When Willie Sutton, the notorious bank robber, was asked why he
robbed banks, his elegant but simple answer was, “Because that’s
where the money is.” Willie Sutton was smarter than our liberal
friends.
Accompanied by much squawking from civil libertarians, the FBI
has finally been allowed to go into mosques in order to gather
information about terrorists. Since the aftermath of the Watergate
scandals in 1972, and the regime of Attorney General Edward Levi,
the hands of the FBI have been tied by a series of nonsensical
regulations. These regulations have had a cumulatively erosive
influence on their sleuthing abilities, this unfortunate situation
undoubtedly contributing, in some degree, to the World Trade Center
intelligence failures.
After the slaughter of 2,823 people by militant Muslim
terrorists, it is difficult to imagine a reasoned objection to
intelligence officers attempting to collect material or clues at
mosques. If you are looking for terrorists, common sense suggests
going to where they hang out, not to places where they are unlikely
to be found. Looking for Muslim terrorists saying their prayers at
a Swedish Bar Mitzvah would make about as much sense as going
shopping for a garter belt in a furniture store.
The specter of racial profiling similarly ties the hands of
authorities at airports. The fact that 15 of the 19 terrorists who
attacked America were from Saudi Arabia surely hasn’t escaped the
notice of the FBI. Yet, in a conspicuous show of non-racial
profiling, at the airports we see obvious Middle Easterners having
the perfunctory metal detector walk-through, while 80-year-old
Jewish grandmothers going to Florida are frisked and given the
third degree.
If the militant Muslims ever wanted to use an 80-year-old
grandmother as a suicide bomber (which makes more sense than using
a 16-year-old girl who has her whole life ahead of her), they would
have to dress her up as a terrorist in order to get her on the
plane. As a matter of fact, looking at the newly hired luggage
inspectors, we might be safer if the passengers frisked the
inspectors, rather than vice versa.
We read in the daily newspapers about the various bomb detection
apparatuses the airports utilize. There are detailed descriptions
of the good and bad points of each device, together with a
timetable as to their installation. Did it ever occur to the
government people that the terrorists also read the newspapers?
When we attacked Iraq for the first time, we slowly built up our
troop strength until we had 500,000 men in place, ready to pounce.
The TV nightly news showed pictures of the tanks and other
equipment arriving that would ultimately be used in the assault on
Iraq. As if that were not enough information for Saddam Hussein,
the programs showed film footage of each particular type of
equipment actually in use, discussed its capabilities and how it
would be deployed. In case the Iraqi generals were watching the
food network when all of this was on and missed something, the TV
stations then had all sorts of retired military men and specialists
summarizing things and explaining exactly what our tactics would
be. Overnight, a cottage industry of retired military people was
created. Instead of retiring from the army and going to old-age
homes, these men immediately became TV military consultants.
Retired admirals, generals, and CIA experts explained on nightly
news shows precisely, point by point, what we would do when we
attacked Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein, although he had all of
this information, unfortunately had nowhere to go and could do
nothing but sit there watching television, like a naughty kid
waiting for his father to come home from work to spank him.
Today however, the terrorists have much more flexibility. They
can adjust their methods to get around the limitations of the
particular bomb-detection machines being used at the airports. If
that were not enough, they know the timetables of how security at
the airports is going to be increased, who is doing the training,
recruiting, etc. If a terrorist were looking for work between
bombings, he would know exactly where to apply for a job as a
luggage inspector at the airports.
The government will now fingerprint and photograph visitors to
America from Middle Eastern countries. For some time, visitors from
Sudan, Libya, Iraq and Iran have been fingerprinted and
photographed. Now the list has been expanded to include countries
such as Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The idea is that the finger prints
are then instantly checked to see if they match the prints of any
terrorists who had been in the country. Aside from the question of
why should there be any terrorists in the country whom the
authorities let go, if one had been here and then fled the country
leaving his fingerprints behind, why would he be dumb enough to
came back?
Every degenerate and every 15-year-old kid has access to all
kinds of pornography on the Internet. Their computers overheat and
have to take cold showers because of what comes out of them.
Bombers are exchanging recipes, and the latest fashions in
explosives are being passed around on the Internet, and yet, until
recently, FBI agents were not allowed to turn on the Internet, even
if they had their parents’ consent. Happily, Attorney General John
Ashcroft announced new regulations that allowed the FBI to cruise
the Internet.
The American Civil Liberties Union is up in arms over these
recent rulings, thereby basically becoming a trade union for
terrorists. But the terrorists don’t even have to pay dues to
receive their benefits. Their dues are paid by tax-deductible
contributions to the ACLU.
The only people who have had their civil liberties trampled on
are not the terrorists. It is you and me. Isn’t it time we also had
a union?
