Back in May, which now somehow seems like years ago, a bunch of folks with guns protesting COVID19-related restrictions paraded around the streets of neighboring downtown Raleigh, intimidating pedestrians and ordering submarine sandwiches. The ridiculousness of people with weapons such as inert rocket launchers ordering from the sandwich artists at a Subway franchise prompted the creation of many an internet meme.
It also helped to prompt a FBI investigation into those individuals who were involved. Now it appears that a couple of the members of the protest have been engaged in trying to sell weapons parts to Hamas. The two men, part of a group called the Boojahideen, have been plotting to commit terrorist acts against the US government. Apparently, they paired the rationale of domestic terrorism to that of international terrorism, which resulted in an opportunistic partnership with FBI agents posing as members of Hamas.
They said they were willing to be mercenaries employed by Hamas and that they could make untraceable weapons, the news release stated. On July 30, they sold and negotiated a price for gun parts with a person they believed to be a senior member of Hamas — but who was actually an undercover FBI employee. Teeter and Solomon said they hoped the weapons would be used by Hamas to attack Israeli and U.S. soldiers, according to the news release.
This story underscores the danger we are in because of the current administration’s tendency to look the other way with regards to potential domestic terrorism. Actually, I say that with some degree of charity, as many will say that the current administration even encourages domestic terrorists. Here we see the reality that those who are planning attacks here and abroad can find idealogical and material common ground.
