Rusted Sky

I must be about ready for one.

I'm not one for wholesale purchase of conspiracy theories. I find the price is too high for the value they impart, no matter how low the initial cost is on the buy-in to the belief system. But I'm kind of puzzled that the Goose Creek terrorists (you remember, those yutes with 'fireworks' who 'just happened' to be wandering around in the middle of the night near a Navy base) haven't gotten more press. Because it's starting to look like those guys weren't the innocent college students they tried to emulate.

They've finally had a bail hearing. And their bail has been denied.

Judge Nixes Megahed Bail Bid

Both are charged with illegally transporting explosives. Mohamed also is charged with trying to help terrorists by teaching or demonstrating the use of explosives. Authorities say Mohamed posted a video to the Web site YouTube in which he showed how to use a remote-controlled toy to detonate a bomb.

"The evidence fails to establish or even suggest any innocent or wholesome explanation for the events that led to Megahed's arrest," Merryday wrote.

"Guns, explosives, fuses, canisters of gasoline, ammunition, welding equipment, GPS devices, all-night interstate drives to an unstated and indeterminate destination, stops to check gun prices and availability, and computers with a recent history of visits to sites that feature the advocates and the means of violence are not attributes that a disinterested but cautious observer associates with a safe and tranquil citizen of the community," the judge said.

"Rather, a person about whom these attributes are discovered is a person whose means, motive and degree of determination are unknown and unpredictable and who is highly suspicious and threatening."

Yeah, I know. They're just innocent, misunderstood college students, who simply happened to be driving in the middle of the night, near a Navy base, with exposives. Nothing to see here, certainly nothing unusual, and to think otherwise simply shows how racist we are.

Ah, yeah. Sure.

But what has me concerned is the silence on this. It's almost like there's a (dare I say it? Should I get out the Alcoa?) conspiracy to be silent about this. Oh, you can find stuff on them, but it's certainly not prominent. There's been a Bigfoot sighting, so it's pretty clear that I've got my priorities mixed up!

Then again, the dearth of coverage may be because of something else... OpSec and ComSec. From Wikipedia...

OPSEC is a methodology that denies critical information to an adversary. Unlike security programs that seek to protect classified information, OPSEC measures identify, control, and protect generally unclassified evidence that is associated with sensitive operations and activities.

And ComSec is...

Communications security (COMSEC): Measures and controls taken to deny unauthorized persons information derived from telecommunications and ensure the authenticity of such telecommunications. Communications security includes cryptosecurity, transmission security, emission security, traffic-flow security. and physical security of COMSEC equipment.

If you don't want the enemy to know what you do - it's probably a good idea to keep reporters and television cameras away from what you're working on. Add in the media's great reluctance to cover anything so unsexy as potential terrorists when ANYTHING else is available, and it's probably NOT a conspiracy... just a normal day at the office for journalists in general.

J.