An aerial view of the New Mexico compound. USA Today/AP.
A New Mexico judge has dismissed charges for three of the five suspects in the New Mexico compound case. USA Today/AP. The suspects were accused of neglecting 11 children, training them to commit terror attacks, abducting an additional child and having that child die in their care. The judge in the case dismissed the charges against Lucas Morten, Hurah Wajhaj and Subhannah Wahhabj. The charges against the remaining two suspects remain and the ringleader of the case, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj still faces charges in Georgia for the abduction of his son. The case was dismissed due to prosecutors missing a 10 day deadline to establish probable cause for the neglect charges.
My Comment:
What an outrage. From what I have seen though, this isn't really the judges fault as he had little choice but to comply with the law. It was the prosecutors that failed and failed badly. After the arrests were made they had 10 days to establish probable cause and they did not do so. From what it sounds like the prosecutors were unmotivated in this case and simply let it fall apart. That's why I have little faith that they will take the other option available to them which is going to a grand jury.
Such a case should have been very easy to establish. The children at this compound were malnourished and living in absolute squalor. The other adults in this case knew about it and could have cared for them but didn't. They also were training these children in small arms and were reportedly plotting school shootings and other terror attacks. That should be enough to file charges but it seems like the prosecutors didn't even bother to make these facts known to the court.
The good news is that the most dangerous of the suspects is still in custody and is unlikely to leave it anytime soon. Siraj Ibn Wahhaj's charges were not dismissed and even if they were he still has to face extradition to Georgia for his abduction of his son. He was the ringleader and the most likely to do something if let out. His wife is also being detained and still has charges as well so at least two out of the five are still in custody. They should not be getting out anytime soon.
Still, it's not like the rest of these defendants are good people. At the very least they didn't decide to leave when Wahhaj started to plan terror attacks and stood by as the children starved and one of them was abducted and died. I am betting that they were more involved in that and were partially responsible for the death of Wahhaj's son and were helping him plan his terror plots. These are extremely dangerous people and there is no way that they should ever be walking the streets as it appears they will be now.
This case has already gone through one massive outrage this month as the suspects in this case were allowed out on a $20,000 signature bond when it was clear that there was a clear and present danger posed by them. It seems very clear that the New Mexico authorities are not taking this case seriously. It's like they want these people free and back on the streets.
Keep in mind how dangerous what Wahhaj was planning is. Even if it was just him and a couple of the kids he could have caused absolute chaos if he launched several attacks at once. If, for example, he and two of the kids hit three different schools at the same time the police could have been totally overwhelmed. And the same could be true if all three of them hit the same school. And this is with the assumption that it would only be Wahhaj and a couple of the kids. Lucas Morten and the women in this case, as well as more of the children, could have attacked as well. I don't think I am wrong when I say that this could have been the worst mass shooting since the Las Vegas attacks and may have even surpassed it.
There is a theory among Paleoconservatives that I like called “anarcho-tyranny". It basically means a state where normal law abiding civilians face the full force of the law but where real criminals are allowed to roam free unpunished. It seems very clear that in New Mexico at least they are living in an anarcho-tyranny as these criminals were just allowed out.
This story is being widely covered by the media, to their credit, but it is being suppressed by the big tech companies. I had to actively search for it on google news as it was not a top story in their USA section, though given the outrage it probably should have been. On Twitter the story is not trending despite many people tweeting about it including right wing personalities like former governor Mike Huckabee and actor James Woods. I personally think that this story is a huge one and one that raises many questions.
Let's just go through those questions. First of all, why was the site under FBI surveillance and why did it fall to local cops to raid this compound? Why did the prosecutors fail at both the bail hearing and why didn't they file probable cause paperwork? What are the connections between Wahhaj, his father (an un-indicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing) and various politicians and pundits? How many more compounds like this exist in this country? What really happened with Wahhaj's son and how did he die? Why was the compound destroyed by the government? I don't have the answers for any of those questions but they deserve answers and these suspects deserve more scrutiny.
I do have to say that in more sane time we could at least rely on the federal government to step in after the local authorities messed up. I don't see that happening right now. The Justice Department seems especially reluctant to take any cases that are even remotely political with all their attention focused on the stupid Mueller Probe. And keep in mind that the feds already screwed this case up with the FBI refusing to do anything about this compound even though it should have been clear that at the very least child abuse was going on. I don't expect much more to be done at the federal level and if the local prosecutors screw up again I expect the other two defendants to go free as well...
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