POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

Christmas Bomb Plotters Update

From John at Power Line:

Yesterday the Obama administration's top anti-terrorism officials--Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, chief counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano--gave an interview to ABC's Diane Sawyer on the current state of the terrorist threat. The interview has aired, or will air, today; you can watch it here.

The questions and answers are unremarkable, except that there is a surreal moment near the end of the interview, when it becomes apparent that DNI Clapper was unaware that twelve would-be terrorists were arrested in Great Britain yesterday. Brennan jumped in to help him out, but Sawyer came back to the question later, and Clapper admitted that he hadn't heard about the arrests.

This was one of those outer space moments that are hard to fathom. The arrests were widely reported. I knew about them; Diane Sawyer knew about them; you likely did, too. Is it conceivable that the Director of National Intelligence doesn't get a daily briefing? Or that he is not briefed on likely questions before giving a network television interview? Apparently so.

Certainly makes me feel cozy.

Today, further information on the dozen would-be terrorists. A neighbor from Cardiff, Wales, states that the lads were sent to jail on relatively minor charges, mostly for various kinds of pilferage that might lead to one's hand being chopped off in Sharia territory. While in prison, they were radicalized by an imam who tended to their spiritual needs, and after their release by an imam who had also served his stint.

The local mosques claim that they were refused the use of on-site facilities to engage others in their plotting, though they eventually gathered about 30 people at a council facility in their quest to recruit more people to their alleged plot. Whether they were fingered by the local imams or not is unclear.

What is clear, though, is that leftists will use this episode, not to argue that those licensed to provide spiritual succour to inmates should be well vetted, but that young Muslims oughtn't be sent to prison for relatively "minor" offenses, because they are likely to become radicalized there. No, instead they should be subject to Sharia tribunals, because they will take full responsibility for the behavior of the accused.

Yawn. Hooters.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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