[StBernard] On Terrorism it's Time to Know, to Profile, and to Discriminate

[Westley Annis]

On Terrorism it's Time to Know, to Profile, and to Discriminate 
By Newt Gingrich

After the Christmas Day near disaster in Detroit, it is time for Americans
to demand effective anti-terrorist actions. 

Over eight years after 9/11 and 30 years after the Iranian illegal seizure
of the United States embassy and the 444 day Iranian hostage crisis,
Washington is still avoiding being intellectually honest about the war we
are in. 



Our Politically Correct Government 
is Making Life More Miserable For the Innocent

America is long overdue for a serious global strategy that includes
targeting threats such as the terrorist killer at Fort Hood, the individuals
recently arrested in Detroit, Denver and New York, and the five Americans
detained in Pakistan. The scale, persistence and sophistication of the enemy
requires an honesty, a clarity, and a scale appropriate to the response. 

Once again, instead of targeting the source of the threats, our politically
correct government decides to make life more miserable for the travelling
public by imposing hopelessly meaningless rules such as not allowing
passengers to leave their seats in the last hour of the flight. Bound by
cultural sensitivities, the default reaction of the bureaucracy is to review
the procedures and wring its hands ineffectively. 

Today, because our elites fear politically incorrect honesty, they believe
that it is better to harass the innocent, delay the harmless, and risk the
lives of every American than to do the obvious, the effective, and the
necessary.


It's Time to Be Honest About What We Know

Before a lot more Americans are killed we must acquire the courage to tell
the truth and to act on that truth. 

It is time to be honest about what we know. 

We know our opponents are radical extremists of the irreconcilable wing of
Islam (Islamists, some would call them). 

We know they have an ideology which is anti-female, desires to impose
fundamentalist Sharia as a form of law, is hostile to other religions and is
prepared to kill the innocent to achieve their goals. 

We know how to identify these enemies but our elites have refused to do so. 

Protecting the Rights of Terrorists Has Been More Important 
than Protecting the Lives of Americans 

In the Obama Administration, protecting the rights of terrorists has been
more important than protecting the lives of Americans. 

That must now change decisively. 

It is time to know more about would-be terrorists, to profile for terrorists
and to actively discriminate based on suspicious terrorist information. 

The United States should track down the owners of every website that
promotes terrorism and systematically root them out. It should be as
dangerous to a person promoting terrorism as it is to execute an act of
terrorism. 

The same should apply to the electronic communications of every known
radical (and using these communications to track down every unknown
radical). 

The United States Must Actively Root Out
Every Terrorist Website

The people behind these websites should be barred from getting a U.S. visa
if not in the United States (concurrently, we should make it easier - not
harder - for non-terrorists to get visas because we want to encourage the
law abiding while discriminating against the potential terrorist). 

An integrated data base for threats should have been expected, we now learn
that it does not exist. This must be fixed. 

It should be reasonable for the flying public to have expected that when the
Nigerian terrorist's father reported he was going to a terrorist training
camp he should automatically have been barred from getting a visa and from
flying into the United States. 

We Need a "Grand National Strategy"
That is Bigger Than the Debate Over Afghanistan

The emergence of Yemen as the new planning, equipping, and training center
for terrorism should remind us we need a worldwide "grand national strategy"
(to use the World War II term) that is far bigger than our current debate
over Afghanistan. 

Americans should also note that ABC News is reporting
<http://mail.humanevents.com/ct/3765613:5526478493:m:1:153635881:82AF0679CAC
CDBADFF2F37F88B0A10D2>  that two of the plotters to blow the Amsterdam to
Detroit flight out of the air were released from Guantanamo in 2007,
attended an "art rehabilitation program" in Saudi Arabia, were released and
took up senior leadership positions in al Qaeda in Yemen. Americans should
also know that nearly half of the remaining detainees in Guantanamo are from
Yemen. 

The recent arrest of five Americans in Pakistan and the report there are 25
British citizens training to be bombers in Yemen should remind us this is a
global war. 

Moreover, the report that 74 Guantanamo detainees who have been released are
back in the war trying to kill Americans should stop any further effort to
close Guantanamo or to release terrorists. 

The New Honesty Should End Any Thought of a Civilian Trial in New York for
KSM

This new honesty about the threat should end any thought of a civilian trial
in New York for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad with its dangers for
exposing American intelligence information. All terrorists including
would-be bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab should be tried in military
tribunals as part of a serious war strategy. 

The Attorney General and every Justice Department appointee whose law firms
provided pro bono counsel for terrorists should be fired and replaced with
lawyers who believe the lives of Americans are more important than the
rights of terrorists. 

The United States must have a policy of effective interrogation to
understand our enemies and disrupt their planned attacks ( read Marc
Thiessen's column from yesterday
<http://mail.humanevents.com/ct/3765614:5526478493:m:1:153635881:82AF0679CAC
CDBADFF2F37F88B0A10D2>  ). 

We Need a New Homeland Security Secretary 
Who Knows We Need a New Strategy

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano's claim that the Detroit
bomber was allowed to board a plan with explosives hidden in his underwear
proved the system worked is proof we need a new Homeland Security Secretary
who knows we need a new strategy and a new focus. 

These are the first steps toward defeating the extremists. 

We should take them before there is a tragic attack that kills a lot of
people. 

We have been warned. Again. 

Will we now act? 
 	 

Your friend,
   Newt Gingrich