Let me start with an update on the Khalid Sheik Mohammad story. We have, of course, talked a little bit about the folly of the idea that it is a good and necessary thing for the United States to be bringing to the country the man who has professed to be the perpetrator, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks – that killed nearly 3,000 of our colleagues, of our comrades, of our countrymen, along with four, I believe, of his coconspirators. In the intervening period since Eric Holder announced this decision, many very thoughtful folks have become associated with our view that this is ill advised, unnecessary and reckless; among them, of course, our guest on this program every week Andy McCarthy who has written brilliantly on the subject again and again and again on the National Review online. Bret Stephens and Bill McGurn of the Wall Street Journal editorial pages, similarly, very thoughtfully critiqued it and a great many others.
What I wanted to share with you today is a really troubling discordant note that has been sounded by several people who were thought of as prominent figures in the conservative movement who have espoused the idea of bringing these detainees to the United States, incarcerating them in American prisons and trying them pursuant to civilian courts. The most notorious of them is Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform. He has induced several others to join him in a statement that endorses the use our “established traditional system of justice.” Blithely it assures us that federal prisons are secure enough to hold these most dangerous terrorists, calling one of these supermax facilities in Colorado “arguably the most secure prison in the world” and railing against the “millions wasted every month at the costly, inefficient Guantanamo facility” and castigating those of us who believe that the surrounding communities have real reason to fear the introduction of these individuals into their communities, saying among other things “there is absolutely no reason to fear the prisoners will escape or be released into their communities. The scare mongering about these issues should stop.”
I have had my differences with Grover Norquist over the years. The Center for Security Policy used to be co-located with his Americans for Tax Reform for seven years. During that time, I witnessed first hand his involvement in a very worrying Muslim Brotherhood front organization known as the Islamic Free Market Institute, founded with seed money from a man by the name of Abdurahman Alamoudi, who is now serving 23 years in federal prison. The Islamic Free Market Institute, also known as the Islamic Institute, was run by Abdurahman Alamoudi’s long-time deputy Khaled Safurri. They and others associated with the organization, including Sami Alarian and Suhil Khan, have been the subject of some of my past writings. But it is not been until today or the day or two before when this statement was issued by Grover Norquist and some others, that I hope it has become manifestly clear to everyone that the policies that he is annunciating and professing are consistent with conservative values are no such thing and I am afraid are in the service of, in this incidence, the enemies of this country.
It pains me that others for whom I have high regard have associated themselves with him in this effort and I think it will be unfortunate in the extreme if those who understand the true peril of bringing the rock stars of the terrorist world into our prisons, whether they are freed by leftist judges on the grounds that their constitutional rights have been in some way abrogated, whether they manage to be the target of terrorist attacks aimed at their liberation or at least elevating their legends, attacks that may wind up indeed harming the communities around those prisons, or whether as Robert Mueller, the director of the FBI, says; they simply do an even more effective job of radicalizing prison populations and bringing them to jihad that we have already seen to date. This is a travesty and we will rue the day if this advice of Grover Norquist, a man associated with terrorists himself, a man who has provided political cover to an influence operation from within his own organization aimed at the Bush Administration during its time in office and Republican Party more generally, if this man and his program are not challenged and repudiated by the Congress, I fear that we will reap the whirlwind.
In that regard I just want to commend Congressman Pete Hoekstra, a frequent guest here at Secure Freedom Radio, for HR2294, the Keep Terrorists Out of American Act, which is now at the clerk’s desk in the House of Representatives available for signature for members who wish to have it discharged so that it can be brought to the floor for a vote. Something, of course, the Democrats in the Congress don’t want to do and have taken comfort from Grover Norquist and his friends in staving off, but the Republican leadership in the Congress I think understands the necessity of this action and is right to be pushing for it and I for one support them and I hope you will give consideration to doing so as well.
