The massacre in Manchester this week seems to have prompted attention to the arrest of brothers Abdullah and Majid Alrifahe in north Minneapolis on May 11. Inside the parked car they were sitting in was a stash of guns, ammo, drone parts and an inert hand grenade. The arrest report provides an inventory of the stash officers found in “a cursory search” of the vehicle: “a loaded AK 47-type assault rifle, another rifle, several assault rifle magazines and large quantities of different ammunition (including shotgun shells), discharged shell casings and BB ammunition. Also found were several cell phones, computers and electronics equipment including drone parts.” And then we have this: “Bomb Squad personnel called to the scene noted that the variety of the ammunition and large quantity of BBs and electronic devices could be used for bomb-making.”

The Star Tribune published a brief article the following week. The Star Tribune story appears to be drawn directly from the arrest report. It has not returned to the story since the linked May 15 article. We followed up with law enforcement sources and noted the arrests here (May 16) and here.

As the driver of the car in which the stash was found, Abdullah Alrifahe has been charged with one felony count of possession of a pistol without a permit. He is in detention on $200,000 bond, which is suggestive of the seriousness with which authorities view the case. Majid Alrifahe, however, has been cited only for misdemeanor offenses and released. His case lies with the Minneapolis City Attorney. Reporters have not been able to reach Majid since the arrests.

Local law enforcement authorities have called on the FBI to see if agents can shed light on what’s happening here. So far as I can tell, the brothers do not appear on any watch list. Abdullah may be deportable if convicted of the felony charge, though no one has reported the brothers’ immigration status. Reading the arrest report, however, one can infer that the case has a wrinkle or two. I will attend the pretrial hearing in the case scheduled on June 12.

Yesterday, nearly two weeks after the arrests, CBSMinnesota’s Esme Murphy reported on the case (text here, video below). The sole felony charge against Abdullah and the misdemeanor charges against Majid belie the seriousness of the case reflected in the amount at which bail is set on Abdullah Alrifahe. The text of the story tactfully states that the case has raised “growing concerns.” Authorities have obviously had concerns since they found the brothers’ stash.

Esme consulted criminal defense attorney Joe Tamburino (not involved in the case) for his comments. Tamburino explains that additional charges could be filed, which is always true. We will have to stay tuned.

The Democrats are trying to make a scandal out of the fact that representatives of the Trump campaign communicated with Russians, even though those communications were 100% appropriate. I had forgotten about this post, which I wrote in March 2015, until Rush Limbaugh read from it on his program yesterday. It reminds us what a REAL scandal involving a presidential campaign and foreign policy looks like:

In 2008, the Bush administration, along with the “six powers,” was negotiating with Iran concerning that country’s nuclear arms program. The Bush administration’s objective was to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. On July 20, 2008, the New York Times headlined: “Nuclear Talks With Iran End in a Deadlock.” What caused the talks to founder? The Times explained:

Iran responded with a written document that failed to address the main issue: international demands that it stop enriching uranium. And Iranian diplomats reiterated before the talks that they considered the issue nonnegotiable.

The Iranians held firm to their position, perhaps because they knew that help was on the way, in the form of a new president. Barack Obama had clinched the Democratic nomination on June 3. At some point either before or after that date, but prior to the election, he secretly let the Iranians know that he would be much easier to bargain with than President Bush. Michael Ledeen reported the story last year:

During his first presidential campaign in 2008, Mr. Obama used a secret back channel to Tehran to assure the mullahs that he was a friend of the Islamic Republic, and that they would be very happy with his policies. The secret channel was Ambassador William G. Miller, who served in Iran during the shah’s rule, as chief of staff for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and as ambassador to Ukraine. Ambassador Miller has confirmed to me his conversations with Iranian leaders during the 2008 campaign.

So Obama secretly told the mullahs not to make a deal until he assumed the presidency, when they would be able to make a better agreement. Which is exactly what happened: Obama abandoned the requirement that Iran stop enriching uranium, so that Iran’s nuclear program has sped ahead over the months and years that negotiations have dragged on. When an interim agreement in the form of a “Joint Plan of Action” was announced in late 2013, Iran’s leaders exulted in the fact that the West had acknowledged its right to continue its uranium enrichment program:

“The (nuclear) program will continue and all the sanctions and violations against the Iranian nation under the pretext of the nuclear program will be removed gradually,” [Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif] added. …

“Iran’s enrichment program has been recognized both in the first step and in the goals section and in the final step as well,” Zarif said.

“The fact that all these pressures have failed to cease Iran’s enrichment program is a very important success for the Iranian nation’s resistance,” he added.

So Obama delivered the weak agreement that he had secretly promised the mullahs.

That, readers, is what a real scandal looks like.