Who really is the enemy?
Published 12:01 am Friday, March 11, 2011
A hearing on “homegrown terrorism” in Congress Thursday revealed an ongoing disconnect between fear and actual risk.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, Americans have feared terrorism. In response, we passed the Patriot Act (trading privacy rights for greater safety, in theory) and created the Department
of Homeland Security. Apparently these efforts worked — there hasn’t been another successful terrorist attack in the United States since 9/11, unless you count the ones committed by Americans against Americans.
Which is why the House panel led by Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) really lost its way.
“We have to know our enemy, and it is radical Islam in my judgment,” said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas).
Did Rep. McCaul forget that is was just a year ago this month that Texan Andrew Joseph Stack III, 53, flew his plane into the IRS building in Austin, killing himself and IRS worker Vernon Hunter, 68, a husband and father and Vietnam veteran?
King, the committee chairman, declared that U.S. Muslims are doing too little to help fight terrorism in America. Wow. Would King be as willing to declare that U.S. Christians and Jews are doing too little to help fight homegrown racism?
Did King forget that it was just a year ago this month that the FBI arrested nine people in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, accused of plotting to kill police officers as a way to instigate a violent uprising against the government?
In December, the FBI made a huge deal about arresting Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, on charges of plotting to bomb a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland. But reports reveal a young man pretty much incapable of plotting anything, let alone building a bomb. He was rather a very willing and confused foot soldier who earlier tried to board a plane to Alaska without a ticket before the FBI decided to present him with their plot.
(How did Mohamud come to the attention of the FBI? Someone concerned about him called authorities. Rep. King should be pleased.)
Meanwhile, in Eastern Washington, a homegrown terrorist was allegedly plotting and building a real bomb.
Kevin Harpham, 36, was arrested Wednesday, accused of leaving a backpack containing a rat poison-laced bomb on a bench along the route of the Martin Luther King Jr. parade in Spokane on Jan. 17. (City workers discovered the bomb and it was diffused. The parade went on!) Harpham was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and knowingly possessing an improvised explosive device.
The bomb was very real, unlike Muhamud’s fake one.
Rep. McCaul is right. We do need to know the enemy.
