The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs said it again in a report it published in November, “The Rising Threat of Domestic Terrorism”: “National security agencies now identify domestic terrorism as the most persistent and lethal terrorist threat to the homeland. This increase in domestic terror attacks has been predominantly perpetrated by white supremacist and anti-government extremist individuals and groups.” Conspicuously lacking from this oft-repeated claim are actual white supremacist terrorists, but a recent case in Texas may help: a man who is most certainly not black or Hispanic plotted to blow up a high school in Amarillo. There’s just one catch: in a bracing little reminder of the actual terror threats that the Left’s propaganda and fantasies have obscured, he’s a Muslim, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Iran.
Amarillo’s KVII reported Thursday that Erfan Salmanzadeh, 33, pleaded guilty on Monday to “use and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.” The “use” part of that stems from a July 2021 incident that brought Salmanzadeh to the attention of police. KVII noted Tuesday that Salmanzadeh “recorded multiple videos in which he referenced the high school.” In one of these videos, which Salmanzadeh recorded on July 22, 2021, he was “standing in his backyard speaking in a mixture of English and Farsi, said he was going to blow up Tascosa High School,” a public high school in Amarillo.
“We are going to blast the school,” Salmanzadeh, a Tascosa High School graduate, declared. What did he mean by “we”? The police have not said anything about that, and there is no hint in the available reports as to who his accomplices were, or if he even really had any. “We are going to hit Tascosa,” Salmanzadeh continued. “Look at these.” He then “pointed the camera at a nail bomb filled with shrapnel, a suicide vest filled with pipes labeled as explosives, a suitcase filled with containers labeled as explosives, and a backpack filled with bottles labeled as explosives.”
Four days after that, “a neighbor reported hearing a loud explosion at 3613 Lenwood Drive. The caller said they [sic; I don’t care what your gender studies prof told you, kids. People aren’t plural. The caller was a he or a she] heard a similar noise a few weeks earlier but did not report it.” When police responded to the call, they found a “large crater” in Salmanzadeh’s backyard that “appeared to have been created by an explosion.”
Salmanzadeh, however, attempted to explain the hole and the explosion away. He told the cops that he had been “popping small firecrackers” in his backyard, as well as “hitting them with a hammer.” And the hole? “He also said he was digging holes in the backyard with a shovel.”
Well, that would certainly explain it. But “when police walked through the house with Salmanzadeh’s father, Salmanzadeh admitted to police that he blew up his Xbox in his backyard using triacetone triperoxide (TATP). He said he placed a PVC pipe filled with TATP inside the Xbox to see how much damage it would cause. According to an APD bomb technician, TATP is a homemade explosive that is ‘extremely unstable and reacts violently to friction and shock.’ He admitted flushing a ‘gallon sized jar of TATP down the toilet’ after police arrived that morning.”
Salmanzadeh also admitted that he had “placed a suicide vest, nail bomb and the Xbox in a dumpster in the alley behind his home.” It was true: “Police found the suicide vest, nail bomb and Xbox in dumpsters in the alley.” The vest was suitably stylish: it was “brown with blue suspender straps and had several sewn pockets filled with red cylindrical-shaped tubes. The word ‘Dynamite’ appeared to be handwritten in black ink on some of’ the tubes. The nail bomb was a ‘cylindrical-shaped device with several red cylinders inside of it. Several rows of nails and BBs were taped around the nail bomb as shrapnel.’”
Police then searched this Nobel laureate’s home and found two PVC pipes; one had “what appeared to be a Christmas light glued to the side of it and with the end of the wires stripped bare”; the other featured “a piece of duct tape, with the word ‘Explosive’ written on it.” Both of these pipes “appeared to have an explosive filler.” They also found other material that is “often used in the creation of improvised explosive devices, such as equipment and precursor chemicals.” Videos showed Salmanzadeh “testing an explosive powder in his backyard.” He also had “journals that contained notes and formulas related to the production of explosives.”
He also had a plane ticket for July 28, 2021, on which date he “planned to fly to California” so as to “avoid being arrested ‘after any bombing or attack.’”
It was good of law enforcement authorities to discover Salmanzadeh’s plot even though he isn’t one of the white supremacist terrorists they spend the bulk of their time trying to find (or create). But how many more like him will succeed in their plots because our counterterror apparatus is hopelessly corrupt and politicized?
Shrink wrap it and send it back home.
Leftists find this a mere inconvenience that, once again, he didn’t turn out to be the White Supremacist, or Christian Nationalist that they so yearn to be true.
This chickenshit administration knows they can rely on the DNC news media to bury the story, but failing that, they’ll call him a “white” Iranian.
It seems we took the boy out of Islam, but did not take Islam out of the boy.
Dang, and for sure I thought this would be another one of those friggin Amish youts gone wild!! Sooner or later, I’m going to have to change my initial thinking to include the SMIDGEON of possibility that these attacks or “thwarted” attacks might be “RELIGIOUS” related!
Diversity is our strength. We need to import many millions more people from culturally primitive and hostile regions. Our magic dirt will make them model citizens.
After chickenshit jihadist Nidal attacked patriots at Fort Sill, the chief incompetent fool Gen Casey was only worried about a “loss of diversity being a greater tragedy”.
Nidal Hassan had been cosseted, pampered, and his unending threats ignored for the sake of “diversity”.
“Diversity” means we let the jihadists in, tolerate their broadcast intentions, and keep our mouths shut, or face the consequences.
(It appears diversity is seen as a strength on Martha’s Vineyard. They proved it by removing those 48 illegals.)
Finding the odd jihadist or two will be the leverage the state needs to aggressively take down their enemies.
Losing an ally or two is fine, as long as it serves a greater “good”.
Back when the infamous Che and his good buddy Castro tried to set off bombs in several of our Nations major Dept Stores will the history books tell us that?
When ANTIFA and BLM began arsons and riots the DemoCraps and MSM ignored it and / or denied it. Same will happen when the moo slims begin bombings, murder, mayhem, and kidnappings. Ignore it, deny it, enable it.
“The caller said they” is actually proper use of a genderless pronoun. When the gender of the subject is unknown the use of they/them/their is not considered plural but singular nongender. At least that how English was taught in the 60s/70s.
One of Biden’s invitees perhaps?