Remember the facts about 9/11, terrorism
“Just the facts, ma’am.” That was a venerable line used by fictitious detective Joe Friday on the TV show “Dragnet” to cut through hyperbole and over-the-top rhetoric. I was reminded of this line when reading Emily Mills’ May 20 column, “Has Joe McCarthy met his match in Leah Vukmir?”
I fully respect the intelligence of Journal Sentinel’s readership to look past Mills’ insidious attempt to connect the two of them and see the omission of facts.
To that end, here are a few facts: Whether you like President Donald Trump or not, it is a fact that hundreds of administrative positions remain unfilled because of Democratic Party opposition. This is unprecedented in American history for a president in office so long.
Democrats have delayed hearings and invoked the 30-hours rule for practically all federal appointments. Worse, the name-calling and false charges against the nominees has been furious. Candidates have been labeled as inept, treasonous and a warmonger. One judge was openly ridiculed by Democrats for his Catholic faith, ignoring our history, in which a Catholic was elected president in 1960 — representing none other than the Democratic Party.
And during the CIA nomination process, Gina Haspel was grilled for hours on the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. At times it was not a dignified hearing but five facts are important to remember:
• Mohammed was labeled the mastermind of 9/11 by both former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
• More than 3,000 innocent Americans at the World Trade Center died — wait, that’s too polite a term — were murdered. Another group was murdered at the Pentagon, and 40 more lives were lost on United Airlines Flight 93. That plane was destined for the White House but the passengers fought the terrorists in midair.
• A waterboarding confession led to a carrier delivering regular packages to a destination in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the hideout of Osama bin Laden. Yet Mills falsely claims this technique was “ineffective”.
• Waterboarding was “legal” at the time of 9/11.
• Gina Haspel followed the law in her job as a civil servant. There’s no way she could predict that a future Congress would outlaw this technique.
Overall, Haspel had an exemplary record at the CIA for 30 years and has been endorsed by current and past CIA leaders. But the witch hunt displayed by the Democrats to defame her reputation was arduous to watch. Such views as terrorists have rights and should not have been waterboarded were expressed by the left. Another charge was that Haspel violated a moral code. What moral code? Waterboarding was legal?
Thankfully, Haspel was nominated to be CIA director but unfortunately, only a few Democrats in red states approved her. Tammy Baldwin voted against her nomination.
I can only surmise that if state Sen. Leah Vukmir, who is running for Senate, were our senator today, she would have fully endorsed Gina Haspel as an effective terrorist fighter to protect the security of the nation.
Ultimately, Vukmir is defending the American citizens tragically lost in the barbaric 9/11 terrorist massacre. These were innocent Americans, and any attempt to rewrite history by Emily Mills will fail.