3 arrested in alleged bomb plot targeting Somalis in Kansas

[rooster59]

3 arrested in alleged bomb plot targeting Somalis in Kansas 

ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press
ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press

 

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Three members of a Kansas militia group were charged Friday with plotting to bomb an apartment complex that's home to Somali immigrants in the western Kansas meatpacking town of Garden City, a thwarted attack prosecutors say was planned for the day after the November election.

 

The arrests were the culmination of an eight-month FBI investigation that took agents "deep into a hidden culture of hatred and violence," Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said.

 

A complaint unsealed Friday charges Curtis Wayne Allen, 49; Patrick Eugene Stein, 47; and Gavin Wayne Wright, 49, with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. Their first court appearance is Monday.

 

Prosecutors said the men don't yet have attorneys. Publicly listed phone numbers for the men couldn't immediately be found.

 

The men are members of a small militia group that calls itself "the Crusaders," and whose members espouse sovereign citizen, anti-government, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant extremist beliefs, according to the complaint.

 

The complaint alleges group members chose the target based on their hatred for Muslims, people of Somali descent and immigrants — and out of a desire to inspire other militia groups and "wake people up."

 

The FBI began a domestic terrorism investigation of the group in February, and a confidential source attended its meetings in southwestern Kansas.

 

In a June meeting, Stein brought up the Orlando nightclub shooting, and proposed carrying out a similar attack against Muslim refugees in Garden City, according to the complaint.

 

They ultimately decided to target the apartment complex because of the number of Somalis who lived there and the fact that one of the apartments was used as a mosque. The complex houses about 120 Somali residents, Beall said.

 

The complaint said that Stein discussed the explosives used in the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh.

 

The men, who were arrested in Liberal on Friday morning, performed surveillance of the apartment building and prepared a manifesto, Beall said.

 

In a profanity-laced conference call that law enforcement monitored, Stein said the only way "this country's ever going to get turned around is it will be a bloodbath," according to the complaint.

 

If convicted, the men could be sentenced to up to life in federal prison without parole.

 

Heidi Beirich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, called the details of the plot disturbing, saying it "should serve as a warning to those who traffic in the politics of fear and bigotry."

 

Garden City is home to a Tyson Foods beef slaughterhouse that has drawn a diverse immigrant population to the area.

 

Dr. John Birky, a physician who's helping to create a clinic and working with refugees on a language program, said some local residents fear the refugees, mistakenly associating them with militants in Somalia.

 

"People do express more of a general sentiment of, 'Why are we letting these refugees in here? Why are we? They're taking our jobs, plus they're Muslim,'" he said.

 

Birky said between 300 and 500 Somali refugees live in the area. The state Department for Children and Families said that of the 906 refugees who arrived in Kansas from October 2014 through January 2016, 68 were from Somalia, or 7.5 percent.

 

Garden City Mayor Chris Law said in a statement that he was shocked by the planned attack, and Birky called it "crazy."

 

Birky said most are fleeing militants in Somalia and want to assimilate once they reach Kansas.

 

"They're trying to make a better life for their families here," he said. "They want to pursue the American dream."

 

Friday's arrests and charges prompted the Council on American-Islamic Relations to call on state and federal law enforcement agencies across the nation to increase protection for mosques and other Islamic institutions. The group also cited reports of threats against a Michigan center and anti-Muslim graffiti at a New Jersey mosque.

 

"We ask our nation's political leaders, and particularly political candidates, to reject the growing Islamophobia in our nation," Nihad Awad, the group's national executive director, said in a statement.

 

The case is the latest involving militia groups in the state. Earlier this year, a planned armed protest outside a Wichita mosque prompted the Islamic Society of Wichita to cancel an appearance by a speaker whom protesters believed supported terrorism.

 

The Justice Department's National Security Division created a new position a year ago to help coordinate investigations into violent homegrown extremism, like the one that resulted in the three arrests.

 

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-10-15

[phantomfiddler]

A somali wanting to pursue "The American Dream" ? First step, nick a pair of running shoes :)

[user82374298374]

Yet another FBI-inspired 'plot' - they can't find any real ones, so they get informants to gen them up amongst the nutjobs, and then chest-thump about the 'plot' they 'uncovered'.

[Grubster]

There are millions of Americans trying to live the dream but are being displaced by immigrants who will work for less and less and less.

[ilostmypassword]

1 hour ago, Grubster said:

There are millions of Americans trying to live the dream but are being displaced by immigrants who will work for less and less and less.

Could put a stop to that by passing a decent minimum wage law.

[Grouse]

How depressing ?

[ivan96822]

19 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

Could put a stop to that by passing a decent minimum wage law.

Decent minimum wage?

 

Those of us who pursued knowledge and education are seemingly at risk of making the same amount of money as fast food employees who either dropped out of high school or came to the states illegally.

 

Forget raising minimum wage. Work for it. I had to write a 100 page thesis, go to graduate school, and work my ass off to earn $5,000 more per year than my counterparts.

 

Keep the minimum wage where it is. If they don't like it, go for a minimum wage that offers tips. That is more ambitious for those "hard workers."

[metisdead]

A nonsense post about the placement of this topic has been removed as well as a reply:

 

Quote

The World News forum is for news from countries around the world. The topics may be of interest to some of our members. Feel free to read and post that are of interest to you. Commenting on the source of stories and comments about stories not being related to Thailand is not permitted. It is off-topic and your post will be deleted.

 

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/724370-world-news-is-for-topics-not-related-to-thailand/#comment-7787856

 

[Grubster]

13 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

Could put a stop to that by passing a decent minimum wage law.

Yes they could but big corporate America will never allow that as I'm sure you know. $15 I think would turn the country around.

[ilostmypassword]

12 hours ago, ivan96822 said:

Decent minimum wage?

 

Those of us who pursued knowledge and education are seemingly at risk of making the same amount of money as fast food employees who either dropped out of high school or came to the states illegally.

 

Forget raising minimum wage. Work for it. I had to write a 100 page thesis, go to graduate school, and work my ass off to earn $5,000 more per year than my counterparts.

 

Keep the minimum wage where it is. If they don't like it, go for a minimum wage that offers tips. That is more ambitious for those "hard workers."

And Donald Trump agrees with you.

[sirineou]

a small sample from the basket of deplorables.  

[Johpa]

On 10/15/2016 at 6:34 AM, Grubster said:

There are millions of Americans trying to live the dream but are being displaced by immigrants who will work for less and less and less.

 

These are legal immigrants and US citizens.  They are taking low paying manual labor jobs that native born Americans who are unemployed are too effin lazy to take. You can raise the minimum wage all you want and most native born will still not do the repetitive tedious physical labor until it pays upper middle class incomes such as seen in the trade unions. In the past the jobs in the meat packing industry were indeed being taken by undocumented and thus illegal immigrants.  But these days you will find communities of legal immigrant refugees such as the Somalis and the Karen from Burma working hard, trying to live the American dream by providing opportunity to their children, and revitalizing these smaller rural communities.  No American is being displaced by these new Americans.  You are simply wrong!

[Grubster]

3 minutes ago, Johpa said:

 

These are legal immigrants and US citizens.  They are taking low paying manual labor jobs that native born Americans who are unemployed are too effin lazy to take. You can raise the minimum wage all you want and most native born will still not do the repetitive tedious physical labor until it pays upper middle class incomes such as seen in the trade unions. In the past the jobs in the meat packing industry were indeed being taken by undocumented and thus illegal immigrants.  But these days you will find communities of legal immigrant refugees such as the Somalis and the Karen from Burma working hard, trying to live the American dream by providing opportunity to their children, and revitalizing these smaller rural communities.  No American is being displaced by these new Americans.  You are simply wrong!

Well Well, I have a large meat packing house near my home, up until the 1980s when the union busting movement went into full swing the workers there could in fact live the American dream, they could actually afford to buy a modest home keep a nice car in the drive, buy nice clothes and shoes for their families, maybe even help their kid through college. They produced more products then per capita then the mexicans who replaced them do now even with the better tools now. These no good Americans were all laid off when they moved operations to a different plant. Then it was reopened with  nonunion mostly Mexican workers and many of the formerly well paid bums that had run out of unemployment benefits and couldn't find any other work. The community has been revitalized alright, We now have armed guards in the schools. Houses with multiple families in them. Most of these workers are on food stamps paid for by you. They do their shopping at the salvation army. Then two large companies in the town pulled up stakes and moved to Mexico putting another 5000 out of work, but not until they forced them to go to Mexico to train their counterparts to do their jobs, If they didn't go then they would get no unemployment benefits at all. The effort to break the unions has succeeded and I'm sure your happy, but just remember they don't like paying you either and I don't know what you do but trust me there are millions who can replace you for cheap. I sure am glad that no good union forced me to put 1/4th of my wages into the union pension that I draw 120,000 baht a month from now. Millions of good hard working Americans have lost their jobs by being replaced by lower wage workers and now millions more by greedy corporations moving overseas. You are simply Wrong.

[ilostmypassword]

24 minutes ago, Grubster said:

Well Well, I have a large meat packing house near my home, up until the 1980s when the union busting movement went into full swing the workers there could in fact live the American dream, they could actually afford to buy a modest home keep a nice car in the drive, buy nice clothes and shoes for their families, maybe even help their kid through college. They produced more products then per capita then the mexicans who replaced them do now even with the better tools now. These no good Americans were all laid off when they moved operations to a different plant. Then it was reopened with  nonunion mostly Mexican workers and many of the formerly well paid bums that had run out of unemployment benefits and couldn't find any other work. The community has been revitalized alright, We now have armed guards in the schools. Houses with multiple families in them. Most of these workers are on food stamps paid for by you. They do their shopping at the salvation army. Then two large companies in the town pulled up stakes and moved to Mexico putting another 5000 out of work, but not until they forced them to go to Mexico to train their counterparts to do their jobs, If they didn't go then they would get no unemployment benefits at all. The effort to break the unions has succeeded and I'm sure your happy, but just remember they don't like paying you either and I don't know what you do but trust me there are millions who can replace you for cheap. I sure am glad that no good union forced me to put 1/4th of my wages into the union pension that I draw 120,000 baht a month from now. Millions of good hard working Americans have lost their jobs by being replaced by lower wage workers and now millions more by greedy corporations moving overseas. You are simply Wrong.

The Republicans have certainly pursued a very successful union-busting agenda.

[kamahele]

On 10/15/2016 at 10:45 PM, ivan96822 said:

Decent minimum wage?

 

Those of us who pursued knowledge and education are seemingly at risk of making the same amount of money as fast food employees who either dropped out of high school or came to the states illegally.

 

Forget raising minimum wage. Work for it. I had to write a 100 page thesis, go to graduate school, and work my ass off to earn $5,000 more per year than my counterparts.

 

Keep the minimum wage where it is. If they don't like it, go for a minimum wage that offers tips. That is more ambitious for those "hard workers."

I'm sorry for you that you apparently chose a field of study that didn't pay off for you when you got out of University. Maybe you should go into some line of work that offers tips as you suggest, but before you do, you will want to note that restaurants are allowed to pay servers less than the minimum wage, making tips necessary just boost the pay to minimum wage.

[kamahele]

On 10/15/2016 at 8:34 PM, Grubster said:

There are millions of Americans trying to live the dream but are being displaced by immigrants who will work for less and less and less.

Not really. For the most part, immigrants are working jobs that Americans won't even apply for. Without immigrants, very little domestic fruit and vegetable production in America would even be possible. In this community, the immigrants are working in the slaughter house / meat processing plant. How many Americans are vying for that kind of work?

[Grubster]

8 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

The Republicans have certainly pursued a very successful union-busting agenda.

Yes they have, and the working class republican still thinks its the American worker that has brought this country to its knees. Now I guess you could say the American nonworker as the non minumum wage jobs are gone. Not that the Dems have done much better, they are in the pockets of the rich also. I feel that wall street runs our country now and it will never return to what it once was. Congress has sold its sole to the devil and the dream is over. Hey their not done yet, these guys making six figures are the enemy to the rich too, and they will be next on the chopping block. Rather than raise teachers salaries to attract better teachers they will beat them down too.

         I call the current minumum wage voluntary slavery. Those folks would be better off if they were slaves, at least they would not have to worry about, bills, transportation, medical care, food, etc. Oh well, happily retired in Thailand and the last generation of working class to be able to do that, much less take a vacation in their lifetime.