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Accused "Terror" Ringleader: I Smoked Pot Before Bust
More evidence that those four guys arrested last night for a plot to blow up synagogues in New York weren't exactly fearsome, highly-trained terrorists.
NBC4 reports:
The ringleader of the four-man homegrown terror cell accused of a plotting to blow up synagogues in the Bronx and military planes in Newburgh admitted to a judge today that he had smoked pot before his bust last night.When U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa M. Smith asked James Cromatie (sic) if his judgment was impaired during his appearance in federal court in White Plains, the 55-year confessed: "No. I smoke it regularly...I understand everything you are saying."
Sources tell TPMmuckraker that it is indeed possible to understand straightforward questions after having smoked pot. Still, having a stoner for a ringleader doesn't exactly go along with the image of a dangerous, well-coordinated terrorist ring that the FBI and NYPD have tried to present.
After all, Muhammad Atta may have been unable to resist a few drinks and a trip to a Floida strip club just before 9/11, but, after years of intense planning, it's hard to imagine him showing up stoned on the big day.
Frankly, the more we learn about this "plot", the more sketchy and pathetic it seems.
Josh
Zachary
Something smells something funny about this bust. Maybe it's the weed.
May 21, 2009 4:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well then, I have a straightforward question for your sources...
Why does the porridge bird lay its eggs in the air?
May 21, 2009 7:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wait, I know this one...ooh...ooh...
Because we're all bozos on this bus?
May 21, 2009 7:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I said it before, I'll say it again: the FBI loves to create terrorists out of whole cloth. they'll incite people of weak willpower to commit crimes and then trumpet, "a-ha, we just caught some scary people." that these folks would never have done anything near what the FBI pushed them into doing without the FBI's prodding and material help seems to escape law and order types who clap when they see headlines about twarted plans. even Josh here was concerned that this group was "operational"
May 21, 2009 4:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
What, you don't think Mohammed Atta took a huge bong-hit before he boarded that plane on 9/11?
Haven't you people seen "Reefer Madness"?
May 21, 2009 4:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
This whole episode reminds me of DEA busts... (and not just because pot is involved here too). Have you ever noticed that every time someone would talk about slashing the DEA budget, they would make some random, huge bust? And there would be much trumpeting of the bust as if to say, "See! We really are doing something!"
Well there's that and the salivating media. There are Pavlovian words... Terrorist, Shark, Sex Scandal... And this is before Fox's nightime line-up has even hit the air!
May 21, 2009 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ewww... there's cigarette tobacco in that spliff at the top of the page. Its the light-brown coloured stuff.
Just sayin'
May 21, 2009 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thought I was the only one who noticed that.
May 21, 2009 5:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Might be a combination of the two, which apparently is done in Europe and elsewhere (or so I'm told).
May 21, 2009 7:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
So much for legalization.
May 21, 2009 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Sources", huh?
May 21, 2009 4:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was thinking the same thing when I read that -- as the word sources really needed to have quotation marks around it and maybe a little winky emoticon next to it.
May 21, 2009 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unnamed, yet!
May 21, 2009 10:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I do not think that regular use of cannabis, in and of itself, can be considered indicative of either an individuals ability or their propensity, to carry out a complex terror plot.
May 21, 2009 4:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Words
May 21, 2009 7:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
heh
May 21, 2009 10:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have to now wonder about the timing of this bust related to today's Obama/Cheney death-match and the fear-mongering to which Obama alluded and which we all know was BushCo's only secret for success. Obviously, Cheney still has many friends in high places, and the notion that this sting was "force-fed" to culminate in last night's action, hours before Cheney was scheduled to sell his potent snake oil, is not so far-fetched.
Maybe these are the dead-enders that Cheney is so familiar with...
May 21, 2009 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I had the same thought. Since the "plot" seems to have been, er, nurtured by the FBI, there's no reason they couldn't choose the timing of the arrests too. And here in the New York area, the media has been happy to play along.
May 21, 2009 11:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
his dealer is FUCKED.
May 21, 2009 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Remember that "assassin" and "hashish" are etymologically connected.
May 21, 2009 4:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
And pot rhymes with plot.
May 21, 2009 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually that is true. Hashish was smoked by assasins prior to a job.
Today you smoke it inbetween halo games. Evolution
May 21, 2009 8:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
You do know that the Hashashin tale is not likely true...don't you? Although this legend gave rise to the word assassin, the skill with which these people got about business more than suggests that they wouldn't risk being loaded when sent to do the deed they were trained for.
What I was getting at in this ancient thread is that nonsense was employed to make it seem like a star spangled attack was foiled again.
It was a clump of goofs that was rounded up.
May 28, 2009 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
This just goes to show what happens when pot gets into the hands of people who don't have X-Boxes.
May 21, 2009 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I understand and appreciate the drug humor and the legitimate questions about the ability of these men to have pulled off their plans without FBI/NYPD assistance, but they obviously had the motivation and the ruthless temerity to attempt to kill innocent people, cause widespread destruction, and sow terror in the hearts of our people. I'm glad they were thwarted, regardless of the circumstances, and I think we should take this plot seriously, and we should try to understand what drove them to violent actions so that we can create a world without terror. And regardless of how much any agency aided them, they deserve punishment if they are convicted of these heinous crimes.
May 21, 2009 6:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
A thorough terrorist leaves no turn unstoned!
May 21, 2009 6:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pfft. This is the biggest bunch of hooey I've ever heard. Cheney has so many moles still in position that Obama ought to just purge entire agencies.
Enjoy.
May 21, 2009 7:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I live very close to the scene of this alleged terrorist plot in Riverdale, and there are some questions I'd like answered.
Why were there press on the scene within minutes of the "bust"?
Why did the NY Daily News have a fully sourced article, with background, online within an hour of the bust?
How on earth did these numbskulls make the leap from Twin Towers to synagogue in Riverdale?
Cynicism aside, it is chilling to think that I might have been one of the people they talked about shooting in the head.
May 22, 2009 12:18 AM | Reply | Permalink