Slate | The two men arrested in New York this week for attempting to travel to
Syria to fight for ISIS might at first seem to be a confirmation of the
warnings often voiced by politicians and law enforcement
that the group poses a threat not just in the Middle East but to the
U.S. homeland. These were, after all, young men radicalized through the
Internet who expressed a desire to either travel to Syria to wage war or
carry out attacks at home. But a Times story this week
under the wonderful headline “Eager to Join ISIS, if Only His Mother
Would Return His Passport,” is pretty reassuring about the actual level
of threat the group poses to the U.S.
The fact that this plot to wage holy war against the infidel depended
on 19-year-old Akhror Saidakhmetov being able to sweet-talk his mom
into giving him back his passport isn’t the only indication in the FBI’s case against the men, released just after their arrest, that we aren’t exactly dealing with future Bin Ladens here.
The men first popped onto the FBI’s radar when Abdurasul Juraboev
wrote a post on an Uzbek-language website last August saying that he
wanted to shoot Barack Obama and asking whether he could swear his
loyalty to ISIS in absentia. When the FBI paid a visit to him, he not
only acknowledged writing the post and acknowledged a desire to fight
for ISIS and kill Obama, he put it in writing and identified
Saidakhmetov as someone who shared his ambitions.
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