Today's Washington Post provides a superb example of why the majority of the dinosaur media is not to be trusted when it comes to reporting about Islamists or about jihad activity, particularly in the United States.
Yonathan Melaku, an ex-marine reservist and a naturalized citizen from Ethiopia pled guilty today in a plea bargain to three counts, including shooting at the Pentagon on Oct. 19, 2010, and attempting to vandalize veterans’ memorials on U.S. property. As part of a plea agreement, Melaku admitted to shooting at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, the Pentagon and two military recruiting offices in October and November of 2010. Here's how the WAPO described this, under the headline 'Motive of Shooter is Unclear':
Yonathan Melaku was sneaking through Fort Myer and Arlington National Cemetery, his backpack filled with plastic bags of ammonium nitrate, a notebook containing jihadist messages, and a can of black spray paint. The 23-year-old former Marine was heading to the graves of the nation’s most recent heroes, aiming to desecrate the stones with Arabic statements and leave handfuls of explosive material nearby as a message.
Before police foiled the plan in June, the vandalism was to be Melaku’s sixth attack, months after he went on a mysterious shooting spree that targeted the Pentagon, the National Museum of the Marine Corps and two other military buildings in Northern Virginia. A video found after Melaku’s arrest showed him wearing a black mask and shooting a 9mm handgun out of his Acura’s passenger window as he drove along Interstate 95, shouting “Allahu Akbar!”
Yes, 'mysterious'. Wait, it gets better:
FBI officials and prosecutors said Melaku was on a personal terror mission. They said he researched jihadism on the Internet and had references to terrorism in a notebook and on his computer. It also seemed like he was gathering materials to make an improvised explosive device, though there was no indication how he would have used it.
Melaku wanted “to create fear and terror, which is what terrorists do,” said Dana Boente, first assistant U.S. Attorney in Alexandria.
Special Agent Jacqueline Maguire, of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, said it was fortunate authorities caught Melaku before anyone was injured. She said it appears Melaku acted alone.
“This case shows that violent homegrown extremism is present in our community, whether by one person or by many,” Maguire said.
Even the FBI won't mention the words 'Islam' and 'terrorism' in the same sentence, but they at least mentioned an amorphous, undefined 'extremism' without mentioning the obvious. Listen to how the accussed's defense attorney is spinning this:
Gregory English, Melaku’s defense lawyer, said after the hearing that Melaku’s family is of the Coptic Christian faith and that they were stunned to learn of his involvement in the crimes and the references to Islamic jihad. English said the shootings were out of character for Melaku, and he wonders whether his client suffers from a psychological problem, which he has asked the court to evaluate.
“As bad as it is, this is someone who essentially broke windows,” English said. “It’s vandalism. He has no link to terrorism. . . . He had a message, but I don’t understand what that message was supposed to be.”
Either Mr. English is stupid, or he thinks we are.The only reason this home grown jihadi didn't hurt anyone is because we were extremely lucky, and that luck might not have held if Melaku had managed to escape and proceeded to manufacture the IED for which he was already putting together the ingrediants. As for Melaku's Coptic background, here's a tip...find the imams he was associating with that converted him to Islam and you'll find where the 'violent homegrown extremism in our community' Special Agent Maguire was talking about is coming from.
Melaku agreed to the plea bargain which carried a sentence of 25 years only because he was looking at a possible mandatory sentence of more than 85 years in the face of solid hard evidence. He's only 23, and he'll likely be out in 10 to 15, and you'll notice that no one is talking about deporting him when his sentence is served.
'Ssssh! Don't mention the word jihad! Nothing to see here.
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