On Terrorism it’s Time to Know, to Profile, and to Discriminate
by Newt Gingrich
12/30/2009

After the Christmas Day near disaster in Detroit, it is time for Americans to demand effective anti-terrorist actions.

Over eight years after 9/11 and 30 years after the Iranian illegal seizure of the United States embassy and the 444 day Iranian hostage crisis, Washington is still avoiding being intellectually honest about the war we are in.

Our Politically Correct Government is Making Life More Miserable For the Innocent

America is long overdue for a serious global strategy that includes targeting threats such as the terrorist killer at Fort Hood, the individuals recently arrested in Detroit, Denver and New York, and the five Americans detained in Pakistan.

The scale, persistence and sophistication of the enemy requires an honesty, a clarity, and a scale appropriate to the response.

Once again, instead of targeting the source of the threats, our politically correct government decides to make life more miserable for the travelling public by imposing hopelessly meaningless rules such as not allowing passengers to leave their seats in the last hour of the flight. Bound by cultural sensitivities, the default reaction of the bureaucracy is to review the procedures and wring its hands ineffectively.

Today, because our elites fear politically incorrect honesty, they believe that it is better to harass the innocent, delay the harmless, and risk the lives of every American than to do the obvious, the effective, and the necessary.

It’s Time to Be Honest About What We Know

Before a lot more Americans are killed we must acquire the courage to tell the truth and to act on that truth.

It is time to be honest about what we know.

We know our opponents are radical extremists of the irreconcilable wing of Islam (Islamists, some would call them).

We know they have an ideology which is anti-female, desires to impose fundamentalist Sharia as a form of law, is hostile to other religions and is prepared to kill the innocent to achieve their goals.

We know how to identify these enemies but our elites have refused to do so.

Protecting the Rights of Terrorists Has Been More Important than Protecting the Lives of Americans

In the Obama Administration, protecting the rights of terrorists has been more important than protecting the lives of Americans.

That must now change decisively.

It is time to know more about would-be terrorists, to profile for terrorists and to actively discriminate based on suspicious terrorist information.

The United States should track down the owners of every website that promotes terrorism and systematically root them out. It should be as dangerous to a person promoting terrorism as it is to execute an act of terrorism.

The same should apply to the electronic communications of every known radical (and using these communications to track down every unknown radical).

The United States Must Actively Root Out Every Terrorist Website

The people behind these websites should be barred from getting a U.S. visa if not in the United States (concurrently, we should make it easier — not harder — for non-terrorists to get visas because we want to encourage the law abiding while discriminating against the potential terrorist).

An integrated data base for threats should have been expected, we now learn that it does not exist. This must be fixed.

It should be reasonable for the flying public to have expected that when the Nigerian terrorist’s father reported he was going to a terrorist training camp he should automatically have been barred from getting a visa and from flying into the United States.

We Need a “Grand National Strategy” That is Bigger Than the Debate Over Afghanistan

The emergence of Yemen as the new planning, equipping, and training center for terrorism should remind us we need a worldwide “grand national strategy” (to use the World War II term) that is far bigger than our current debate over Afghanistan.

Americans should also note that ABC News is reporting that two of the plotters to blow the Amsterdam to Detroit flight out of the air were released from Guantanamo in 2007, attended an “art rehabilitation program” in Saudi Arabia, were released and took up senior leadership positions in al Qaeda in Yemen. Americans should also know that nearly half of the remaining detainees in Guantanamo are from Yemen.

The recent arrest of five Americans in Pakistan and the report there are 25 British citizens training to be bombers in Yemen should remind us this is a global war.

Moreover, the report that 74 Guantanamo detainees who have been released are back in the war trying to kill Americans should stop any further effort to close Guantanamo or to release terrorists.

The New Honesty Should End Any Thought of a Civilian Trial in New York for KSM

This new honesty about the threat should end any thought of a civilian trial in New York for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad with its dangers for exposing American intelligence information. All terrorists including would-be bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab should be tried in military tribunals as part of a serious war strategy.

The Attorney General and every Justice Department appointee whose law firms provided pro bono counsel for terrorists should be fired and replaced with lawyers who believe the lives of Americans are more important than the rights of terrorists.

The United States must have a policy of effective interrogation to understand our enemies and disrupt their planned attacks (read Marc Thiessen’s column from yesterday).

We Need a New Homeland Security Secretary Who Knows We Need a New Strategy

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano’s claim that the Detroit bomber was allowed to board a plan with explosives hidden in his underwear proved the system worked is proof we need a new Homeland Security Secretary who knows we need a new strategy and a new focus.

These are the first steps toward defeating the extremists.

We should take them before there is a tragic attack that kills a lot of people.

We have been warned. Again.

Will we now act?

Printed in Human Events

“You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation.

You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”

* * Adrian Rogers, 1931*

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, “OK, 
we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan”. 


All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. 
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.  
The second test average was a D! 
No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, 
blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that.

To All My Liberal-Democrat Friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or explicit, my best wishes for

an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress,

non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday,

practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion

of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the

religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice

not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a

fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated

recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2010, but

not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures

whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to

imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the

only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without

regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith

or sexual preference of the wish.

To My Conservative-Republican Friends:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Anuzis Family

Lina & Saulius

Matas, Tadas, Vytis & Marius

And to all our Jewish friends – Happy Hanukkah – I hope you enjoy the holiday season!

Update:  The Detroit Free Press “liked” our greeting and published it online and in the Sunday edition.

http://www.freep.com/article/20091218/COL05/91218069/1318/Ex-GOP-leaders-Christmas-card-take-the-fruitcake-for-shock-value

Rasmussen Link:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 25% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16. That’s the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President (see trends).

The 25% who Strongly Approve matches the lowest level of enthusiasm yet recorded. That’s partly the result of declining enthusiasm among Democrats. While Democrats continue to offer their approval, just 43% Strongly Approve.