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| We need to be tougher on terror |
| By queenscourier.com |
| Published: 01/14/2010 |
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When it comes to terrorism, many Democrats were proud that President Barack Obama threw out the George Bush/Dick Cheney playbook. Why do I have the feeling that right now someone is rummaging through the White House trash looking for it? Obama was emphatic and looking oh-so-intense in his second speech in as many days last week about how the U.S. was going to get EVEN TOUGHER on terror. But he won’t even think about keeping open the prison on Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The president's logic, as some see it, goes something like this: If we close Guantanamo, people in the Islamic world will like us more. They will think we are playing fair. Fair enough. I’m sure that it will get us a few decent mentions on the Al-Jazeera chat shows. But then what? As one Obama critic told me: “Do you really think that all the Al Qaeda terrorists in Yemen and Pakistan and Afghanistan will say, ‘Uh, fellas, you know, those satanic infidels in America? I was just thinking they're not so bad after all. Why don't we give them a break and lay off this terrorism thing and find another line of work?’” And what about Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab? Does it make any sense that he is “in the system” in Detroit like some common burglar, and has been given the right to remain silent? Even if you oppose military tribunals and think he deserves a trial by jury, why not first have the military interrogate him, (just like we did to Khalid Shaikh Muhammad) before we send him before a jury of his peers (peers?!) Counter-terrorism chief John Brennan (no relation) says there are no real benefits to this. How do we know before we ask him a question? I know what you’re going to say: George Bush did not put shoe-bomber Richard Reid before a military tribunal. But that was December 2001. None of these options, or issues, had been thoroughly hashed out in the public domain. At the time, most of us were still in shock. In his brilliant and critically-acclaimed book, The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, author Lawrence Wright details how the roots of Al Qaeda go back many decades, and that people like Osama Bin Laden's number two man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has been plotting the demise of the West before some of the 9/11 victims were even born. Does it make sense to placate him or his followers by “playing nice?” Senator John McCain says torture doesn’t work and in the long run puts our soldiers at risk. I'm not a military expert, but I’ll take the word of someone who endured torture for five years. Interrogation, however, is different from torture and many believe it’s foolish for this government to not even try to get crucial information out terrorists. In light of the Christmas terror attack, there are some truly amazing statements coming out of Washington. We are told by the president that we “failed to connect the dots.” Even when the suspect’s own father blew the whistle on him? Read More. |
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