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June 19, 2013
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 How Not to Fight TerrorismPosted on Mar 11, 2011By Joe Conason Despite the dubious credentials of Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., as an opponent of terrorism, owing to his years fronting for the Irish Republican Army, his controversial hearings on the “Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and That Community’s Response” might still have proved useful. Had they included testimony from real experts, officials who are responsible for counterterrorism and actual leaders from the Muslim community, the proceedings could have revealed fresh and important information. That is, after all, the traditional purpose of congressional oversight hearings such as these, which are supposed to monitor the performance of federal agencies and highlight serious problems. Predictably, however, this particular show turned out to be almost fact-free and laden with emotion—including long and pointless speeches by Homeland Security Committee members insisting that the whole exercise was not nearly as pointless as it seemed. It was hard to believe, in the end, that the hearings had been anything more than a gross waste of taxpayers’ money and public attention—and a strategic blunder in the nation’s counterterrorist effort. Figuring out how to reduce the appeal of Islamist ideology among the world’s young Muslims, whether here or abroad, is a subject worthy of careful examination. Determining how best to integrate America’s Muslim communities into our national life and our law enforcement systems should also be explored in ways that do not exacerbate fears or exclusion. But the tone of King’s remarks leading up to the hearings did little to advance those goals, and instead set them back. The obvious reason is that King himself had reached a firm conclusion about the alleged shortcomings of American Muslims much earlier—and said so repeatedly. He accused Muslim leaders of failing to cooperate with law enforcement and of refusing to speak up for moderation and nonviolence within their own community. And he described himself as personally disillusioned with Muslims living in his district on Long Island. Advertisement No city faces a more substantial and continuous threat from violent extremism than New York—and no city has more successfully thwarted terrorist plots, well over a dozen so far since 9/11. The expert witness that King ought to have called is Ray Kelly, the city’s police commissioner, whose attitudes and actions contrast starkly with King’s. Over the past decade, Kelly has built a counterterrorism capability within the NYPD that relies upon strong relationships with Muslim leaders and a growing corps of Arabic-speaking and Muslim officers. Kelly himself spends an extraordinary amount of his time in the city’s ethnic communities, notably including the Arabic and Muslim communities. He is reaching out, not pushing away. The overwhelming majority of Muslims in America—as King himself admits—are law-abiding and patriotic, with no attraction to jihadist violence. Stigmatizing them and their faith may win airtime for King and draw cameras to his committee, but it does nothing to advance the security of the United States. So we learned little from these hearings, except perhaps for one thing: The Homeland Security chairman is not up to the profound responsibilities of his job. Joe Conason writes for The New York Observer. © 2011 Creators.com  TAGS:
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By ghostcommander, March 15, 2011 at 3:34 pm Link to this comment
Thanks to the radical rhetoric of the so-called republicans, Fox Fraudcasting-Hannity, Beck, Savage, Doocy, other Foxites; Limbaugh, Alex Jones and other hate radio jocks. We have lost approximately 550 of our fellow Americans because of the inspired nutcases that killed them.
In Oklahoma City, 168 men, women, and children lost their lives because McVeigh and Nichols were inspired by hate rhetoric.
How many police officers have lost their lives because of this same hate rhetoric? How many were killed in West Memphis, Ar.? How many in Pittsburgh, PA, How many in Southern, MO? How many police officers and others have been killed in your state?
How many Americans have been killed by American Muslims?
The citizens of America need to wake up to the real threat to their way of life by searching for the truth.
Report thisThe so-called republicans, Hate and Demagogic broadcasting, and the religious demagogues are nothing more than Brownshirt supporters for the Fascists of America.
By knute, March 14, 2011 at 12:29 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
re:By berniem, March 11 at 10:40 pm Link to this comment
Peter King is a pig….......I’m with berniem. Why in the hell after watching our so-called representitives work for nothing but industry and their own wallets should we continue to pretend they deserve our respect ? They don’t, they are nothing but former liars ( lawyers ), and salesman who finally found the ultimate scam, politics, and their hubris that naturally grows from all the attention empowers them. Its time the people quit treating these snake-oil salesman with anything but contempt while they are voted out of office.
Report thisBy Leefeller, March 14, 2011 at 11:21 am Link to this comment
I like stigmatizing, what wrong with stigmatizing? I stigmatize the Republicans all the time!
Report thisBy tedmurphy41, March 14, 2011 at 10:17 am Link to this comment
Using the 9/11 incident as an end point, why not trawl back on previous American involvement in the Middle East and surrounding areas up to the end of the second World War; you will get some idea as to why 9/11 happened in the first place and why your war on terrorism can never end, that is until you stop creating the reasons for such acts of terror as a reprisal to yours.
Report thisIt will have to end in the long run, so why not make a start on this process and arrive at a peaceful and satisfactory resolution to this impasse; just as surely as you, along with your allies, started the process of terrorising a defenceless people, so you can bring it to a close.
By surfnow, March 14, 2011 at 8:32 am Link to this comment
The best way to fight terrorism is to enforce the immigration policies we already have in place. Two-thirds of the over 90 Muslims who have been implicated in terrorist plots since 1993- including 5 of the 9-11 hijackers were here illegally. They were here on either illegal and /or expired student visas. Also they were all on no-fly lists- and nothing was it’s just we have chosen not to enforce our immigration laws because it makes too much money for too many industries to hire undocumented workers.
Report thisBy berniem, March 13, 2011 at 7:26 pm Link to this comment
to gerard: First, the name is “berniem” and, second, I find rep. King to be a PIG based not only on his absurd, fascist, and un-Amerikan ideology but also that he is a whore for the moneyed plutocrats and oligarchs which own him and the rest of the reactionary party to which he belongs! Oh, and don’t forget the niggardly swine that populate at least 3/4 of the “democratic”, or should I say, the Weimar Party! Personally, I don’t give a F..K what effect my “name calling” has on any other readers of this thread. Most of our alleged elected(?) representatives at all levels of government are strictly about their own interests and are for sale to the highest bidder that will ensure their re-election! Yes these people ARE pigs and its time that they be treated as such rather than accorded undeserved celebrity status! And as for BRADLEY MANNING, the fact that he suffers at the hands of our oh, so just and equitable torturers because he had the temerity to expose the lies and criminal acts of our saintly leaders thus embarrassing them and bruising their egos only further reveals their piggish nature and lack of concern for anything but wealth and power!
Report thisBy gerard, March 12, 2011 at 6:59 pm Link to this comment
bernheim: I was sadly disappointed by your first calling King a “pig? (which immediately turns readers off because that kind of accusation harms the user and turns readers away). Then you link it to “Free Bradley Manning” which is a reasonale plea you wish to promote—but you have already prejudiced your case by calling somebody a “pig.” Why do you cut yourself off at the knees like that?
Report thisBy aamfo, March 12, 2011 at 11:47 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
I heard somewhere that ’ More people died of dog bites in USA last year than terrorism ’
Islamic terrorism is now the new buzz word to keep oneself in news and get cheap publicity and that is what is being done today in the Congress.
Get out of the Middle East - do not support blindly Israel - Do not make the mistake of getting involved in Libya - all this terrorism problem will be history.
BUT, BUT, BUT…......
The amount of money being spent on defense sorry offense in the United States is constantly increasing year after year. ( We spend more than the combined spending of almost every country in the world ) We do not have cold war - there is no enemy today as the EX Super Power Soviet Union.
Report thisThere should be a reason for us to spend this much on our Military.
The Military Industrial conglomerate had made this boogy man out of rag tag Al Qaida, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. These insignificant organization and countries are being posed as deadly threat to us. Strange but true. The neighboring dumb Arab countries are cornered to buy weapons and this lubricates our GE, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin etc etc.
So it looks like - they will not allow to lead us a normal and peaceful life which we all crave for.
The best business in the world is of Selling death and destruction.
By nefesh, March 12, 2011 at 10:53 am Link to this comment
All y’all are deluding yourselves. King’s style may be blunt but he knows
Report thisthere really is a problem and has the cojones to act. We’re with you Mr.
King!
By berniem, March 11, 2011 at 5:40 pm Link to this comment
Peter King is a pig and those who put him in office are fascist collaborators! FREE BRADLEY MANNING!!!!
Report thisBy TDoff, March 11, 2011 at 4:43 pm Link to this comment
Y’know, them Amish folks sure look weird, and dress weird, and act weird. Whaddaya bet they’re up to something? Too bad the US is broke, or we could spend some money and investigate them.
Report thisBy Arouete, March 11, 2011 at 4:27 pm Link to this comment
How telling that all the critics selectively beg the question!
The problem with King is this: singling out one religious faction for disparate treatment. Congress should be investigating ALL religions and ALL “churches” that insinuate themselves into secular government and then rescind their tax exempt statue. Anyone who has read anything about the “C” street house and it’s connection to radical fundamentalist Christians who seek to influence secular law and corrupt it with superstition knows that fundamentalist Christians are FAR, FAR, FAR , more a threat to our Constitution and it’s Bill of Rights than a few radical Muslims. Religion poisons everything and it is a pox on civilization.
Report thisBy jlt, March 11, 2011 at 11:59 am Link to this comment
Truth to the king lies:
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.-Voltaire
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/09/king-muslims-plots-terrorists/
Report thisBy markjuliansmith, March 11, 2011 at 7:18 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
There is an erroneous perception Muslims become
terrorist because of trigger moments i.e. Radical
Cleric(s) come riding into town, or intense
whispering in Prison cubicles, etc
If this were the case we non-Muslims would all be
aware of neighbors and distant relatives suddenly
turning into terrorists.
This simply does not occur for the reason we have not
already textually constructed other as evil via the
text we base our beliefs on.
The reason for the terror is instruction from birth.
This is the trigger which lends itself to the
opportunity for terrorism when it arises.
To simply say all of a sudden a perfectly normal good
Muslim boy turned to terror without the foundation in
place already to accept such diabolical notions is
absurd.
Plato thousands of years ago gave humanity some good
advice for harmonious societies delete text purported
to be from Gods which informs evil action.
Everyone of us base our lives on less than perfect
text. To target one without the other is rather
hypocritical.
It should be about all text which vilifies other
Religious or Secular not persons.
The fact is Muslims are already radicalized the
reason being from the Islamic texts Quran foundation
chapter “THE COW” onwards vilification of and
justification of ‘grevious harm’ against other is the
main theme.
This is why terrorists are good boys and girls coming
from good Muslim families. It is that simple.
The radical Muslim clerics are not triggering
anything they are simply providing the opportunity.
The trigger has already been created by the basic
Islamic text which forms all Muslims.
The fact all Muslims do not act on it is irrelevant
for as we see enough Muslims do from generation to
generation to perpetuate the terror against other.
If you read the Quran - only Chapter “THE COW” which
sets up the framework by which the Islamic text will
be challenged, vilifies the perpetrators sets them as
less and then informs the remedy ‘grevious harm’ with
the ultimate authority God authorizing all within,
given this is an old recipe for genocide against
other and the terror we clearly are experiencing
would it not be rational to be rightfully concerned?
Also more importantly as we are all formed by textual
constructs such as the Islamic text, there may just
exist evil text informing evil action and we should
seek it out be it secular or religious so we can
change the future for humanity?
Change the text forming our new citizen’s change the
outcomes otherwise more of the same.
This means not just looking at Islamic text but other
Report thistexts within our communities which are used to form
new citizens and accept the fact finally ‘Freedom of
Religion’ has been a curse on society because we are
not able to easily challenge such Religious text
which generates real evil against other without being
erroneously labeled and censured.