Friday, September 16, 2005

So What NitPick Has Michelle In an Uproar THIS Day...

Joking. Michelle writes quite well, at least the sentance she graces us with here and there, and the NY Post guest editorial once every other month or so proves that her cuteness has an amazing grasp of the painfully obvious and how to sell it. Kidding!

Michelle Malkin

By Michelle Malkin · September 16, 2005 02:24 PM
I mentioned this story below, but think it deserves a stand-alone post as more disturbing details come in from Memphis, Tenn. Via AP:

MEMPHIS, Tenn. A federal magistrate has ordered a University of Memphis student held until trial.
Prosecutors say F-B-I agents found an airline pilot's uniform, a chart of Memphis International Airport and instructional D-V-D's. One was titled "How an Airline Captain Should Look and Act."
Mahmoud Maawad is charged with wire fraud and fraudulent use of a Social Security number.
Describing what agents found, Assistant U-S Attorney Steve Parker argued yesterday against releasing Maawad, saying the acts and circumstance of the case are "scary."

Parker said Maawad -- a 29-year-old Egyptian -- has been in the country illegally since 1999 and had used a phony Social Security number to enroll in schools and open a bank account.

The Memphis Flyer has a breaking news report:
Was Mahmoud Maawad a University of Memphis student and pilot-wannabe with a passion for flying small planes or an Arab terrorist looking to duplicate the suicide missions of 9/11?

Federal prosecutors in Memphis aren’t saying, but on Thursday they asked a U.S. magistrate to hold Maawad, 29, whose email logon is “pilot747,” without bond until trial. U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Thomas Anderson agreed with Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Parker, and Maaward becomes the second Memphis resident of Arab descent to be held without bond because of investigations by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. In April, Rafat Mawlawi was jailed in a separate investigation in which prosecutors have linked him to Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida. He is awaiting trial on October 3rd.

Now, ya see, THIS is the way to rake in the big bucks, gang. Find a story no one else is paying much, if any attention to, present the facts then ask "Wassup?"

Here's what might be wassup, and it has to do with thinking so you probably won't see much of an analysis anywhere else save for military blogs or The Rotweiller. So what do we know? The guy's been in-country for 6 years, roaming from one school to another with his bogus SS Card, and he appears to like airplanes. A kook who wants to impress the chicks with his knowledge of playing ariline captain, or a serious threat?

A leather flight jacket isn't getting you past security, nor will a DVD on "How To Think Like An Airline Captain." Are there plenty of support cells remaining in the US, groups whose only job is to provide backup for the genuine virginlovers? Sure. Lots of them. Are there also PLENTY of people wandering around with phony ID? What, you've never been to a big city? Being born and raised in NYC I can state as an absolute fact that one can get any bogus identity one wishes, but what was this guy up to, you ask yet again.

Sleeper cell leftover, or sleeper cell wannabe, trying to impress the evil powers that be. I can't help but feel that an Arab dressed in a leather flight jacket isn't going to do much hijacking, of major airliners at least, but there ARE scores of small airports with many smaller human-guided-missiles to chose from, and the enemy just might be planning other surprises. Our perimeter was breached. Bigtime. We adapted and now it's time to see if the enemy adapted as well. But I'm sorry...6 years of just WAITING to get caught doesn't sound like the real deal to me, but I'm sure they're sorting out a LOT of different angles.

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