The NY 4

A fool and his freedom are soon parted.

And so last night 4 men were arrested for attempting to bomb a synagogue and shoot down military aircraft in NY. The FBI apparently learned from it's Miami case, that one needs to prosecute people for actual committed crimes rather than talk of committing crimes. These guys were caught after placing two fake bombs in cars. Therefore I see no way a defense attorney is going to be able to claim entrapment. But that's not why I'm posting on this.

The reason I'm posting on this is for a variety of reasons the primary being that these guys were caught, particularly the apparent ringleader James Cromitie, was because James talked too much and was stupid. It was clear from the news conference that Cromitie talked to an informant about his issues with what was going on in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which in and of itself isn't a big deal. Not even a little deal. His problem, which for someone his age and apparent criminal background ought to have known, was that you don't go talking about your plans to blow up stuff with other people.

The second problem with Cromitie was that he had no idea how to make his own bomb even though the information and supplies are readily available. This is unlike Timothy McVeigh who not only did not discuss his plans with many other people (as far as I know) but also knew how to build his own bomb. Had Cromitie had done those two things I believe that the news conference this morning would have been entirely different.

The third problem was his attempt to get stinger missiles. I actually laughed out loud when I heard that one. Seriously, this guy must have been watching waaaay to much 24 and other forms of entertainment where people acquire military hardware with ease. I know this guy was concerned with Afghanistan but he's not there and arms don't go falling out the sky here in the US and what's worse, he had no clue that anything he got was fake.

So what we apparently have here is a mickey mouse operation with people who wanted to be "big shot Jew killers" striking at America, who were too dumb and too lazy to learn the tools of "the trade." I wrote before that these kinds of people are the least of the worries of law enforcement. They are more concerned with big ego boosting shows than with actual results. Given how loose gun laws are here, these guys could have easily, easily armed themselves with particularly potent guns, walked into the synagogue on a Saturday and blew away a "good" number of people and perhaps lived to see the resulting news. And that's only one thing I can think of off the top of my head. I can think of a great deal of other things that would completely escape the view of law enforcement that would have NYC shook up.

But in the end such actions would do nothing to forward my aims and the intended actions by these fellows too would have not furthered their aims. It's far easier to destroy than to build. The Haitian in the group ought to know that intimately. Jail cells are full of people who didn't think through on their plans, talked too much, or were just plain stupid. Another set is about to gain residents.