Describing them is trashing them isn't it?
Trashing the FBI
For the second time in recent weeks, The Washington Post has published a
front-page story questioning the FBI's stepped-up efforts to prevent
terrorist groups from infiltrating U.S. college campuses. On Christmas
Day, The Post ran a story based largely on complaints by Sens. Edward
Kennedy and Patrick Leahy that the FBI might be breaking the law by
requesting that colleges and universities provide information on foreign
students in this country to determine whether any are terrorist
operatives. To buttress the senators' arguments, The Post cited a 1974
federal privacy law that said schools must obtain a student's consent
before releasing personal information. It failed to mention that 22 years
later President Clinton had signed into law legislation stipulating that
the 1974 law does "not apply to aliens." Last Saturday, The
Post did it again.
An A1 story by Dan Eggen about the FBI's cooperation with campus police
highlighted objections from some student and faculty groups and
"Muslim activists," who complained that "even the hint of
surveillance by government taints that environment." The story, with
headlines and subheads like "Student, Faculty Groups Fear a Return
of Spying Abuses Against Activists, Foreign Nationals," went on to
quote one University of Massachusetts professor demanding that
universities "oppose these activities because they interfere with
the free exchange of information and ideas."
Although The Post did quote law-enforcement officials defending
cooperation with the FBI, it glossed over known cases in which terrorist
organizations and their supporters have used American schools as a cover
for their operations. For example, Hani Hanjour, the Saudi national who
hijacked the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, came
to this country on a student visa. Zacarias Moussaoui, an admitted al
Qaeda member and suspected would-be September 11th hijacker, roamed the
United States on a student visa.
In fact, this was a problem even before September 11. Eyad Ismoil, a
Kuwaiti-born citizen of Jordan, entered Wichita State University through
the student-visa program. He dropped out after a few semesters. In
February 1993, Ismoil drove a truck bomb into a garage below the World
Trade Center, killing six persons and wounding nearly 1,000. In his book
"American Jihad: The Terrorists Living among Us," Steven
Emerson documents how Sami al-Arian, a tenured professor at the
University of South Florida , founded two organizations that became
fronts for terrorists to enter the United States and raise money for
Islamic Jihad. Mr. al-Arian served as the U.S. visa sponsor for Ramadan
Abdullah Shallah, and persuaded the University of South Florida to
appoint him a professor of Middle East studies. Mr. Shallah disappeared
in late 1995, resurfacing six months later in Damascus as the new head of
one of the most deadly Palestinian terrorist groups: Islamic Jihad, which
has killed scores of Americans in suicide bombings and other attacks in
Israel.
We understand very well why any school would have legitimate concerns
about any government investigation of its students or faculty. But those
concerns are outweighed by the reality that America is at war and needs
to be able to protect its citizens from terrorists. It makes no sense to
stigmatize campus police for helping the FBI ensure that terrorists don't
exploit the freedoms afforded by America's institutions of higher
learning to kill more of our fellow citizens.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20030131-338683.htm
Putting the FBI in charge should help things along :)
