The Story of the Lackawanna Six
I treated myself Wednesday evening. Instead of heading straight home to do the dishes, I went to hear my NPR colleague Dina Temple-Raston talk about her new book, The Jihad Next Door. It's the story of the Lackawanna Six, a group of young Muslim men from the Buffalo, N.Y., area who were arrested and described by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft as an al-Qaida sleeper cell. But it's not quite that simple, as Dina's book so ably illustrates.
As someone who wrote about terrorism and security for several years in my old job and frequently blogged about the original arrests and subsequent trial, I came to believe that there was a great deal of nuance in this and similar stories. Despite the often black-and-white portrayals from law enforcement officials (particularly in the first few years of this administration) and the media, there were many gray areas. Dina's book captures this complexity.
I was struck by two things Dina said during her talk. First, that the FBI has gotten much better at working with the Muslim community. For instance, when the bureau was about to announce the indictment of the Fort Dix Six, agents first phoned all the top imams in the country and explained the situation to them. Basically, they wanted to give the details to the community before they were manipulated in the media. Dina, who called the imams to check this out, said they really appreciated it and that it made a difference in their communities' reactions.
The second — and rather chilling — thing is that public officials are absolutely certain that there will be another attack in the U.S. And it probably will be either a car bomb or someone wearing a suicide vest. It may be homegrown or it may be imported, but it will happen, they say.
4:15 PM ET | 09-13-2007 | permalink
