Clowns or Killers in al Qaeda | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Clowns or Killers in al Qaeda | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The notion of 'savvy and sophisticated' Islamist supervillains is 'wildly off the mark,' Brookings' Daniel Byman and Christine Fair write in Atlantic magazine.

Many Afghan suicide bombers 'never even make it out of their training camp,' thanks to the jihadi tradition of the pre-martyrdom 'manly embrace': 'the pressure from these group hugs triggers the explosives in suicide vests.' (Theological question: Do you get fewer virgins for an own-goal?)

On the American home front, al Qaeda and its sympathizers often don't look much brighter:

• In 2006, an FBI sting rolled up the 'Liberty City Seven,' whose ringleader, the Washington Post reported, 'wanted to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago, which would then fall into a nearby prison, freeing Muslim prisoners who would become the core of his Moorish army. With them, he would establish his own country.' Sounds like a plan!
  
• 2007 saw the arrest of six Islamists who planned to launch an armed attack on New Jersey's Fort Dix, but were rounded up after they 'asked a store clerk to copy a video of them firing assault weapons and screaming about jihad.'
  
• In 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed associate Iyman Faris went to jail on charges involving a plan to topple the Brooklyn Bridge by severing its suspension cables with a blowtorch.
  
• The 2005 Jose Padilla indictment revealed that some Islamic terrorists haven't quite mastered speaking in code. One of Padilla's co-defendants insisted he was just talking about sporting goods on the surveillance tapes, but couldn't explain why he'd asked his co-conspirator if he had enough 'soccer equipment' to 'launch an attack on the enemy.'"