As everyone knows, six Muslim Jihadists were arrested this week for planning an attack on the huge army base at Ft. Dix in New Jersey.
The Justice Department said that they had viewed Islamic training and weapons videos on the Internet. It’s also been suggested in some news reports that some of the men became acquainted with one another online. But so far, there’s no indication that they have anything but a virtual connection to international terror groups:
White House spokesman Tony Snow said there is “no direct evidence†that the men arrested in the Fort Dix plot have ties to international terrorism.
“They are not charged with being members of an international terrorism organization,†Snow said. “At least at this point, there is no evidence that they received direction from international terror organizations. — AP
It’s probably safe to say that without the Internet, this group would not exist. This is exactly what I meant when I called the Internet a Jihad Amplifier. The fact that no direct connection to Al-Qaeda or other organizations was found is not something to be happy about. Indeed, Jihadists without such connections have a much better chance of remaining undetected until it’s too late.
They were caught only because they made a really dumb mistake when they tried to get a video of their training activities copied at a local Circuit City store. The next batch might be a little smarter.