Imagine synagogues in the leafy Riverdale section of the Bronx going up in fireballs simultaneously. Further imagine, in a coordinated attack, a Stinger-style surface-to-air missile taking out a massive, four-engine U.S. Air Force C5-Galaxy cargo plane as it takes off from Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York.
In its audacity and focused intent, such an operation might have been more devastating than the 9/11 attacks. In 2001, financial and military nerve centers were targeted. The attack foiled this week chose Jewish meeting places and the Pentagon's largest airlifter taking equipment to U.S. forces directly fighting terrorists abroad.
Would it matter if the bombers hadn't taken direct orders from al-Qaida operatives in their mountain caves bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan? Al-Qaida supporters would still have celebrated. It would still have been viewed as part of the global jihad.
The leader of the group of four alleged plotters, James Cromitie — bearing the alias "Abdul Rahman" — is the son of an Afghan immigrant. Another, Laguerre Payen, comes originally from Haiti.
Cromitie apparently told an FBI informant of his hatred for Jews, saying, "I would like to get a synagogue."
There's nothing "homegrown" or "made in the USA" about this murderous fanaticism; it is 100% foreign-inspired.
Cromitie was apparently seeking revenge for the continued U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan.
The FBI's contact infiltrated the group by claiming to be with Pakistan's "Jaish-e-Mohammed," a major mujahedeen organization seeking to separate Kashmir from India, and with ties to al-Qaida.
It's all in line with previous foiled terror attacks. The plot against the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey involved a Jordanian-born taxi driver, a Turkish-born convenience store clerk and Albanian brothers from Yugoslavia.
The 2007 Kennedy Airport plot involved alleged Islamist extremists from Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago. And a Pakistani immigrant tried to bomb a subway station as the 2004 Republican Convention convened in New York City.
With the FBI onto it a year ago, this latest plot was obviously begun and formulated under the homeland security regime of the Bush administration. Today, would-be terrorists are still on the defensive. But they might be a lot more on the defensive if we were more careful about letting terrorists relocate to America.
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