Thursday, June 03, 2004
Homeland Security You Say?!
Boy, oh boy, things sure are a bit topsy turvy in the Orwellian world that is our nation's official security apparatus. Just in is the news that George Tenet has resigned as CIA chief. Talking heads in Washington are busy comparing notes to speculate if he 'was pushed or jumped.'
One thing clear is that Tenet's departure will likely have little effect on slowing the bad investigative and prosecutorial work coming from the Feds these days. Exhibit A is that we let a real, genuine terrorist out of our legal system, and he is now hiding out in Syria.
We did manage to capture and detain incommunicado for two weeks an Oregon lawyer in connection with the Madrid train bombings. In that particular case, however, this guy was innocent. His family says that he was 'smeared' because he is a Muslim convert married to an Egyptian woman. He was also a retired Army Officer, which one would think could provide some validation (except of course for the likes of Captain James Yee, who was also, wouldn't you know it, a Muslim!).
Perhaps I'm being more snippy than I need to be. The Feds did eventually drop all charges on both of these innocent men, even if they did drag their good names and their lives and those of their families through the proverbial mud for a few weeks or months, respectively. I fully understand that the biggest fear of Homeland Security is that they should never again let something horrible like 9-11 happen again. But if that is the real driving force, then why did they let the real terrorist out of custody?
The issue here seems to get back to plain old incompetence and the red herring of "intelligence concerns." As the above article should make clear, Nabil al-Marabh was a poster boy for the "bad guy" with which TeamBush so likes to scare the crap out of the average American. Despite being the 27th-most-wanted guy on the US watch list, al-Marabh was sent back to Syria, a country identified as being a sponsor of terrorism. The Justice Department denied multiple attempts to bring charges against him by various federal prosecutors, saying that the US "cannot effectively try [him] in court without giving away intelligence sources and methods."
So this guy who proclaimed that he "intended to martyr himself in an attack against the United States" is now out of custody, while we keep old men and kids of dubious intelligence value in Guantanamo.
I feel safe. Real safe indeed.
Boy, oh boy, things sure are a bit topsy turvy in the Orwellian world that is our nation's official security apparatus. Just in is the news that George Tenet has resigned as CIA chief. Talking heads in Washington are busy comparing notes to speculate if he 'was pushed or jumped.'
One thing clear is that Tenet's departure will likely have little effect on slowing the bad investigative and prosecutorial work coming from the Feds these days. Exhibit A is that we let a real, genuine terrorist out of our legal system, and he is now hiding out in Syria.
We did manage to capture and detain incommunicado for two weeks an Oregon lawyer in connection with the Madrid train bombings. In that particular case, however, this guy was innocent. His family says that he was 'smeared' because he is a Muslim convert married to an Egyptian woman. He was also a retired Army Officer, which one would think could provide some validation (except of course for the likes of Captain James Yee, who was also, wouldn't you know it, a Muslim!).
Perhaps I'm being more snippy than I need to be. The Feds did eventually drop all charges on both of these innocent men, even if they did drag their good names and their lives and those of their families through the proverbial mud for a few weeks or months, respectively. I fully understand that the biggest fear of Homeland Security is that they should never again let something horrible like 9-11 happen again. But if that is the real driving force, then why did they let the real terrorist out of custody?
The issue here seems to get back to plain old incompetence and the red herring of "intelligence concerns." As the above article should make clear, Nabil al-Marabh was a poster boy for the "bad guy" with which TeamBush so likes to scare the crap out of the average American. Despite being the 27th-most-wanted guy on the US watch list, al-Marabh was sent back to Syria, a country identified as being a sponsor of terrorism. The Justice Department denied multiple attempts to bring charges against him by various federal prosecutors, saying that the US "cannot effectively try [him] in court without giving away intelligence sources and methods."
So this guy who proclaimed that he "intended to martyr himself in an attack against the United States" is now out of custody, while we keep old men and kids of dubious intelligence value in Guantanamo.
I feel safe. Real safe indeed.
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