobbing nukes. Secure in the knowledge that now regional power or the U.S. won’t directly aggress, they can step up assymmetric warfare such as support for terror groups, which will tie up resources and may make us unable to respond to China or Russia. A strong & secure Iran allied to Russia will secure its southern flank.

   The war in Syria is about more than Syria, Hezbollah or Iran. It is about Russian & China using Iran (& North Korea) as stalking horses & catspaws to keep us distracted & weakened.

   A Caliphate may merge. Suleiman united Syria & Egypt & did so long enough to doom Outremer. Sure after Assad falls the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafis, & others may fight. Then again they may not fight all that much. Then what? The Obama administration or any administration will have some goodwill or leverage with 10% or 20% of the rebels. How long will that good will and/or leverage last? Will those rebels last or be swept aside after a short? Will Syria be as friendly to the U.S. after Assad falls as Kabul was to the U.S. 5 years after the Soviets left?

   I dare say I dislike Harroun & may even hate him. But he is basically doing the same thing as a few hundred in the U.S. government are doing. Except he is not providing money, training or gear. He has skin in the game.

   The last part of the farce is the Weapon of Mass Destruction. A grenade? Because it can kill more than 1 person? A grenade could kill maybe 5 or 10 people max. It is just no in the same league a nuke, a biological weapon or 5 or 10 chemical shells. A pistol with a 15 bullet magazine could be considered a WMD by that definition. Or a shotgun that can hold 5 shells. I don;t think we want top go there.

   Just charge him with violating the Boland amendment. Strike that. Just charge him with assisting a terrorist group. But while you are at it maybe you can charge some CIA guys as well.

3. An RPG is a WMD? What did it have a gas grenade on it?

4. The whole order of magnitude thing is lost on go along get along bureaucrats, lawmakers and the left.

   To me an RPG is akin to a crew served weapon that you do not need a vehicle to tow or transport.

   Crew served weapons while devastating & rightly feared or respected by a line infantryman is not a WMD.

   A WMD like a nuke can kill tens of thousands. An RPG shell cannot do that.

   Let me put it this way. This theologically/ philosophically challenged individual (yes I am appropriating the language of the left, its’ euphemisms but they make for great put downs& I greatly dislike this guy) was on jihad because he was bored. I do not think he will ever be a fully functional adult with a live & let live mentality. That said what did he do wrong that the CIA is not doing?

   1. If he would have continued fighting with the non Al Qaeda Free Syrian Army, would they have prosecuted him?

   2. The battlefield is fluid. He ended up with Al Qaeda. Assume he is telling the truth about how he ended up with them? Weapons being provided by the UK, France & U.S. are ending up with Al Qaeda by design or by accident. How is this guy different than the government in effect?

   http://sofrep.com/18625/britam-defense-another-piece-in-syrias-puzzle/

   That said if the jihadis here started shooting stuff up in the U.S., Harroun would put is finger in the wind & gage which way things were going. If he thought the time was opportune for Muslims he would gladly join them and harm atheists, agnostics, Bhuddhist, Jews, & Christians.

   I am glad he is going to jail. But it is not enough.

5. Still not good with this.

   How is this putz drinking alcohol as a Muslim?

   Sure he was on jihad & as such you can break normal Muslims law. But on your way back from Jihad does this give you carte blanche to engage in prostitution & drink alcohol until you arrive safely back home?

6. John there is a Moslem sect in the Balkans that drinks alcohol, the other Moslems don’t consider them Moslems.

7. It’s not a “sect”, it’s just most Bosniaks who drink alcohol (Bosnian Slavic Muslims, also known just as “Muslims”).

   But since the war in the 1990s a few of them don’t drink, wear scarves, etc: http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/05/05/us-muslimwomen-europe-bosnia-idUSL0465833220070505

   As of Syria, almost everyone there smokes (it’s supposedly also “haram”), including most rebels, and you can see a cig in this guy’s mouth too.