It’s with more than a slight sigh of relief that I read in the New York Times and The Oregonian about a terror attack that didn’t happen last night in Portland. My current hometown seems like an unlikely target, but then again, Oklahoma City was an unlikely target as well in 1995.
As I read deeper though, several thoughts strike me. The first that this wasn’t a foreign run operation. Instead, it was the result of a six month sting by the Feds after Mohamed Osman Mohamud raised concerns via e-mail monitoring. It’s unclear how far would have Mohamud would have gotten on his own. On the other hand, it’s clear that he was totally prepared to go through with it—in fact, he thought he was going through with it when he was arrested. It’ll be interesting to see how the story unfolds as the details emerge, but it is clear that we are dealing with somebody who is way over the line here.
The second big thought that strikes me is that—regardless of how far Mohamud would have gotten on his own—this case is evidence that the Feds are doing the kind of on the ground counter-terrorism work that we need them to do. That’s a good thing.