Islamic terrorism: It's not what many think, new report suggests

Islamic terrorists didn’t kill anybody in the United States last year.
 
There were plots here and there, whose stories were contorted by idiosyncrasy rather than stereotype. ... The feds arrested a man they said wanted to bomb the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon with a remote-controlled model airplane. There was the would-be fashion model who worked at a 5th Avenue Saks and was accused of wanting to wipe out a Manhattan synagogue. And who could forget the (as friends described him) pot-smoking, whiskey-slurping, key-losing used-car salesman accused of conspiring with Iran to hire Mexican drug cartels in an assassination attempt on the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States? 
 
Yet there would be no second 9/11 in the United States in 2011, nor any Islamic terrorist killings of any kind, according to a report released Wednesday by the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security.

There were roughly 14,000 murders in the U.S. last year, according to the report, but the 20 American Muslims indicted in suspected terrorist plots — out of the 2 million Muslims in the United States — were not responsible for any of them.
 
“The scale of home-grown Muslim American terrorism in 2011 does not appear to have corroborated the warnings issued by government officials early in the year,” noted the report’s author, Charles Kurzman, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Last February, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano took to the bully pulpit in Washington to announce, “In some ways, the threat facing us is at its most heightened state since" the Sept. 11 attacks,  as The Times reported. 

The federal government’s security apparatus has ballooned since 9/11 — the Department of Homeland Security, which was created after the attacks, now has more than 230,000 employees — largely to combat a specter of Islamic terrorism whose face in the United States has changed over the last decade. "The terrorist threat facing our country has evolved significantly," Napolitano said in her remarks.
 
Kurzman’s figures show the Al Qaeda model, in which transnational groups of foreign-trained and foreign-funded extremists cross borders to commit high-profile attacks, has largely been outpaced by a sloppier and less successful run of home-bred freelance terrorists inspired by YouTube and Internet message boards, if inspired by foreign influence at all.
 
“Very few of the cases of Islamic terrorism in the United States have had any connection with Al Qaeda or its affiliates,” Kurzman said of the last few years of data, speaking in a phone interview with The Times. The data amount to 33 deaths in 12 domestic Islamic terrorism attacks since 9/11, including the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks.

“The fear and concerns that many have had in the days and months after 9/11 about sleeper cells and trained killers waiting to strike has not materialized in the decade since then. … Most of the cases involve fringe individuals or small groups who are not connected with foreign terrorist organizations or with other plots in the United States," Kurzman said.
 
Life has also changed for many international groups traditionally identified by the U.S. government as major proponents of terrorism. Al Qaeda has seen its leadership decimated by the death of Osama bin Laden and its effectiveness crippled as the U.S. continues its aggressive use of clandestine raids and drone strikes. And the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah has flirted with adopting nonviolence tactics, as has the Palestinian group Hamas, inspired by the "Arab Spring’s" example. 

As Kurzman’s report notes, Islamic extremism continues to exist in the United States, though he said in an interview that the numbers were too small to make many generalizations about the cases compiled in his report. “Some of the folks on these lists are frankly bizarre in their beliefs even within revolutionary Islamic circles,” he said.
 
Not included in Kurzman’s report are instances of non-Islamic terrorist plots in America, which, by one interest group’s reckoning, outnumber Islamic plots 2 to 1.
 
A January report by the Muslim Public Affairs Council counted 119 violent plots against people by non-Muslim Americans versus 52 plots by American and foreign Muslims since 9/11. The council also identified eight non-Muslims who had or tried to get biological, chemical or radiological weapons.
 
Ideological violence in the United States has never been the exclusive domain of Islamists. In November, the FBI arrested four Georgia men in their 60s and 70s accused of a bioterrorist plot based on “saving the Constitution." Further, radical environmentalist and animal rights groups have caused uncounted millions of dollars in damage in ecoterrorism over the years.
 
And then there’s Jared Lee Loughner, a non-Muslim charged with perpetrating perhaps 2011’s greatest act of domestic horror during the attempted killing of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. His ideology was originally misconstrued as conservative before analysts realized it was too obscure and incoherent to be called much of anything at all and, as The Times reported yesterday, he is still not yet considered fit for trial. 

Then there are the political -- and occasionally violent -- protests; a case in point is the small-scale anarchist street violence that some say has arisen in Oakland as part of the Occupy protests there. Few would call this terrorism, but just what definition of domestic “terrorism” is Kurzman using, anyway?

“I don’t get into this,” he admitted on the phone.

Kurzman just takes the reports of Islamic terrorism as he finds them and as they’re submitted to him, he said, which he admitted leads to him making a lot of “judgment calls as to whether they involve terrorism.”

It's more inclusive than not, Kurzman said. Trying to define non-Islamic terrorism, he said, is opening “a can of worms.”

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Photo: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has spoken about the terrorist threat currently facing the United States. A new report suggests that threat may not be what many people think. Here, Napolitano testifies before the House Committee on Homeland Security last February. Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images 

Texas gun instructor calls for amending civil rights law [Q&A]

 

A Texas gun instructor who drew scrutiny earlier this month after airing a radio advertisement refusing to train President Obama supporters, Muslims and certain Arabs has agreed not to discriminate against would-be customers under law, Texas officials said this week.

"Crockett Keller affirmed that he would not refuse concealed handgun license instruction to anyone based on national origin, race or religion," Tom Vinger, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said in a statement released late Monday, adding, "The investigation is closed. DPS will have no additional comment at this time."

A clip of Keller's ad, which became popular online, shows him coolly informing listeners that Muslims and Obama supporters were not welcome at his firearms classes.

Keller, 65, originally aired the ad on a country music station near his home in Mason, Texas, about 100 miles west of Austin. It has been viewed more than 91,000 times on YouTube, sparking debates among viewers about terrorists and rednecks.

"If you are a socialist liberal and/or voted for the current campaigner in chief, please do not take this class," Keller says in the ad. "You've already proved that you cannot make a knowledgeable and prudent decision as required under the law. Also, if you are a non-Christian Arab or Muslim, I will not teach you this class. Once again, with no shame, I am Crockett Keller."

The Times caught up with Keller by phone Tuesday at his store in Mason, Texas, which sells, among other things, guns.

How have people responded to your ad?

I have received thousands of phone calls since it aired, 30 to 1 in favor. The most polite phone calls I have gotten have been from admitted Muslims, which I think is curious. They ask politely about my stands and I respond politely. They’ve said, "There’s so many more moderate Muslims than radical Muslims," and I said, "I’m aware of that, I didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday, but the moderate Muslims don’t attack the state.” It’s their responsibility to assimilate into the American culture.

Do you think excluding Muslims from your classes is discrimination?

I try to judge people individually, as opposed to a group. I know the ad did that. Occasionally you just have to do that.

How has demand been for your firearms classes after the ad aired?

I have had people send money because they couldn’t take the class. The class I had since the ad had six people. I hope you can be clear that you don't need a license to teach someone how to use a gun. I teach a 10-hour class on how to use firearms and a separate concealed-carry class with a proficiency test.

What's the most you teach in a class at a time?

I teach up to 10 people.

Is it difficult staying in control of that many people at a time?

You have to be stern. But I have a problem with being out on the range and having somebody with a pistol with 17 rounds in it; it doesn’t take long to start knocking off people if you have the wrong kind of students.

What does the Texas Department of Public Safety statement mean?

It was not a retraction of anything.

But does it mean that you are not going to deny instruction to Obama supporters, Muslims and certain Arabs?

In Texas, you don’t ask people how big their ranch is or what their religion is. That's just not polite. So it was kind of a moot point.

It sounds like you stand by the ad -- what have you learned from this controversy?

We have got to start speaking up. We are still the majority in the United States. It is the Judeo-Christian principles that we founded this country on that have made this country great.

So what happens now?

What’s going to have to happen now in my crusade or whatever you call it is the civil rights law will have to change. It’s absolutely ludicrous that the state should defend people who are out to destroy the state.

How do you think the civil rights law should change?

It would allow people to protect the country and the citizenry by refusing to teach people how to fly planes into buildings and to use handguns.

We need to amend the civil rights law to allow scrutiny and discrimination against any people attached to a group that has vowed the destruction of the United States, including the Black Panthers, Rev. Wright and radical Muslims. We need to have the right to protect our country. Protecting everybody’s rights has gone way too far.

How do you think civil rights laws should be changed?

It will be changed through the due process of law, not through protests. It needs to be changed through the appropriate channels.

It sounds like you still don't want to teach certain people, is that true?

I will definitely use a tremendous amount of discretion when it comes to who I will teach how to use a weapon.

But haven't there been terrorists who were not Muslim or Arab?

It's true that some terrorists have not been Muslim or Arab. But they have been involved in hundreds of terrorist acts.

So how do you know whom to screen out?

I would listen to people, listen to their comments to determine who wants to train and notify the state about any concerns I have about their safety or character -- by me being vigilant, trying to ascertain who’s who in my class and what their true needs are as far as a concealed-carry license.

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Georgia terror suspects allegedly inspired by online novel

This post has been corrected. Please see note at bottom for details.

Federal officials say that the four Georgia militia members who were arrested this week for allegedly plotting a violent terror attack were inspired by a novel their ringleader read on the Internet.

Now attention is turning to the author of that novel, Mike Vanderboegh, a blogger and former militia member from Pinson, Ala., who is no stranger to controversy.

The Associated Press reports that terror suspect Frederick Thomas, 73, was moved by Vanderboegh's novel, "Absolved," about a violent conflagration between militia members and the government.

In his introduction to the book, Vanderboegh describes it as a "useful dire warning," a book that is "as much a cautionary tale for the out-of-control gun cops of the ATF as anyone. For that warning to be credible, I must also present what amounts to a combination field manual, technical manual and call to arms for my beloved gunnies of the armed citizenry. They need to know how powerful they could truly be if they were pushed into a corner."

Vanderboegh told Fox News that his work had been misinterpreted, and had harsh words for the suspects, whose plot allegedly included targeting federal workers and buildings and blowing the deadly toxin ricin out of a moving car on the freeway.

"What kind of moron uses the phrase 'save the Constitution' and then goes out to try and distribute ricin?" Vanderboegh told the news channel. "This has got to be the Alzheimer's gang. What political point is made there? I don't understand what was going on in the minds of these Georgia idiots."

During protests over federal healthcare reform legislation, Vanderboegh suggested throwing bricks through the windows of Democratic Party headquarters. The AP notes that a number of such incidents occurred.

The liberal group Media Matters for America, a frequent critic of Fox News, alleges that the channel has "mainstreamed" Vanderboegh by "treating him as an expert on the [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives'] Operation Fast and Furious, featuring him in cable and online reports and identifying him as an 'online journalist' and an 'authority on the Fast and Furious investigation.'"

"Fast and Furious" was the federal operation in which ATF lost track of hundreds of firearms in Mexico, some of which  have been linked to crimes by Mexican drug cartels.

Media Matters notes that Fox "has not acknowledged Vanderboegh's extremist views, action and affiliations."

[For the Record, 10:56 a.m., Nov. 3: An earlier version of this post misidentified Mike Vanderboegh as a Fox News "commentator." Vanderboegh has been interviewed for Fox News stories, but is not affiliated with the news network.]

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Photo: Ray Adams, left, and Samuel Crump are shown in this artist's rendering as they appear in a federal courtroom in Gainesville, Ga., on Wednesday. The men and two others are accused of planning a terrorist attack. Credit: Richard Miller / Associated Press

 

Georgia militia members arrested, accused of plotting ricin attack

Federal officials arrested four members of a Georgia militia group Tuesday, alleging that the men were planning to attack state and federal buildings with guns and explosives.

They say the men also intended to deploy the deadly toxin ricin in some cities, including Atlanta; one suspect described a plan to blow the substance out of a moving car on the freeway.

The affidavits against the four men -- Frederick Thomas, 73, Dan Roberts, 67, Ray H. Adams, 65, and Samuel J. Crump, 68 -- do not specify the group to which they belonged,  indicating only that they were "members of a fringe group of a known militia organization" called the "covert group," which held clandestine meetings in the northeast Georgia foothills.

Unbeknown to the men, the group was being monitored by a government source who recorded its meetings, and, later, by an undercover federal agent pretending to be an arms dealer.

"While many are focused on the threat posed by international violent extremists, this case demonstrates that we must also remain vigilant in protecting our country from citizens within our own borders who threaten our safety and security," U.S. Atty. Sally Quillian Yates said in a statement.

One of the monitored meetings took place in March in Cleveland, Ga. In it, Thomas allegedly discussed a novel he had read on the Internet that described an antigovernment group's deadly attack on Justice Department attorneys.

"Now of course, that's just fiction, but that's a ... good idea," Thomas said, according to an affidavit.

Thomas went on to describe a "bucket list" of government workers, politicians, corporate leaders and members of the media who he thought needed to be "taken out" to "make the country right again," according to the document.

"When it comes to saving the Constitution, that means some people gotta die," he allegedly said at one point.

Over subsequent meetings, the men discussed carrying out a number of criminal acts, including murder, theft and assassinations, according to a Justice Department statement, which described the evolution of the alleged plot from there in this way:

In May and June, Thomas and Roberts met with an undercover federal agent pretending to be a dealer in silencers and explosives. They agreed to buy some items; Thomas discussed how they would use them to get back at the government for "treasonous" activities.

In a September meeting of the group, Crump said he wanted to make 10 pounds of ricin to "disperse ... in various United States cities, including Atlanta," and "described a scenario for dispersing the ricin ... in which the toxin would be blown from a car traveling on the interstates."

Last month, Adams allegedly provided Crump with a sample of the beans used to make ricin. On Saturday, Crump told the informant he was going to "shell the beans that week."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested all four men Monday. Thomas and Roberts were charged with conspiracy to receive unregistered firearms. Crump and Adams were charged with attempting to produce a biological agent for use as a weapon.

 

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Photo: Atlanta-area freeways, I-85 is shown here in a 2005 photo, are notoriously crowded. A group of north Georgia men have been charged with plotting to release ricin on them. Credit: John Spink / Atlanta Journal-Constitution 

Texas gun instructor won't train Muslims, Obama supporters

 

A wildly popular clip shows Texas handgun instructor Crockett Keller coolly informing listeners that Muslims and Barack Obama supporters are not welcome at his firearms classes.

The clip came from a radio ad Keller, 65, aired on a country station near his home in Mason, Texas, about 100 miles west of Austin. It has been viewed more than 37,000 times on YouTube, sparking debates among viewers about terrorists and rednecks.

"If you are a socialist liberal and/or voted for the current campaigner in chief, please do not take this class," Keller says in the ad. "You've already proven that you cannot make a knowledgeable and prudent decision as required under the law. Also, if you are a non-Christian Arab or Muslim, I will not teach you this class. Once again, with no shame, I am Crockett Keller."

Keller, who runs a store in Mason that sells, among other things, guns, did not return calls Tuesday. But in an interview with the Associated Press he defended the ad, saying he was inspired to make it after being "flabbergasted" by neighbors who left the state to campaign for President Obama and his own concern about training Muslims.

"I got to thinking, 'Hmm, I'm arming the enemy,' " Keller said.

The ad stopped airing last week.

A spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety told The Times it was investigating Tuesday whether to revoke or suspend Keller's license to teach concealed-handgun courses.

"Conduct by an instructor that denied service to individuals on the basis of race, ethnicity or religion would place that instructor's certification by the department at risk of suspension or revocation," the department said in a statement released to The Times.

Mustafaa Carroll, executive director of the Houston chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he encouraged state officials to investigate Keller's comments, although he was unsure what power the state had to intervene.

Carroll, who owns a hunting rifle and has hunted deer and owned other firearms, called Keller's comments "disturbing on so many levels."

"He’s not alone. There’s a lot of people who feel like he does" due to misconceptions about Islam, Carroll said, but "the state has guidelines and regulations -- that should be all he’s worried about following."

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Video: Crockett Keller, 65, a central Texas firearms instructor, recently aired an ad for his classes banning Barack Obama supporters, Muslims and non-Christian Arabs. The ad went viral this week, drawing criticism and the attention of state regulators. Credit: YouTube

San Antonio officials say break-in suspects not on watch list

San Antonio officials said a group of five Moroccan nationals suspected of breaking into a county courthouse Wednesday were not on a terrorist watch list.

“We have no indication that they’re on anybody’s watch list or they were here to do anything terrorist,” Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said during a briefing outside the courthouse Wednesday afternoon.

Wolff said at least two men, believed to be among those arrested, were seen in security camera footage parading down a courthouse hallway in decorative sombreros snatched from the law library and waving judges' gavels. The men appeared to be drunk when they were apprehended, and the incident was likely a prank, officials said.

Wolff said local officials were still working with the FBI to investigate the incident after the men were arrested about 1:40 a.m. on suspicion of burglary.

He said the men all have French home addresses and entered the country legally, arriving from London. They had rented a recreational vehicle in New Jersey, he said, but it was not clear what their final destination was.

The men were still in custody and being questioned with the help of a translator late Wednesday.

Authorities had applied for a warrant to search the men's RV, according to Cliff Herberg, Bexar County’s first assistant criminal district attorney.

“That might give us an indication of any other possible motive,” Herberg said.

Herberg said there was no indication of “terrorist activity,” but that he would seek a high bond “in an abundance of caution” because the men are foreign nationals and pose a flight risk.

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Photo: Security footage shows two men walking down the courthouse hallway in sombreros. Five Moroccan nationals have been arrested on suspicion of breaking into thehistoric Bexar County courthouse. Credit: Bexar County Sheriff's Office.

 

San Antonio courthouse break-in may be just a prank, police say

San Antonio authorities say five Moroccan men caught breaking into a downtown courthouse early Wednesday appeared to be pranksters, not terrorists.

Surveillance video from inside the courthouse showed two of the men wearing sombreros and waving a gavel, according to Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, who gave a briefing outside the courthouse Wednesday. He said the men appeared to "just be some guys on a prank."

Bexar County Sheriff Amadeo Ortiz said the men speak little English but were cooperating with investigators with the help of an interpreter. All five were arrested on suspicion of burglary.

Sheriff's Deputy Chief Dale Bennett told The Times that the sombreros were taken from the courthouse law library and that some of the men appeared to be intoxicated when they were arrested.

The men, who were unarmed, were dressed casually (as seen on KSAT-San Antonio) and did not resist when they were arrested, Bennett said. All had 90-day visas and had entered the country legally, four through New York's John F. Kennedy Airport in September and the fifth this month in Miami, he said. Bennett could not say where the men's flights originated.

Three of the men's names match those on an FBI watch list, Bennett said. The names, which have not been released, are not common, he said.

San Antonio police officers were initially called to the courthouse at 1:40 a.m. after three of the men tripped a silent alarm by pulling down a fire escape to climb into a fourth-floor window, Bennett said.

Two of the men were found in a nearby recreational vehicle, photographed by the San Antonio Express-News. The vehicle had California license plates and was rented in New Jersey, Bennett said.

Police officers who went inside the RV told Reuters it contained "photographs of infrastructure" including shopping malls, water systems, courthouses and other public buildings taken in cities across the United States.

San Antonio police officials later declined to confirm those reports, and Bennett said authorities were attempting to obtain a warrant to search the RV Wednesday afternoon.

"We’re still trying to determine whether these individuals had a plot or were just on a little vacation trek," Bennett said.

"There was some alcohol involved, so that leads us to believe they might not have known what they were doing, what building they were breaking into," he said. "We’re leaning towards a party prank at this point."

At least two of the men appeared to be intoxicated and had beer bottles with them when they were caught, according to a federal law enforcement official who was briefed on the early developments in the case and spoke with The Times. The official said there was nothing so far that would indicate a link to terrorism.

Agents from the FBI San Antonio office, the FBI-run Joint Terrorism Task Force, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have assisted San Antonio Police in running a background check on the five men and investigating evidence found at the scene.

"Right now, it appears to be a case of road-trip drinking gone awry," the official said.

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Photo: Authorities prepare to tow away an RV allegedly used by five men arrested for allegedly breaking in to a San Antonio courthouse. Credit: Lisa Krantz / San Antonio Express-News

 

FBI, police say 5 men caught breaking into San Antonio courthouse

The FBI and local officials are investigating five men found at a San Antonio courthouse early Wednesday morning; they said the men appeared to be Moroccan nationals.

San Antonio police responding to a call at 1:40 a.m. found three of the men inside the courthouse and two in a nearby recreational vehicle, according to Bexar County spokesperson Laura Jesse. Jesse said officials were still trying to determine Wednesday morning how the suspects got into the courthouse.

Police and Bexar County sheriff’s deputies searched the courthouse and surrounding buildings and blocked streets in the area for several hours while investigators spoke to the men, Jesse said.

It was unclear why they were breaking into the building, and officials were still investigating whether the men were really from Morocco as officers initially reported, she said.

As of 8 a.m. local time, the courthouse had been searched and was considered safe. Surrounding streets had reopened, although law enforcement officials continued to monitor the area, Jesse said.

The men's RV was first cordoned off with police tape and then towed, Jesse said. She would not say what was found inside.

All five men were taken to Bexar County Jail, where they were being held Wednesday morning, Jesse said. She said their names had not been released. A Bexar County sheriff's spokesman was at the jail Wednesday morning assembling more information for release, she said. 

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'Homegrown terrorism' case -- and its defendants -- are typical

When three young Muslim men from North Carolina were convicted in a federal terrorism conspiracy case Thursday, the outcome followed a well-established pattern in so-called homegrown terrorism prosecutions.

The three men -- Omar Aly Hassan, 22, Ziyad Yaghi, 21, and Hysen Sherifi, 24 -- were not accused of committing a terrorist attack. The three were convictedinstead of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Yaghi and Sherifi were also convicted of conspiring to kill unspecified people as part of a terrorist plot cut short by the men’s arrests in 2009.

Based on the results of a recent study of domestic Islamic terrorism cases, the three Muslims from the Raleigh, N.C., area are fairly typical of other Americans charged or convicted of jihadist terrorism in the post-Sept. 11 era.

For instance, 184 of the 188 terrorism cases studied involved no actual attacks.

The study, released in March by the New American Foundation and Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Public Policy, looked at the 188 cases of American citizens or U.S. residents charged in jihadist terrorism plots in the U.S. since Sept. 11. The study's opening sentence asks: "How real is the 'homegrown' Islamic terrorist threat?"

Of the four cases that did progress to attacks, the worst was at Ft. Hood, Texas, where Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is suspected of killing 13 people and wounding 32 in 2009.  

(By comparison, the study points out that 73 people were killed in hate crimes in the U.S. between 2001 and 2009 -- and more than 15,000 slayings are committed in this country every year.)   

A third of the 188 cases involved the use of an informant, the study found.

In the North Carolina case, the FBI recruited and paid three informants -- including a convicted felon -- and code-named them Jawbreaker, Hammerhead and Crosstown.  Investigators amassed more than 750 hours of audio or videotaped conversations. In some, the suspects praised jihad and suicide bombings, and spoke of killing non-Muslims.

Half the defendants in the 188 cases were U.S.-born American citizens. A third were U.S. residents. Hassan and Yaghi are U.S. citizens. Sherifi, a native of Kosovo, is a legal permanent resident of the U.S.

In a third of the cases, defendants trained with weapons or attempted to acquire or manufacture weapons (though not a single case involved chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons). The North Carolina men were convicted of providing material support to terrorists, in part, by firing weapons in a farm field -- which prosecutors successfully argued constituted military training.

One-fifth of the cases originated with tips from Muslim community members or stemmed from cooperation of the families of accused terrorists. According to the survey’s authors, tips from Muslim communities and families alerted authorities to the activities of Daniel Boyd, an American–born convert to Islam, identified as the ringleader of the North Carolina case.

Two-thirds of defendants in the cases studied had pursued some college courses. The three North Carolina men had taken courses at technical, community or four-year colleges.

Finally, the study found that the number of Islamic terrorism cases involving U.S. citizens or residents has risen sharply in the last two years. There were 76 such cases in 2009 and 2010 alone -- or 40% of all cases since the Sept. 11 attacks.

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Photo: The recent convictions of three Muslims from the Raleigh, N.C., area are fairly typical of other Americans charged or convicted of jihadist terrorism since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Here, a banner is pulled by a plane circling North Myrtle Beach, S.C., in an anniversary ceremony on Sept.11, 2011. Credit: Janet Blackmon Morgan / Myrtle Beach Sun-News/MCT 

Truck driver uses flip-up license plate to avoid $65 toll

Police say a Virginia truck driver tried to dodge the hefty $65 toll into Manhattan by rigging his front license plate so it would flip up on command -- a maneuver that might do James Bond or MacGyver proud.

Instead, the driver came off like MacGruber, that hapless "Saturday Night Live" character who always manages to muck things up. 

Police are "on the lookout for such maneuvers,” Port Authority spokesman Ron Marsico told the Associated Press. “Hopefully this will serve as a lesson.”

The wire service reports that, according to police, Nelson Vaquiz of Beaverdam, Va., had a cable in his truck cabin that was attached to his front license plate, allowing him to lift up the plate as he rolled through a gateless toll lane on New Jersey's Interstate 95, heading over the George Washington Bridge.

Vaquiz didn't have a toll transponder, the account says, so hiding his license plate could theoretically keep the security cameras from tracking him down by his license plate and forcing him to cough up the toll.

Vaquiz apparently put some thought into this, the New York Post reported: He'd also bent up his rear plate so it wouldn't be visible to the cameras either.

But a sharp-eyed Port Authority officer noticed the license plate falling back into the place, media reports say, and tried to pull Vaquiz over as he was hauling pipes about 6:35 a.m. Saturday. Vaquiz allegedly tried to make a run for it, but authorities managed to halt the vehicle before it reached the bridge.

Here's the upshot: Such efforts were apparently an attempt to avoid forking over $65. Now, Vaquiz, 36, faces charges of eluding arrest, theft of service and possession of burglary tools. He was released on bail.

Of course, plenty of drivers -- and would-be drivers -- have balked at New York City's steep toll prices. And the tolls will keep getting higher, the Port Authority says. By the end of 2015, a five-axle truck will have to pay $105 to cross the bridge. 

It wasn't a completely crazy gambit. Some drivers do indeed manage to race through the gateless lanes by obscuring their license plates. 

We're not sure how they manage to get away with it. But if you want to do it James Bond style -- and get away with it -- watch the above video. You'll find your answer about 1:18 seconds in.

Warning: The video will also make you yearn for a passenger ejector seat.

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