Man-Caused Shoe Disasterist No Longer Oppressed
In a move sure to promote better-likedness, the Justice Department has removed special restrictions from Shoe Bomber Richard Reid. Boston Herald:
Airplane shoe bomber Richard C. Reid no longer faces severe limits on his prison activities or communications after the Obama administration quietly ended years of hard-nosed curbs against the British-born al-Qaeda terrorist.
This summer the Justice Department halted six years of measures that kept Reid from associating or praying with fellow jailed Muslim terrorists, and limited his access to the news media and pen pals.
…
Reid is serving life in a federal supermax in Florence, Colo., that is home to fellow terrorists Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Zacarias Moussaoui, the 20th hijacker from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Yousef is the nephew of Khalid Sheik Mohammad, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
Over the last six years, the U.S. Justice Department annually renewed special restrictions on Reid, including limits on who he could call and write to and on the kinds of articles he could read or TV channels he could watch. They also banned him from group prayers.
Reid, 36, appealed the restrictions within the federal Bureau of Prisons several times, to no avail. In 2007, the London-born terrorist filed a lawsuit against the government alleging the restrictions violated his First Amendment rights.
On June 17 – after two years spent fighting Reid’s lawsuit – federal prosecutors notified the courts that the restrictions, called “special administrative measures,” or SAMs, would not be renewed.
The decision to let the SAMs lapse was based on a “collective assessment of the potential threat posed by Reid’s communications and contacts,” said Department of Justice spokesman Dean Boyd.
That assessment was made by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston, the FBI and the DOJ counterterrorism section, Boyd said.
Pressed repeatedly for more details, he would not say why those agencies came to the new conclusion. Christina DiIorio-Sterling, spokeswoman for the Acting U.S. Attorney in Boston, Michael K. Loucks, who was appointed in April, said the Boston office would not comment on the matter.
That’s frustrating, that they won’t explain it. That means we have to guess. A good place to start would be the Obama administration view that we have transcended terrorism. As Janet Napolitano explained, it is more useful to view the curious phenomenon as a sort of “man-caused disaster.” The administration also has gone to pains to insist that any disaster-related actions should be viewed as independent from the motivation of the disasterist, to avoid any infringement on the disasterist’s freedom of extremist religion.
The Herald article includes observations by one security expert that allowing terrorists to mingle in prison is a bad idea, and understandable consternation from one of the flight attendants who was compelled to scuffle with Reid as he thrashed, bit people, continued to try to ignite his shoes, and ultimately had to be belted down in his seat. It also includes observations from a couple of security expert that Reid, a bit of a “dim bulb,” was just “cannon fodder” for al-Qaeda, and that the danger this below average IQ can indoctrinate others is low.
I dunno. He was smart enough to get his shoe bomb on the plane. I’d guess his value as a recruiter is going to depend more on the wattage and inclinations of the inmate he tries to indoctrinate than on what some experts elsewhere think about his intellect. As I recall, Reid came to radical Islam in a British prison. Reports have indicated over the years he remains a committed and unrepentent jihadi. U.S. prisons have been producing a fair number of domestic Islamic terrorists. And given the company, it sounds like the federal can in Colorado could run graduate seminars. With a lot of bonafide al-Qaeda star power. But what do I know?
I’m a little concerned about the prospects for a one-shoe-bomb-size-fits-all policy regarding the treatment of man-caused disasterists. But then, I tend to take the view that, if the shoe bomb fits, wear it.
Here’s someone else trying to guess at the reasoning behind this decision but apparently also still mired in backward-looking Bushthink, and lacking the advanced insight of the Holder DOJ.
“It’s my hope that they have made this decision based solely on intelligence and risk,” said Anthony M. Amore, who was a Federal Aviation Administration special agent on duty at Logan International Airport in 2001 when the flight was diverted to Boston.
“Other than presidential administrations, what really has changed?” asked Amore, who was heavily involved in the Reid case as it unfolded at Logan. “We are still removing our shoes at airports, and still fighting in Afghanistan to eradicate terrorist cells.”
Good point. I bet, next time some dim bulb TSA screener tries to make you take your shoes off, if you point out that the Shoe Bomber doesn’t have any special restrictions, so why should you, it won’t fly. And neither will you.
Article ends with the DOJ flack’s indignant insistence that Holder had nothing to do with the decision. Which is interesting. If I was running DOJ, and my people started loosening the laces on the Shoe Bomber’s sneakers, I’d want to know all about it. Surely Holder will reverse this as soon as he finds out, and fire the hapless shoe salesmen who brought out this wrong-sized box of PC Flyers. Though, given the administration’s recent track record of foot-massaging foreign despots such as Vladimir Putin, the Castro brothers, Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it pretty much is Osama bin Laden’s turn for a little rub.
Here’s Reid claiming “emotional turmoil” due to the now-removed restrictions. Boston Herald. (The emotional turmoil relatives of his intended victims would have experienced these last eight years had he been successful is irrelevant to this matter and should not be taken into consideration. Especialy given Reid’s status as a harmless dim bulb.)
Here are some of the security experts, as well as the former federal prosecutor who handled Reid’s case, on the risks jihadis pose behind bars. Boston Herald.
And here’s a photo gallery, including the results of a test that sought to determine what Reid’s shoe bomb might have done to an airliner.
Previously, Freedom of Jihad.
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Topics: Obama,al qaeda,terrorists
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:21 am Comments (5) on Sunday, September 20, 2009
5 Responses to “Man-Caused Shoe Disasterist No Longer Oppressed”
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September 20th, 2009 at 9:44 am
At what point does the average American become completely disgusted with the Administration that, instead of protecting the rights and security of Americans, chooses to protect the “rights” and “liberties” of those devoted to the killing of Americans?
I’m just askin’ …
September 20th, 2009 at 11:24 am
How long before the DOJoke decides to let Reid go home to mommy on “compassionate grounds”?
September 20th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
“In 2007, the London-born terrorist filed a lawsuit against the government alleging the restrictions violated his First Amendment rights.”
Just wait ’til he finds out that he’s also not allowed to keep and bear arms while in prison.
September 20th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
[...] Man-Caused Shoe Disasterist No Longer Oppressed [...]
September 27th, 2009 at 9:07 am
[...] how about the terrorism front? Well, now that we’re no longer oppressing the poor terrorists, surely they all like us, and terrorism is a thing of the [...]