'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Attorney General Eric Holder reiterated his resolve to prosecute hate crimes while standing behind the methods used in anti-terrorism cases during a speech Friday night before a Muslim advocacy group near San Francisco.
"Homegrown" promises something fresh and tasty when applied to tomatoes, cabbage and beans straight from the farmer's field. But about terrorism, not so much. Homegrown terrorists, recruited from newly arrived people from the Muslim countries of the Middle East and Africa, are the latest menace to America. They're new transplants to these shores and sometimes even the native born.
Portland, Ore., is learning a hard lesson about the price of political correctness. In 2005, the city halted participation in the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) over concerns about the George W. Bush administration's prosecution of the war on terrorism. Last week, the task force took down Mohamed Osman Mohamud, who had planned to bomb 12,000 people at a Christmas-tree-lighting ceremony in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square. City fathers now are considering rejoining the JTTF structure, citing the change in leadership under the purportedly more trustworthy Obama administration. It's more likely that the near miss clarified Portland's ivory-tower view of the world.
Anger over a failed plan to blow up a van full of explosives during a Christmas-tree-lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore., apparently erupted in arson on Sunday when a fire damaged an Islamic center once frequented by the Somali-born teenage suspect.
Patrols around mosques and other Islamic sites in Portland, Ore., have been stepped up as Muslim leaders expressed fears of retribution, days after a Somali-American man was accused of trying to blow up a van full of explosives during Portland's Christmas-tree-lighting ceremony.
A Somali-born teenager plotted "a spectacular show" of terrorism for months, saying he didn't mind that children would die if he bombed a crowded Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, according to a law-enforcement official and court documents.
"Rest assured that the community is very against anyone who tries to do harm to the citizens of this country," he said.
