Given our town's proximity to larger cities, I suppose that it was bound to happen. And, I've known for a long time that the "Flying Fickle Finger of Fate" spares few. Now that I think about it, it makes sense; the Feds fnd a weapons cache in a smallish south-central San Joaquin Valley town. Nestled at the base of the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountain, my modest home town typifies America. Our people are hard-working and industrious and most are the friendly sort. What a perfect place to hide AK-47's and other assault weapons if you are a "no-goodnik".
The local newspaper advised that the FBI located a storage trailer on a particular business property that had been stuffed with a "large number" of weapons and at least one "device" that had what appeared to be a timer or some sort attached to it. No, the Feds were not at all forthcoming with any information on the event other than it had been an "ongoing investigation". Seems they had been watching the owner of this certain mini-mart for some time and finally served the arrest and search warrants. He was been denied a lower bail, was tried, and convicted of at leat two acounts. And, though the charges appeared to be fairly stiff, the "legal alien" will be out of prison in only 3 1/2 years.
About all the info the local press could garner was that the executors of the warrants were members of the "Joint Terrorism Task Force". Local authorities were only apprised of the matter after the warrants were served. For those who had been paying even remote attention to current events, such scant information actually spelled out about as much as the the paper would likely have written anyway had it been given anything to work with.
I never really liked the dingy, dark, run-of-the-mill stop-and-rob. But they had the cheapest gasoline in town. Since I forgot to win the state lottery, I do remember to shop for cheap gas. The place saw a brisk business despite being in a notibly inconvenient location and being cramped and dark.
The (online) "Urban Dictionary" defines "hinky" as: "Something as yet indefinable is wrong, out of place; not quite right" and "A cop's version of 'I've got a bad feeling about that'". It's that gut feeling of ill boding you get when you meet someone or perhaps when you are about to go somewhere. There's something amiss but it's not immediately evident. Your gut says "No!" but then your head will often dismiss the matter. So it was when I met the owner who was later arrested. I spoke an Arabic greeting to him a couple of times when getting gas there. The first time I did that he asked me, "Are you CIA?". Though somewhat humbled by the fact that someone could confuse an overweight middle-aged white guy with being a CIA operative, I simply grinned and said, "No", and that I merely enjoyed languages. Nevertheless, that should have been a clue. But, alas, my naivety hampered my thinking skills and I developed perceptual filtering. After all, other than the occaisional gang and drug-related incidents, what could possibly happen in our laid-back burg? Hadn't there been peace for all these years? How could something related to "terrorism" come to this largely agrarian part of our spinning spitball in space? Could anything evil come to or from our "All-America City" (1994)? Could there possibly be a larger conspiracy to help destroy my country or its people lurking in an Arab's back yard in my hometown (especially since he's "just a local businessman")? My answer: "Nope. Not in my back yard. It ain"t happening here". But, it did happen.
"Human frailty": what can you say. It comes with the umbilical chord and is not wont to leak out or depart despite powerful persistent pleas. It is difficult to purge this insidious seducing conspirator that lures man into not trusting their intuition, experience/training, and thinking; and that can often place him beyond his limitations.
We'll probably never know about the "sleeper cell" here and how large it is. The members will likely scurry off like exposed cockroaches and take up camp in some other small town. In all probability, they will just fade into the local background. After all, they are in no danger of being profiled. We probably won't know exactly when or where the weapons were to be used other than that they were to be given to "insurgents". But, we do know that they were going to be used to destroy lives and shatter the dreams of Americans whether here or abroad. They were going to spill our blood with no thought given to human life but only to their sick perverted religion and cause.
More than ten years ago, truth criers were trying to tell anyone who would listen that there were more than 3,000 Arab-speaking "students" who had simply disappeared in this country and no one knew where they were. They shouted from the housetops that "sleeper cells" were being established across the nation. The alarm has fallen on deaf ears. How many cells are there now because no one in leadership listened? Why are so few eyes in Washington DC opened to the truth in light of overwhelming evidence that there can easily be a threat in just about everyone's backyard?
The "icebergs" are in place. The "ship of state" is in grave danger of being sunk and our leadership hasn't even picked up a bucket with which to bail water. All of the danger will be presented at once and without resile just at the danger to the "Tintanic" pounced upon it out of a mist.
If that isn't spooky enough, I have been across this nation and back and back and have only seen a handful of convenience marts/gas stations that didn't belong to a foreigner. Most of them were, in fact, of Arabic descent with many others Indian or Pakistani (none of who have an ounce of sympathy or compassion toward the "Great Satan").
What should this say to us who are fallen asleep behind our fog of complacency? It means that, if it can happen in my backyard, it can happen in others' backyard. It means that we as a nation need to address this issue with all gravity. This is not a game. Our adversary is as cold blooded as a python and even more determined for prey. They are well armed, well trained, and well organized.
We need to be alert, networked, well prepaired, well regulated, and well armed. At no time should we ever be paranoid. Those who are paranoid play into the hands of the enemy (and making us enemies to our own countrymen). Every small town needs to apprise its people that this is matter is a grave national emergency and that they shouldn't be found "asleep at the wheel". Naivety needs to be eradicated as if it were a virulent plague and replaced with wise and trained thought that doesn't jump to conclusion (or to "concussions", for that matter). Nothing could be worse for this country than for it's citizens to be hypervigilent, "antsy", and half-cocked with an itchy trigger finger.
Our proclivity for human frailty and naivety must be overcome to the best of our ability so that we are not blind-sided by a ruthless foe. Fear needs to be weeded out for the faith-choking thorn bush that it is so that it cannot be used against us. There needs to be a national cohesiveness on this matter so that we don't defeat our selves with petty squabbling and infighting while the enemy slaughters our children and prepares to bomb our dreams into countless funeral pyres dotting the country.
Our national symbol is the bald eagle so let us all watch with an eagle eye the movements of an enemy who is already camped in our back yard. And, we need to make sure that the government doesn't take away our Constitutional right to defend ourselves with our own weapons.
Then, we need to let the leaders of our country that they need to make things happen and do it now. If they don't (and the ones who are in office now have proven to be most recalcitrant in hearing our pleas to protect America and her future), we need to boot them out and elect "real" Americans who will protect us (the primary responsibility of the government, in fact). We need to stop following after socialist lackeys and turn our eyes and hearts toward true Americans (like Senators Ron and Rand Paul) who will stand firm to the law and the Constitution.
Let us also pray that those in leadership across this nation have a revelation that they will have to stand before the living God and give account of their actions or lack thereof. They need to know that they will have to explain to Him why they didn't place a moratorium on immigration and why they continued to allow terrorists into this country by the thousands. In other words, they will have to give account as to why they didn't defend the greatest Christian nation on earth.
Let us also pray for them that they and we may have peace (in accordance to scripture). Finally, we need to pray for a manifestation of George Washington's vision of the Lord bringing great revival and cleansing and healing to our land. If we do not, there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
