Jihadist War May be Ramping-Up Against America’s Homeland

W. Thomas Smith, Jr.

In the wake of several recent arrests of Jihadists across North America
as well as the Obama administration’s insistence on renaming the very real global war on terror as simply a “transnational challenge,” U.S. Congresswoman Sue Myrick (R.-NC) is connecting the dots in a commonsensical show-don’t-tell approach to fact: Why this asymmetrical war by the Jihadists against us is every bit a full-blown war and not some politically diluted “challenge.”

According to Myrick, though there may be no current evidence materially connecting any of the recently revealed terror plots, FBI investigative documents and press releases, clearly indicate a coordinated effort by the enemy based on a single objective.

“These plots are all tied together by one thing: a global ideology that is self-identified by its believers as jihadist, or ‘jihadiyya,’” says Myrick in a published statement, last week. “It is hard to ignore this fact when in these cases below several of these men very clearly, and very directly, state that they followed this ideology (jihad), and wanted to kill.”

Myrick adds, “I find this connection disturbing seeing as these plots come on the heels of the Administration's efforts to rename ‘jihadists’ – which is what they [the terrorists] call themselves – ‘violent extremists.’” [See letter from Myrick to Barack Obama, Sept. 10, 2009.]

The cases Myrick points to include:


* FBI Arrests Jordanian Citizen for Attempting to Bomb Skyscraper in Downtown Dallas:
“Smadi made clear his intention to serve as a soldier for Usama Bin Laden and al Qaeda, and to conduct violent jihad.”



* Illinois Man Arrested in Plot to Bomb Courthouse and Murder Federal Employees:
“…Finton expressed his desire to receive military training and to travel to Gaza or other overseas locations to become a jihadist fighter.”



* NC Boyd Case—New Charges…Possible Target was Marine Corps Base Quantico:
“According to the indictment, during the period from 1989 through 1992, Daniel Boyd traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan where he received military-style training in terrorist training camps for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad.”



* NY Transit Terror Case- indictment handed down- conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction—explosive bombs—in the United States:
Zazi has told FBI investigators that he “attended courses at an al Qaeda training facility” while in Pakistan.



* Brooklyn Resident Indicted for the Conspiracy to Commit Murder Overseas and Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Terrorists:
“According to the indictment and other documents filed by the government, in early January 2009, Kaziu devised a plan to travel abroad for the purpose of joining a radical foreign fighter group and to take up arms against perceived enemies of Islam.”


Dr. Walid Phares, an international terrorism expert, echoes Myrick’s concerns in a piece, this week, “Warning: The Jihadists are Mushrooming Inside America”:

According to Phares, “The immediate question raised by an increasingly worried public is the connection between these terror cases. While law enforcement and judicial authorities proceed in a bottom-up reasoning, that is to build the case for a global connection between what is happening with the help of legal evidence, counterterrorism and conflict analysts are already understanding what is happening inside America.”

Rep. Myrick, who serves on the serve on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (which has jurisdiction over the U.S. Intelligence community, including intelligence-related activities of the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, other agencies of the Department of Defense, and the Departments of State, Justice, and Treasury), is the founder of the 120-member Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus.