Free Republic

Authorities have arrested a man allegedly on his way to the U.S. Capitol for what he thought would be a suicide attack on one of the nation's most symbolic landmarks, Fox News has learned exclusively. The man, in his 30s and of Moroccan descent, was nabbed following a lengthy investigation by the FBI, initiated after he expressed interest in conducting an attack. It's unclear how the FBI learned of his aspirations. The man thought undercover FBI agents assisting him in his plot were associates of Al Qaeda. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/17/feds-arrest-man-heading-to-us-capitol-for-suicide-mission/#ixzz1mfOJC9V5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EumHUWY8yes Very interesting video, makes me think this is where Iran is setting up to hit the US from. When we end up in a war with them they'll enter and hit American soil thru Mexico (unless they already have sleeper cells in the US).

<p>The 1890s Chicago City Council was notorious for corrupt political practices orchestrated by a faction of its aldermen known as the Gray Wolves. So named because they were viewed as preying upon the defenseless public, the Gray Wolves were led by First Ward aldermen “Bathhouse” John Coughlin and “Hinky Dink” Mike Kenna, and Johnny Powers of the Nineteenth Ward. These elected officials were not only skilled at trading votes for favors, but once in office they excelled in making municipal decisions to profit themselves financially.</p>

Something is really, really, really not right… The New York Times has a really bizarre story on the front page today. I will make some remarks about the story and then there is a link at the bottom for you to read the entire story. I don’t want to run wild with crazy conspiracy stories but there are some really peculiar parts of this New York Time story that warrants further investigation. First some bullet points: * Juan Jose Rojas Cardona (“Pepe” and hereinafter I will refer to him as that) lives in Mexico and is part of the casino...

Libya's Bantustans. Driven from their homes by the genocidal Misurata NATO-backed rebels, Black Libayns from Tawargha now languish in camps as the world watches. he Misrata Brigade have begun shooting at and attacking civilians in a refugee camp in Janzour containing approximately 1,500 refugees from the now obliterated town of Tawergha, close to Misrata. The area surrounding the camp has been closed off by the brigade preventing any help from reaching the refugees. Doctors in Central Tripoli Hospital have confirmed that they have already received the bodies of one man and one woman from the camp. (AFP reported three deaths...

There are times when an unfortunate name can come back to haunt someone even when he or she had nothing to do with the original moniker. Think ofRick Perry's ranch, or a Florida mosque named for a terrorist icon. The Islamic Community of Tampa, also known as the al-Qassam mosque, hosts an ironic event Friday evening with the local Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) chapter. The open house aims to advance "understanding Islam." Speakers will discuss Muslim beliefs and try to clear up "misconceptions about Islam, and Islam's condemnation of terrorism," a promotional release said. That's a difficult sell when...

Radical U.S. Muslims Little Threat, Study Says By SCOTT SHANE WASHINGTON — A feared wave of homegrown terrorism by radicalized Muslim Americans has not materialized, with plots and arrests dropping sharply over the two years since an unusual peak in 2009, according to a new study by a North Carolina research group. The study, to be released on Wednesday, found that 20 Muslim Americans were charged in violent plots or attacks in 2011, down from 26 in 2010 and a spike of 47 in 2009. Charles Kurzman, the author of the report for the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland...

After forcing the FBI and CIA to purge their counterterrorism training programs of all references to “Islam” in “Islamic terrorism,” the Muslim Brotherhood in America has turned its sights on the New York Police Department (NYPD). Writers from the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law have posted op-ed pieces in The New York Times criticizing NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly for appearing in The Third Jihad and authorizing its screening in NYPD training courses. The critically acclaimed documentary is narrated by devout American Muslim and Navy veteran Dr. Zuhdi Jasser (president of the American Islamic...

Here is video of Newt Gingrich telling a rally of supporters that we now have before us the “Obama Hostage Crisis” unfolding in Egypt, where 19 Americans are being held against their will and are being threatened with trial. Gingrich said this is beginning to remind him of “Jimmy Carter” and the “Iranian Hostage Crisis.”

Anti-government extremists opposed to taxes and regulations pose a growing threat to local law enforcement officers in the United States, the FBI warned on Monday. These extremists, sometimes known as "sovereign citizens," believe they can live outside any type of government authority, FBI agents said at a news conference. The extremists may refuse to pay taxes, defy government environmental regulations and believe the United States went bankrupt by going off the gold standard.

A Muslim activist group with links to the Muslim Brotherhood has asked the British government to restrict the way the British media reports about Muslims and Islam. The effort to silence criticism of Islam comes amid an ongoing public inquiry into British press standards following a phone-hacking scandal involving the News of the World and other British newspapers. The Leveson Inquiry, established by British Prime Minister David Cameron in July 2011, is currently considering how to increase government oversight of the British media. But in a move that many worry will result in government regulation of the Internet, Lord Justice...

It is using extremist websites to radicalise the angels of death, says their chilling report. The Commons home affairs committee says it has heard evidence the terror group is "specifically launching and targeting women for violent acts". It is already a deadly tactic in the Middle East, where growing numbers of Palestinian women are volunteering for suicide missions against Israel. The MPs' report comes days after four Islamic extremists admitted plotting to bomb the London Stock Exchange. Woolwich Crown Court heard how the gang — who also had London mayor Boris Johnson on a hit list — had been brainwashed...

Multi-agency effort yields indictment of five suspected human smugglersFive Los Angeles-area residents have been indicted for operating a human smuggling scheme that in many cases involved specially-built compartments under the hoods of cars. The operation relied largely on non-Spanish speaking African-Americans to transport loads of illegal aliens from the U.S.-Mexico border to the Los Angeles area. Four of the defendants, including the suspected ringleader of the scheme, Maria "Reyna" Lopez-Diaz, 60, of Compton, were taken into custody Thursday morning by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the U.S. Border Patrol. Sign up for...

Michael A. Braun, the former intelligence chief for the DEA, testified this week at a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee that "collaboration between Latin American drug cartels and groups such as Iran's Quds Force and the Islamic terror group Hezbollah is growing 'far faster than most policymakers in Washington, D.C., choose to admit'" as reported by Guy Taylor for The Washington Times. Many critics of the U.S. open border policy long have warned that Muslim terror groups may exploit the smuggling routes which have been established by the drug cartels in order to gain entry into the United...

Five people are charged in a plot to employ African Americans from Compton to avert suspicion when bringing illegal immigrants across the border. In the calculus of cross-border human smuggling, Maria Lopez-Diaz allegedly concluded that black instead of brown equals green. The 60-year-old Compton woman, prosecutors say, tried to cash in on racial profiling by operating a human smuggling ring that hired mostly African American drivers who didn't speak a word of Spanish to ferry small groups of immigrants from Mexico to Los Angeles. In the end, the venture failed. Authorities announced charges Thursday against Lopez-Diaz and four others, including...

DENVER - A refugee from Uzbekistan has been arrested in Chicago and charged with providing support to a suspected Islamic terrorist group that US authorities say is seeking to overthrow the secular government of his Central Asian home country. Jasmshid Muhtorov, 35, who resides in Colorado, was taken into custody on Saturday at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport by FBI agents and made his initial court appearance in federal court on Monday, the US Justice Department said.

The media will spend the next ten years with their heads up their sphincters trying to determine motive. Hmmm ..... what could it be now? For those of us in the media who have not surrendered to jihad (all three of us), we have noticed a decided uptick in this activity. Arrests in the US are weekly now, sometimes daily. Nothing to see here, folks, keep it moving until the next catastrophe. And then the enemedia and Hamas-CAIR operatives in DC will blame ...... counter jihadists. :) Colorado man arrested on terrorism AP (hat tip Ken) AURORA, Colo. (AP) —...

It appears that Barack Obama has again ignored the rule of law by signing a defense appropriations bill that prohibits him sharing vital United States leading-edge strategic US missile technology with Russia, yet he has told both houses of Congress that he plans to share the US missile technology anyway. Why is this important? Because it goes light-years beyond partisan politics and into an area where our national defense will be put at unreasonable risk. It is believed that the Russians will pass this technology onto China, Iran and North Korea. I find it bitterly ironic that this president pushes...

To Be headed By Ramadan In what appears to be a highly significant coming together of Global Muslim Brotherhood leaders Tariq Ramadan and Youssef Qaradawi, Gulf media is reporting on the launch of new Islamic research center in Qatar to be headed by Ramadan. According to a Gulf News report: 12:00 January 16, 2012 Manama: A research centre specialising in Islamic legislation and ethical thought has been launched in Qatar. The Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE) was inaugurated during a one day conference on Islamic ethics that discussed the application of Islamic ethics in environment, gender, economics,...

Three beheadings in two different states and they happened here in the United States, not Mexico. "It would lead me to believe the message wanted to be sent. This is one of the ways they do it in Mexico, Colombia and other places," says Jordan. Jordan says the cartels are getting bolder in carrying out their beheadings across the border. He says we only used to see these crimes in Mexico. "They don't have any borders," says Jordan. More than 600 miles from the border, a 19-year-old human trafficking victim was found beheaded in Oklahoma. Carina Saunders was stuffed into...

Turkey's Gulen movement, which promotes service to the common good, may have grown into the world's biggest Muslim network. Is it the modern face of Islam, or are there more sinister undercurrents? SNIP Its supporters say they simply work together, in a loosely affiliated alliance inspired by the message of charismatic preacher Fethullah Gulen, who promotes a tolerant Islam which emphasises altruism, hard work and education. Turkish businessmen are attracted by what they see as his international outlook and pragmatic approach to issues like using credit. SNIP Mr Gulen's critics point to a video which surfaced in 1999, in which...

Anne-Marie Slaughter, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s director of policy planning, now denies she endorsed Today’s Zaman, the flagship newspaper of Fethullah Gülen’s Islamist cult. Here is a google cache record with Prof. Slaughter’s endorsement, and here is the page now, with Professor Slaughter’s endorsement excised. Professor Slaughter denies she made the endorsementThere are two possible explanations: (1) Professor Slaughter is being truthful, and Today’s Zaman simply made it all up. If so, this suggests that the ethics of Zaman and the organization which sponsors it are non-existent. (2) Professor Slaughter asked for the retraction only after learning about Today’s...

  One of the mistakes that the West makes is that it doesn’t listen to what the Islamists are saying. If only we listened, we could hear their strategy. On November 20, Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi, the top Muslim Brotherhood theologian and arguably the most influential Sunni cleric in the world, called on Muslims to embrace “gradualism.”    The doctrine of gradualism is successful because we fail to appreciate the ability of the Islamists to be skillful political strategists. Gradualism is an intelligent form of jihad based on pragmatism, patience, long-term planning and self-evaluation. The Islamists evaluate their performance and recalibrate...

A journalist working for the Voice of America was shot dead by Taliban fighters in northwest Pakistan today. Mukarram Khan Atif was attacked at a mosque near his home at Shabqadar town, 35 km from Peshawar, the capital of Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa province. Two gunmen on motorcycles arrived at the mosque during evening prayers. One of them entered the mosque and shot Atif in the head before fleeing, police said. Atif was taken to a nearby hospital in a critical condition but succumbed to his injuries. A prayer leader was injured in the attack. The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for...

This is chilling. This is in Texas. Iranian grad student, activist killed in Houston KSAT News (hat tip Armaros) HOUSTON - A woman whom Houston police described as an activist on behalf of Iranian women's civil rights was found shot dead at the wheel of her car after it crashed into a townhouse garage. Houston police said the shooting happened around 12:30 a.m. Monday in a posh development near the Galleria. According to investigators, someone walked up to the passenger's side of 30-year-old Gelareh Bagherzadeh's car and shot her in the head. Bagherzadeh's body was found inside her running car,...

Three beheadings in two different states and they happened here in the United States, not Mexico. Former DEA supervisor Phil Jordan says all three beheadings have cartel written all over them. They happened in Arizona and Oklahoma in the past year. A murder mystery is now unraveling on a stretch of North Reservation Road in Tucson, Ariz. County workers found a headless man lying on the side of the road Jan. 6. The man's hands and feet were reportedly missing, too. "It would lead me to believe the message wanted to be sent. This is one of the ways they...

...Gelareh Bagherzadeh was studying molecular genetic technology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. She was of Iranian descent and was active in promoting Iranian women's rights, Houston Police Department spokesman Victor Senties said. She was a vocal critic of the Iranian government, according to prior interviews with the Houston Chronicle. Whether discrimination or her personal background was connected to her death was not clear, Senties said. "At this point, it does not appear that she was targeted," Senties said. Investigators do not know the motive for the shooting, he said. Bagherzadeh was shot about 12:30 a.m. outside the family's home in...

It’s official, now. The Obama administration’s admiration for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is indisputably mutual. The Egyptian English-language newspaper, Daily News Egypt, reported on Wednesday that the MB “hails” its new ties with the United States after a meeting between the head of the MB’s political arm, Mohamed Morsi, and Deputy Secretary of State William Burns at the MB’s Cairo headquarters. After the Wednesday meeting, Morsi said relations between their two countries “must be balanced” and, in apparent reference to Israel, stated past US behavior has been “biased and not in its interest.” The MB, Morsi maintained, wants Washington to...

Although many Muslim leaders openly articulate their efforts as part of a larger picture—one that culminates in the resurrection of a caliphate adversarial by nature to all things non-Muslim—many Western leaders see only the moment, either out of context or, worse, in a false context built atop wishful thinking. Among other things, this myopia causes virtually all Western politicians to overlook long-term threats and focus exclusively on violence and terror, the tangible and temporal—those things that may coincide with their tenure. This narrow-sighted approach sometimes leads to absurdities, such as when Homeland Defense's Paul Stockton, being questioned by Dan Lungren...

Michael Hastings' new book, The Operators, jabs at what could be a vulnerable spot for the Obama Administration, the president's relationship with the troops. The book describes a visit to Baghdad: After the talk, out of earshot from the soldiers and diplomats, he starts to complain. He starts to act very un-Obamalike, according to a U.S. embassy official who helped organize the trip in Baghdad. He’s asked to go out to take a few more pictures with soldiers and embassy staffers. He’s asked to sign copies of his book. “He didn’t want to take pictures with any more soldiers; he...

Production of opium and the illicit crop's value soared in Afghanistan last year, the United Nations said in a report released Thursday. According to the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime, farmer income derived from Afghanistan's opium crop in 2011 was $1.4 billion (1.09 billion euros), representing nine percent of GDP. "Opium is therefore a significant part of the Afghan economy and provides considerable funding to the insurgency and fuels corruption," Yury Fedotov, executive director of the UN office, said in a statement. Afghanistan grows about 90 percent of the world's opium. The UN said poppy-crop cultivation covered more than...

As news of a terrorist plot by a radical Islamist in Tampa emerged Monday, the propaganda machine that is the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) launched into action, repeating its mantra of accusations against the FBI and offering excuses for the plotter. It's a common pattern for an organization that positions itself between the public, government, and terrorist suspects, trying to control dialogue about Islamist terrorism suspects and cynically manipulating its own relationship with the government. Local media played into CAIR's plan, with the Tampa and St. Petersburg daily newspapers and television affiliates turning to the group for reaction, despite...

On Thursday, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland reacted to a statement by the Deputy Leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood that it would “not recognize Israel under any circumstances” with a mind-bogglingly naïve reassurance that we shouldn’t worry: “We’ve seen this press report. I would say that it is one member of the Muslim Brotherhood. We have had other assurances from the party with regard to their commitment not only to universal human rights, but to the international obligations that the Government of Egypt has undertaken.” Riiight. So, according to the State Department, we should believe the private assurances...

Authorities say a 25-year-old described as an Islamic extremist was arrested in a plot to attack sites around Tampa, Florida, after taking possession of disabled guns and bombs The U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest of Sami Osmakac on Monday. Authorities say Osmakac is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in the former Yugoslavia. He has been charged with one count of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. His first appearance in federal court is scheduled for Monday afternoon. Federal officials say a confidential source told them that Osmakac wanted Al Qaeda flags. The federal complaint...

President Obama signaled Congress this week that he is prepared to share U.S. missile defense secrets with Russia. U.S. officials are planning to provide Moscow with the SM-3 data, despite reservations from security officials who say that doing so could compromise the effectiveness of the system by allowing Russian weapons technicians to counter the missile. The weapons are considered some of the most effective high-speed interceptors in the U.S. missile defense arsenal. There are also concerns that Russia could share the secret data with China and rogue states such as Iran and North Korea to help their missile programs defeat...

The Obama administration, fresh from abandoning Iraq at a critical time in its post-war development, is apparently preparing to do the same thing in Afghanistan. According to a report published late last month in The Hindu, radical Islamist cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi is serving as a "key mediator in secret talks between the U.S. and the Taliban." Unnamed government sources assert that Qaradawi helped in putting together a "road map" whose purpose is to provide America a "face-saving political settlement ahead of its planned withdrawal from Afghanistan which is due to begin in 2014." Once again, for an Obama administration...

It is as if the USA surrendered in installments and the caliph has been installed in the Oval office. Imagine reading the following on September 12, 2011. We would have stormed the capital. The Obama administration is set to release Taliban leaders with operational ties to Al Qaeda from Gitmo, even before the heinous Taliban has agreed to come to the table for "peace talks". The war criminals set for release are hardcore jihadist leaders who fought on the fields of Islamic imperialism and killed US and coalition troops. These Muslim leaders would return to the battlefield and serve to...

President Obama smokes the peace pipe with the TalibanYou know the Taliban is feeling pretty good about life when it opens up a branch office. On Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid announced that the insurgent group would be establishing a presence in Qatar’s capital city of Doha to facilitate negotiations with the United States. The location is significant because it is the base for Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a radical Islamist scholar who is reportedly brokering a peace deal that would give the Obama administration a face-saving means of exiting Afghanistan. An about-face would be a better idea. Mr. Qaradawi is an...

President Barack Obama says he won't take "no" as an answer from Republicans, so he's going around them to appoint the head of a new consumer protection agency. Obama says Republicans would just keep holding Richard Cordray's nomination hostage—and the president says that's inexcusable and wrong. He says Cordray must be in place in order for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to start helping consumers deal with unscrupulous mortgage companies, dishonest payday lenders, and others. Obama announced the appointment of Cordray during a stop Wednesday in Ohio, where Cordray once served as attorney general. Republicans are outraged but Obama says...

Obama has recruited the annihilationist leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Sheik Qaradawi, to negotiate with the heinous Taliban. That's like FDR reaching out to Hitler. Today the NY Times is reporting that the Obama administration has begun to reverse decades of US policy as it "seeks to forge closer ties with an organization once viewed as irreconcilably opposed to United States interests." What US interests? Freedom and human rights. Individual rights, equal rights under the law, freedom to worship, freedom of speech, freedom from genocide, Jew-hatred, and misogyny ....... this is unbelievable. If given a second term, Obama...

We need an observation network of Jihadi Training Camps in the USA. Our government has now classified terrorist acts as crimes. That invokes the right of citizen self defence agaist crimes. To defend ourselves we need information on threat, which our government, including Homeland Security, no longer provides to the people. We need to do that ourselves. A Congressional Hearing into the Issue has been derailed. We need to organize. Seeking Freepers in these locations who are interested in providing information: Jamaat ul-Fuqra camps (Also known as Muslims of America and Quranic Open University) 1. Deposit, NY 2. Hancock, NY...

The US has agreed in principle to release high-ranking Taliban officials from Guantánamo Bay in return for the Afghan insurgents' agreement to open a political office for peace negotiations in Qatar, the Guardian has learned. According to sources familiar with the talks in the US and in Afghanistan, the handful of Taliban figures will include Mullah Khair Khowa, a former interior minister, and Noorullah Noori, a former governor in northern Afghanistan. More controversially, the Taliban are demanding the release of the former army commander Mullah Fazl Akhund. Washington is reported to be considering formally handing him over to the custody...

Why should my taxpayer dollars be used to advance sharia finance? Goldman Sachs, one of the largest recipients of Obama's redistribution of taxpayer money, is going Islamic. Many of Obama’s cabinet and appointed czars are directly connected to Goldman Sachs. The Muslim Brotherhood is dictating Obama's foreign policy, and now its financial policy as well. Sharia finance prohibits investments in whole American sectors -- tobacco, pork, alcohol and some forms of entertainment. Further, 2.5% must go to zakat (Islamic charity aka jihad). I do not want my money going to advance jihad and starve American business. Where is the separation...

Higher-ups within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are pressuring rank-and-file officers to rubber-stamp immigrants’ visa applications, sometimes against the officers’ will, according to a Homeland Security report and internal documents exclusively obtained by The Daily. A 40-page report, drafted by the Office of Inspector General in September but not publicly released, details the immense pressure immigration service officers are under to approve visa applications quickly, sometimes while overlooking concerns about fraud, eligibility or security. One-quarter of the 254 officers surveyed said they have been pressured to approve questionable cases, sometimes “against their will.” The report does not call out any...

The AP reported last week that "U.S. officials from the State Department and White House plan to continue a series of secret meetings with Taliban representatives." The AP report went on to say that "one member of the Taliban negotiating team has been publicly identified as Tayyab Aga [Agha], an emissary of Pakistan-based Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar." But sadly, and ironically, while the Obama administration is desperately reaching out to Mullah Omar, Mr. Omar is strengthening his resolve to kill US troops and to wreak havoc upon Afghanistan. From the Times of India: Taliban militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan...

David H Relkin, Esq. is out to make his name by bringing an action against George Soros and Donald Trump, Deutsche Bank and more than a dozen others claiming USD4.2 milliard in damages based on a civil court case alleging "Money Laundering, Bankruptcy Fraud, and Bid Rigging (sic)" arising out of a deal relating to "The General Motors Building in New York City." In a long press release published in the USA yesterday, Relkin says he acts for plaintiff Leslie Dick Worldwide Ltd. The release purports to quote from filed Court papers in which the plaintiff claims that the actions...

The evidence is mounting that the Fast and Furious gun giveaway was orchestrated and/or initiated from the top of the Obama administration. Forbes Magazine is calling it “Obama’s Watergate.” Are we to believe that they gave away enough guns to equip a small army of narcoterrorists out of a simple error? We would have to be pretty gullible to believe that. We have to ask just what they intended to achieve by doing this. It was a truly extravagant gift to the Sinaloa Federation Cartel. It was not just expensive in tax dollars; it was expensive in political capital, and...

Inside Iraqi Corruption Charles R. Smith Tuesday, March 29, 2005 John A. Shaw is a curious example of Washington politics gone mad. Shaw is a veteran government employee who served inside the White House under Presidents Ford, Nixon and Reagan and was an associate deputy secretary in the Department of Commerce. In 2001, Shaw was appointed by Bush Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld to head the newly formed Office of International Technology Security. In this post, Shaw began the difficult task of reforming government controls over the export of sensitive technology to foreign countries. In 2003, Shaw began investigating allegations of...

Double Red Alert Posted by Ann Barnhardt - June 24, AD 2011 9:01 AM MST Two HUGE intel leads in my email box this morning from way-back contacts that I've had for years, that are actually somewhat connected concepts. 1. File this one under "Now It All Makes Sense". A Missouri farming and ranching contact just got off a conference call wherein he was informed that the federal government is sending out letters to all of the flooded out farmers in the Missouri River flood plain and bottoms notifying them that the Army Corps of Engineers will offer to BUY...

LAPD officers swarmed and handcuffed what they described as a "person of interest" in the Los Angeles arsonist spree that has left thousands of residents scared out of their wits for days. Fire officials say "it is too early to speculate" if this is the person responsible for the fires. Police have already released surveillance video showing the alleged suspect -- a ponytailed Steven Seagal lookalike (below). As you can see in our video ... the man in custody sports a ponytail Cops previously said 39 fires could be linked to the recent rash of arsons ... and another...