Eric Holder's Skewed Vision

It is a dangerous political game that Eric Holder plays with the American public.

Even if we overlook the fact that Umar Abdulmutallab should never have been allowed to board what he intended to be a flight to paradise with no luggage, no winter coat, no return trip, his name on a terrorist watch list, and his father having reported him to US authorities as a potential purveyor of the jihad, we still must face the fact that US authorities were tipped off mid-flight as to the potential danger posed by one of its passengers. We must still accept the fact that despite this knowledge, no one on board the flight was instructed as to the danger of the passenger and therefore no one was keeping an eye on him.

We must also face the fact that the Nigerian passenger was not an American citizen and was at war with this country. He had trained for the jihad amongst other terrorists who had taken similar vows to kill American civilians in a holy war against the infidels.

Finally, we must admit the possibility that Abdulmutallab, his genitalia still smoking from the botched bombing, was perhaps a key to information on an army of like trained terrorists who are planning to board other flights to America. He may have been aware of other Mideastern terrorist training camps, recruitment networks, tactics, and other vital information that could save American lives.

It has become evident that after nearly a year in office the Obama administration is no better prepared to handle a terrorist attack than was President Bush but eight months after his inaugural. Yet the Obama administration came to office in the middle of a war while Bush entered 2001 with Clinton-gutted intelligence apparatus.

The Christmas day attack has brought to light many things.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was badly burned as the result of his attack and was questioned for a very short time before he was whisked away for medical attention. By the time his medical condition had improved enough to speak again with authorities, he was granted US constitutional rights and was only willing to talk to his team of attorneys compensated for by the good charity of the American taxpayer.

Now Attorney General Eric Holder is saying that he made the call to put countless American lives in danger so that Abdulmutallab could clam up. Eric Holder is pledged to protect American citizens, and not international terrorists intent upon killing those whom he is supposed to protect.

Surely a man in the position of Holder should have understood at the time of the bombing that Abdulmutallab could provide a treasure trove of information that could spare many American lives.

Holder has now bravely stepped forward and taken responsibility for the unfathomable decision to treat Abdulmutallab like a breaking and entering suspect, but announced that he did so only after other relevant government agencies failed to object.

This is about the most specious argument I've ever heard uttered by a high level government official. Who is in control of all of these relevant departments if not the Obama administration? We cannot plausibly blame Bush for this too, can we?

The administration is now engaged in a bitter battle of words with accusers that say it was irresponsible and dangerous to allow Abdulmutallab to clam up while the legal apparatus already exists that would allow him to be placed under military control as a terrorist. (Truthfully, we can blame that one on Bush.)

Holder argues that many terrorists have been granted the rights of US citizens and have been tried in civilian court. So what? Did all of these other terrorists have the type of time sensitive information that Abdulmutallab might have possessed? Did all of these other terrorists get their day in court after the aforementioned evil Bush constructed the legal framework making the alternative possible? Would processing these convicted terrorists in a military setting have allowed those fighting our quaint little war to have stopped future attacks? Does incarceration and a military tribunal at Guantanamo cost as much as building new prisons and securing federal courthouses during trial on American soil?

It is being argued by those in league with Holder that true freedom from tyranny, true liberty, makes it necessary for a few guilty persons to go free in order to make certain that no innocent is wrongly punished. I agree with that argument when we are talking about American citizens in a civilian setting. I don't want influence peddling politicians silencing dissent. I don't want wayward bureaucrats snuffing out the rights of those who disagree with them. I don't want Eric Holder to be given the power to indiscriminately toss those whom he disagrees with into a reeducation camp like the indomitable Bill Ayers would.

Yet, I don't want a Nigerian jihadist at war with America granted the right to a lawyer and the right to remain silent simply because he had the good judgment to wait until he had entered US airspace before he set his crotch afire. There is a huge difference.

Enlisting in a terrorist war to kill American civilians should not earn Islamic jihadists human rights that even the Geneva Conventions would deny them. This is not protecting American citizens from government tyranny, it is subjecting them to it.