America can’t surrender Internet, airports to terror
ISIL/ISIS “is a highly violent extremist group that has killed thousands of men, women, and children, mostly Muslims. The group calls itself the ‘Islamic State,’ but its members follow an extreme, fringe interpretation of Islamic law. They do not represent mainstream Islam, and the vast majority of Muslims are horrified by their actions.”
— The FBI’s “Don’t Be a Puppet” website
A coalition of groups is calling on the FBI to shut down the above mentioned anti-terrorist website, claiming it targets American Muslims and establishes a thought police in schools.
If anything, “Don’t Be a Puppet” goes out of its way to differentiate between “extremist thoughts (which) are not against the law” and those who would commit crimes or violence. It states on many of its pages that “it is legal to have hateful or extremist beliefs as long as you don’t commit crimes or violence based on those beliefs,” that “the right to assemble (or gather) in groups is also protected by the U.S. Constitution,” and that before reporting someone “use your common sense and consider everything you know about this person.”
A case can be made that some of the language on the website needs to be tightened up or pulled (just what is an “unusual language” or “places that sound suspicious”?) Yet this site overall is far removed from a House Un-American Activities Committee hearing in the Joe McCarthy era.
And still the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Friends of Human Rights, the Muslim Legal Fund of America, the Sikh Coalition and Teaching Tolerance have all asked the FBI to go offline when it comes to educating the public in general and today’s youth specifically about violent extremist groups.
Meanwhile, those groups, including IS, have made social media a priority for recruiting efforts and are not concerned about offending finer politically correct sensibilities. Case in point: San Bernardino, where the attackers — who killed 14 people and injured 22 — exchanged online messages on their commitment to jihad and martyrdom, and one pledged her allegiance to the emir of the Islamic State group on Facebook.
It is important to note, and the FBI site does, that there is a difference between saying “praise be to Allah” and planning a violent act against America.
Yet for the coalition that would unplug “Don’t Be a Puppet,” it is all one big happy world, where violent extremists are allowed to breeze into secure areas of airports. The ACLU is also opposing U.S. Senate Democrats’ plan to ramp up security at airports in light of the Brussels airport bombing that killed 35 and injured hundreds more.
Sens. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and others crafted a security-related amendment that has been attached to a Federal Aviation Administration funding bill. It includes doubling the number of “viper teams” that stop and search suspicious passengers, often with bomb-sniffing dogs, in public areas before screening — areas the Brussels attack show are remarkably vulnerable.
Does every traveler want to be stopped and have their new suit or beach bag sniffed on the way to a business meeting or vacation? The better question is does any traveler want to live through a Brussels nightmare? Heinrich points out “these are commonsense approaches that say we are going to respond to this terrorist threat and we’re going to protect Americans and we are never going to give in.”
That ideal is also inherent in the FBI website, which cautions against Orwellian groupthink and emphasizes critical thinking and questioning authority.
It is unfortunate that our world has become a place where violent extremists target disenfranchised youth and terror cells attack busy commercial centers. But since 9/11 it is, and it is essential the United States government is there as well, striking a balance between security and civil liberties online and on the ground. The FBI’s website and Heinrich’s proposals do just that.