Iraqi refugee arrested for bombing Social Security Office in Casa Grande, Arizona

This headline should be plastered across every TV screen in the country, but I’ll bet most people have no idea to what I am referring. On Friday, November 30th, 2012 Abdullatif Ali Aldosary, an Iraqi refugee and American felon, placed an improvised explosive device, aka IED, at a government building in downtown Casa Grande, Arizona, a town of 48,000 or so people halfway between Phoenix and Tuscon. No one was injured as the offices were not yet open, though there were ten employees inside.

Abdullatif Ali Aldosary is no stranger to Homeland Security. According to reports, he has been of interest to that agency though the details are sketchy. He is also well acquainted with other governmental agencies and institutions, having spent time in the Arizona Department of Corrections for an aggravated harassment case. Again, details of that case are not yet known, but it has been reported that he violated his probation in some way and was remanded to serve a year of his sentence behind bars.

There are two parts of this story that I am still struggling to wrap my head around. The first and most obvious is the fact that this has not hit the national news. An Iraqi refugee was given asylum in our country, has been in and out of trouble of various kinds since at least 2008, and has been on the radar of Homeland Security. He is now accused of detonating an IED at a Federal building.

In March of 2008, he was charged and convicted on four counts of aggravated harassment at the request of the Department of Homeland Security. In September of this year, he was charged with assault and disorderly conduct in Maricopa County. These two facts are even more interesting when the following is taken into consideration.

This second part that is simply confounding me is both sad and predictable. In what little local media coverage there has been, more column inches have been given to what one of his neighbors has to say about the guy than about the fact that this case isn’t being charged as domestic terrorism. In fact, it isn’t even being reported that domestic terrorism charges aren’t forthcoming. I won’t repeat everything this neighbor has been reported as saying because this one quote pretty well sums it up. According to Swannee Welsh “He was just in that neighborhood because he goes to unemployment offices and other government buildings over there but he hasn’t any problems against America; he’s very thankful he got to be a refuge (sic) somewhere".

For the record, witnesses saw him place an object, run away and get in his vehicle. The license place was noted and reported to the police. Ninety minutes later, this guy was in custody. Subsequent to his arrest, the FBI, Homeland Security, Federal Protective Service and the ATF were executing a search warrant in his home.

Among the items found were documents on how to build a bomb hidden behind a picture, explanations of what specific chemicals to use, a handgun, a rifle, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, several gallons of chemicals used to make a bomb and a handwritten note titled “Materials Needed”.

At his arraignment, he was charged with maliciously damaging federal property and being a felon in possession of a firearm. That’s it. These are the types of charges one would expect for pushing over the street corner mailbox.

According to a source in the Phoenix FBI field office, who is not authorized to comment on the case, while they are treating it as a domestic terrorism investigation internally, it will be prosecuted as a simple explosives and arson case because of “the political sensitivities involved”.

I’m glad to see the mainstream media has their priorities straight. Let’s all hear some more about how Kate and William have figured out how to make a baby, how Diana would be as a grandmother and who will design Kate’s maternity clothes. How about a headline and story along the lines of "Federal Agencies Bow To Political Correctness", or "You Too Can Blow Up A Federal Building, But Only If You Are Arab, Muslim or Another Politically Protected Class"?