Does America have a home-grown terrorism problem?
In Friday’s Morning Brief, I noted that a Pakistani judge had detained Judi Kenan, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen of Pakistani origin, for attempting to enter Mohmand Agency, a militant-dominated Pashtun district in Pakistan’s tribal areas that is off-limits to foreigners. Kenan said he was visiting a friend in Mohmand, but didn’t have his friend’s address. ...
In Friday's Morning Brief, I noted that a Pakistani judge had detained Judi Kenan, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen of Pakistani origin, for attempting to enter Mohmand Agency, a militant-dominated Pashtun district in Pakistan's tribal areas that is off-limits to foreigners. Kenan said he was visiting a friend in Mohmand, but didn't have his friend's address. He was found with a knife, according to his lawyer.
In Friday’s Morning Brief, I noted that a Pakistani judge had detained Judi Kenan, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen of Pakistani origin, for attempting to enter Mohmand Agency, a militant-dominated Pashtun district in Pakistan’s tribal areas that is off-limits to foreigners. Kenan said he was visiting a friend in Mohmand, but didn’t have his friend’s address. He was found with a knife, according to his lawyer.
Mohmand Agency sounds like a lovely place to visit. New York Times reporter Jane Perlez visited a hospital there in 2007 and described the region as "a desolate landscape where women are strictly veiled." The local Taliban commander is a nasty fellow named Omar Khalid who has ties to terrorism stretching back before 9/11 and claims to have 3,000 fighters under his command. Several teenage suicide bombers in Afghanistan have been traced to the area.
As for Kenan, The News reports that he was "bearded" and "clad in traditional Pakistani dress" when he was apprehended. According to the Karachi-based newspaper, he had actually been living in Miriamzai, "a village located close to the volatile Matani and Badaber towns on the Peshawar-Kohat Road," where his father grew up. His mother is from Florida.
Curiously, U.S. news organizations don’t seem to have picked up this story yet, perhaps because there is little information to be had. What I want to know is: Was Kenan just a naïve tourist exploring his ethnic homeland? Or was he going to Mohmand to receive some kind of training before returning to the United States on a mission? Does America, in short, have its own home-grown terrorism problem?
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