Terrorism charges have been filed against the members of the New Mexico compound terror cell

A picture of the New Mexico compound where the cell was based. ABC News/AP.

Five members of a New Mexico compound have been indicted by federal authorities for terrorism charges. AP. Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and four other adults who had been living at the compound are accused of planning multiple terror attacks against law enforcement, the military and government officials. The members have also been accused of transporting weapons across state lines and plotting multiple school shootings. The plot was discovered last summer when local authorities tried to locate Wahhaj's son who had been kidnapped. The son was found dead at the compound along with almost a dozen other children living in filthy and dangerous conditions. All of the compound members except Wahhaj have been charged with that kidnapping and may face the death penalty or life in prison. Wahhaj has not been charged with kidnapping. 

My Comment:

I figured that this story had been completely memory holed but apparently there is still coverage. These developments aren't that new but it is a major update in a case that I had assumed that everyone had forgotten about. 

The new charges show that the compound members were much dangerous than previously known. Everyone knew that they were going to attack schools but it looks like they had greater ambitions. They were going to target law enforcement, the military and the government as well. 

I've said for awhile that had these plans came to fruition they could have shut down the entire state. Multiple school shootings at the same time would be very hard to respond to. Espcially since the attackers had plans to attack some of the same people that would respond to it. 

Indeed, it might have ended up like the Mumbai terror attacks in India back in 2008. In that case 10 terrorists were able to shut down the entire city and kill 166 people. Indian police and anti-terror forces were barely able to fight back. Part of that was how poorly equipped the Indians were. Many of them were unarmed or using old Lee-Enfield rifles, which would not be the case in America, but even then our response would have been similarly overwhelmed. 

It does seem that these people had no connections to any wider terror groups. And it's pretty clear that the suspects in this case were crazy and almost cult like. They thought Wahhaj's son was going to be Jesus and would lead the world into war. They were equivalent to a doomsday Christian cult, but based on Islam instead. 

Thankfully, this plot was disrupted and it looks like everyone will now be brought to justice. We dodged a hell of a bullet here and it's scary how bad this could have gone. It makes me wonder if there are more of these kinds of compounds out there and if there are any more plots like this...