“Three Muslim Males Walk Into MEPS Building, Seattle, Washington, And Gun Down Everybody.”
[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here. Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]
That is, fortunately, not a true headline, but the imagined headline of two brain surgeons (note: sarcasm) who were arrested before they could carry out a massacre:
Two ex-convicts planned an attack on a Seattle military recruiting station hoping that it would get attention from the media, authorities say, and even imagined the headlines: “Three Muslim Males Walk Into MEPS Building, Seattle, Washington, And Gun Down Everybody.”
Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, also known as Joseph Anthony Davis, 33, of Seattle, was arrested Wednesday when he and another man showed up at a warehouse garage to pick up machine guns they planned to use in the attack, authorities said Thursday. The weapons had been rendered inoperable by federal agents and posed no risk to the public.
Authorities learned of the plot this month when a third person recruited to participate alerted Seattle police, according to court documents. Agents then set up the sting through the confidential informant, who had known Abdul-Latif for years.
And reading that story, I thought to myself, “like as if that would be the headline.” I mean of course no news paper would say “and gun down everybody”—they would more generically (and accurately) refer to it as a massacre, or say “X persons killed by gunmen” and so on. But the really incorrect claim is that their faith would be mentioned in the headline. The media is positively reticent when it comes to mentioning the religion of such killers and attempted killers, in the middle of a war against an enemy that explicitly states that it is motivated by the Islamic faith.
As James Taranto wrote recently about the man who created a bomb scare at the Pentagon:
We learn from the CBS story that Melaku is a lance corporal in the Marine Reserves. The Associated Press adds that he is a naturalized American citizen, originally from Ethiopia. CBS also reports that “Melaku was carrying a notebook that contained the phrases ‘al Qaeda,’ ‘Taliban rules’ and ‘Mujahid defeated croatian forces’ when he was detained,” but “that the suspect is not thought to have been involved in a terrorist act or plot.”
All of which raises an obvious question–but one that goes unanswered in the reports from CBS and AP, as well as others from ABC News and the Washington Post. We could only find one news organization that had the answer: Fox News Channel, which reports that Maliku is Muslim.
Now, it’s possible that Fox simply got a scoop here, but our guess is that this fact was omitted from the other reports because of the politically correct taboo against making a connection between Islam and terrorism. It’s analogous to the case we cited Monday in which the Chicago Tribune refused to mention the race of the members of “groups of youths” who had been attacking people in a downtown neighborhood, but it’s worse. Whereas race is not necessarily relevant to the motive of the Chicago attacks, religion almost always is when a Muslim commits an act of terrorism or a related crime.
Do I have to tell you to read the whole thing?
James Taranto argues that part of the motivation is so that non-Muslims don’t conclude that all Muslims are terrorists or something like that. And that is surely right, but incomplete. Surely they are also concerned about making Muslims feel they are being stereotyped. But the fact that our media goes to such great lengths to avoid even mentioning a person’s religion when talking about terrorism motivated by a breed of Islam and yet these knuckleheads still thought the headlines would mention their faith, leads you to question how effective it all is.
Hey guys, why don’t you just report the news and let us make up our own minds?
[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]
Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif
Wingnut, conservative, Christian Tea-Partier, no doubt.
dfbaskwill (ca54bb) — 6/27/2011 @ 7:20 amBecause the media thinks normal Americans are too stupid to make up their own minds, so the MSM is sure it can do the thinking for us.
Tell me again who the idiots are supposed to be here.
KingShamus (aac563) — 6/27/2011 @ 7:29 amThis failure report relevant facts in these cases has become quite a pattern. How many times has this happened in, say, the last year, or even two years? Perhaps a list should be formed and updated.
Wish I could remember all of them, but I recall the press neglecting to “mention” the NYC attempted van bomb. Then there was Fort Hood. I know there have been several more. Anybody else want to help?
cap'n john's nephew (28dda5) — 6/27/2011 @ 7:45 amThe most underreported story of a jihad- motivated attack was the killing of Pvt William Long outside an Arkansas recruiting center.
The killer had been to Yemen to train. The Obama administration did not even mention the incident, although Obama did release a statement on the murder of Dr George Tiller, which happened about the same time.
MayBee (081489) — 6/27/2011 @ 7:52 amJames’ final observation on this subject bears repeating:
LarryD (feb78b) — 6/27/2011 @ 8:22 ambecause you’re just not smart enough to understand the nuances of the
The MFM (fb8750) — 6/27/2011 @ 8:37 ammemestory.The LSM: Bringing down Amerika one lie at a time.
AD-RtR/OS! (762310) — 6/27/2011 @ 10:09 amYou got me with the headline, Aaron. Wow. Heart skipped a beat, which I guess is a good thing, as I’m not prepared to accept this as the new normal.
Thank God they caught these guys.
It used to be the case that a few soldiers could carry weapons if their commander authorized it. Since a lot of MEPS are in Federal buildings or large urban post offices, it’s not like there aren’t any weapons in the area. Regardless, this is one of the potential battlegrounds, and it’s important they are armed. And it’s important we know they are armed, because these cowards chose the target because they had a perception it was unarmed.
You’re right about the importance of the media giving us the facts about our enemy’s beliefs, of course.
Dustin (c16eca) — 6/27/2011 @ 10:26 amThe first step in preparing the battlefield, is having it declared a “Gun-Free Zone”!
AD-RtR/OS! (762310) — 6/27/2011 @ 10:30 amAD, it blows my mind that some people think gun free zones are safer. But gun free zones that are symbols of the US Military? There’s no way anyone thinks that safer. I think Bush really dropped the ball by not reversing this policy.
I’m not asking for a M2 in the middle of every recruiting office, but absolutely recruiters should be armed these days.
Dustin (c16eca) — 6/27/2011 @ 10:34 amMaj. Hassan loves gun-free zones.
AD-RtR/OS! (762310) — 6/27/2011 @ 11:14 amBut, Yes!
You’re correct.
Every recruiter should have an M-9 on his hip, or under his arm-pit.
It’s what the well-dressed combat soldier wears until he completely “gears up”.
Dustin
in the twitter, i made sure to note that the headline wasn’t real.
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 6/27/2011 @ 11:16 amAD, it also conveys the reality that we are at war, and our military is ultimately protecting the homeland. If a recruit is scared off by that concept, he probably shouldn’t consider a military career, but I think it would have the reverse impact. Seeing that our recruiters need to protect themselves, even in your hometown, should be enough to inspire many great Americans to want to help.
Dustin (c16eca) — 6/27/2011 @ 11:18 amI was an effective headline! It just kinda caught me off guard.
And why shouldn’t people contemplate that this kind of horrible attack remains a very real possibility. I don’t know why terrorists are so stupid, other than divine intervention, but that’s all that seems to be stopping them until we make clear our recruiters are not unarmed.
Dustin (c16eca) — 6/27/2011 @ 11:20 amAnd yet Obama was not shocked and outraged about the murder of William Long.
Michael Ejercito (64388b) — 6/27/2011 @ 11:36 amThe fact that the libmedia refuses to name that religion (the same way it omits party identification when the perp is a liberal/progressive democrat) shows that the media really does believe in the connection but is too cowardly to be honest. Imagine that the suspects got away and there was a manhunt and request for information from the public put out by DHS/FBI? What would the lamestream media report:
eaglewingz08 (74f660) — 6/27/2011 @ 2:56 pmThree Males aged 33 years old, black hair, brown eyes, and their respective heights and weights? To list their ethnicity, race (sic), and/or religion would be racist/islamophobic? This is why 95 year old wheelchair bound women get TSA officials prying off their depends. It is national security turned upside down as only democraps can do.
Probably just some guys upset about the healthcare law or something.–Nurse Bloomberg
Major Kong (f4574f) — 6/27/2011 @ 8:57 pmSadly, Eaglewings, I think the GOP has some blame too.
Today, the buck stops on Obama’s desk. That poor old lady who has been associated with what should be a private undignified thing like her Depends is 100% Obama’s fault. He’s the guy to stop it.
But this security theater rolled out in a serious way when Bush took over. No, I don’t think it was quite as bad then, and to be sure, democrats were largely on board.
Anyway, it disgusts me that the TSA is compromising the rights of fellow Americans. We should get restrictions on planes back to 9/10/2001 levels, but keep the reinforced doors, and perhaps educated passengers on the need to immediately work together to resist any psychos.
Dustin (c16eca) — 6/27/2011 @ 9:02 pm