London Police Searching Terror Suspects Million $ Apartment - In Other Words: Poverty & Lack of Education Does Not Equal Crime

Detroit Bomber -- Failed Terror Attempt To Bring Down Airliner

ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) - An attempted terrorist attack on a Christmas Day flight began with a pop and a puff of smoke - sending passengers scrambling to subdue a Nigerian man who claimed to be acting on orders from al-Qaida to blow up the airliner, officials and travelers said.

The commotion began as Northwest Airlines Flight 253, carrying 278 passengers and 11 crew members from Amsterdam, prepared to land in Detroit just before noon Friday. Travelers said they smelled smoke, saw a glow, and heard what sounded like firecrackers. At least one person climbed over others and jumped on the man, who officials say was trying to ignite an explosive device.

"It sounded like a firecracker in a pillowcase," said Peter Smith, a passenger from the Netherlands. "First there was a pop, and then (there) was smoke."

Smith said one passenger, sitting opposite the man, climbed over passengers, went across the aisle and tried to restrain the man. The heroic passenger appeared to have been burned.

Afterward, the suspect was taken to a front-row seat with his pants cut off and his legs burned. Multiple law enforcement officials also said the man appeared badly burned on his legs, indicating the explosive was strapped there. The components were apparently mixed in-flight and included a powdery substance, multiple law enforcement and counterterrorism officials said.

The White House said it believed it was an attempted act of terrorism and stricter security measures were quickly imposed on airline travel. Dutch anti-terrorism authorities said the U.S. has asked all airlines to take extra precautions on flights worldwide that are bound for the United States.

The incident was reminiscent of Richard Reid, who tried to destroy a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 with explosives hidden in his shoes, but was subdued by other passengers.

Multiple law enforcement officials identified the suspect in Friday's attempted attack as Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab. He was described as Nigerian. ...[more]...

Detroit... via Steven Crowder (Ode to the Leftist)

Detroit: My Home Town -- Liberalism and Liberalation Theology On Display

(This is a Daimnation h/t)

Detroit: Urban Laboratory and the New American Frontier NB: This post is intended to be provocative.

The troubles of Detroit are well-publicized. Its economy is in free fall, people are streaming for the exits, it has the worst racial polarization and city-suburb divide in America, its government is feckless and corrupt (though I should hasten to add that new Mayor Bing seems like a basically good guy and we ought to give him a chance), and its civic boosters, even ones that are extremely knowledgeable, refuse to acknowledge the depth of the problems, instead ginning up stats and anecdotes to prove all is not so bad.

But as with Youngstown, one thing this massive failure has made possible is ability to come up with radical ideas for the city, and potentially to even implement some of them. Places like Flint and Youngstown might be attracting new ideas and moving forward, but it is big cities that inspire the big, audacious dreams. And that is Detroit. Its size, scale, and powerful brand image are attracting not just the region’s but the world’s attention. It may just be that some of the most important urban innovations in 21st century America end up coming not from Portland or New York, but places like Youngstown and, yes, Detroit.

Let’s refresh with this image showing the scale of the challenge in the city of Detroit proper:

There are zillions of pictures to illustrate the vast emptiness in Detroit. Kaid Benfield at NRDC posted these:

This phenomenon is prompted someone to coin the term “urban prairie” to capture the idea of vast tracts of formerly urbanized land returning to nature. The folks at Detroit’s best discussion site, DetroitYES, posted this before and after of the St. Cyril neighborhood. Before:

After:

A site named “Sweet Juniper” recently had a fantastic photo of the spontaneous creation of “desire line” paths across all this vacant land. You should click to enlarge this photo.

One natural response is the “shrinking cities” movement. While this has gotten traction in Youngstown and Flint, as well as in places like Germany, it is Detroit that provides the most large scale canvas on which to see this play out, as well as the place where some of the most comprehensive and radical thinking is taking place. For example, the American Institute of Architects produced a study that called for Detroit to shrink back to its urban core and a selection of urban villages, surrounded by greenbelts and banked land. Here’s a picture of their concept:

Detroit Imama -- H. Rap Brown... Radicalism In Other Forms

FBI: Former H. Rap Brown leads violent sect from prison

Islamic hate group involved in theft, firearms offenses

A Detroit imam shot and killed Wednesday in a gunfight with federal agents belonged to a Muslim separatist sect led by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, better known as 1960s militant H. Rap Brown, according to a federal complaint filed Wednesday.

Al-Amin is serving a life sentence at Supermax, a federal facility in Colorado known as the country’s most secure. The prison also houses an al-Qaida terrorist and Centennial Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph. Al-Amin was convicted of killing a Fulton County sheriff’s deputy in March 2000 and wounding his partner.
[...]

Luqman Ameen Abdullah, imam of the Masjid Al-Haqq mosque in Detroit, was killed Wednesday after he pulled a gun on federal agents arresting him on federal charges including conspiracy, receipt of stolen goods and firearms offenses.

Charges were also filed Wednesday against 11 of Abdullah’s followers.
[...more...]

- Source / Full Story: FBI: Former H. Rap Brown leads violent sect from prison, Christian Boone, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Oct. 29, 2009 — Summarized by Religion News Blog

The FBI is trying to determine whether members of a radical Detroit-area Islamic group were homegrown jihadists or merely a “bunch of thugs with bluster,” a congressman said Thursday. One thing is certain: They are not mainstream Muslims, the agency said.

Luqman Ameen Abdullah skimmed 20 percent of the profit off the furs, electronics and other items his followers fenced, and he preached that it was OK for them to steal as long as they prayed, FBI agent Gary Leone wrote in an affidavit filed with a criminal complaint against 11 group members.
[...]

The FBI says Abdullah, also known as Christopher Thomas, was an imam, or prayer leader, of a local faction of Ummah, a group that seeks to establish an Islamic state within the U.S. Authorities say Abdullah preached hate for the government and encouraged his followers to commit violence, especially against police and federal agents.

According to the affidavit, Abdullah told a confidential FBI source that if the government messed with him, “it will be straight up war.”

Andrew Arena, the head of the FBI’s Detroit office, stressed Thursday that Abdullah’s mosque, Masjid Al-Haqq, was in no way representative of the Detroit area’s large Muslim community.

“This is a very hybrid radical ideology. I don’t know that I’d call it a religion,” Arena said.
[...more...]

- Source / Full Story: Feds investigating Detroit Islamic group’s motives, Ed White, AP via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Oct. 29, 2009 — Summarized by Religion News Blog

Islamo-Fascism Festering in Ghettos

See my earlier post: "Worse Than the Black Panthers"
Libertarian Republican import

Al Qaeda-like Sleeper Cell busted in Detroit: Leader shot and killed in Raid

On Wednesday the FBI raided a warehouse on the outskirts of Detroit. From the FBI press release:

[Charged were] Luqman Ameen Abdullah, a.k.a.Christopher Thomas, and 10 others with conspiracy to commit several federal crimes, including theft from interstate shipments, mail fraud to obtain the proceeds of arson, illegal possession and sale of firearms, and tampering with motor vehicle identification numbers. The eleven defendants are members of a group that is alleged to have engaged in violent activity over a period of many years, and known to be armed.

A fierce gun fight ensued. Abdullah shot at officers. An FBI canine was killed. The officers then shot and killed Abdullah.

The report suggests Abdullah was allegedly planning and conspiring to lead a nationwide Jihad against American non-believers. The report notes: the case alleges Abdullah "calls his followers to an offensive jihad."

The Detroit Free Press took "A look at group's alleged targets," which included Atlanta and DC:

While in Atlanta, Abdullah said of their police officers: "Their department will have a bad day when they deal with me."

• "Abdullah informed" an undercover agent "that a member of his community in Detroit had shot police officers."

He referred to Washington as a possible target.

Further background from FBI report:

Abdullah was the leader of part of a group which calls themselves Ummah (“the brotherhood”), a group of mostly African-American converts to Islam, which seeks to establish a separate Sharia-law governed state within the United States. The Ummah is ruled by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rapp Brown, who is serving a state sentence in USP Florence, CO, ADMAX, for the murder of two police officers in Georgia. As detailed in the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint that was unsealed today, Abdullah has espoused the use of violence against law enforcement, and has trained members of his group in use of firearms and martial arts in anticipation of some type of action against the government. Abdullah and other members of this group were known to carry firearms and other weapons.

Additionally, the libertarian blog Gates of Vienna has learned that Abdullah was also a member of a national "Agenda driven" Muslim group called Mana. The group has a national network of imams leading masjids in 20 different muncipalaties including: Philadelphia, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Atlanta, DC/Northern Virginia, and New York. All subscribe in general, to the same radical Jihadist views as Abdullah.

"Worse Than the Black Panthers" -- Detroit Mosque

News Photographer Assaulted Outside Michigan Mosque

Detroit in the Hiznouse! Monica Conyers Is Ghetto

Monica Conyers is


Detroit: Conyers Offered Plea in Corruption Case


Monica Conyers debates school children

MONICA CONYERs Detroit 2009. Monica Conyers calls in ! WXYT Detroit Radio. Valenti and Foster Show.