May 04, 2010
Comfortably Dumb
David Neiwert at Crooks and Liars makes an asinine and snarky post this morning about the capture of Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad, writing:
The next time you hear some right-winger (most notably Dick Cheney) sneer at the Obama administration's "law enforcement approach to terrorism," remember this.
Neiwert is either dumb as a post, or worse, assumes his readers are.
The law enforcement approach to terrorism that conservatives disagree with concerns terrorist events and suspects outside of U.S. territory.
Many liberal Democrats prefer to treat international terrorism as an international law enforcement matter, a laughable strategy considering the ideological (and occasional state) support many terrorists receive in the countries they use as their base of operations. The military approach—which, I hasten to add, has been largely adopted by the Obama Administration because it works—involves surveillance and military interdiction instead of arrest warrants. The Predator drones strikes inside Pakistan that have stepped up under Obama, and occasional raids in the Horn of Africa, are perfect examples of this in practice.
I defy Neiwert to product anyone—former Vice President Dick Cheney included—who calls for military strikes on American soil against suspected terrorists. No, we trust our federal, state and local law enforcement officers to use their expertise to track down terrorists on American soil, and they did just that in this instance, and admirably well.
Niewert is abusing a strawman. Worse, he's insulting the intelligence of his readers.
Or at least I hope he is.
I am afraid it is the liberal journalists who are too comfortable.
Most seem to be educated beyond their intelligence. Any fool can bea journalist. It takes ability and talent to be a reporter. There are almost no reporters left and everybody with a pen and notebook IS a journalist.
Niewert and the rest of the left have to find some lame thing to hang their hate on since the jihadi's keep defying their mantra that terrorism is just a ring wing construct.
Posted by: Timber at May 4, 2010 11:03 AM"I defy Neiwert to product anyone—former Vice President Dick Cheney included—who calls for military strikes on American soil against suspected terrorists."
This one is easy to answer: it is none other than President Obama who has authorized the assassination of an American citizen wherever he might be found. Or does a CIA assassination not count as a "military strike"? From none other than Glenn Greenwald, last month:
"both The New York Times and The Washington Post confirm that the Obama White House has now expressly authorized the CIA to kill al-Alwaki no matter where he is found, no matter his distance from a battlefield."
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/07/assassinations
He is flat out wrong, this is an example of a failure of the law enforcement approach. Lives were not lost only because Faisal was a failure as a bomb maker. The cops failed to bust him as he was building the bomb or transporting the bomb or setting the bomb. If he were more capable a lot of lives would have been lost before the cops make their big arrest on the Dubai flight.
Posted by: Mike at May 4, 2010 11:36 AMAgree with you Mike. Add that they barely got him before he left the country and and they made him a citizen. So, what worked?
Posted by: David at May 4, 2010 11:53 AMJust a couple of comments before we get all satisfied with how well the interdiction worked. The plane was recalled during take-off. In otherword, just in the nick of time. The guy wasn't on a no-fly list even though homeland Security knew that he had recently traveled to Pakistan and visited Wrziristan for five weeks. That is pretty much a tell right there. I am not satisfied.
Posted by: garrettc at May 4, 2010 01:53 PMThat idiot Neiwert also makes a mistake in comparing the process of following evidence (police work) to how we treat the accused once caught (criminal vs. enemy combatant).
He's a liberal / blogger / journalist / msnbc / hack anyway, so good lord, don't assign too much credibility to him.
And while we're at it, let's blame Bush for putting into place some of the mechanisms used to track down this failed bomber.
Another thing to consider, if the bomb successfully detonates and there is significant loss of life, property damage and the associated confusion and hysteria, what are the chances Faisal gets away while everyone is running around like headless chickens?
Posted by: Mike at May 5, 2010 07:59 AM"Some of the advisers to President George W. Bush, including Vice President Dick Cheney, argued that a president had the power to use the military on domestic soil to sweep up the terrorism suspects, who came to be known as the Lackawanna Six, and declare them enemy combatants."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/us/25detain.html?_r=1&hp
Posted by: AndyS at May 5, 2010 04:51 PM
