Subject: [big campaign] Counterterror Success Keep America Safe
From: Adam Blickstein <[email-masked]>
To: "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 4 May 2010 11:34:06 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

Counterterror Success Keep America Safe

Washington, D.C. - Late last night a suspect in the failed Times Square car bomb attempt was arrested.  The suspect, Faisal Shahzad, is a naturalized American citizen of Pakistani descent who recently returned from a trip to Pakistan.  Already giving information to police, Shahzad says that he worked alone, and authorities have not yet uncovered any international connection.  The arrest demonstrates how military, intelligence and law enforcement partnership -- all the tools in the toolbox -- is the best way to combat terrorism.  Americans can be very proud of the men and women who work on the front lines to keep us safe.

Yet, even before the facts are fully known, some conservatives have jumped to wild speculation, fear-mongering and hysteria.  Their calls for a siege mentality would give the terrorists exactly what they want - a weakened America.  But New Yorkers - and Americans everywhere - are too resilient to fall victim to such tactics. As even the conservative icon Glenn Beck stated: "You don't shred the Constitution ever."

Times Square suspect caught.  The New York Times reports today that, "A naturalized United States citizen from Pakistan who lives in Connecticut was pulled off a jet bound for Dubai at Kennedy Airport just before midnight on Monday and arrested for driving a car bomb into Times Square, in what turned out to be an unsuccessful attack, Justice Department officials announced... In a statement, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg thanked law enforcement officials, saying their 'swift efforts led to this arrest after only 48 hours of around-the-clock investigation. I hope their impressive work serves as a lesson to anyone who would do us harm,' he said."  Marc Ambinder reports that "The American people, Holder said, should "remain vigilant."  Holder said that investigators would seek "intelligence" from the suspect, suggesting that he would be interrogated before being read his Miranda rights under an exemption that allows law enforcement to withhold its administration if they suspect that the person could provide information on an imminent threat."

This case has proven to be a success for using all the tools in the tool box to disrupt terrorism and bring terrorists to justice.  As Mayor Bloomberg said, this investigation is "a great example of the professional skill and close inter-agency cooperation we bring to bear on combating such incidents."  There has been a whole of government approach to the investigation.  The Joint Terrorism Task Force international terrorism division took the lead in the investigation on Monday, and agencies including the Customs and Border Patrol, the Justice Department, local law enforcement, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security all played vital roles in the arrest.   [NY Times,  4/4/10<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=9uzjxsdab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0477&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2010%2F05%2F05%2Fnyregion%2F05bomb.html%3Fhp%3D%26pagewanted%3Dall&id=preview>. Marc Ambinder, the Atlantic, 4/4/10<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=9uzjxsdab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0477&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Fpolitics%2Farchive%2F2010%2F05%2Fan-arrest-in-the-times-square-bombing%2F56108%2F&id=preview>.  Mayor Bloomberg via NY Daily News, 5/3/10<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=9uzjxsdab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0477&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nydailynews.com%2Fblogs%2Fdailypolitics%2F2010%2F05%2Fbloomberg-uses-light-touch-in.html&id=preview>]

Conservatives hysteria over failed Times Square car bombing contravenes known facts. Many of the facts behind the unsuccessful car bombing in Times Square are still unknown, but that hasn't stopped conservative pundits and politicians from rushing to politicize the failed attack.  Before there was a suspect in the case nearly every authority, from New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to New York Senator Chuck Schumer to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, was careful to not speculate about possible connections to a terrorist organization, either foreign or domestic.  But National Review blogger Kathryn Jean Lopez called the refusal to speculate, "Dangerously silly."  According to the Associated Press, an official familiar with the investigation said investigators do not yet have evidence that suspect Faisal Shahzad has ties to any international terrorist groups.  The official told AP, "He's claimed to have acted alone, but these are things that have to be investigated."

Other political figures got busy second-guessing US intelligence and law-enforcement leadership. In an interview with Politico, Congressman Peter King (R - NY) appeared to suggest that the Joint FBI task force responsible for apprehending suspect Faisal Shahzad not read him his Miranda rights, despite his being a U.S. citizen. "Did they Mirandize him? I know he's an American citizen but still,'" said King.  John McCain was even more explicit, saying that it would be a "very serious mistake" to Mirandize Shahzad. This was in plain ignorance of an earlier statement by Attorney General Eric Holder, who, as Marc Ambinder reported, promised that investigators would seek "intelligence" from the suspect.  As Ambinder wrote, this suggested that "that he [Shahzad] would be interrogated before being read his Miranda rights under an exemption that allows law enforcement to withhold its administration if they suspect that the person could provide information on an imminent threat." [Kathryn Jean Lopez, 5/4/10<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=9uzjxsdab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0477&p=http%3A%2F%2Fcorner.nationalreview.com%2Fpost%2F%3Fq%3DNGM4MzAwN2RkNGZmMDk2OTlmYmU2MTUxODc0Mjg4NTY%3D&id=preview>. Times of India, 5/3/10<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=9uzjxsdab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0477&p=http%3A%2F%2Ftimesofindia.indiatimes.com%2FNEWS%2FWorld%2FPakistan%2FPak-Taliban-denies-involvement-in-Times-Square-car-bomb-plot%2Farticleshow%2F5887345.cms&id=preview>. McClatchy, 5/3/10<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=9uzjxsdab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0477&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mcclatchydc.com%2F2010%2F05%2F03%2F93394%2Fofficials-doubt-pakistani-taliban.html&id=preview>. AP, 5/4/10<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=9uzjxsdab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0477&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2F2010%2F05%2F04%2Ffaisal-shahzad-photo-times-square_n_562380.html&id=preview>. Rep. Peter King (R - NY), via Politico, 5/4/10<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=9uzjxsdab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0477&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com%2Fnews%2Fstories%2F0510%2F36741.html&id=preview>. Sen. John McCain (R - AZ), via the Hill, 5/4/10<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=9uzjxsdab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0477&p=http%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fblogs%2Fblog-briefing-room%2Fnews%2F95837-mccain-serious-mistake-if-car-bombing-suspect-was-mirandized&id=preview>. Attorney General Holder, via Marc Ambinder, 5/4/10<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=9uzjxsdab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0477&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Fpolitics%2Farchive%2F2010%2F05%2Fan-arrest-in-the-times-square-bombing%2F56108%2F&id=preview>]

America is too strong and resilient a country to give terrorists what they want.  Fareed Zakaria, Editor of Newsweek International and Washington Post Columnist, explains what terrorists seek through their violent acts: "The purpose of terrorism is to provoke an overreaction. Its real aim is not to kill the hundreds of people directly targeted but to sow fear in the rest of the population. Terrorism is an unusual military tactic in that it depends on the response of the onlookers. If we are not terrorized, then the attack didn't work." Similarly, Marc Lynch, senior fellow at CNAS and professor at George Washington University, explains that an "overreaction" to terrorism attempts plays "right into the hands of a terrorist group."  The same is true for an individual.

Yet, Eric Cantor today at the Heritage Foundation actually criticized the Obama administration for not encouraging Americans to live in constant fear - as terrorists desire.  He stated that: "with each close encounter, my fear is that the country goes on heightened alert only so long as the media covers it.   All too often that means hours and days rather than permanently. Equally concerning is that the administration and other elected officials tend to give these warnings due attention only in limited spurts."

Determination not to let terrorists change our way of life is a key part of dealing with the fear that terrorism is supposed to instill.  In a piece for Foreign Affairs in 2008, leading homeland security expert Steve Flynn, now President of the Center for National Policy, noted: "Resilience has historically been one of the United States' great national strengths...A climate of fear and a sense of powerlessness caused by the threats of terrorism and natural disasters are undermining American ideals and fueling political demagoguery. Rebuilding the resilience of American society is the way to reverse this and respond to today's challenges." [Fareed Zakaria, 1/11/10<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=9uzjxsdab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0477&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Fcontent%2Farticle%2F2010%2F01%2F10%2FAR2010011002143.html&id=preview>. Marc Lynch, 1/2/10<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=9uzjxsdab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0477&p=http%3A%2F%2Flynch.foreignpolicy.com%2Fposts%2F2010%2F01%2F02%2Fbad_ideas_on_yemen&id=preview>. Steve Flynn, via Foreign Affairs, March/April 2008<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=9uzjxsdab.0.0.olnitxbab.0&ts=S0477&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.foreignaffairs.com%2Farticles%2F63214%2Fstephen-e-flynn%2Famerica-the-resilient&id=preview>]

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Adam Blickstein
Communications Director
National Security Network
202-289-7113 (office)
617-335-0859 (mobile)
[email-masked]

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