Earlier today, CNN cast doubt on the ISIS attack being planned by residents of Dearborn, Michigan, framing it as “Islamophobia.”
Later, the DOJ released a 70-page criminal complaint revealing that Dearborn residents Mohmed Ali and Majed Mahmoud possessed multiple assault rifles, over 1,000 rounds of ammunition, and detailed plans to carry out an attack on behalf of ISIS.
Following that development, CNN stealth-edited its article, effectively deleting it by transforming it into a piece about the DOJ complaint — not about “Islamophobia.”
When new details emerged in a criminal complaint against the plotters, CNN memory-holed the original piece and replaced it with one that merely detailed the accusations.
Here's some of the spin from the first article:
Shortly after, FBI Director Kash Patel boasted on X the agency had “thwarted a potential terrorist attack” and arrested “multiple” people in Dearborn “allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend.”
Considered to be the heart of Arab America, Dearborn is home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States and has frequently faced Islamophobic and hateful remarks. Abdullah Hammoud, the son of Lebanese immigrants, became the first Arab American mayor of Dearborn when he was elected in 2021.
Members of the community, including neighbors and attorneys for the people taken into custody, say they are skeptical of the allegations.
One of these neighbors is Laraib Irfan, who says his Dearborn community is a close-knit, peaceful place where everyone looks out for each other like family. ...
Patel’s initial X post applauded the FBI for “crushing our mission to defend the homeland,” yet he gave no explanation or evidence to support claims of a foiled terrorist plot.
“More details to come,” he wrote — but so far, none has been alleged.
The FBI has not released any additional information, offering no clarity on when, where or how the alleged plot was meant to unfold.
“It’s curious to me,” Colin Clarke, a domestic terrorism and international security expert, told CNN. “What it makes me think is that the plot wasn’t maybe as mature as they led people to believe.” ...
“An allegation like this is dangerous to this community,” Makled said. “So when you have the national director of the FBI putting out a statement that there was a thwarted terrorist attack and then the news covers the raids of homes in the city of Dearborn, immediately the backlash on the internet is homegrown terrorist cell.”
Footage of the raid posted on Facebook sparked bigoted comments: “A real shocker that they reside in Dearborn,” one person wrote. “Well, Dearborn does have a major Islamic population who aren’t exactly friendly to anyone else,” said another. Some accused the people in the home of being “sleeper cells.”
Although Dearborn’s large Arab population, which makes up nearly half the city, makes it an easy target for Islamophobic, racist comments, the city has been ranked the second-safest large city in Michigan, according to the FBI’s 2024 annual crime report. ...
A neighbor, who asked to only be identified as “Ahmed,” said the people who lived in the home were kind, and he was not convinced the raid was based on credible suspicion.
“You never hear anything from them, they are perfect, smiling, and I do not believe anything happened (from them), they are very good people,” he said.
When asked about the FBI’s claim they stopped a terrorist plot, Ahmed interrupts and rejects the possibility completely: “No, no, no, no,” he says. “I don’t think so.”
Another neighbor, Kathy Sisson, also speaks highly of her community; she says she’s disabled and her neighbors, who are from Brazil, Pakistan and Iraq, are constantly checking on her to make sure she’s OK.
A person in the home where the FBI activity took place who did not want to share their name told CNN the people taken into custody “were just kids” and the situation was “being blown out of proportion and shouldn’t have happened.”
CNN has a convenient memory hole to hide its bogus reporting in; the terrorists’ lawyer probabky wishes he had one too:
Lawyer Amir Makled, who represents a man from the suburb of Dearborn who was still detained on Saturday, said federal authorities haven’t given him many details about the investigation but after reviewing the matter, he concluded that no terror event was planned. He said he doesn’t expect any charges will be filed.
“I don’t know where this hysteria and this fearmongering came from,” Makled said.
He described the all-male group of U.S. citizens as gamers, and said they range in age from 16 to 20.
“If these young men were on forums that they should not have been on or things of that nature, then we’ll have to wait and see,” Makled said. “But I don’t believe that there’s anything illegal about any of the activity they were doing.”
You can read the details of the crime (ironically, they were preparing to shoot up a gay bar - don’t tell the Queers for Palestine) in the story below. Attorney Makled notwithstanding, his boys were caught dead to rights.
FBI recovered stockpile of weapons from suspects who allegedly planned Detroit-area Halloween terror attack
