Obama administration blinds American eyes to jihadism

LA JOLLA, California — Like all crimes, acts of Islamist terrorism have their MOM (Motivation, Opportunity, Means). They differ in that they are not motivated by greed, profit, vengeance, or mental dysfunction, but by religious fanaticism inculcated in the minds of the perpetrators through years of intense indoctrination that succeeds in making the ultimate sacrifice, the loss of their lives, a blessed goal pleasing to Allah to be rewarded in the afterlife with 72 virgins in El Jennah, the Paradise.

Against that, no incentives (money, land, honor, respect)  or dis-incentive (fear, shame, threats) will dissuade them from accomplishing their mission to kill and maim the Kuffar, the Infidels, or even the coreligionists who do not accept their extremist interpretation of the Islamic Sunna and Hadith. All American administrations , Democrat and Republican, bent over backwards and continue to pour billions of dollars to pacify the fanatics, to no avail: Since nine-eleven, 20,000 terrorist acts originated in the Islamic world, and over the past four years 190 homegrown Islamist terrorists have been arrested in America alone.

The big question is: Is the West, especially the United States, prepared to confront this menace? Sadly, the answer is NO.

From the case of Major Hassan, a military psychiatrist whose duty is to help the soldiers but who killed 13 of them  and wounded 35 (and who has not yet been convicted after four years–there were even reports that he is still drawing his military salary, which , if true, is the apex of absurdity and idiocy) to the Benghazi scandal where four brave Americans lost their lives, to the Boston massacre following a dozen of instances of terror that were pre-empted or mitigated by sheer luck, we have shown a lack of preparedness before, during, and after the facts.

As we wrote elsewhere in detail, this is due mainly to Obama’s ideology, eagerly implemented by his cabinet ministers .No deliberate policy is more harmful to national security than the president’s decision to purge the ” words and phrases that are offensive to Islam” from the books, the military manual, and the verbal communications of the government officials,  and to replace them with ridiculous euphemisms. Thus, to cite one example, in spite of the terrorist rallying cry of “Allahu Akbar” used by Major Hassan before the killing, and his uncovered communications with notorious terror leaders, his horrific act was baptized “workplace violence” and STILL IS today, four years and many bloody terrorist acts after his mass killing.

Obama outlawed all discussion or study, by the federal agencies, of Jihadi terrorism, Radical Islamism, the Wahhabi and Salafi extremist interpretations of the Koran. Even after the Boston massacre, he said on TV that “there are lots of interpretations of Jihad” and “not to jump to conclusions;” he never uttered the words “jihadist, radical Islamists, terrorists,” preferring the silly “self-radicalized and lone wolves,” thus making lame excuses for proven acts of terror committed by Muslims.

We reached the point where a group of ICE agents  (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) sued their own DHS (Department of Homeland Security), accusing their bosses of “preventing them from doing their job” which is  to arrest and deport criminals . This ideology led to a total paralysis of honest agents who fear their disobedience will cost them their jobs. (And now we hear that witnesses of the Benghazi massacre have been ordered not to testify,  and threatened if they did.)

The Boston acts of terror uncovered other ugly facts:  we gave “political asylum” to a family not fleeing “from danger and persecution.” They returned to their country to vacation–and in the case of Tamerlan, to learn the trade of terrorism–; Massachusetts taxpayers provided them with more than $ 100,000 of “benefits;” and free education and scholarships…The world is laughing at this “giant sucker” aiding and abetting its sworn enemies!

The Obama ideology (war finished, Bin Laden killed, terrorists on the run, Islam is a religion of peace etc.), not only paralyzes but also blinds in a sort of freely consented blindness, and if the facts on the ground are at odds with the ideology, then so much the worse for the facts. Therefore what you see didn’t happen, OR you misunderstood it OR your reaction is  political ,OR you are a right-wing extremist , OR you are a racist …Thus:

.- When the Russians told the FBI and the CIA twice in 2011  to watch Tamerlan, we didn’t pursue because “the Russians hate the Chechnians and have their own agenda.”

.- When they told us they had intercepted a conversation between Tamerlan and his mother talking JIHAD, no red flag. Ditto.

.- Tamerlan and his mother were on a “watch list” for 18 months ,but were not “watched,” because of “privacy.”

.- He made a trip to Dagestan and/or Chechniya, which are hotbeds of Islamist jihadism, stayed 6 months, and nobody suspected that maybe he went to learn the art of making bombs and kill people , or to receive instructions? “No evidence…”

.- He showed on YouTube videos on jihad ! One of the bomber’s license plate read”Terrorista # 1″ . That’s “freedom of speech.”

.- And then, the most egregious of all because it had no excuse : While the FBI agents were interrogating the survivor of the two brothers Tsarnaev– with some success, having elicited from him the precious information that they had planned,and prepared for, an attack on New York with six more pressure cooker bombs–,they were interrupted by a federal judge who stopped the interrogation and read the brother his Miranda rights. The interrogators were “stunned.” Once lawyered up, the terrorist clammed up. No more info, no more intelligence that could save lives. (last I heard, he has now FOUR lawyers defending him, at taxpayers’ expense.Why FOUR?)

What is galling is that the law allowed the FBI to continue its interrogation for 48 hours–some experts said on TV that they could do it for months–but he was Mirandized after 16 hours. What is the rush?  The only plausible answer is that the Obama government wanted to put an end to the question ” Will he be judged as a common law criminal or enemy combatant?” and decided on the former, again as the IDEOLOGY dictates.

It is evident that we haven’t learned anything from the Benghazi scandal whose echoes and unanswered questions continue to reverberate in Congress and in the media. Will we learn the lessons of the Boston bombings?

Blue ribbon panels should be appointed immediately with the task to overhaul our policy on asylum, visas to foreign students, scholarships and stipends, welfare to non-citizens, and to reorganize the multitude of intelligence agencies which should be mandated to share their “secrets” in a well-coordinated way.But all changes will be in vain without an absolute reversal of this failed policy of political correctness run amok that is killing America. Major Hassan and the Tsarnaevs didn’t distinguish between Democrats and Republicans; they wanted to kill Americans. Therefore, all Americans should denounce this dangerous “ideology” dictated by their president. The Democrats in Congress and the media carry the highest responsibility to see the “reality” and they have the power  to cause a change in the government’s policy. They can use the truth as it emerges in the testimony of the three brave whistleblowers at the Congress hearings on the Benghazi scandal.

*
Yetiv is a freelance lecturer and writer based in La Jolla, California.  He may be contacted at isaac.yetiv@sdjewishworld.com