Terrorist Suspect JihadJane Shatters the Stereotype

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As Prime Minister Netanyahu pointed out in a speech to AIPAC ,the hatred radicals in the Middle East have for the West ,predates by a thousand years ,the emergence of Israel as a sovereign Nation.They want to destroy us both because we are the only obstacle to the spread of fanaticism the Middle East. I get it -why doesn't anyone in the Obama Administration have the guts to stand with our strongest ally?Why so ready to sell out ?Does a lunatic like Farrakhan or the Black Panthers dictate foreign policy towards Israel or are they his Palace Guard -ala Robert Mugabe?And btw I am not Jewish ,but an Episcopalian who stands with Israel.

Jim of TX 1:51AM March 23, 2010

You first ,"some one".For the record - are you a native born traitor or imported vermin?

John B. of GA 8:07PM March 22, 2010

Get out of the Muslim world, free all our prisoners, hand over all of your people who raped, tortured and killed Muslims, an stop deluding yourself into thinking that you're victims and that these people are anything but heroes. America is the scorge of the earth.

Some one of AL 10:50AM March 22, 2010

Global annihilation of the infected population. This will put a stop to all the nonsense. Old-school 100% eradication. Euthanasia, baby!

C. R. Usader of DC 10:23AM March 21, 2010

If ninty nine times you are bitten by a dog it is a Pit Bull, that doesn't mean the Poodle won't bite you. But you better keep an eye on the Pit Bull. Profiling is useful if it stops the 99 out of 100 events. It doesn't make it perfect, but you cannot ignore what terrorist have in common that we can distinguish. Use some common sense. Tell me that owners of Toyotas AREN'T worried about their vehicles after a minority of company products have shown failures. Ford owners aren't worried, although their vehicles have accelerators too.

Bob Singer of NM 6:59AM March 19, 2010

During the 1970's Black September(splinter of PLO)forged an alliance with the Irish Republican Army & western European terrorist organizations Bader-Meinhoff gang & Red Army faction to launder money,procure arms ,provide safe houses etc.This was their approach to sidestepping the safeguards/watchlists of the day .Consider it -red hared ,blond,freckled Irish or German men or women acting ,for a price,on behalf of Arab terrorists as eyes on their ground in Boston,New York ,Chicago other U.S. cities-in plain sight.This is not a new tactic-one only has to think as your adversary does in order to effectively shore up the vulnerabilities in our defenses.

JpTx of TX 5:33PM March 18, 2010

The instances of "Jihad Jane", Timothy McVeigh, and Richard Reed,are examples of the futility of racial profiling. That 90% of the potential terrorists and suicide bombers are Muslims between the ages of 20 and 35, demands a study of why anybody, Muslem or no, male or female, young, middle age or old, would want to engage in jihad. This opens up a fertile field for any psychology major with a master's or doctorate degree.

Jack Golding of KS 4:01PM March 18, 2010

To Don of CO, you're definition of racism is flawed. It does not require that one race be considered superior to another. It is simply making a distinction between people or groups of people on the basis of their racial identity. Profiling doesn't say that any group is inferior, but it can still be racist. Our profiling is not racist, but is certainly ethnically based, for good reason. By profiling, we are trying to protect ourselves against one particular kind of terrorist: the radical Muslims, of Middle Eastern ethnicity, who were the perpetrators of 9/11 and who have openly declared their intentions to do more of the same. It presents a moral dilemma, since these comprise an infinitesimal fraction of the entire Muslim and Middle Eastern community that is being profiled.
Obviously this cannot detect or stop the terrorists such as Tim McVey or Jihad Jane. It is not a complete preventive, but it helps.
The common characteristic of terrorists is not race, nor ethnicity, nor religious persuasion, but mental derangement. This is much harder to recognize, until too late, and requires entirely different techniques to combat. One step, of course, might be to identify and keep under surveillance those deranged individuals who declare their support of terrorism and their racist hate for the nation that is nurturing them, for example "someone of AL" on these pages.

Chuck of OR 3:30PM March 18, 2010

Moises Naim, the editor of the periodical Foreign Policy, devoted his editorial in the March/April issue to the matter of "war" as metaphor in this country. "Wars on cancer, poverty, drugs, terror, drunk driving, teen pregnancy, and other ills can't be won," he says. Launching "wars" of these sorts are, for politicians, convenient as ways of winning financial and public support. Real wars have endings. These "wars" simply haven't had endings and won't. "War" is the word of convenience, not the word that should be used.
That in mind, is it possible to say that our efforts to "defeat" terrorism are a very costly exercise in futility?
With terrorists virtually impossible to detect when they plan and execute in secret and in ever newer locations and with ever
newer personnel, "defeating" them is a game of whack a mole. Succeed in one place and up pops another in an endless round of episodes. Add Somalia and Yemen to the list of places. And how many more there will be, heaven only knows.
I've said often before that until we fully AND openly engage all diplomatic possibilities, address all of the grievances inspiring terrorists, and deny no possibilities for solving terrorism, we will be plagued with terrorist threats without end in sight. And we'll be "surprised" with not only the occasional terrorist success but with who is new to the terrorist camp(s). JihadJane has counterparts somewhere right now. The planning goes on, and we do nothing but handicap ourselves in thinking we're on the problem without sitting ALL parties down together for open talks at every opportunity.
Eliminating the burr under the saddle is key to stopping a bucking horse. Why assume that can't be done? Why spend more money than the rest of the world's countries combined on national defense, homeland security, nation building, and foreign aid designed to gain the cooperation of other countries without going the diplomatic route for everyone to see and for everyone to contribute to with ideas? Why lose another life in the whack-a-mole approach that daily proves itself inadequate for ending our "war"?
Terrorism is a problem, yes. So is our Foreign Policy.

Ron W. Smith of UT 3:13PM March 18, 2010