Man planned to blow up Ill. mall

[caddis]

CHICAGO - A Muslim convert who talked about his desire to wage jihad against civilians was charged Friday in a plot to set off hand grenades at a shopping mall during the Christmas rush, authorities said.


Investigators said Derrick Shareef, 22, an American citizen from Rockford, was acting alone and never actually obtained any grenades. He was arrested Wednesday when he met with an undercover agent in a parking lot to trade a set of stereo speakers for four hand grenades and a gun, authorities said.

"He fixed on a day of December 22nd on Friday ... because it was the Friday before Christmas and thought that would be the highest concentration of shoppers that he could kill and injure," said Robert Grant, the agent in charge of the Chicago FBI office.

*EDIT*...Link

Another muslim....go figger. At least they reported that correctly

I wonder if that shopping mall is considered a military target?

[86Dude]

To be perfectly honest it's not the muslims I worry about, it's the converts and impressionable youth being brainwashed by radical imams.

Dumbass should have made his own bombs. Bombs are easily made.

[igofast]

Caddis, you forgot the link to the rest of the story.

Glad the found/caught the guy.

[86Dude]

So much for the naysayers that say there is no domestic danger, right Guido?

[Guido]

Originally Posted by 86Dude

So much for the naysayers that say there is no domestic danger, right Guido?

Right. I wish someone would blow up some of the malls where I live.

[caddis]

I wonder what we did as American's to cause this? It must be our fault. Did we invade this guys hood? Did someone try to force American style democracy on this disgruntled American?

[Mystlet]

As long as it's a Walmart, it's forgivable.

[boedicca]

What I really love about this news story is that if the person had been of a different demographic group, the headline would have read:

- Anti-Abortion Extremist....

- White Supremacist...

- Fundamental Christian Activist...

The Muslim identity is germane to the story; the headline should have reflected such.

[flaming_liberal]

Everyone assumes terrorist=muslim extremist.
When it's contrary to the stereotype, it's much more newsworthy.
Duh.

[EMTrue]

...should've known it was a setup- 2 speakers for grenades and a gun?! Palease!

[Monster]

Originally Posted by boedicca

What I really love about this news story is that if the person had been of a different demographic group, the headline would have read:

- Anti-Abortion Extremist....

- White Supremacist...

- Fundamental Christian Activist...

The Muslim identity is germane to the story; the headline should have reflected such.

You also have to take into account that ideology is a War of Words. If we refer to them as terrorists, they are able to further their cause by citing their ability to successfully terrorize us. If we refer to them as extremists, they only gain strength by demonizing the West.

If we refer to them as men, and take away their notoriety and their fame, they lose their martyrdom.

[TheLateGreat]

What if we call them late to dinner?



I slay me.

[Pappy&Me]

Originally Posted by EMTrue

...should've known it was a setup- 2 speakers for grenades and a gun?! Palease!

Nobody said he was a smart mussy, just that he wanted some sheep blood from the mall .

[Corporate Avenger]

OMG! The Police stopped a terrorist? Impossible!!! Only carpet bombing of the city of Chicago could stop a terrorist!!

[zipper99]

" A Muslim convert who talked about his desire to wage jihad against civilians...Investigators said Derrick Shareef, 22, an American citizen from Rockford, was acting alone and never actually obtained any grenades. He was arrested Wednesday when he met with an undercover agent in a parking lot to trade a set of stereo speakers for four hand grenades and a gun"
--------------------------

So what we basically have here is a young American convert mouthing off and the cops setting him up in a sting operation.

Our old friend MV has posted her several times his sincere belief that Europe and Commies are behind every bad thing that happens, let's suppose a cop latches on to this, encourages MV by saying he has access to explosives and that a visiting party of European Commies in in town. They arrest MV as part of the sting - but what's actually going on? This reads like a classic entrapment situation, talk is cheap, you can hear rednecks spouting off about killing all Muslims, if we started stinging some of them the jails would soon be full.

I'm just saying, let's not rush to judgement...

[caddis]

^ lol

[orangikan]

These wannabe stings are trotted out to make the FBI look as if they're on the ball.

[86Dude]

Originally Posted by myst

As long as it's a Walmart, it's forgivable.

Did you just give the nod to terrorism against wal-mart? Shame shame. All those little kids in the toy section getting blown to bits. The door greeter with 2 purple hearts on his ball cap is toast too. Bummer.

[Shadoglare]

As it happens, I live literally about 2 miles down the road from that mall. And it's not in Chicago, BTW - it's about 2 hours away from Chicago in Rockford.
This of course freaked many people out when we all heard on the radio/CNN/etc that our mall which we pretty much consider insignificant was the target of a "terrorist threat."
However at the same time I really wonder about the brains on this guy - first off, how likely is it you can get four hand grenades and a pistol in exchange for just a couple of stereo speakers?
Secondly, we are like 90 minutes from a large number of much more impressive targets - what... he wanted to be a terrorist, but wasn't dedicated enough to want to drive more than an hour to do it? Yeesh.