Interesting thing. There were two domestic terrorist incidents that happened within the last few weeks. One involved a Muslim in Illinois. One involved an angry white guy in Tennesse. One involved bombs and a mall. One involved making sarin nerve agent and buying C4 explosive. One got into the national news. One didn't. Guess which one is which.
Muslim case:
Investigators said Derrick Shareef, 22, an American citizen from Rockford, was acting alone and never actually obtained any grenades. He was arrested Wednesday when he met with an undercover agent in a parking lot to trade a set of stereo speakers for four hand grenades and a gun, authorities said.
"He fixed on a day of December 22nd on Friday ... because it was the Friday before Christmas and thought that would be the highest concentration of shoppers that he could kill and injure," said Robert Grant, the agent in charge of the Chicago FBI office.
White guy.
Demetrius "Van" Crocker of McKenzie, convicted in April of attempting to obtain a chemical weapon and possession of stolen explosives, was sentenced to 30 years in prison Tuesday by U.S. District Judge James Todd in Jackson.
The 40-year-old farmhand and father of two was convicted of accepting what he thought were ingredients to make Sarin nerve gas and a block of C-4 explosive from undercover agents in October 2004.
Crocker, who told undercover FBI agents of his desire to explode a briefcase bomb while Congress was in session, was found guilty by a jury in about 90 minutes in April.
Both were Americans. One caught the eye of the national media - and it wasn't the sarin nerve agent case. Wasn't newsworthy enough, I guess.
