It would be hard to imagine a better friend to al-Qaida and other terrorist outfits than the American Civil Liberties Union. If that statement shocks you, please allow me to back it up with facts.
A few days ago, the ACLU announced it will sue Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on behalf of eight foreign nationals who say they were abused by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The ACLU contends that the ultimate responsibility for the physical and psychological injuries sustained by the men lies at the highest levels of the U.S. government. Thus, Rumsfeld is their poster boy. By the way, the word “alleged” is not mentioned by the ACLU in its brief.
The suit is a farce and will go nowhere, I predict. The terror war is now 31/2 years old, there are more than 300,000 American forces deployed around the world, and the allegations of torture against those forces number about 300. That is very, very low. The ACLU is simply blowing far-left smoke, doing what it usually does: undermining policies it dislikes.
There is no question the ACLU opposes just about every proactive measure taken to fight terror. Consider the following:
* The ACLU opposes the Patriot Act. But, in 2003, when asked by liberal Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to produce examples of government abuse under the act, the ACLU did not produce one.
* The ACLU opposes the “No Fly List” compiled by the Transportation Security Administration to keep known bad guys off American airliners.
* The ACLU has sued to stop federal authorities from giving information about illegal aliens to state and local police agencies. You read that right. The ACLU does not want local authorities to know who is illegally living in their neighborhoods.
* And the ACLU believes that terrorists captured wearing civilian clothing are entitled to the rights legitimate soldiers receive under the Geneva Convention. Thus, no coercive interrogation.
Now I ask you, who is al-Qaida’s best friend in the United States? Am I wrong here? I tried to find out just what anti-measures the ACLU did support but was told that was not the organization’s mandate. They are committed to the protection of rights. Well, what about the right to live, ACLU, a right al-Qaida denied 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, 2001?
I am angry about this. The ACLU is making the war on terror much more difficult to wage. Under the guise of protecting the liberties of Americans, the ACLU combs the world to find foreign guys who say they were treated badly. Maybe they were and it shouldn’t happen. But I believe exploiting the situation to embarrass the Bush administration is the ACLU’s goal, not protecting the little guy rounded up in Kabul.
One final example. Mohammed Atta most likely loved the ACLU. The dead 9/11 hijacker was in the United States illegally and roamed around planning the deadly attack. If the feds had information on Atta in a database and a local Florida cop had managed to pick him up, the ACLU says the cop had no right to know any federal information about the illegal alien Atta. That extreme position sums up just how much the ACLU is looking out for all of us.
Bill O’Reilly can be reached by writing 5777 West Century Blvd., Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045, attn: Bill O’Reilly.
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