Terror Plots Less Isolated, More Connected

New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin is properly calling attention to the administration's strange and ultimately self-defeating tendency to call every terrorist attack an isolated incident. It's kind of like those ordinary criminal defense lawyers hanging around the courthouse arguing that their client is a good kid who merely got involved in bad crowd. If every kid is good, where does the bad crowd come from?

One of the most troubling tics of Team Obama is the frantic rush to declare that every terror attack on American soil is carried out by an isolated individual with no connection to al Qaeda or other groups. It was the gist of their rapid response to the failed airline bombing on Christmas Day, to the Fort Hood shooter and, most recently, to the plot by Faisal Shahzad to set off a car bomb in Times Square...

It's a reasonable theory, but it has a problem. The claims have been dead wrong in all three cases. Each "lone wolf" was quickly shown to have had contacts with or received training from a terror group abroad.

Suspected Times Square Car Bomber Arrested

[Again, as a result of other professional writing projects, we've been a bit behind on regular postings. Thanks for staying with us!]

Customs officers at JFK airport have arrested a naturalized American citizen originally from Pakistan for suspected involvement in the Times Square car bomb plot. The man apparently was trying to catch a flight to Dubai.

And sorry Mayor Bloomberg (and all the liberals in the media echo chamber), it is very unlikely that the suspect is a member of the Tea Party. According to the New York Post...

Federal charges of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction were pending. [The suspect] is believed to be only one of several people involved in the plot, and authorities are trying to determine if he has ties to foreign groups -- possibly including al Qaeda.

As it happens, we were in NYC on business for several days last week, not too far from the Times Square area. It is sobering that ordinary Americans just going out their daily lives are at risk for acts of terror.