If 2009 was the year of homegrown jihad, 2010 is certainly keeping pace. In the past month alone, we've seen the Times Square bomb plot and Islamic terrorism arrests in Ohio and Texas. Now we have yet another case, this time in New Jersey. From CBN News:
Mohamed Mahmood Alessa and Carlos Eduardo Almonte were on their way to join a jihadist group in Somalia on Saturday when they were arrested at John F. Kennedy Airport.
Investigators said the suspects were inspired by statements by al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn and radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki calling on U.S. Muslims to attack Americans.
"I leave this time. God willing, I never come back," authorities say Alessa told the officer last year. "Only way I would come back here is if I was in the land of jihad and the leader ordered me to come back here and do something here. Ah, I love that."
Investigators "remain concerned that once they reach their foreign destinations, they may be redirected against targets back home, as we've seen in the past," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement.
Once again, we have a link to Anwar al-Awlaki, the one-man jihad factory whose popularity in the U.S. is growing steadily.