How Not to Identify Terrorists

Lee DeCovnick

Welcome to Obamaland! As a nation now drowning in federal regulation and executive orders, Obama and his ilk have grabbed us by the throat and are gleefully dragging our middle-class butts though the gilded gates of a totalitarian asylum. Here, truth, freedom, and justice are sacrificed on the politically correct altars of racism and multicultural sensitivity.

A prime example of truth being discarded like two-day-old fish and chips: the sick and twisted ravings of Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott. He, much like a wild-eyed homeless street preacher, drooling, spewing, and hectoring innocent passersby, presents us with a typical progressive Democratic mind, obviously bereft of thought, reason, or sanity.

From the seattletimes.com website:

After a wave of criticism from politicians, advocacy groups and the public, 46 bus ads featuring photos of wanted terrorists will be taken down within the next few weeks, officials said Tuesday.
The ad is part of a campaign launched earlier this month by the Puget Sound Joint Terrorism Task Force for the U.S. Department of State's Rewards for Justice program. It features 16 photos of wanted terrorists sandwiched between the taglines "Faces of Global Terrorism" and "Stop a Terrorist. Save Lives. Up to $25 Million Reward."
Two different ads without photos will remain on billboards, light rail and at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott wrote a letter last week to FBI Director Robert Mueller expressing concern over the ads, saying the ad would "only serve to exacerbate the disturbing trend of hate crimes against Middle Eastern, South Asian and Muslim-Americans."
"When you start saying that this is the face of terrorism, you are really stigmatizing a whole group of people," McDermott, D-Seattle, said Tuesday.
King County Metro received a half-dozen complaints [emphasis added] through the customer information line[.] ...
Lynnwood resident Jeff Siddiqui, the founder of American Muslims of Puget Sound, said he received phone calls from other Muslims in Seattle who said they were concerned for their safety.
The 16 men in the ad are affiliated with extremist groups around the world. Seven are from African countries, four are from the Philippines, one each is from Malaysia and Chechnya, and three were born in the United States.
When a bus is whizzing by at 35 mph, McDermott said, it's difficult to look closely at each photo and see the differences.
"The impression you get is that terrorism is caused by brown-skinned men with beards, and occasionally they wear a turban - which isn't true," McDermott said.
"I am glad, because now we can start again, we can rebuild a relationship," Siddiqui said. "Please God [emphasis added], let it be a relationship of open communication and trust."
The Rewards for Justice Program was created in 1984 and reviews tips for credible information that leads to the arrest or conviction of terrorism or prevents terrorist acts from occurring. The program has paid about $125 million to more than 80 people and played a significant role in the 1995 arrest of Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Let's see: the population of the Seattle metro area is 3.9 million folks. So besides Mr. Siddiqi and Democratic Representative Jim McDermott, only 4 other folks were outraged enough to pick up the phone to complain. Thus, the complaint rate was 0.0001026%.

That means that the remaining 99.9998794% of the Seattle metro population was denied the opportunity of identifying and turning in real terrorists.

Well, not really, since Democratic Representative Jim McDermott was absolutely correct in stating that the buses whiz by too quickly for anyone to get a good look at the posters. It's not as if the buses stop every few blocks to pick up and drop off passengers.

Obamaland is now in the best of hands, especially when just 0.0001026% of the population can stop a multi-million-dollar ad campaign that has successfully combated terrorism and saved American lives.

If only all the terrorists who want to kill Americans in their homes and offices looked like young Robert Redfords, we surely would not have this problem.

Saturday, June 29, 2013