If We Fought There To Keep 'em From Here...

If we fought over there to keep terrorists from coming here...then why are so many people making bombs in our backyard? From the San Francisco Chronicle:

San Jose and Santa Clara police have arrested more than 140 people in a massive copper theft sting after a year-long undercover investigation that also unveiled a bomb-making operation for cell phone-triggered explosives, police said today.

Seventy-four of those arrested were picked up Tuesday in a massive sweep that included Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties, investigators said....

...Soon the police recycling front had people pawning stolen Porsches, banned assault weapons, drugs and remote-activated bombs, investigators said.

One suspect brought in seven homemade bombs of varying sophistication, several of which were designed to be detonated remotely via a cell phone, Sullivan said.

Investigators kept tabs on the sellers, arresting 68 throughout 2007 before Tuesday's sweep that included 140 arrests warrants and eight search warrants, police said. Seventy-four of the 140 people sought in the culmination of "Operation Meltdown" were arrested Tuesday; the rest are still being sought.

A firearms investigation that grew out of the copper-theft sting has stretched to Carson City, Nev., where it is being handled by federal agents, including the FBI.

Understand, over half the suspects are still at large...

And then, well, there's that Nazi bomb-maker--complete with a pipe-bomb hidden in a Nerf football (!!)--in New York. From the January 21st Daily News:

Police stumbled upon a bomb-making factory Sunday in the home of a Columbia professor who specializes in the spread of infectious disease - and are investigating whether he and his roommate have terror ties.

Cops evacuated the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood around the Remsen St. home of Michael Clatts, a medical anthropologist, after finding seven pipe bombs fitted with fuses in his flat, police sources said.

And then there's that matter of the former Navy SEAL and his C-4 arsenal, who is facing a range of state (not federal?!~! ahem) from the January 2 Pilot Online:

Elbert Tillman Jr., 34, was arrested by Suffolk Police on Dec. 29 after a search of his residence revealed more than 200 different types of illegal explosives, a large quantity of possible illegal steroids, syringes, 18 rifles, numerous handguns, two computers and 28 metal military boxes of assorted ammunition....

...Police had said earlier that additional charges are expected to be filed against Tillman once all of the explosive devices found at the residence in the 6500 block of Ferry Point Road have been identified and inventoried.

We're pouring money into our Iraq adventure for what reason, exactly?