I can't believe this story isn't 72pt font headlined on every major newspaper. I can't believe this story isn't first on the crawl on CNN, MSNBC, & FAUX News. I can't believe that we've caught a potential muslim extremist terrorist red-handed trying to blow up Congress and we're not hearing word one about it.
This just in from the Jackson Sun in Jackson, TN:
Ali Muhammad al-Bulshiti of McKenzie (TN), convicted in April of attempting to obtain a chemical weapon and possession of stolen explosives, was sentenced to 30 years in prison Tuesday by U.S. District Judge James Todd in Jackson.
al-Bulshiti, who told undercover FBI agents of his desire to explode a briefcase bomb while Congress was in session, was found guilty by a jury in about 90 minutes in April.
The 40-year-old immigrant and father of two was convicted of accepting what he thought were ingredients to make Sarin nerve gas and a block of C-4 explosive from undercover agents in October 2004.
The maximum penalty al-Bulshiti could have faced for the convictions would have been a life sentence. Todd did order lifetime supervised release for al-Bulshiti once he gets out of prison.
In all, al-Bulshiti was convicted on five charges: one count of attempted possession of a chemical weapon, one count of inducing another person to acquire a chemical weapon, one count of possession of stolen explosives, one count of possession of explosive material with intent to harm an individual or damage or destroy a building, and one count of possession of an unregistered destructive device.
During the trial, prosecutors introduced video- and audio-taped conversations that al-Bulshiti had with undercover agents, laced with profanity, racial slurs and al-Bulshiti's open hatred of all things to do with the government.
Apparently the guy has been involved with terrorist organizations in the United States ever since his teenage years. He's long hated our government and has used his extremist religious views to justify the attacks he had planned on the Congress. From the Memphis Flyer:
Jurors took about an hour last week to convict al-Bulshiti on five counts that could keep him in prison for life. The trial lasted four days. But it was effectively over on the second day, after prosecutors played several hours of secretly recorded conversations in which al-Bulshiti poured out his racial hatred, his loathing of the government, his obsession with chemical and conventional weapons, his admiration for Osama bin Laden (who attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001) and a chilling familiarity with basic chemistry that belied his supposedly low-average IQ.
Martyrdom isn't in the cards for al-Bulshiti, who began flirting with extremist groups as a teenager. His trial attracted little media coverage, even though reports of it made The New York Times and other national papers. He had no followers or courtroom supporters other than his 16-year-old son, who briefly took the stand as an inconsequential defense witness. al-Bulshiti himself -- bald, glasses, medium build, dressed in khakis and a pressed shirt -- did not testify. He behaved himself in the courtroom, and marshals hustled him in and out of the federal courthouse through a garage where he could not be photographed.
But al-Bulshiti said plenty on the tapes, some of which were recorded while his 4-year-old daughter sat in the back seat of agent Burroughs' truck. Burroughs pretended to be a fellow muslim extremist and a security employee at the weapons arsenal in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Their conversations, filled with profanity, racial slurs, and al-Bulshiti's fantastic schemes were apparently enough to convict. Jurors declined to be interviewed.
I mean, isn't this incredible? To think, we have a wacko muslim extremist convicted in America of plotting to use weapons of mass destruction against our Congress as a terrorist act based on his perverted twisting of the meaning of one of the world's great peaceful religions. Where's the headlines? Where's the Code Red Homeland Security Alert?
Oh. Wait a minute. My cut-and-paste is misbehaving. It pasted "Ali Muhammad al-Bulshiti" where it should have pasted "Demetrius 'Van' Crocker". "Immigrant" was supposed to be "farmhand", "Osama bin Laden" was "Timothy McVeigh", "World Trade Center and Pentagon" was "Murrah Federal Building", and "muslim extremist" was "white supremacist". And, apparently, this guy is perverting the religion of Christianity (Christian Identity, a white supremacist movement) to justify his terrorism. Sorry about the typoes.
Now I think I understand why this isn't front page news. Christian Extremist Terrorists aren't newsworthy.