Pakistani-Americans go to trial for providing material support to terrorists:
The government plans to present evidence that includes satellite surveillance of Pakistan; testimony from paid informer Naseem Khan, who befriended members of the Lodi community and its Muslim religious leaders starting in August 2002, and a videotape of Hamid Hayat.
“Hamid Hayat talked about jihad before he even left the United States. He talked about acts of violence, he talked about training camps. He received weapons training while he was there,” Assistant US Attorney Laura Ferris said.
“He admitted he went to a jihadist training camp, not once but twice … He returned to the United States to commit jihad, and he was waiting for orders,” she added.
A common refrain from those outside the business is “How come the CIA can’t infiltrate these groups?” to which most HUMINTers reply, “We recruit insiders, we don’t become insiders.” True enough, but why the dismissive wave of the hand?
Opinions vary about why Hoover didn’t want to run undercover ops against the mob, but there is no denying the success the Bureau had at infiltrating and breaking up OC once the old man was gone.
I was one who thought that a fusion of tactics and techniques carried out by a well vetted and highly trained work force could do to any number of groups what we did to the mafia. The prep work would be arduous, and casualties almost certain, but you would be hard pressed to find a more focused way to take the fight to the enemy. I suspected the hardest part for those few who were chosen is to act as witless as those who have gone before them.
There is one major complicating factor coming from a school of thought that I’m considering enrolling in full-time. Assuming related theories are true (and the data points are accumulating every day) the effectiveness of even radical modifications to traditional approaches is useless. The truly effective alternatives are those that have no significant sponsors in entrenched positions who have either the political capital or political will to move them forward. Even a happy medium between the fantasy that is 24/CTU and the reality of JTTFs is going to be hard fought.