When In Doubt Revoke Their Citizenship

Once again Joe Liberman has provided a wonderful knee jerk reaction. This time it is to the attempted bombing in Times Square last weekend. The Senator believes the bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad should be stripped of his American citizenship. This from the Post:

The bill would, among other things, authorize the State Department to revoke the passports and prevent the return of Americans who join or support such groups while overseas. It would also allow citizenship to be stripped from Americans who support groups that target U.S. allies, such as Israel or India, pending a court appeal.

In one story I read it talked about being associated with “suspected” terrorist organizations. This would also include being associated with say some charities that have come under scrutiny as possibly funneling money to terrorist organizations. Now isn’t it just possible someone might give money to an organization with all good intentions and not be aware of the possible connection to terrorist organizations. This could put many many people at risk of loosing their citizenship.

More from the Post article:

“If they’re a U.S. citizen, until they’re convicted of some crime, I don’t know how you would attempt to take their citizenship away,” House Republican Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio) told reporters Thursday, according to Bloomberg News. “It would be pretty difficult under the U.S. Constitution.”

USA Today chimes in:

Allowing the government to decide that certain citizens aren’t entitled to constitutional protections would set a terrible precedent. Imagine, for example, what might have happened to Steven Hatfill, the Army scientist falsely suspected in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

As far as I’m concerned, this is pandering plan and simple. It’s a way for a politician to say “oh see I’m serious on fighting terrorism.” The bottom line this is no way shape or form makes us any safer. It just looks good in print and on TV.

Terror Returns to Center Stage

The bombing attempt in Times Square over the weekend brought back into focus the potential for terrorist attacks in this country. The fact things didn’t work out exactly as the terrorists planned is certainly a blessing. There will be plenty of discussion of the what might have beens in this case. Undoubtedly Republicans will come up with some way of blaming the Obama administration for this and insisting it is soft on terrorism. No doubt one of the lines will be the chief suspect being read his Miranda rights:

Under questioning by federal agents, Shahzad implicated himself and “has provided useful information to authorities,” Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. told reporters Tuesday afternoon. He said Shahzad was initially questioned under a public safety exception to the Miranda rule and was cooperative. He said Shahzad was later read his Miranda rights and “continued talking.”

There will be the familiar line that terrorists don’t deserve any rights. The Obama administration doesn’t realize we are war here.

But instead of dwelling on that let’s look at what worked. A street vendor noticed smoke coming out of a vehicle. In dialed 911 and reported this. Within minutes a police officer was on the scene (I believe one of the mounted units). He called in the bomb squad. A perimeter is set up around the car. The bomb squad shows up. A robot takes a look in the car. The perimeter is expanded. Many blocks of Times Square are blocked off. People are evacuated out of hotels in the area.

Sometime around 3 in the morning people are allowed back into their hotels. By the Sunday morning Times Square is back to normal.

New York police and federal authorities track down information on the suspect from clues in the car. Late Monday night the bomber is arrested while trying to leave the country on a plane. In Pakistan at least two suspects were arrested in relation to the attempted bombing.

In other words, things work the way they were supposed to.

Ordinary people did there part to bring to authorities attention a potential problem. The authorities acted on that and secured the area. Moving people to a safe distant. They disarmed the bomb. They then pursued with all deliberate speed clues to the identity or indemnities of the perpetrators of this attempted terrorist attack. And in the end made an arrest. It showed what can be when faced with an imminent threat and how to pursue those perpetrating that threat.

We should all be very proud of what’s happened over the last 48 hours.