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| Feds warn O.C. of terror lurking 'down the street' |
| 2006-05-28 |
| I do read the Register every day, but I only rarely read Mickadeit's column. As I said in a recent comment, the MSA at UCI has been out of control for a long time. When I was getting a grad degree there in the late 90's they were already very confrontational with the Jewish student organizations and were using their "newspaper" to prominently make attacks on the Christian faith. I was tempted to make some crack about cleaning my guns, but then you realize that it's not going to be an insurrection. It'll be a sniper or a suicide bomb. Situational awareness is much more important. Were this a straight news story, I might lead with, "The FBI appears to be actively studying Muslim student groups at UCI as part of an intense surveillance program to detect potential terrorists." But I'm not as surprised that the FBI is doing this - as well as other aggressive anti-terrorist activities in Orange County - as I am that the FBI would tell us. "There are a lot of individuals of interest right here in Orange County," Rose said. "We are quite surprised." The FBI has ramped up in O.C., creating three anti-terrorist units, focusing on al-Qaida, non-al-Qaida foreigners and domestic suspects. She talked about planting bugs and closed-circuit TV cameras, and examining computer use and e-mail. "We can't afford to come in after the fact," she said, talking about the need to be proactive. She added, "Are we doing all these technologies? Yes, we are." Approvals for searches and eavesdropping bypass the normal warrant system, going through an accelerated and secretive federal court, although she said that judicial hurdle is "not easy." Gross said his office is taking an "Al Capone approach" to going after suspected terrorists. That is, if he can't get them on a terrorist charge, he works with other agencies to find something like a tax charge. Inter-agency cooperation is at an all-time high, he said. "The CIA was never in our office (before 9/11); now they are in our office all the time," said Gross, who works at the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in downtown Santa Ana. Club members did a good job of drawing out about as much as Gross and Rose were willing to give. They wouldn't talk about specific numbers of suspected terrorists or associates in Orange County, but Rose did say: "We live in Irvine. I can't tell you how many subjects' names come up, and they live right down the street from me." (Later, it was clarified she meant down the streetfiguratively - in the general area.) Asked whether citizens should be worried about the activist Muslim students at UCI, Rose said, "That is another tough question to answer" - which I took to mean she has an answer but doesn't want to single out one group. She did say the FBI is aware of large numbers of Muslims at both UCI and USC. "I think we need to be concerned with everybody, including our next-door neighbor," she said, adding the FBI gets frequent calls from people who want to tell them about situations like a Muslim neighbor who is changing his license plates or the guy who has nothing in his apartment but a mattress and five computers. The previous sentence is the best advice in the whole article. "I can't tell you how many" tips like that paid off, she said. What about racial profiling concerns? someone asked. That would be a mistake, she said. "We have our own American-raised individuals who have converted to Islam," she said, as well as Arabs coming to the U.S. who are trying to Westernize their appearance and pass for Hispanic. |
| Posted by:11A5S |
| #3 hint to UCI - might need to watch your campus politics. Subsidizing terrorists while keeping Methodist Bible worshippers and ROTC out might just bite you in the fundraising ASS |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-05-28 20:13 |
| #2 What about racial profiling concerns? someone asked. That would be a mistake, she said. "We have our own American-raised individuals who have converted to Islam," she said, as well as Arabs coming to the U.S. who are trying to Westernize their appearance and pass for Hispanic. The key line to my mind is; "We have our own American-raised individuals who have converted to Islam," And this is from someone in the FBI. Interesting, very interesting. |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2006-05-28 06:45 |
| #1 I'm not as surprised that the FBI is doing this - as well as other aggressive anti-terrorist activities in Orange County - as I am that the FBI would tell us. That's been the problem all along - the FBI allows the bad guys to flourish under their protection - so that they can gather information. I understand the concept and it's necessary to a degree, but they have always carried it waaay too far, allowing the bad guys to grow and root to the point where it no longer matters if you get the kingpin anymore because the organization is established to the point where individual leadership no longer matters. In effect - they allow the bad guys to form an army, train it and really establish itself in order to see who the leaders are - but at that point - it doesn't matter anymore when the leaders are taken down - the army remains. Maybe now they are finally getting a clue that this method is ultimately counter productive. |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-05-28 02:05 |