05 Jan Cheese-Loving Terrorists
This from yesterday’s story in the Times on the Padilla case:
The seven taped phone calls that bear Mr. Padilla’s voice involve conversations with Mr. Hassoun from 1997 to 2000. On those calls, Mr. Padilla, unlike some of the other defendants, does not employ what the government says is coded language. According to the government, other defendants refer to their jihad-related plans as “getting some fresh air,” “participating in tourism,” “opening up a market,” “playing football,” and so on. This leads to silly-sounding exchanges where “the brothers” discuss going on “picnics” in order “to smell fresh air and to eat cheese” or using $3,500 to buy “zucchini.”
So at least some of the folks the government are going after look rather like the Keystone Kops after all (never mind the flimsiness of the charges against Padilla himself).
For a sobering view of the whole antiterrorism effort, featuring John Mueller’s book Overblown, see this review essay from the NY Review of Books a few weeks back. The question is moving back to “if”, not “when”.
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