The fourth anniversary of the attack on the New York Trade Towers is almost upon us, September 11, 2001.
We have already been engaged in the Global War on Terror a few months longer that the years we spent fighting World War Two. Time flies.
The thought occurs that when you add you add up the death and destruction and misery caused by this weird war, and the huge costs of security -in the multi billions of dollars for our country alone- and then enumerate the annoyances and inconveniences and interference in everyday life: the encouragement of paranoia, the surveillance cameras, the “no parking” signs, the long lines, the pat downs, the shoe removals, the metal detectors and worst of all the mindless bureaucracy that has been encouraged to grow and control our freedom of movement; and then dwell on the fact that is it a tiny handful of the world’s population, every one of them a male religious fanatic, who has caused this to happen to us, then you wonder why we aren’t angrier about it as individuals, why Christians, Jews, Muslims, non believers, aren’t jumping up and down in frustration, grinding their teeth, and shouting they just wont take it any more.
The answer to that question is that too many people are like the beasts of the field, chewing their cuds and equably awaiting whatever situation, good or bad, God or the farmer or the weather put them in.
The men who are doing this to us should be crushed to pulp. No question in our minds, hopefully not in yours.
We’ve been filming a PBS-TV documentary (two parts about the struggle with terrorism) and have been spending time in London, focusing on the security cooperation between MI5 and the FBI. Hence, we bring you some news from the “Cousins”across the Atlantic:
Prime Minister Tony Blair has turned into a publicly tough cookie from a once doughy Clintonian liberal.
He has now proposed a range of new measures against Islamic extremists fomenting violence. He wants to close some mosques, ban some Muslim extremist groups
and deport some of those clerics calling for death and destruction.
Can you imagine the reaction from liberals in the US if George Bush made a similar proposal?
Like Bush, Blair has become a hated figure in some circles. Likely, he will be a terrorist target for life.
The British security services, say the London papers, have “specific intelligence" that Blair and Bush are top targets for assassination. (Actually, just regular “intelligence” from your own cerebellum would tell you that.)
Only last week Osama bin Laden's second-in-command singled Mr.. Blair out.
"Blair has brought you destruction in Central London and, God willing, will bring more destruction," said Ayman al-Zawahiri.
A British Security officer said about Blair, “We will surround him 24 hours a day for the rest of his life."
One of the greatest fears is the threat posed by a suicide bomber hurling himself at Blair or his official car.
Mr.. Blair used to drive his own Jaguar. No more.
The British will use "decoy vehicles" with Blair traveling in a cavalcade of similar limos with blacked-out windows so no one will know which is carrying him. .
Walking near #10 Downing, the PM’s residence in London will be effectively banned, just like driving by The White House or the Capitol building in Washington, is no longer possible.
Not that everyone in the UK is thrilled by Blair's hard-line.
You'll be interested in the response of one Yvonne Ridley, a well-known newspaper journalist in London who has worked for the London Daily Express and The liberal-left Guardian.
Ridley was arrested by the Taliban in Afghanistan while on assignment a few years back.
She was only held for ten days and was never mistreated. But when she was released she pulled the Burqa back on, converted to Islam, and has talked about it endlessly ever since.
Miss Ridley was wearing her head covering and Islamic get-up when she spoke to a crowd in England protesting Blair’s hard-line approach to terrorism.
"I thank Allah I was captured by the Taliban not the Americans, said the journalist. "It is time to stand-up together” she told 2000 young Muslims. “Resistance is our duty”.
“If you want to make war against Islam,” she warned Mr.. Blair, "I am ready." So there.
Yvonne Ridley is a 47 year old unmarried mother. The father of her 12 year old daughter is an officer in the Palestinian Liberation Organization. She met him when she covered him as a reporter.
Another reporter at Ms. Ridley’s old paper, The Guardian, was fired last week.
It turned out he was a member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, an extremist Muslim organization, one of those groups Tony Blair has branded as "terrorist” and wants to ban from England.
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Armed police have been out in force across Scotland, and there is heavy, high-visibility security up and down the United Kingdom, police with machine guns blanketing every railroad station, air and sea port.
Scotland Yard Special Branch "spotters," specialists trained to detect suspects, were on duty at arrival and departure areas at every ferry port and airport.
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Radical Islamic cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed who left London for Lebanon says he'll be back soon.
The Syrian-born preacher is under investigation in the UK for treason.
He has been in the country for 20 years since he asked for asylum there. He was recently described by a Member of Parliament as a "malign influence" for his calls to arms and murder.
The Imam denied fleeing the country for fear of arrest.
He said he is just on vacation with his mother.
(These tough guys always seem to have their mother hovering somewhere in the background.)
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Homeland Security is testing a new high-tech visa program for some foreign visitors.
It embeds a chip into documents and reports when the person carrying it enters and leaves the country.
The proposed system uses radio frequency chips to track foreign visitors and to flag potential criminals and possible terrorists.
The chips will be in 1-94 form visas, standardly used by students and business travelers.
Tests will run through the summer in five border ports along the Mexico- Arizona line.
You might be interested to know that at Nogales last year not quite 500,000 illegal aliens were apprehended and sent back. And those are the ones they caught.
Since the Bush administration seems so cozy with the Mexican government, maybe its time Mexican President Vincente Fox was pressured by us into doing something himself to stem this tide, rather than encouraging it, which is what he now does.
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Did you see that a US Border Patrol agent has been arrested in El Cajon, California, near San Diego, accused of helping smuggle illegals across from Mexico?
Turns out that Oscar Ortiz is an illegal alien himself.
He got his job with the Border patrol using a stolen birth certificate. He’s a Mexican.
You couldn’t make this stuff up.
The US Border Patrol background checks for agents used to be done by the FBI. But, they’re too busy these days and, God spare us, they turned the duty over to the Office of Personnel Management in Washington. OPM gumshoes did quite a job, about what you would expect, they screwed it up at its base.
Border Patrol Agent Ortiz is accused of charging up to $2000 a head to smuggle aliens across.
The Border Patrol motto: Honor First.
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