Three of the six Fort Dix terror suspects are in the United States illegally, so I thought I'd look at how three major metropolitan newspapers reported that fact in today's papers.
Looking through coverage in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, I found that the first two put mention of the illegal immigration status of the Duka brothers one-quarter of the way through their respective articles, while the Post buried the mention more than halfway through the article, paragraph 14 out of 26 to be exact.
Here's how each paper reported the illegal status of three of the suspects:
Los Angeles Times (paragraphs 8-9 of 36)
The suspects include three brothers, ethnic Albanians from the former Yugoslavia: Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka.
[U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Christopher] Christie said they were living illegally in the United States and working at a roofing business in Cherry Hill.
New York Times (paragraph 7 of 28):
Mr. Duka, and two others, Eljvir Duka and Shain Duka — all three of whom are brothers — are in the United States illegally, Mr. Christie said.
Washington Post (paragraph 14 of 26):
Three defendants are ethnic Albanian brothers from the former Yugoslavia who operated a roofing business in Cherry Hill and lived in the United States illegally: Eljvir Duka, 23, Dritan Duka, 28, and Shain Duka, 26. A sixth defendant, Agron Abdullahu, 24, also an ethnic Albanian born in the former Yugoslavia, is charged with helping the Dukas illegally obtain firearms.
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I guess they are concerned ab
May 9, 2007 - 10:34 ET by Gat New YorkI guess they are concerned about profiling of Muslims. What is very troubling is that we seem to be regressing back to the complacency of the '90s regarding the terrorist threat. We are becoming more concerned with the rights of these loons than our own safety.
Many have written that these guys were not smart or sophisticated enough to actually commit the kind of act we had on 9/11.
If airport screeners been operating with stricter standards they would have found a bunch Arabs equipped with only box cutters - no AK-47s or homemade bombs. What if Richard Reid was able to light that match? Would we be making light of what he did then? It does not take much for a group of these people to walk into a shopping mall on a holiday weekend or into a popular family restaurant and commit one of these acts. They thrive on the unknown and the possibility of terror associated with that. For those in New York City they might remember the Son of Sam and how the unknown threat of his appearance anywhere nearly paralyzed the city.
Were these guys capable of an act of terror? The answer is Absolutely. Because if that is not the answer then we are inviting more terror acts.
"...we are inviting more
May 9, 2007 - 11:25 ET by Ten7s"...we are inviting more terror acts..."
If not inviting, we've at least left the door WIDE open. Roughly 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 million illegals cross the border every year from Mexico. Let's use the low number. About 10% or so (probably more like 20% but let's lowball) are other-than-Mexican (OTM), so there are about 150,000 OTM illegals every year. Most are from Central and South America but a sizable proportion are from other countries and a significant amount of those are from traditionally Muslim countries. Let's use a very low estimate say 1% of OTMs are serious Muslims. That's still 15,000 EVERY YEAR. What percentage of those are likely terrorists? Now that's the question. Let's really lowball it, say 000.25%; that's 3,750 possible terrorists per year. Let's say this has only been going on for the past 5 years. That's 18,750. Wow, let's say that I've overestimated by a huge margin. So let's cut that in half to 9,375 hardcore terrorists. And let's not even get into what gets smuggled. Bottom line, the door is WIDE open...
The Former Yugoslavia
May 9, 2007 - 12:08 ET by PShannonAlbania was never a part of Yugoslavia.
After the Second Balkan War, in 1914, the Ottomans were removed from Albania and there was a possibility of some of the lands being absorbed by Serbia and the southern tip by Greece. This decision angered the Italians, who did not want Serbia to have an extended coastline, and it also angered the Austro-Hungarians, who did not want a powerful Serbia on their southern border. Despite Serbian, Montenegrin, and Greek occupation forces on the ground, and under immense pressure from Austria-Hungary, it was decided that the country should not be divided but instead consolidated into the Principality of Albania. From 1925, the country was ruled by President Ahmet Zogu. After ruling Albania for a few years, in 1928 he declared himself King Zog I, the first Albanian monarch since Gjergj Kastriot Skenderbej.
After the Albanian government changed hands for a few years, Ahmet Zogu came to power. After ruling Albania for a few years, he declared himself "King Zog, the First Albanian Monarch." He styled himself a European king, married Hungarian princess Geraldine Apponyi de Nagy-Apponyi, and introduced the European style of life to the Albanian people after centuries of living an eastern lifestyle[citation needed]. His reign ended when the communists took power after the Second World War. After the fall of the communist government, his son Leka, Crown Prince of Albania and the royal family returned to Albania on June 28, 2002.
The title "Journalist" has become a joke but a great descriptor of the laziest amongst us. It took me 1 minute to find this on Google
They probably were from Kosov
May 9, 2007 - 15:23 ET by ahusserThey probably were from Kosovo, a Serbian province, where there is a relatively large population of ethnic Albanians. Also my liberal local rag (the Frederick News Post) had the Ft. Dix plot on the last page (A-16) of the News section. Paris Hilton was on page 2.
"A mind is a terrible thing." - A comic I forgot the name of.
Where are you President Bush? Do you have an agenda, too?
May 9, 2007 - 11:29 ET by RJHow many of the estimated 12-20 million illegals intend to harm the US? Not using the lede to identify these terrorists as illegals shows that the media has an agenda.
Where are you President Bush? This is an important part of the war on terrorism. Why aren't you constantly using your bully pulpit to raise consciousness about this threat? Do you have an agenda, too?