Links between Fort Jackson and DC-Area Terrorist Wannabes?

As is being widely reported on the blogosphere, CBN News has broken the story that five Muslim translators were arrested just before Christmas for trying to poison the food supply of their fellow soldiers at Fort Jackson in South Carolina. The group, now being called the "Fort Jackson Five," are suspected of having been in contact with five young Muslims from the Washington, DC area who traveled to Pakistan to wage jihad, but instead were captured by Pakistani police.

Since December, I have been following reports on the five U.S. nationals being held in Pakistan, namely, Pakistani Americans Umer Farooq and Waqar Hussain; Ethiopian Americans Aman Yamar and Ahmed Abdullah Mimi; and Egyptian American Ramy Zamzam.

CBS ran the following report on them back in December, immediately after their arrest. Since then, the "DC-area Five" have been formally charged by Pakistani officials with attempting to target important installations in Pakistan, fight in Afghanistan, and embrace martyrdom. The five also have made claims that they have been tortured while in Pakistani hands, a move right out of the terrorist playbook.



Pakistani officials claim that there is a connection between the DC terrorist wannabes and al Qaeda, which, if correct, also establishes a link of some sort between the Fort Jackson wannabe poisoners and al Qaeda.

Why is the news of the attempted poisonings being released a month and a half after the event? Among several other reasons that leap to mind, one is that the arrest of 5 Muslim soldiers attempting a terrorist act on a U.S. Army base would not support the "lone extremist" theory favored by Barack Obama.

Why does the president want Americans to believe in the "lone extremist" explanation of Islamic terrorism?

That's another question.
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Related posts:

• About that "Jihad Isn't Terrorism" Thing: 5 U.S. Nationals Sweating It Out in Pakistan
  
• "We are jihadists, and jihad is not terrorism"