Jana Winter of Fox News brings us the heartwarming tale of Kathie Smith, a spunky 46-year-old grandma who enjoys international travel and making home videos. She’s also into Ramstein – not the German band, but the American airbase, which she would like to see blown up.
You see, Kathie Smith goes by the name “Zubaida” these days, and her home videos include images of herself and her husband, Salahudin ibn Ja’Far, posing in jihadi garb with machine guns, while photos of the German Taliban thugs who tried to bomb the Ramstein Air Force base in 2007 flash by. Her Facebook “likes” include terror mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki, who is also “liked” by the CIA for entirely different reasons. She’s in a Facebook “friends” group with al-Qaeda and its Somali soulmate, al-Shabab. It is not known whether she has sent them any Farmville gifts. Her MySpace page kicks off with a cheery announcement that “it is time for jihad, and it is now fard ayn [the duty] of all Muslims, whether in the United States or elsewhere!”
Smith celebrates the deaths of “terrorists,” by which she means U.S. soldiers. She converted to Islam when she married Ja’Far, who has personal ties to terrorists, posts material from the German Taliban and Islamic Jihad online, and calls bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers “noble leaders.”
Alas, she wasn’t willing to be Facebook friends with Fox News, but she did strike up a lively email correspondence with them. She’s not happy that she’s drawn the attention of Indiana’s Intelligence Fusion Center, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security. She complains about getting hassled by the DHS when she travels, including interrogations, bomb tests for her luggage, and being escorted by agents onto departing airplanes.
This poor, persecuted grandma wants us all to know she isn’t anti-American. She says she is “defending the defenseless” while living “a simple life” where she “tries hard to do what is right for mankind.” She points out that all she’s done so far is exercise her First Amendment rights, which seems to be true. Hopefully every audience for her future adventures in free speech includes counter-terrorism agents, and airlines are forever mindful to give her a comfortable seat right next to the sky marshal. Targeting counter-terrorism efforts carefully is essential to our security. It’s a good idea to start with the people who pose with automatic weapons in vanity videos for terrorist scum.
