Fort Dix Judge Hates Love

Yesterday was the arraignment for the Fort Dix Six, the men accused of plotting just a really dumb terrorist attack by attacking an army base and then strolling out unharmed and unnoticed. All six men pled not guilty, the trial will begin in October, etc., etc.

Of course, while in the courtroom people are innocent until proven guilty, on the Internet they are most certainly always guilty. And Judge Robert B. Kugler made sure these men couldn’t express feelings for family members.

Several defendants, shackled at the waist and wearing olive prison jumpsuits, motioned and smiled to family members in the packed courtroom, and some mouthed words to them. One defendant, Serdar Tatar, mouthed, “I love you,” to a group in the back row, including two sobbing women.

Kugler admonished both the defendants and their families, who communicated in turn.

“That will be the last time that happens in this courtroom,” he said.

Cupid was later held in contempt by Kugler and fined $1,000.

An Oct. trial for Ft. Dix Six [Inquirer]

Chris Freind: President Bush The Real Hero Here

Writing about the Fort Dix terrorist plot, America’s Greatest Columnist Chris Freind lets us know who the real hero of the day is: President Bush.

Perhaps most deserving of credit - President Bush. While he has done many things wrong, and is justifiably criticized for his mistakes, too often he is not credited when things go right under his leadership. This is such a case.

I don’t doubt President Bush deserves a little credit here; after all, he is the president and the FBI did capture these alleged terrorists. But, ah, maybe you want to reserve the majority of the credit for, oh, I don’t know, the people who actually did something?

‘Fort Dix Six’? Look At Illegal Immigration [The Bulletin]

Circuit City Clerk Continues To Receive Accolades

The heroic Circuit City employee who turned in the tape of a terrorist training plan — oh, what cunning terrorists, sending in their Islamic terrorist tape to be dubbed on to a DVD — continues to shun media attention, perhaps aware there are other stupid terrorists out there.

But that hasn’t stopped onlookers of the heroic clerk from showering him with praise:

“I’d hug him, I’d kiss him, even if he is a guy,” shopper Warren Young of Cherry Hill said. “This is a time when our rights have to be compromised. I’m glad that guy is looking at (the training video).”

Praise Allah! But I can’t help but sympathize with this poor clerk, who won’t even get the residuals from the Law & Order episode based on this event next season.

‘Hero’ shuns media glare [Camden Courier-Post]

Just What The Feds Needed: Circuit City Employee

Unbelievably, the worker who saved the United States from another terrorist attack wasn’t your average slacker, a person you might hope could rise up in tense situations (i.e. a plan for a terrorist attack comes in on a VHS tape) and make the correct move (i.e. tell the police).

No, he wasn’t just a bored Blockbuster employee, he was a Circuit City worker! Yes, a man from one of our nation’s fine big box hellholes managed to save the world, or at least Fort Dix.

You could say someone was using his “Idea Box,” but that’s a commercial associated with Best Buy, not Circuit City.

The Star-Ledger’s Dunstan McNichol reports:

Five television news trucks and about a dozen reporters and photographers descended on the store this morning, hoping to interview the clerk who cracked the alleged plot. Store officials declined to comment. Mount Laurel police officers forbade reporters from interviewing shoppers heading in and out of the store.

Good to see Mount Laurel police are really doing a bang-up job there. Circuit City declined to make the employee available for comment, which can only mean one thing: He was one of the 3500 employees laid off.

Circuit City to Cut More Than 3,500 Jobs [AP/Yahoo!]
Circuit City clerk alerted authorities to alleged plot [The Star-Ledger Blog]
Earlier today: Mt. Laurel Video Store Clerk Did Not Appreciate Ruse

Mt. Laurel Video Store Clerk Did Not Appreciate Ruse

As you may have heard yesterday — and as apparently people flocked to this very blog to see — the feds busted up a terrorist plot to attack Fort Dix and other locations.

The plot was uncovered by by a particularly sharp video store clerk, who pretty much gave all video store clerks a good name with his heroic smart deed.

The Daily News reports in one of the paper’s five reporters-on-one story specials:

U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie said at a news conference yesterday at the federal court in Camden that it was an “unsung hero,” a clerk in a Mount Laurel, N.J., store, who probably spared the country the horror of another terror attack.

The clerk was so disturbed by a video that the store was being asked to transfer to a DVD that he or she notified the police.

The video showed a group of men firing weapons at a firing range in the Poconos and shouting for jihad (holy war) and “Allah Akbar!” — “God is great” in Arabic.

The Mount Laurel police notified the FBI, launching a 16-month investigation that uncovered the murder plot and led to the arrests of the normal-seeming good neighbors.

Gee! That was a little suspicious? Later, the clerk also uncovered another plot when he found a “Vancouver Olympic Bombing preparations” home movie some Quebec independence zealots brought in to have transferred.

‘WE DODGED A BULLET’ [Daily News]