Today’s lead homeland security news is the story of an Albany, N.Y., mosque raid that uncovered a shoulder-fired missile purchase plot.

Before the Deaniacs and Ashcroft-bashers start foaming again about the suspicious timing of the arrests, remember this: Similar plots have been uncovered before. In the late 1980s, thug leader Jeff Fort of El Rukn, the radical Chicago-based Muslim street gang, offered to commit terrorist acts in America on behalf of the Libyan government for $2.5 million – while imprisoned on drug charges in Texas. Fort sent three gang members to Tripoli to meet with Moammar Khadafy to discuss blowing up planes and buildings. After members were busted by the FBI trying to purchase a Stinger missile, the ring was convicted on terror-related charges in 1987.

Former FBI director Louis Freeh also noted that “in 1990, electronic surveillance assisted law enforcement in preventing foreign-based terrorists from acquiring a Stinger surface-to-air missile that likely would have been used in an attack on civilians…”

Wake up.