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2002-07-18

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Posted by Fred Pruitt 2002-07-18 07:45 am|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 IMHO,the US government has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid pointing fingers at people from the Mideast. The July 4th attack is a good example of this.
I believe that this is due to the fact that a big part of this war involves attacking Islamic terrorists without giving the impression that we are attacking Islam itself. Also, the government doesn't want to fuel a domestic backlash against Mideasterners.
On a certain level, this is both charitable and good strategy. But it also underestimates American goodwill and, to a certain extent, makes the government look stupid.
I think that most Americans instinctively understand this and begrudgingly tolerate it, but it is still irksome to think that the FBI is wasting valuable resources casing down a ghost for PR purposes.
The problem is that Islamic terrorism is a product of Islamic fundamentalism and to combat it we will have to attack a principle part of Islam. At this point, I don't believe that the rest of the Islamic world is capable of disassociating itself from the fundamentalists and then we will be at war with Islam itself.
The problem with this strategy is that we have unilaterally denied ourselves sound tactics such as "racial profiling". We know that the terrorists are Mideasterners or Muslim converts. This has thrown a monkey wrench into domestic investigations and has left us vulnerable.
So far this has not been a very big problem but I fear that when Saddam's back is against the wall at the end of Desert Storm II, he will use this vunerability to do us grave harm.

Posted by Ray 2002-07-18 09:01:39|| 2002-07-18 09:01:39|| Front Page Top

#2 At the same time, the FBI has made enough mistakes in the past to be cautious this time. They've pointed the finger at someone who turned out to be innocent (Richard Jewell), botched another investigation to the point that it couldn't be resolved (Wen-Ho Lee), and covered up wrong-doing in another (Ruby Ridge). I don't blame the director for shaking his guys and saying, "get it right this time before we open our mouths and look more stoopid."

Regards,

Posted by Steve White 2002-07-18 09:28:26|| 2002-07-18 09:28:26|| Front Page Top

#3 American Moslem reaction to the hits that the United States took from Moslems last September, is unambiguous.

First, to civil counter-terror operations: OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE.

Second, to international counter-terror operations: TREASON.

Posted by RG Fulton 2002-07-18 12:20:11|| 2002-07-18 12:20:11|| Front Page Top