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CONFUSED ON TERRORISM

Posted by EWRoss on Monday, November 23, 2009 7:00:00 AM

The Obama administration's actions on Nidal Malik Hasan and Khalid Shiekh Mohammed confuse our men and women in uniform.

At a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing chaired by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I. RI.), Mr. Walid Phares, an expert on Islamic jihad at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, regarding whether Hasan was a terrorist or not, testified; "It will be 'terrorism' per Obama's team only if it is proven that there was a terror organization or a regime involved." Apparently, Hisan's emails to al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki are not sufficient to demonstrate Hasan's desire to become a member of al-Qaeda.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked Attorney General Eric Holder, “Can you give me a case in United States history where an enemy combatant caught on a battlefield was tried in civilian court?” Holder responded, “I don't know. I'd have to look at that. I think that, you know, the determination I've made . . .” Before Holder could finish his sentence Graham interjected, “We're making history here, Mr. Attorney General. I'll answer it for you. The answer is no.”

Graham went on to tell Holder that his policy was confusing our soldiers on the ground. What were they supposed to do when they captured another terrorist on the battlefield, question him for intelligence information or read him his Miranda rights.

Has the Obama administration really thought through their policies with regard to the Fort Hood shootings and punishing the people behind the 9/11 attacks? You'd have thought that Eric Holder should have known the answer to Sen. Graham's question; and you'd think they'd understand that Hasan is a terrorist. Their actions in both cases only confuse our men and women in uniform who fight terrorism and embolden our terrorist enemies.

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KAHLID SHEIKH MOHAMMED GOES TO COURT - America Goes on Trial

Posted by EWRoss on Monday, November 16, 2009 8:00:00 AM

Attorney General Eric Holder’s controversial decision to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo detainees accused of the 9/11 terror attacks in Federal Court in the Southern District of New York will take America down a path it will likely regret. America, not just Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his cohorts, is going on trial, allowing misperceptions of world opinion and US national interest to put America at risk.

Read my column at http://ewross.com/Khalid_Sheikh_Mohammed_Goes_to_Court.htm

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TERRORIST VS COMBATANT

Posted by EWRoss on Monday, November 16, 2009 7:00:00 AM
Too often, the debate over whether certain terrorists are criminals or enemy combatants is conducted on ideological and philosophical grounds where partisan politics gets in the way. It ignores the practical reasons why this isn't a good idea and why it makes us more vulnerable.

Many argue that fighting al-Qaeda and the Taliban on the battlefield is one thing, but we should use the criminal justice system to bring foreign terrorists who attack us in the US to justice. They find the idea of "a war on terror" to deal with them objectionable. They believe it puts us at odds with the Muslim world and gets in the way of winning hearts and minds with outreach to them. We should prevent terror attacks with good police work.

The problem with this is that the criminal justice system is ill-suited for that task, especially protecting Americans from international terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda. The focus of the criminal justice system is collecting evidence, preserving it for trial, and protecting the Constitutional rights of the accused. Captured foreign terrorists (enemy combatants) do not have the same Constitutional rights as US citizens, and granting them such rights inhibits our ability to deter, prevent, and defend against terrorist attacks. Collecting and preserving evidence inhibits intelligence collection and intelligence sharing.

When we catch a Kahlid Sheikh Mohammed after the fact on foreign soil, it's far more important that we use every lawful technique to learn everything he knows rather than reading him his rights and giving him a lawyer so as not to prejudice the case against him in court. In an age when terrorists may soon possess nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons, we can not afford to do otherwise.

The most precious American value is the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The paramount responsibility of government is to defend us against their loss.

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AMERICA'S MORAL COMPASS - Are We Reading It Correctly

Posted by EWRoss on Monday, August 31, 2009 8:00:00 AM

Amidst the heated ongoing national debate over healthcare reform, the Obama administration last week took aim at the CIA and pulled the trigger. Attorney General Eric Holder appointed a special prosecutor to review cases involving CIA contractors; and President Obama relieved the CIA of responsibility for high-value detainee interrogations and gave it to a multi-agency task force reporting to the National Security Council (NSC). In doing so, they seriously wounded the Agency and reenergized the national debate over how it interrogated high-value terrorists after 9/11. If this is about America’s moral compass, as the president has often phrased it, is he and are we reading it correctly?

 

Read the full column at http://ewross.com/Americas_Moral_Compass.htm
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CALLING NORTH KOREA'S HAND - The Time for a Cold-War-Style Confrontation is Now

Posted by EWRoss on Monday, June 22, 2009 8:00:00 AM
Since North Korea’s recent successful nuclear weapon and ballistic missile tests, Kim Jong-Il has been behaving a like spoiled child throwing a temper tantrum. He warns that any actions taken against him in response to past or future tests would spark a nuclear war. At the same time, North Korea prepares for the test of a 4,500-kilometer range Taepodong-2 missile he plans to launch toward Hawaii on or about July 4. Increasingly, it appears that we’re going to have to call Kim’s hand with a Cold-War-style confrontation or admit there’s nothing we can do about his nuclear weapons and missile programs. The longer we postpone that confrontation the greater the risk.
 
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JOHN WAYNE & THE UIGHURS

Posted by EWRoss on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 8:00:00 AM
All I know about the Uighurs recently released from the Guantanamo detention facility is what I've learned about them from the media. I do, however, have lasting images of the Uighurs I met when I visited Xinjiang, Province, China in 1983.

While serving as the assistant US Army attaché in Beijing my wife and I flew to Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, where we rented a car and a tall, husky Uighur driver, whom we dubbed "John Wayne" because of the way he walked. We spent the better part of a week in that car with "John" and covered over 1,000 kilometers visiting the Turfan oasis, Buddhist caves, and ancient ruins. Of course, you can't learn all that much about a people from hanging around with one of them for a week, but we did our research before and after the trip and observed how Uighurs in Urumqi and in the countryside lived. We also observed how John behaved everytime we encountered one of the ever-present Chinese policemen or soldiers we encountered. He bristled.

Like Tibetans, Uighurs are an oppressed minority in China. They have become increasingly radicalized in recent years by their al-Qaeda and Taliban neighbors to their west. Indeed they have conducted terrorist attacks in China directed at the Chinese government in Beijing, and some of them have been found fighting in Afghanistan. But when I see video clips of released Uighurs swimming in the ocean off Bermuda, I think about John and wonder what ever happened to him. They also remind me that not everything is black and white. As the old cliché goes, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
 
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CHANGING THE RULES IN THE WAR ON TERROR - Living Up to American Values

Posted by EWRoss on Monday, January 26, 2009 8:00:00 AM
With a series of executive orders, President Barack Obama wasted no time publically scrapping many of the tools George W. Bush used to fight the war on terror. He stopped the the use of “enhanced” interrogation techniques, banned secret overseas prisons and rendition, and committed to closing the Guantanamo detention camp within one year. He also established a cabinet-level commission on the disposition of Guantanamo detainees, suspending military tribunals for 120 days while he decides how best to proceed.

It’s not a mistake for Obama to seek the moral high ground; but it’s unnecessary and dangerous for him to disarm CIA interrogators in order to stop the use of controversial techniques. And he doesn't have to give foreign terrorists trials in US criminal courts to repair the damage Guantanamo has done to America’s image.
 
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MESSAGE FROM MUMBAI

Posted by EWRoss on Monday, December 01, 2008 9:00:00 AM
Once again terrorists have reminded us how suddenly they can wreak havoc and devastation at a time and place of their choosing and how vulnerable free societies are. Once again they’ve sent a chilling message to targets of their hate around the world, a message that President-elect Barack Obama and his new national security advisors should receive with great concern.
 
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