This crap just went down in my hometown!

[MMJ_fanatic]

I love how the "...the men's plans were thwarted in part when they could not find training and were unable to buy automatic weapons..."
GEE THAT'S SO F'ING SAD!  Yeps everythings fine--keep movin' on! ::)

[size=16]Feds: Mass. man plotted mall terrorist attacks
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[size=11]27-year-old and co-conspirators spoke of 'violent jihad,' prosecutors say[/size]


BOSTON - A pharmacy college graduate made a defiant appearance in federal court Wednesday, hours after being charged with conspiring with two other men in a terror plot to kill two prominent U.S. politicians overseas and American troops in Iraq. Though not part of the current charges, in 2003 Tarek Mehanna and the two others discussed attacking shoppers in U.S. malls. They abandoned the idea when they couldn't obtain automatic weapons, according to court documents.
Authorities say the men's plans — in which they used code words like "peanut butter and jelly" for fighting in Somalia and "culinary school" for terrorist camps — were thwarted in part when they could not find training and were unable to buy automatic weapons, authorities said.
Mehanna, 27, was arrested Wednesday morning at his parents' home in Sudbury, an upscale suburb 20 miles west of Boston, and appeared for a brief hearing later in the day. When ordered by the judge to stand to hear the charge against him, he refused. He finally did stand — tossing his chair loudly to the floor — only after his father urged him to do so.  "This really, really is a show," his father, Ahmed Mehanna, said afterward. When asked if he believed the charges against his son, he said, "No, definitely not."
Prosecutors: Plot ran 2001 to 2008
Prosecutors say Tarek Mehanna worked with two men from 2001 to May 2008 on the conspiracy to "kill, kidnap, maim or injure" Americans overseas, including soldiers and two politicians who were members of the executive branch but are no longer in office. Authorities refused to identify the politicians. Mehanna — a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in Boston, where his father is a professor — conspired with Ahmad Abousamra, who authorities say is now in Syria, and an unnamed man, who is cooperating in the investigation, according to authorities. The three men often discussed their desire to participate in "violent jihad against American interests" and talked about "their desire to die on the battlefield," prosecutors said. But when they were unable to join terror groups in Iraq, Yemen and Pakistan, they found inspiration in the Washington-area sniper shootings and turned their interests to domestic terror pursuits while they plotted the attack on shopping malls, authorities said. Mehanna had "multiple conversations about obtaining automatic weapons and randomly shooting people in shopping malls," Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Loucks said. Prosecutors would not say which malls had been targeted.

'Nonbelievers'

Loucks said the men justified attacks because U.S. civilians pay taxes to support the U.S. government and because they are "nonbelievers." The mall plan was abandoned after the men failed to track down automatic weapons, Loucks said.
Mehanna's attorney, J.W. Carney Jr., would not comment on the allegations. Mehanna is being held until his next court appearance on Oct. 30. Court documents filed by the government say that in 2002 or 2003, Abousamra became frustrated after repeatedly being rejected to join terror groups in Pakistan — first Lashkar e Tayyiba, then the Taliban. "Because Abousamra was an Arab (not Pakistani) the LeT camp would not accept him, and because of Abousamra's lack of experience, the Taliban camp would not accept him," Williams wrote in the affidavit. Mehanna and Abousamra traveled to Yemen in 2004 in an attempt to join a terrorist training camp.The two men sought out a man in a mud hut, NBC reported, someone they were told could hook them up with a jihadist group. But he told them, "all that stuff is gone ever since the planes hit the Twin Towers," according to court documents.

In jail or on 'hajj'

Mehanna allegedly told a friend, the third conspirator who is now cooperating with authorities, that their trip was a failure because they were unable to reach people affiliated with the camps. The men, who had allegedly received tips on whom to meet from a person identified in court documents as "Individual A," said half the people they wanted to see were on "hajj," referring to the pilgrimage to Mecca in Islam, and half were in jail.