Media Circus: police could have arrested the man sooner; they took part in his suspected terrorist act.
By Tim King
(PORTLAND, Ore.) – An alleged plot to detonate a bomb at the Pioneer Square Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony in Portland Friday was foiled by FBI agents and Portland Police officers. A close examination of the facts raises concerns that the story is simply conditioning to prepare Americans for more military conflict in the Middle east.
Vehicle based IED’s (Improvised Explosive Device) are known in Iraq and Afghanistan as ‘VBID’s’ and they are among the deadliest bombs. The VBID can be maneuvered into very busy areas before being blown up; they are a frightening thought.
Portland Police Bureau Chief Michael Reese stated, “This threat was very real but at no point was the public ever in danger. The cooperation of various law enforcement agencies was critical in making this case. I appreciate the partnership we have with the FBI and I’m very proud of the Portland Police Bureau’s role in this investigation. The Portland Police Bureau works to maintain the highest level of safety for our community and this case stands as an example of our commitment to the people we serve.”
That sure sounds reassuring, but I wouldn’t take it to the bank. Like recent similar stories, the ‘official’ account is missing a few key ingredients. Yet it makes great reading for the average citizen who believes there are dangerous ‘Muslims’ lurking around the corners of their living room.
It has all of the catch phrases:
- The suspect’s name is “Mohamed”.
- He allegedly yelled “Allah Akbar” when arrested.
- He supposedly has links to Al Qaeda.
- Evidence is sealed and the investigation will never reveal many details.
- The FBI informant doesn’t use their name.
- Interestingly, the alleged crime never involved any danger to the public.
The suspect is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Somalia. 19-year old Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a resident of Corvallis, Oregon, was arrested Friday in connection with the alleged plan to detonate a vehicle bomb at the Christmas tree lighting event.
Police say Mohamud attempted to remotely detonate what were “believed to be” explosives in a van that was parked near the Christmas tree lighting ceremony. The device was in fact inert and the public was never at risk, police say.
I have been reading other accounts of this event and it is clear that the anti-Muslim lobby in the US scored big with this story.
FOX News doesn’t hold back at all, stating:
“Attorney General Eric Holder said the indictments reflect a disturbing trend of recruitment efforts targeting U.S. residents to become terrorists.”FOX follows that with…
“Officials have been working with Muslim community leaders across the United States, particularly in Somali diasporas in Minnesota, trying to combat the radicalization.” [1]
Wow, millions believe it is sort of “radical” for Americans to support Israel’s continual brutal occupation and genocide in Palestine. Yes, downright radical to support an apartheid government that grinds people up and spits them out without ever stepping out of the victim role that truly belongs to a past generation.
It amounts to a slew of attention on Islam and enforcing the same paranoia that has swept this nation since 2001 when Saudi Arabian terrorists allegedly boarded airplanes, flew them into buildings in New York, and then had their passports miraculously land on the sidewalks below, legible enough to indict the men almost immediately.
I know the Saudi Arabians have sponsored many terrorists, that is where the crazy Wahhabi religious zealots with the money come from. They are close allies with the U.S. government and Saudi oil families are closely affiliated with Texas oil families; roger, got that. But Somalia, really?
Salem-News.com readers know we cover Somalia’s piracy problem regularly, frequently offering in-depth accounts of the situation with the help of our friends at ECOTERRA Intl. in Nairobi, Kenya who monitor the situation from Africa, not a New York or Los Angeles news office.
This is the single most violent and impoverished country in the world. Somalia is controlled by a group known as al Shabab and they are dangerous, known for elevated levels of piracy that plague African waters. Yet Somalia’s piracy began as a response to the environmental pillaging of Somalia’s coast and the overfishing of its waters. They used to and still frequently avoid killing their captives. The media almost never mentions that part.
What if there was a simultaneous bomb set to go off at the same time?
Terrorizing America would logically be the last of their concerns.
Why? Because nations like Iraq don’t have to lift a finger toward the U.S. in order to watch over a million people blasted into oblivion by American bombs and munitions. Afghan people by and large didn’t even know where the U.S. is on a map, yet they have watched collateral damage claim lives in the tens of thousands, probably much higher.
To suggest that any small nation would come and pick a fight with a warmongering nation like the United States of America is pretty silly really.
It is the same thing in Palestine:
People there know that if they fire a slingshot at an Israeli soldier, they could see a reprisal leaving dozens or more dead. People learn over time who not to mess with. I fear that this story may be rigged with propaganda, regardless of whether this 19-year old kid had evil intent or some level of involvement. It sounds like he was led down a road to notorious stardom.
Killing people en masse is terrorism and there is never an excuse for it. It is the work of cowards any time civilians are in the mix.
On that note, there are British soldiers who are active, free and clear; men who were caught by the Iraqi police immediately after a shootout that left Iraqi officials dead. The men were transporting weapons and explosives and picked out of a group as they looked suspicious. The men were busted out of jail by British troops.
According to The Insider:
British soldiers have been caught posing as Arabs and shooting Iraqis in the occupied city of Basra in southern Iraq. A group of them was caught yesterday by Iraqi police. They were driving an Iraqi car, wearing Arab clothing, and carrying weapons and explosives.The Iraqi police were patrolling the area looking for suspected “terrorists” or “insurgents”, and they noticed that the men were acting suspiciously. Suddenly, without warning, the suspicious men started shooting at people, but the new Iraqi security forces managed to capture some of them before they could escape. Obviously, if these men had not been caught, the mass media would now be reporting the incident as just another attempt by evil “terrorists” to create civil war in Iraq.[2]
Then there is the massive list of Israeli war criminals who the U.S. blocks from being brought to justice. We just published an extensive piece on that recently[3][4].
There is no honor in any of this. Bring them all to a world war crimes court in handcuffs; law enforcement has no business being selective.
Police Endanger Portland
Fox News confirms that Friday:
“an agent and Mohamud drove to downtown Portland in a white van that carried six 55-gallon drums with detonation cords and plastic caps, but all of them were inert, the complaint states.”
Do Portland residents appreciate that the feds actually placed their supposedly “inert” bomb laden van in Portland’s downtown district with the suspect?
I wouldn’t think so.
The feds sound like they took this guy by the hand and somehow became the “terrorists” he was working with. In fact from the various media accounts, there doesn’t seem to be proof that this man ever talked to any actual “terrorists” except the FBI.
FOX also reports that “As a trial run, Mohamud and agents detonated a bomb in Lincoln City, Ore., earlier this month.”
A trial run? A real bomb? Feds and a supposed terrorist? And that wasn’t enough to arrest him?
I have dear friends in Lincoln City, I used to live there, in fact I was in Lincoln City last night. This is a populated coastal city, not the middle of the desert, I am truly shocked to learn of this.
Arresting this guy before he tried to do a “media worthy” act would have eliminated the FBI’s chance to scare the living bejesus out of people with this “Allah Akbar” story. The police let the supposed terrorist detonate the “fake bomb” and then, “swooped down on him” according to FOX and other sources.
My question is, how do we know he couldn’t have been working with a second group that law enforcement didn’t know about?
What if there was a simultaneous bomb set to go off at the same time?
Of course you would probably need real terrorists for that.
But what would have happened then?
I guess they had to run the full course in order to get this story out. I cry foul at this point and I believe absolutely nothing the feds are reporting. I’m not saying they are dishonest, it just fits a pattern of conditioning that is part of a ramp up for more military action in the Middle east, namely against Iran. No bombs blow up, but “Muslims” are constantly in the news for these supposed bomb plots. It all might be a big crockpot of sh*t, it pays to look closely. And when these supposed terrorists turn out to have ties with Israel, it is amazing how quickly the mainstream media forgets the events ever existed.
But here is the coup de grace; Portland Mayor Sam Adams now says Portland will begin “cooperating” with the federal government at a higher level, just what we need.
According to the New York Times:
In response to the thwarted plot, Mayor Sam Adams has floated the idea of cooperating more fully with federal law enforcement agencies. In 2005, the Portland City Council passed an ordinance that put conditions on the city’s continued participation in the F.B.I. Joint Terrorism Task Force out of concern for the civil liberties of residents.Now Mr. Adams said he was prepared to reconsider his opposition. “It’s been five years since our last policy review,” he said.
City officials said they were also concerned about the safety of Portland’s Muslim population. The police authorized additional patrols around Muslim community centers, said Sgt. Peter Simpson, a police spokesman[5].
Extra police patrols? That’s funny, I haven’t heard of any incidents that would require that, and some people would not consider increased police patrols in their area a courtesy, more like harassment by policy. But what I really find interesting is how that story suggests Portland is “hands off” with the feds; like they have been keeping them out of Oregon.
It was just three years ago that Portland devoted enormous time and resources to a huge federal emergency planning event that was not just federal, it was actually sponsored by Homeland Security.
We covered the story in October 2007:
Using resources that Congress made available to prepare for acts of terrorism, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sponsors the TOPOFF exercises as part of a thorough assessment of America’s ability to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from an attack that involves a weapon of mass destruction.Each TOPOFF exercise involves a two-year cycle of seminars, planning events, and exercises. The exercises enable federal, state and local agencies to identify ways to improve their ability to save lives and protect property when any major public emergency occurs, regardless of whether that emergency is natural or manmade[6].
I am going to continue studying this story and this Muslim-indicting pattern that the feds and western media are peddling like Lance Armstrong on race day.
It is amazing how many alleged Muslim “terrorists” are constantly arrested and caught “just in time” when in fact no bombs are detonating and no people are dying from these supposed actions. If there are terrorists operating here then of course they must be stopped, but why the big show?
I said it early in the story and I will say it again; Americans are being conditioned to hate Muslim people as the U.S. prepares for war on Iran, the ancient land of Persia that has zero history of attacking other nations off its own soil, with very few exceptions, yet is continually pushed to the brink by Israel because it is one of the few countries that openly condemns Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.
Remember, that is always what it is about.
Law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation include the FBI, with assistance from the Oregon State Police, the Corvallis Police Department, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, and the Portland Police Bureau.
Mohamud was booked into the Multnomah County Jail and is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court in Portland on Monday. He faces a maximum statutory sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of the charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.
[1] Nov-27-2010: Somali-Born Teen Who Plotted Car Bombing Contacted Suspected Terrorist – FOX News
[2] Nov-29-2010 British special forces caught dressed as Arab ‘terrorists’ – The Insider
[3]Nov-17-2010: Israeli Military War Crime Suspects Revealed – Salem-News.com
[4]Nov-24-2010: 200 Israeli War Criminals Better Hope for Palestinian Amnesty – Opinion by Gilad Atzmon Salem-News.com
[5] Nov-28-2010: After Thwarted Attack, Question Is ‘Why Portland?’ – Beth Slovic
[6] Oct-15-2007: TOPOFF 4 Exercise Begins in Portland – Salem-News.com
Source: Salem–News.
Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com’s Executive News Editor. You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com
Debbie Menon is an independent writer based in Dubai. Her main focus are the US-Mid- East Conflicts. Her writing has been featured in many print and online publications.
Her writing reflects the incredible resilience, almost superhuman steadfastness of the occupied and oppressed Palestinians, who are now facing the prospect of a final round of ethnic cleansing. She is committed to exposing Israel’s Lobbies’ control of ‘U.S. Middle East Policy. Control’ which amounts to treason by the Zionist lobbies in America and its stooges in Congress, and that guarantees there can never be a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, only catastrophe for all, in the region and the world.
Her mission is to inform and educate internet viewers seeking unfiltered information about real events on issues of the US/Middle East conflicts that are unreported, underreported, or distorted in the American media. PS: For those of her detractors that think she is being selective and even “one-sided,” tough, that is the point of her work, to present an alternative view and interpretation of the US-Israel-Middle East conflict, that has been completely ignored in mainstream discourse.
The purpose is to look at the current reality from a different and critical perspective, not to simply rehash the pro-US/Israel perspective, smoke and mirrors that has been allowed to utterly and completely dominate Mainstream discourse.
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