Word: terrorist
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...hear his neighbors tell it, Daniel Boyd is one of the most upstanding citizens of Willow Springs, North Carolina. "If he's a terrorist, he's the nicest terrorist I ever met in my life," one resident told reporters after Boyd, a 39-year-old drywall contractor, was arrested on July 27 - along with six others, including his twenty-something sons, Dylan and Zakariya - for allegedly plotting "violent jihad" overseas. According to the indictment, Boyd has spent the past three years stockpiling weapons in his rural home, recruiting and training would-be suicide bombers and orchestrating trips to Gaza, Israel...
Later that summer, after the U.S.-led coalition toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, the Iranians came up with another offer: they would trade their Arab captives, including Saad, for members of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), an Iranian terrorist group that was given sanctuary by Saddam. "It was a straightforward swap: your terrorists for ours," says a Western intelligence official familiar with Tehran's offer. The official says the offer included assurances that the MEK operatives would not be tortured and that international human-rights organizations would have access to them. "They said...
...Western diplomats worry that the security vacuum may allow foreign terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda to move in. Osama bin Laden is widely admired in the arid north. It has become fashionable for Muslims to name their sons after him, while his picture adorns T-shirts and posters. In a speech in 2000, bin Laden named Nigeria as among "the region[s] most qualified for liberation." "Clearly there is a lot of concern in Washington with the idea that al-Qaeda can gain a foothold within the 65 million-strong Muslim population in northern Nigeria," says the U.S. official...
...seized control of a camp of Iranian exiles ferociously opposed to the regime in Tehran. It was the most significant operation undertaken by Baghdad since U.S. troops withdrew from the cities last month and is most likely a nod to Iran's ayatullahs, who brand the group as terrorists, as does the U.S. Yet in the convoluted politics of the region, the U.S., despite having tagged the organization on its terrorist list, had been a sort of guarantor of the safety of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) because it was the enemy of its enemy Iran...
There appear to be few incentives for Iran to sign such declarations and allow potential agitators back home, especially now. Relocation to other countries is a more likely option, especially given that the European Union and Britain have removed the organization from their terrorist lists, potentially paving the way for the MEK's transfer. But that remains to be seen...