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| Home Front: WoT |
| Feds Bag El Paso Terror Suspect |
| 2004-04-26 |
| The DOJ is touting the role of the Patriot Act in streamlining the investigation. It is also a pointed reminder to Islamo apologists that the Act works both ways, not that terror-symps will care, since they know that the most effective terrorists are on their side. FEDERAL AUTHORITIES ARREST TEXAS MAN FOR MAKING BIAS-MOTIVATED THREAT ON TEXAS ISLAMIC CENTER Patriot Act Used To Address Threat In Near-Real Time WASHINGTON, D.C.- The Department of Justice today announced the arrest of an El Paso man allegedly responsible for threatening to destroy an area Islamic Center. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights R. Alexander Acosta and United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas Johnny Sutton announced the arrest of Jared Bjarnason for allegedly sending a threat to the El Paso Islamic Center on April 18, 2004. Bjarnason, a 30-year-old resident of El Paso, Texas, was arrested yesterday following a complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. The complaint charges the defendant with sending an electronic mail message to the Islamic Center threatening violence against the Center and its members. Specifically, the message threatened to burn the Islamic Centerâs mosque to the ground, if hostages held in Iraq were not freed within three days. In investigating the threat, the El Paso office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation employed a provision of the USA PATRIOT Act, which permits providers of electronic mail services to provide electronic communications directly to law enforcement officials âif the provider reasonably believes that an emergency involving immediate danger of death or serious physical injury to any person justifies disclosure of the information.â Absent this provision, investigating authorities would have had to obtain a separate search warrant from each service provider through whose system the e-mail traveled, a process which could have taken over 30 days. With the Patriot Actâs authority, agents were able to address the threat in near-real time. The defendant is scheduled to have an initial appearance today before U.S. Magistrate Richard P. Mesa at 2:00 p.m. MT. The crime charged is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine. The defendant is considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. This Bjarnason doesnât sound like the brightest bulb on the tree, first for sending his threat by traceable e-mail, and secondly for threatening a mosque rather than....a more relevant target. The latter point is a good indicator that he doesnât have a clue what is really going on and it is very doubtful whether he could have carried out his threat. Texas has a state law against making terroristic threats but violations are only a misdemeanor offense. |
| Posted by:Atomic Conspiracy |
| #2 This Bjarnson must be king nitwit. If there is a specific Islamofacist cleric fomenting violence and approving hostage-taking, then let some of the more shadowy parts of the government help him have "An Accident" and quietly dissappear, hopefully not on US Soil. (This is work for the CIA or an equivalent organization) But making a mosque blow up would be prime Al-Jazzera fodder, and thus counterproductive. |
| Posted by: Anonymous4052 2004-04-26 12:53:59 PM |
| #1 "More KKKrushing of dissent in John AshKKKroft's AmeriKKKa! The Patriot Act is used again to silence--" "Uh, excuse me, pardon the interruption, but the guy threatened to blow up a mosque. Don't you want guys that blow things up prosecuted, even if you are against the war?" "Oh, uh, well, um . . . hey, look over there, it's the Enron scandal!" |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-04-26 12:27:45 PM |