At first sight the tale of Daniel Patrick Boyd, his sons and their associates makes for a Stephen King experience. Shivers and shakes, terror in our midst, unknown, hiding behind the facade of a dry wall contractor, good neighbor and all around regular family man. All with the additional zest of fighting in Afghanistan, facing the loss of right hand and left foot for a bank "robbery" in Peshawar, and a veiled woman with piercing eyes.
If the media reports and quotes from the Federal indictment are correct, it would be fair for the reader to react with a sigh of relief and a, "Thank God for the Feds." A danger narrowly averted.
While the feds allege that Dan and Company were preparing for "foreign violent jihad," there are at least some in the counterterrorism community who hint of darker probabilities--terror hits here in the USA. Uhh! Double, no, triple the shivers, shakes, and so on.
While there may well be something behind the fed's action, there are more than a few problems with the narrative they have written in the indictment. And, even more in the treatment given that narrative by the media.
The Geek has a more than nodding acquaintance with the US efforts in Afghanistan albeit from before the 1989-92 period when Mr Boyd, senior, was allegedly being trained as a terrorist and trigger puller by one of another of the jihadi groups in and around Peshawar. American wannabe jihadists were about as rare as a black man at a Klan Konvention. Few showed up in the wild wild world of the Khyber Pass and far, far fewer were chosen.
Frankly the Afghan jihadists of every stripe were loath to accept even Arab wannabes unless, like Osama bin Ladin, they came with oodles of cash. Americans were even lower on the totem pole of desirability and then would be read in to the jihadist camp only if they were of Arab or better, Afghan or Pakistani descent.
A nineteen year old American white guy of recent conversion to the One True Faith would be about as welcome in the jihadist camp as a Feeb at the Islamist Terrorist Convention. The pimply faced kid would have been dispatched with a swift kick in the butt and told to do something useful--like raise money.
The Geek's impression of reality was born out by a later well informed CIA man quoted in a recent CQ Politics article. The Geek was relieved to find out that the jihadists had not turned soft in later years.
Bearing out the improbability of the fed's assertion that Boyd was the recipient of "military style training" in and around Peshawar is the fact that a dispute with a local bank escalated into charges of bank robbery for which Boyd and his brother were sentenced to lose their right hands and left feet according to Sharia justice. Had either Dan or his brother been jihadi in Afghanistan all they would have had to do in order to beat the rap was to say so. Heroic Warriors of Allah would never have been brought into court let alone destined to the chopping block.
Instead the US State Department played mood music, massaged those in need of massaging, and the Boyds were let loose on appeal to the Pakistani Supreme Court. Nowhere in the press coverage of the incident here in the US was any mention made of Dan's service in the jihad against the Soviets.
Hanging out in Peshawar? For sure. At a terrorist training camp? Doubtful. But what the heck, bringing in the alleged Afghan jihadist connection makes a better story for the public and eventually the jury.
Then there is the roster of firearms of which much was made by the media coverage. A scan of either the indictment or the linked CQ Politics piece shows that the Boyd arsenal is neither particularly unusual or threatening in either its size or makeup. There are more than a few good old boys in the Tarheel State (or here in the Land of Enchantment) that have larger, more diversified armament holdings. None of the listed weapons is either illegal or (stand by for the dread and quite inaccurate phrase) an "assault weapon."
Then there is the purported demonstration of how to use an AK-47. Was it really, really an actual honest-to-Allah selective fire, capable of full automatic AK-47 or was it one of the many knock off, or look-alike pieces such as the run-of-the-mill SKS? The feds say it was the real deal, but if that were the case, where is this ghost weapon now? The feds, if they know, ain't talking, see.
Nor is the fed's accusation that Boyd and his son went to Israel in order to contact jihadists in Gaza convincing. Even when backed by Israel's having denied them admission on one occasion, the federal narrative is easily challenged as it has been by Boyd's wife.
Her version is that father and son were on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. She added that initially another son was to have gone as well but he was killed in a traffic accident. Indeed, her alternative gains force when it is taken together with the dirty trick the FBI played on her in the course of arresting her family.
The two narratives will fight it out in court--eventually. However, unless the Federal prosecutors can address effectively the inconsistencies in their version of reality it will not matter if they can convince a jury that Boyd and Company are guilty. The larger, longer, and vastly more exacting court of history will have the final say on whether a verdict of guilty meant a reality of guilt.
Oh, well, as Allah wills
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