Israel Matzav

Dear Americans, Welcome to my world

I've been saying for a couple of years now that it's just a matter of time before my American friends are subject to the same kind of searches before they enter a shopping mall, a movie theater or a public library that we get here in Israel. In an address to the American - Israel Friendship League in New York earlier this week, Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano all but confirmed that those days are coming. The United States has home grown terrorists.

Addressing the American Israel Friendship League in New York, Napolitano said a string of recent domestic arrests should "remove any remaining comfort that some might have had from the notion that if we fight the terrorists abroad, we won't have to fight them here," rebutting an argument advanced on several occasions by former president George W. Bush.

"The fact is that home-based terrorism is here. And like violent extremism abroad, it is now part of the threat picture that we must confront," Napolitano said. "Individuals sympathetic to al-Qaeda and its affiliates, as well as those inspired by their ideology, are present in the U.S., and would like to attack the homeland or plot overseas attacks against our interests abroad."

Napolitano cited the case of Najibullah Zazi, a Denver airport shuttle driver arrested in September after allegedly training with al-Qaeda in Pakistan.

Zazi allegedly tested homemade bombs, styled after those used in the 2004 Madrid transit bombings, before driving cross-country to New York from Denver. He faces charges of conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction.

...

A U.S. counterterrorism official called Zazi "the first concrete case" since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks of al-Qaeda sending operatives to prepare an attack inside the country. Although intelligence analysts had long identified such a threat, they had begun questioning their assumption, the official said. "The surprising thing is Zazi is the first," the official said, calling Zazi's contacts with core al-Qaeda leaders "at most one step removed."

We're all in this together. It's us against the terrorists. Maybe this will be good for aliya anyway. If you're going to have to live like you're under siege all the time, you may as well at least do it in Israel.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:21 AM