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| Holder Balks at Blaming Radical Islam for Terror |
| 2010-05-14 |
| Despite crediting the Pakistani Taliban with fostering the recent failed car bombing in Times Square, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. was reluctant Thursday to say radical Islam was part of the cause of that and other recent attacks. Mr. Holder, testifying to the House Judiciary Committee, repeatedly balked at a half-dozen questions from Rep. Lamar Smith, the ranking Republican on the committee, about whether "radical Islam" was behind the attempted car bombing, last year's so-called "underpants bomber" or the killings at Fort Hood in Texas. "There are a variety of reasons why people do these things. Some of them are potentially religious," Mr. Holder told the committee Thursday, though he would not go further than saying people who hold radical views may have "had an ability to have an impact" on Faisal Shahzad, the man the Justice Department says tried to detonate a car bomb in Times Square. The exchange comes as President Obama and Republicans spar over whether the administration is taking a tough-enough approach to the war on terrorism. Critics want the president to hone his criticism, while he and his advisers have sought to avoid painting the conflict as a battle against a religious belief or its adherents. "I don't know why the administration has such difficulty acknowledging the obvious, which is that radical Islam might have incited these individuals," Mr. Smith, Texas Republican, said after the hearing. "If you can't name the enemy, then you're going to have a hard time trying to respond to them." |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #10 Uber asshat. But then, I just described the entire administration. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2010-05-14 22:43 |
| #9 Perhaps Mr. Holder, being the second smartest guy on the planet after Barack, was waiting for Rep. Smith to remove the word "radical" from his blaming of "radical Islam"? Or not. |
| Posted by: ed 2010-05-14 18:12 |
| #8 Geez, what a weasle. It's as if our leaders were afraid to utter the word "German" in 1942 out of fear of offending somebody. |
| Posted by: AuburnTom 2010-05-14 17:17 |
| #7 Even saying that Jihad is due to radical Islam is watering down the truth. Normalistic understanding of Islam is that Jihad is mandatory. The question of what is the proper Jihad (when, where, against whom, methods, etc.) is debated within the world of Islam but there is no doubt that moslems are supposed to do Jihad. |
| Posted by: lord garth 2010-05-14 15:59 |
| #6 The feds have been systematically removing any reference to radical Islam and to Islamicists as the enemy for a few years now. It's endemic in DOD, among other places, and got a decorated intel officer fired from his job with the Joint Staff when he laid out the way in which terror attacks are part of the Islamicist understanding of Quranic warfare. |
| Posted by: lotp 2010-05-14 15:18 |
| #5 How is it possible that this testimony has not already led to numerous calls for his resignation or his being replaced by the Obama administration? Whether this would be successful is irrelevant. Repeated demands for his resignation should be a minimum response. This video should be used in campaigns all over the country this November. |
| Posted by: ryuge 2010-05-14 14:36 |
| #4 Maybe he hasn't read the report yet? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-05-14 13:32 |
| #3 ....islamists might target him?. Perhaps they have already done so. Posted by Swanimote Never happen. Barry and he are thee. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-05-14 13:31 |
| #2 The video is painful to watch. This PC harness has to go. Stupid ostrich head in sand, backside presented. Terrorists have no problem at all naming their enemies and their motives. Very upfront about it. Wouldn't it be hilarious if Holder's inability to answer a straight-forward question comes through fear that should he do so, islamists might target him?. Perhaps they have already done so. |
| Posted by: Swanimote 2010-05-14 13:17 |
| #1 What a FREAKIN' LOSER !!!! |
| Posted by: armyguy 2010-05-14 13:12 |