I'll want to see all 4 names, who is the 5th person??? Did these folks with american names have alias'. What is the street value of this stuff and was it intended for resale to a terrorist group???? These guys appear to be car theives, but theives always need a 'fence'/customer for the stolen goods.
As Glen Beck notes....just another isolated incident...i'm sure????!!!????/////

When authorities say, "Well, we're not sure what it is, but it's not terrorism," are we supposed to believe them, or is this a nudge-and-a-wink sort of deal? I mean, why risk their credibility when they don't have to? Why not just say, "We're looking into their motives but haven't reached any firm conclusions yet?"

Why were they stealing it? maybe to sell to terrorists

Guys, I used to work in law enforcement. I don't want to get all hissy, but the cops have restrictions that are pretty much invisible to the average civilian.

What the authorities label the crime sets the path that the investigation and prosecution will follow. "Terrorism" means (in copspeak) a conspiracy with foreign acters and support involved. "Domestic terrorism" means a conspiracy with all of the money and support being home grown.

The word you should be paying attention to is "conspiracy", which means that there's more going on than meest the eye. Any ndividual crime is nothing more than a step taken to achieve a greater purpose.

The name of the crime also indicates jurisdiction. Terrorism means Federal heat taking over, particularly DHS and FBI, with maybe the NSA and CIA thrown in if we're talking about international networks. If it's just a bunch of yahoos that are stealing explosives to sell later, then the locals and BATF can handle it.

I got the impression that a lot of the blogosphere was upset at DHS waste and incompetence. Does anyone here want them to waste resources chasing and prosecuting Billy Joe and his three cousins?

I don't want to offend anyone. I want everyone to think I'm a hell of a guy. (Really! No sarcasm!) But a lot of people get all upset and say the cops are just trying to pull one over on us by not calling such-and-such crime an act of terrorism. This is a conceit, and it shows they just don't have a clue.

James

Thanks for the additional info, JRR. The legal distinctions are important, but obviously omitted in the report. Wouldn't it be nice if we had professional reporters providing these sorts of details when covering this stuff, instead of this 'AP' rabble we're stuck with?

That said, being a recovering engineer, I frequently have had to translate what I was saying from jargonated techie-talkie to normal speak. It might be helpful if the law enforcement spokespeople could do the same, particularly if the jargonated words they use are also in common usage.

When you get that sorted out, let me know. ;)

Thanks for giving such information. I didn't knew about this issue that much.