Liberals, aided by their political representatives, the leftwing of the Democratic Party, have made Americans so self-conscious about being careful not to be racist or even appear to think racist thoughts or to even think of possibly violating someone’s civil rights, that the average American might ignore evidence of a terrorist plot simply to avoid doing so.
“I don't know what to do. Should I call someone or is that being racist?”
These were the words of a young Circuit City store clerk after seeing a video made by the Fort Dix Six terrorists of their firearms training. It indicates how indoctrinated in the thoughts, attitudes, philosophy, and beliefs of politically correct liberalism Americans have become. That this young man should even have to think twice about reporting possible terrorist activity is astounding – and dangerous.
Yet, it is an all too sad fact of American life. Liberals, aided by their political representatives, the leftwing of the Democratic Party, have made Americans so self-conscious about being careful not to be racist or even appear to think racist thoughts or to even think of possibly violating someone’s civil rights, that the average American might ignore evidence of a terrorist plot simply to avoid doing so.
It was in 2002 that I wrote a piece for Frontpagemag.com detailing the hysterical reaction by the civil libertarians to President Bush’s initiative called the Terrorist Information and Prevention System (TIPS). They described it as a program to enlist American citizens as auxiliary spies, or ask them to engage in counterintelligence.
However, all that TIPS was, and is, can be illustrated by what this Circuit City store clerk did. The TIPS program was merely a procedure for people to report suspicious activity that might be terrorist related.
This did not prevent people like NBC’s Chris Matthews vehemently condemning TIPS then. He made the usual fallacious trite allegations that TIPS was analogous to a secret police and/or fascism. At the time, I wrote that the irony of Matthews’ sophistry was that he echoed the opinions of totalitarian acolytes such as the World Socialist Web Site and the People’s Weekly World.
These groups, as well as the ACLU, the National Lawyers Guild, and the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee all condemned the TIPS program. They all felt, as Matthews did, that TIPS was more of a danger than terrorists.
They mischaracterized the TIPS program as citizens spying on one another rather than citizens reporting suspicious behavior. They portrayed TIPS as if it involved warrantless searches of property and midnight arrests of people.
Mischaracterizing Bush’s anti-terrorism policies, such as TIPS, the PATRIOT Act, and the Terrorist Surveillance Program has become a cottage industry for these fanatics since September 11th. They seem more inclined to spread panic and fear among the American people against President Bush than they do against Muslim terrorists.
Furthermore, organizations like these have little or no credibility. They have a track record of saying the guilty were innocent. The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (a splinter group of the ACLU) represented the Rosenbergs. ACLU co-founder, Felix Frankfurter was a character witness for Hiss.
Information obtained from Soviet archives after the dissolution of the Soviet Union proved they were traitors. These civil libertarians were completely incorrect about their assertions that they were innocents whose civil liberties were violated.
The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) issued a 2003 report on Hate Crimes and Discrimination Against Arab Americans which expressed their concern about TIPS. It stated, “…there is every reason
to be concerned that any such program is likely to degenerate into a vehicle for systematizing the worst forms of prejudice.”[1]
Yet, Hussein Ibish, the ADC communications director (and editor of the 2003 report), wrote a June 2000 essay condemning the report of the National Commission on Terrorism. He said, “Our civil liberties and core principles of American democracy are in peril. If the recommendations of the National Commission on Terrorism are implemented, you can kiss goodbye some of your constitutional protection….The commission, appointed by Congress …calls for the federal government to place more wiretaps on Americans…encourage the CIA to employ known criminals and terrorists and institute a vast surveillance system for tracking foreign students….it concentrates on international terrorist attacks conducted inside the United States and exaggerates the risk of such attacks…. these radical steps would significantly damage civil liberties in the United States.”
(Emphasis added)
The ADC, an organization to prevent anti-Arab racism, the kind the Circuit City clerk was concerned with, stated a year before 9-11 that the risk of international terrorist attacks within the United States was exaggerated.
This attitude is so pervasive it would be misleading to say that only leftwing journalists or groups opposed TIPS. Business Week (BW) wrote about TIPS July 25, 2002. What they said then seems silly given the Fort Dix incident. BW said, “Operation TIPS will more than likely reduce privacy without increasing security. Let's be real: Terrorists with half a brain aren't likely to be outsmarted by the mailman or open the door to have the gas meter read if they have bomb-making material nearby.”
I guess Business Week also thinks terrorists would not be stupid enough to make a video of their training and give it to a clerk to transcribe to DVD either, yet they did.
This paranoia about civil liberties was even used to justify a policy of The American Library Association (ALA). The ALA issued a statement claiming that it, “considers that sections of the USA PATRIOT ACT are a present danger to the constitutional rights and privacy rights of library users.”
Who elected or appointed the ALA has sentinels of American civil liberties? Are they going to be responsible if their violation of the law results in the deaths of innocent people from terrorism?
Unfortunately, our government has been convinced to dilute its anti-terrorism policies because of the prevalence of this propaganda. Even more unfortunate is the fact that ordinary citizens are made to feel they are racist if they suspect an Arab-American or a Muslim of terrorist activity.
Fortunately, for the soldiers and civilians at Fort Dix, NJ and for all Americans actually, a store clerk at Circuit City was not totally intimidated by the politically correct liberal thought police.
elfegobaca@comcast.net
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