Opinion Forum

More Enemies Within?

February 19th, 2010

According to recent media reports, the Army detained five soldiers at the huge Fort Jackson, SC training base in December in an investigation into an alleged plot to poison soldiers’ food. It’s not clear whether they’re still being held. The Army has stated that there’s no evidence that poison was actually introduced into food.

Fox News, which apparently was the first major news organization to break the story, reported that

Five suspects, detained in December, were part of an Arabic translation program called “09 Lima” and use Arabic as their first language…. Another military source said they were Muslim.

The New York Times and The Washington Post have both carried the same AP report, with no mention of the suspects’ use of Arabic as their first language or of their being Muslim. A CBN News blog further reported that

A source with intimate knowledge of the investigation, which is ongoing, told CBN News investigators suspect the “Fort Jackson Five” may have been in contact with the group of five Washington, D.C., area Muslims that traveled to Pakistan to wage jihad against U.S. troops in December. That group was arrested by Pakistani authorities, also just before Christmas.

I had no idea what “CBN News” is. Turns out it’s the news arm of Pat Robertson’s media operation, the Christian Broadcasting Network and The 700 Club. Doesn’t mean their report is wrong, but it would be a good idea to suspend belief until seeing it reported in a serious media outlet.

It will be interesting to watch this situation unfold. If there’s a case here, and if these soldiers are actually Arab-speaking Muslims who have been in contact with terrorists, then it raises more concerns about Muslims in the military. The good news will be that they were caught before they could murder anyone; the bad news will be that they were in the Army in the first place.

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Arab, army, Fort Jackson, Military, Muslim, poison, terrorism
Categories: Media, Military, News, Politics | Comments (5) | Home

5 Responses to “More Enemies Within?”

Brianna | February 19th, 2010 at 3:17 pm

Well, they’re definitely native Arab speakers, since that’s the program they were in. Seems to be up in the air about whether they were actually Muslim or whether they were in contact with the DC Muslims you mention, but I must say the first wouldn’t surprise me in the least, and that if the first is true the second wouldn’t be that much of a stretch.

larry | February 20th, 2010 at 7:58 am

Does it really matter.
It appears that most people that would care about such threats have given up any hope of making a difference.
Please note that the information is some how in doubt because Fox News was first to report the incident.

Tom | February 20th, 2010 at 10:07 am

Why would you think the information is “somehow in doubt” because Fox News was (as far as I know) the first major media source to report it? I would have thought you would be more favorably inclined toward Fox.

CBN News, on the other hand, would seem to be a questionable source, but that doesn’t mean they’ve got it wrong.

Brianna | February 20th, 2010 at 11:30 am

I think Larry meant that the information would be “somehow in doubt” by the public at large, not by him personally.