Saturday, April 17, 2004

PREVENTING PREVENTION

Mona Charen on the loopy accusations that GWB is to blame for the 9/11 attacks:

"While we're assigning blame, it would be nice to hear a bit more about the role of political correctness. In 1997, the FBI reportedly wanted to shut down the Holy Land Foundation, a Muslim "charity" that was funneling money to terrorists. (It was shut down in 2001.)The Clinton administration demurred, according to U.S. News and World Report, because "they didn't want to come off as Muslim bashers."

In 2002, the Bush Justice Department announced that some visitors to the United States would be fingerprinted and photographed upon entry. Those hailing from countries with ties to terrorists would be asked to comply. Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois was quick off the mark: "It's going to reach a tipping point if we're not careful ... and end up sacrificing many of the values of our country." And James Zogby of the Arab American Institute declared, "The message it sends is that we're becoming like the Soviet Union ..."

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