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 espite
the military victory in Afghanistan, the U.S. remains under threat
of serious terrorist attack. Several sources have reported a plan
for a second wave of attacks after Ramadan, which ended on December
16. These sources, including captured U.S. turncoat Johnny Walker,
report that the attack is to involve biological or chemical weapons
of mass destruction.
Even with al
Qaeda demolished in Afghanistan, terrorist cells may remain in the
U.S., established long ago. They may have already stockpiled the
weapons, and the plans for attack may have been preset for some
time. Moreover, a financial and organizational terrorist infrastructure
remains in much of the Middle East and Europe, which could provide
continuing support.
Naturally,
Americans expect their government to act vigorously to counter this
threat. And it has. Besides the military action abroad, the government
has, as it must, undertaken extensive investigations here in the
U.S. to preempt the threatened wave of further attacks.
As part of
this effort, the FBI has sent letters to thousands of foreign men,
mostly from the Middle East, in the U.S. on temporary visas. The
letters ask for interviews with FBI agents regarding what they may
know that may shed light on the identity of potential terrorists
and their organizations, plans and actions. The letters stress that
the interviews are purely voluntary, with absolutely no sanctions
for rejecting the interviews. As the letters quite rightly state,
information that might seem totally innocent and useless to those
being interviewed may help investigators connect dots and uncover
plots against the American people.
But the FBI
has run up against a virulent homegrown foe in this effort —
the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Inexplicably, the ACLU
sees this request for voluntary interviews as somehow a violation
of civil rights. As the executive director of the Virginia ACLU
explained, "[The interviews] really violate the spirit of the
American criminal justice system. It has some of the elements of
something like McCarthyism."
Apparently,
at least part of the problem for the ACLU is the focus on Middle
Easterners, which they take to be racial profiling. But the idea
that the investigation of possible terrorist actions should not
focus on Middle Easterners any more than, say, Scandinavians, is,
to pick the precisely applicable word, nuts.
Nevertheless,
the ACLU has declared an open jihad against the FBI investigative
effort. They are openly encouraging those receiving the letters
not to participate. They have offered free legal help to anyone
who chooses to resist the requested interviews.
Indeed, the
ACLU has even written to police chiefs across the country asking
them not to cooperate with the FBI effort. Almost all have had the
good sense to reject these pleas. But the ACLU campaign has borne
some fruit, as police chiefs in San Francisco, Detroit, Portland,
Ore., San Jose, Calif. and Austin, Tex. have all refused to assist
the FBI in carrying out such interviews in their localities.
As a result,
the ACLU is now openly interfering with the government's efforts
to prevent another terrorist attack, and find all those who assisted
in the planning and execution of the attack on September 11. Given
the magnitude of the danger to the American people, this is astounding.
The Bush administration is getting more cooperation today in the
war against terrorism from the governments of Syria, Sudan, and
Yemen than from the so-called American Civil Liberties Union.
Voluntary interviews
cannot remotely be considered a violation of civil rights. Government
investigators quite routinely interview innocents who may have evidence
of crime. The idea that investigators are precluded from acting
to stop possible future crimes is preposterous.
Moreover, this
is not a criminal investigation in any event. We are at war here
with international terrorist networks that potentially have more
ability to project power against us than most national governments
on the planet. Consequently, the rules of military engagement, not
law enforcement, apply, just as they have when spies or saboteurs
have invaded our shores in the past.
Of course,
the government cannot just be given a blank check to do whatever
it wants in the battle against terrorism. It must be monitored closely
to ensure that it does not veer into true civil rights violations
and abuses, as we have seen as recently as Ruby Ridge and Waco in
the past decade. There is also a serious danger that precedents
set now could be abused in the future.
But the country
remains under serious threat of attack with the most heinous weapons
that could kill hundreds of thousands of innocent Americans. Under
these circumstances, we have no choice but to take certain risks
with government power that we would not otherwise.
Moreover, if
we maintain vigilance, we have a powerful array of institutions
to throttle and quickly punish any real abuses should they arise,
including the media, numerous civil rights organizations, the courts,
and countervailing institutions in the government itself. Indeed,
if a true threat to civil liberties arises, the Right as well as
the Left will be joining together to squelch it.
The ACLU, however,
is just not a reliable defender of civil rights. It is freighted
with left-wing baggage that spawns anti-Americanism, which leads
it to see civil-rights violations where none exist. Moreover, it
cherishes old socialist doctrines, dating from its roots, that prevent
it from defending civil rights across the board, including property
rights and economic liberties.
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