Muslim Supermen Are Our Superiors

Maybe I've just been left starry-eyed by that David Icke video, or maybe this "exclusive" report of a terrorist plot from WorldNetDaily is a minor work of art - a perfect synthesis of war-on-terror wingnuttery wrapped up in a bow and painted with a mustache. You've got:

- an interview with a shadowy terrorist from a fringe website
- Muslims being told to flee the targeted areas in a hush-hush operation even sneakier than the Mossad-Jews one
- WMD being smuggled over the Mexican border for a terrorist attack in, uh, New York

And the WND source, Abu Dawood, is almost charmingly naive.

(President) Bush is aware that brother Adnan has smuggled deadly materials inside America from the Mexican border. Bush is silent about him, because he doesn't want to panic his people.

Stuff like this reminds me how the mainstream media doesn't quite get the way terrorism plays around the country. There's a reason why Food Lion shelf-stackers in Lincoln, Nebraska are even more worried about terrorism than Manhattanites. It's not far removed from the reason Sightings got such boffo ratings. (I tried to tackle similar themes in a review of several war on terror sci-fi novels.)

Comments

Adam W. | September 18, 2006, 10:04am | #

And that reason would be...? And LOL at Bush not wanting to panic us.

joe | September 18, 2006, 10:09am | #

Remember, kids, if you've got a functioning nuclear device and you want to use it to attack a nuclear city, follow these easy steps:

1. Smuggle it into Mexico

2. Hijack a crop duster. I'm not exactly sure how one hijacks a crop duster, as opposed to stealing it, but anyway...

3. Fly said crop duster into US airspace across an international border.

This is like a terrorist plot as planned by Douglas Feith.

TrickyVic | September 18, 2006, 10:10am | #

Earlier this year the World Net Daily ran a story that Iran was 6 days away from having the bomb. They said someone in the State Department presented that claim, but he didn't. It went something like this.

State Department official claims Iran had a goal of making a large number of centrifuges. (around 52,000 I think.

At the time Iran was known to have around 1,500 (I think).

The official claimed that if Iran had it's goal number of centrifuges (52,000) it would take them 6 days to make enough enriched urainium for a bomb.

The writer of the WND story failed to understand that Iran did not, at the time have the "goal" number of centrifuges. The claim of his article was false.

I guess reading comprehension is not a requirement for WND. And they talk badly about the NY Times.

swillfredo pareto | September 18, 2006, 10:24am | #

According to the Food Lion store finder there are no stores within 50 miles of Lincoln Nebraska. As a matter of fact there are no Food Lions in all of Nebraska. Did World Net Daily get to them too?

shecky | September 18, 2006, 10:48am | #

Is this to say red state bubbas are bigger morons than blue state city slickers?

joe | September 18, 2006, 10:59am | #

Why do I suspect that the difference between "hijacking a crop duster" and "stealing a crop duster" involves being Muslim?

Jennifer | September 18, 2006, 11:02am | #

Hey everybody, can you keep a secret? I have a TOP-SECRET PLAN to BLOW UP NEW YORK CITY. The bomb is HIDDEN IN THE 42ND STREET SUBWAY STATION and SET TO GO OFF THIS FRIDAY AT NOON. Tell all your friends to get out of Manhattan, but don't tell anybody else, okay? It's a secret. Shhhhhh!

Jennifer | September 18, 2006, 11:02am | #

Hey everybody, can you keep a secret? I have a TOP-SECRET PLAN to BLOW UP NEW YORK CITY. The bomb is HIDDEN IN THE 42ND STREET SUBWAY STATION and SET TO GO OFF THIS FRIDAY AT NOON. Tell all your friends to get out of Manhattan, but don't tell anybody else, okay? It's a secret. Shhhhhh!

Brian | September 18, 2006, 11:20am | #

My mom, who lives in suburban Dayton, was conviced terrorists would blow up her subdivision well past the 2004 election. (High five for scaring old ladies Dubya!) She's even got some duct tape somewhere. It is or was a rather wide-spread sentiment. Based on anecdote it seems more common the less likely you are to be a target.

I guess it's part of that thing about people, they always imagine themselves dying in melodramatic and unlikely ways rather than heart disease or car wrecks.

GILMORE | September 18, 2006, 11:21am | #

It would be nice if maybe Reason could do a roundup/analysis of all the "Mexico/Immigration issue is part of War on Terror" bullsh*t thats out there. Like the "Al-Qaeda/MS13" nexus that is tossed around constantly.

Maybe the current opinion is, "its way too dumb for us to even grant any degree of serious attention"

I agree - but unfortunately, a lot of people are swallowing this stuff whole. My dad, a retired marine capt, ex-lawyer, who normally is mr-"I-know-the-facts", actually pushed this one at me. He has been living alone for last 10yrs and spends a lot of time with Bill O'Rielly, Limbaugh, et al. And he characterizes his neighbors as "far more concerned about it than me" - that is, about Latinos joining the global Jihad against white people. Which is pretty damn depressing.

All these MS13 stories that I've seen use as their lynchpin the rumor that this dude Shukrijumah was "seen" in Honduras meeting with MS13 leaders. By whom, it's never said.

Apparently the FBI has tried to point out more than once that they have never had a single piece of evidence, and neither has anyone in justice department indicating that this even MIGHT be true. They have no evidence he was in Honduras at all. They do not know of sources that do.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/8/22/1813/48492

It's true that in 2004 justice was concerned about this guy maybe being in the US... but not specifically that he was the vanguard of the Latino/Islamic partnership... a la "Red Dawn II".

Anyway, these stories never go into any analysis of what, if any, interests these two groups would have in common, or how/why Al-Q would need a loosely-structured group of gang bangers to do their dirty work. Aside from the fact that "not being named Abdul Al Masri Mustafa Jihad" is convenient.

But seriously - I think the whole story there, front to back, has been invented wholsale by GOP flaks. Seriously. Quotes and all. Call me paranoid Kos-ite or something, but this seems way too obviously contrived. WorldNet, quoting a pakistani journo, quoting some guy in afghanistan, who simply says, "those rumours you Americans have heard on WorldNet? They are all true. We are going to blow you up from Mexico. Viva la Raza!"

It's also basically the same #$(&% template as the Mohammed Atta-in-Prague-meets-Iraqi-Intelligence canard.

It's a frappe of domestic and foreign-policy strong points for GOP = domestic xenophobia, economic worries can be harnessed and funneled into support for War on Terror policy.

Plus, having a new scary-named domestic 'terrorist' organization can't hurt. Al-Q has become so banal. We need a new legion of doom. Even though from what i've seen about MS13 (60minutes piece) is that they consist almost entirely of 13-18yr old central american kids who mostly just kick each others ass, tag neighborhoods, smoke weed, scare whitey.

JG

joe | September 18, 2006, 11:28am | #

I've noticed that concern that terrorists are going to blow up Wal Mart tends to correlate closely with the belief that being told "Happy Holidays" by that Wal Mart's employees is part of an anti-Christian conspiracy.

If there's bully picking on you, it's ok to hit him back. Or even to pre-empt.

joe | September 18, 2006, 11:30am | #

I've noticed that concern that terrorists are going to blow up Wal Mart tends to correlate closely with the belief that being told "Happy Holidays" by that Wal Mart's employees is part of an anti-Christian conspiracy.

If there's bully picking on you, it's ok to hit him back. Or even to pre-empt.

thoreau | September 18, 2006, 11:32am | #

What if the bad guys build a lunar base with a giant "laser" and threaten to incinerate our entire country?

dhex | September 18, 2006, 11:32am | #

"And that reason would be...?"

i presume he's referring to media consumption patterns. it is kinda strange - people didn't travel from conneticut or new jersey to take photos of their family in front of ground zero, but folks from 'merica did. i can't tell you why any of them did it, either - maybe it is like visiting the set of a famous tv show.

unreality makes its own monsters.

Pro Libertate | September 18, 2006, 11:41am | #

What if the bad guys build a lunar base with a giant "laser" and threaten to incinerate our entire country?

I believe the technical term in international law for what we'd do is "unconditional surrender".

Speaking of technological terrors, perhaps the saving grace of this war on terror is that terrorists and nations like Iran are increasingly looking to technology to narrow the military capability gap with the West. That may result in some not-so-subtle changes in their overall outlook. I believe that our opponents will find that it'll take more than money to truly establish a technologically advanced military than can hold its own over the long term--they'll need a supporting industrial infrastructure. Simply moving in that direction will almost certainly liberalize things in the Middle East to some degree. More wealth in a greater number of hands is likely to make people feel that they have more to lose when wackos are allowed to run around provoking military responses.

joe | September 18, 2006, 11:49am | #

"What if the bad guys build a lunar base with a giant "laser" and threaten to incinerate our entire country?"

Any chance we could convince these bad guys to take over the reconstruction of Iraq?

rob | September 18, 2006, 11:57am | #

Paging Dr. Evil... Paging Dr. Evil...

Your volcano lair is ready, complete with man-eating sharks with lasers attached to their heads.

mediageek | September 18, 2006, 12:00pm | #

"I guess it's part of that thing about people, they always imagine themselves dying in melodramatic and unlikely ways rather than heart disease or car wrecks."

True enough. As a kid growing up during the end of the Cold War I was always struck by the fact that everybody seemed to believe that if the Russians leaned on the big red button that their particular town would be the first to go.

mediageek | September 18, 2006, 12:07pm | #

Oh, and kudos to Weigel for a great headline.

Don Coyote | September 18, 2006, 12:18pm | #

Crop duster missing, infected spinach, red states? It's all coming together.

Aresen | September 18, 2006, 12:24pm | #

Funny how no one worries about frostbacks. (= illegal Canadians in the US.)

TrickyVic | September 18, 2006, 12:39pm | #

"""WorldNet, quoting a pakistani journo, quoting some guy in afghanistan, who simply says, "those rumours you Americans have heard on WorldNet? They are all true"""

Hearsay as proof, it's becoming all the rage. WND is big on hearsay and speculation as proof to their conclusions. They think they are great, but they would lose a Jr. High school debate with eighth graders.

Gangs such as MI13 are more interested in selling drugs and power over the people in their turf. The Tony Montanya (sp?) scarface wannabes. I doubt they would be intrested in anything that would scare off their buisness or harm their control such as terrorism. Unless they can benefit, they won't be interested.

MUTT | September 18, 2006, 1:14pm | #

Gilmore, your old man sounds just like mine. Here's a guy who understood (i think) Goldwater and Buckley, who read the Founders, who thought about the deeper implications of the the Republics founding philosophies. . And worked all his life, I suppose you would call him blue collar. had to apply his politics to everyday life, rather than have then within a academic or priveledged barricade.
Now, hes a complete, gullible, talk radio parrot. Gets his facts from the Daily News & the Moonie paper, and cant defend a single position he takes with any clarity.
And hes not at all alone in this. You'd think folks in thier 60-80's have seen & heard enough to have, at long last, some skeptical thought processes in play, but evidently not.
Im at the point I dont trust anyone over 65 or under 45.....

SR | September 18, 2006, 1:43pm | #

"Apparently the FBI has tried to point out more than once that they have never had a single piece of evidence, and neither has anyone in justice department indicating that this even MIGHT be true. They have no evidence he was in Honduras at all. They do not know of sources that do."

Well, if you read WorldNet Daily on a regular basis, you'd realize that the FBI and CIA are controlled by Islamofacist sympathizers who constantly cover up evidence of terrorist acts (see, e.g., TWA 800, forest fires, power outages, etc., etc.). Obviously this is just part of the pattern. It's only because of nameless, noble, Jack Bauer-like field agents who struggle against their corrupt superiors that we learn the truth through reliable, independent news services like WND, LGF, Freep, etc.

thoreau | September 18, 2006, 1:48pm | #

SR-

WND should pay more attention to Shannon Love. Shannon could explain that reporting on terrorist acts is precisely the problem. So WND is part of the problem, and those who cover up The Truth are part of the solution.

Seamus | September 19, 2006, 10:03am | #

As a kid growing up during the end of the Cold War I was always struck by the fact that everybody seemed to believe that if the Russians leaned on the big red button that their particular town would be the first to go.

That was true in my town too, but since we lived about three miles from the Pentagon, I trust we can be forgiven for our paranoia.