One of the more recent developments in the War on Terror has been the recent developments of Muslims in the United States acting in small ways, taking actions that, taken alone, are not terribly suspicious — but all part of the overall profile of terrorists. We saw it in the case of the Flying Imams, where it was almost as if they had read the profile of typical terrorist actions on an airliner and used it as a checklist: moving from assigned seating to those with more strategic usefulness; asking for seatbelt extenders that they did not need and did not use as designed, instead keeping them at hand; loud and prominent political statements; loud and prominent religious proclamations; moving freely about the cabin; and, in general, acted pretty much like we believe would-be hijackers would act.
And now that they were confronted and removed from the plane, we have the inevitable cries of “racism” and “Islamophobia” and whatnot.
And now in Massachusetts, we have a smaller-scale version of that apparently playing itself out.
In Boston, a would-be truckdriver has been arrested by the FBI. He didn’t do any one thing that was overly wrong, but just like the Flying Imams, his profile and the totality of his actions added up to far more than the simple sum:
1) Muslim;
2) Male;
3) Age between 18 and 40;
4) Here on an expired visa;
5) Learning how to drive a tractor trailer;
6) Showed little interest in backing up safely;
7) Possessed driver’s licenses from three different states.
(As far as points 5 and 6 go, remember the 9/11 hijackers’ eagerness to learn how to fly airliners — but not how to land them.)
The unnamed fellow is currently in custody. Whether he was a would-be terrorist, a wannabe, or just “testing the waters” to see how far he could push things before alerting authorities, he’s got a LOT of explaining to do.
And once again, we see that the best weapon to detect potential terrorists is an informed and alert populace.
