When Fear Rules Reason

Boomers in Business:
Has America gotten into the business of prosecuting thought crimes? Here we are arresting another disgruntled American, Tarek Mehanna, and charging him with "conspiring to support terrorism" even though he was unable to become a terrorist, take any terrorist action, or support terrorism in any material way.

Tarek had seven long years -- 2001 to 2008 -- in which to plot. And two co-conspiring buddies. But this "terrifying trio" never even came close to pulling off an attack: They were repeatedly rejected for terrorist-camp training, in multiple countries. They abandoned their mall attack plans when their one weapons contact told them he could find no automatic weapons. And their so-called political targets have not even been identified because, say the authorities, they were never in any danger.

Plot or pipe-dream?
Tarek's thoughts were pretty scary, yeah. The way he construed events, his own country was using the land of Mohammad as a base to attack Muslims. That's a fairly edgy outlook. And Tarek also thought he could justify killing civilians because they pay taxes to a government that "kills Muslims," and besides, most of them would be "non-believers" anyway. A thorough wack job, but apparently, not very threatening: more like inept, inexperienced, and ill-informed.

So at what point do irrational thoughts become an actual plot? Tarek the Pharmacist sort-of tried, ineffectually, to carry them out. Along with his two "friends" who are now telling the F.B.I. whatever it wants to hear in order to avoid jail time themselves. How trustworthy are they? We can't know: Only one has even been identified -- the other is tucked away somewhere growing beans to spill.

Beware the Source
Even the evil "contact," Daniel Maldonado, now serving 10 years for getting himself into a terrorist training camp and plotting to overthrow the Somali "government" -- which hasn't even existed since the '90s -- couldn't lay his hands on three automatic weapons. Or maybe he just didn't take Mehanna and his pals too seriously.

Listen, I'm very glad the F.B.I. is aware of these killer wannabes. I'm just wary of frightening the populace into locking up American citizens and throwing away the key when crazy, homicidal ideas were, seemingly, all they had to throw at us.