The Internet Monk
"Read.Think.React.Write.Live."
A Webjournal edited by Michael Spencer
The Insanity Offense
Fighting Terrorism Without Offending Terrorists
by Michael Spencer
When
I was a kid, I used to watch Efrem Zimbalast Jr. in "The
FBI." Every Sunday night they caught a different bad guy. To my
simple mind, it seemed like a cool show. The FBI using all their skills
to catch criminals. But, hey...what did I know? Little did I realize
that the point was not to apprehend criminals, but to not offend anyone
by using any unjust and offensive techniques like common sense profiling.
Remember the Oklahoma City bombing? After the explosion, there was an immediate mention of middle eastern terrorists, and the word went out to watch the airports and highways for the same sort of people who had bombed the World Trade Center in 1992 and done so many other acts of terrorism against the United States. Of course, when Tim McVeigh was arrested, there was a fit of finger-wagging and head-shaking over the terrible prejudice against middle eastern males that had gripped the country. Call me crazy, but could it possibly be that the law enforcement community had reason to think middle eastern terrorists might attempt such an act of terror? Like, maybe, warehouses full of intelligence on just this sort of plot?
Now, here we are post 9/11 and we are discovering that the Clinton-era FBI got the message. Fight terror without actually showing any bias towards those persons most likely to be terrorists. Don't offend middle eastern males. Don't show any undue interest in Muslim fanatics. Persons fitting the profile of the perpetrators of all those terrorist acts of the last thirty plus years should not be singled out for an extra question or an ID check.
The message really got through. This week we learn that Mohamed Atta practically set up an Al-Queda training camp in an office of the Department of Agriculture, and the employee who enjoyed the performance never thought it odd that this gentlemen found a way to mention 1) buying an airplane 2) destroying buildings, 3) cutting her throat and 4) what a swell guy Osama Bin Laden was, all in the same breath. The mad scientists of political correctness must be very proud.
The loony Left and the loony Right are in bed together on this one. The Left can't stand the thought that a minority male might be considered more of a candidate for arrest than the ladies at the nursing home, and the far Right can't stand the thought that the government might want to let the FBI tap a phone or visit a church or a mall. I suppose both these groups have a date and place reserved for their rallies to celebrate political principles upheld in the shadow of a mushroom cloud.
Is it apparent yet that the terrorists know our politically correct impulses provide a wonderful opening for terror? Call me crazy, but something tells me that if someone bombed public buildings in Muslim countries, the governments involved wouldn't apologize for looking up the most vocal enemies of their society and having a word with anyone who fit the profile. Of course, those societies have no real appreciation for human rights. They just want to stop the violence. We want to give someone an award for demonstrating tolerance.
If a community is seeking to catch a criminal, and it's determined that the criminal is likely to be white, would I be offended at being pulled over and ID'ed? Not only would I not be offended, if I knew what was going on and I wasn't ever checked out, I would assume law enforcement was incompetent, corrupt or stupid. And that's what our choice to randomly pull people out of airport lines to confiscate their combs and toothpicks amounts to: incompetence, corruption and stupidity.
Muslims in America with no ties to Al-Queda or terrorists organizations have nothing to hide or to fear. No one is putting whole populations into detention camps. The only people in detention camps are armed or dangerous combatants against the United States. Muslims who do not have ties to terrorists, whether directly or circumstantially, are not denied one ounce of American freedom by being asked to step out of line and validate their identity and business.
The Left has never gotten over its bout with McCarthyism, and so we have to suffer through the mind-numbing idiotics of media and entertainment liberals howling about a government persecuting its own citizens. Suddenly, liberals who want the government to give everyone two aspirin and tuck them in with a good night story can't stomach the thought of actually profiling terrorists. And the Right's appetite for conspiracy theories is endless. The same crowd that made a fortune out of making Clinton into the Godfather of Mena is now hard at work saying that correcting the problems in the FBI is the mark of the beast and the end of freedom. Is it not obvious where the real threat to freedom really comes from?
What all these groups seem to have forgotten is that we are in a war. A war. The war happens to be on our own soil as well as overseas, but the rules and tactics of war must prevail. Political correctness cannot slow down our pursuit of the enemy. The due process of normal society is not the same as the process used against combatants of a terrorist force actively looking to destroy us. Jose Padilla's lawyer says he should not be detained as a combatant headed for a military tribunal. They say his civil liberties are being violated. Mr. Padilla's civil rights took a hit when he began planning to use a radiological weapon on his fellow citizens in the cause of a terror war. Not a bank robbery or a publicity stunt, but a war on the United States. Sorry, but Mr. Padilla isn't a shoplifter. He is an Al-Queda member on the Dirty Bomb project, and that means he won't be doing an O.J. this time around.
Anyone who bothers to do the research (such as Michael Birch on the BHT) can discover that American citizens who are non-uniformed co-belligerents with foreign powers can be detained indefinitely and tried in military tribunals. The possible intelligence compromise of putting the Dirty Bomber on trial alone is reason enough to keep this fellow on ice. (As I type this, his attorney is describing him as a quiet, gentle, bashful soul being maligned by the government. She can explain where the radiological weapon plans fit into that picture.)
Advocates of political correctness need to get a reality check. If we cripple our domestic armies fighting terrorism and judge the war on terror as a contest in tolerance, we are doomed. Americans and those who love America enough to want our opportunity society will support these prudent steps necessary to find and stop terrorism. Those who oppose profiling are following the terrorist game plan, and that is an insanity offense that we can't afford.