Clicking on banner ads keeps JWR alive
Jewish World Review Dec. 14, 2001 / 29 Kislev, 5762

Debra J. Saunders

Debra J. Saunders
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports

Know when to hold 'em

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com -- IF EVER there's a case that smacks of racial profiling and callous disregard for civil liberties, it's that of Shaquil.

Authorities first targeted Shaquil, not because he committed a crime, but because workers at his trade school reportedly told authorities that the 33- year-old Muslim of Moroccan descent was acting strangely.

Then, based on suspicion, the FBI used a common visa violation -- his visa had expired -- to hold Shaquil without indicting him for four months. That's right, four months. Some agents even wanted to tap Shaquil's laptop. Civil libertarians can find relief in the fact that FBI lawyers determined that there was not sufficient cause to tap the laptop.

Still, the feds held Shaquil based on a paltry visa violation. His mother told reporters that her son was "brainwashed" by Muslim extremists and that he was innocent. In America, critics used cases like Shaquil's to show that Attorney General John Ashcroft was the Great Satan on civil rights, as he showed an unholy willingness to detain for long periods noncitizens who committed what Good People consider immigration violations too minor for detention.

It's clear that the government detained people innocent of involvement with terrorist cells. There were good people who must have dreaded the experience.

Nonetheless, the story of Shaquil explains why Ashcroft pushed for more police powers after the September 11 attacks.

You see, Shaquil is a nom de guerre for Zacarias Moussaoui. The Justice Department believes that Moussaoui, a French citizen, was the fill-in 20th hijacker, who was chosen for the task after the United States rejected five visa requests made by one Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, who was then living in Germany and apparently was the terrorists' first choice to be the 20th hijacker.

If found guilty, the French citizen could face the death penalty.

Authorities detained Moussaoui on Aug. 16, after folks at the Pan Am International Flight Academy called authorities. Moussaoui already had failed at one flight school. Now, having chalked up 57 hours of flight time, he still couldn't fly a private plane solo, yet he wanted to learn to fly jumbo jets -- if without the bother of takeoff and landing.

At first, according to this week's indictment, Moussaoui lied in saying that "he was simply interested in learning to fly." Then, he stopped talking.

Still, the feds held him. They had, after all, found two knives, flight manuals for a Boeing 747, fighting gloves, shin guards and a flight simulator computer program.

Authorities later would learn that in June, Moussaoui made inquiries into starting a crop-dusting company.

The indictment time line suggests that the terrorists may have sped up their plans lest the government be alerted to their bloody agenda.

Asked at a press conference if agents might have prevented the September 11 attacks if they had more latitude, FBI Director Robert Mueller defended the decision not to examine the computers, but said, "Now, could we have done something else, perhaps, to avoid (the attack) in that investigation? Who can say? All I can tell you is that the agents on the scene attempted to follow up aggressively."

Polls show that Americans support the administration's quest for more legal powers because citizens at least understand that this is war and aggressive measures are appropriate.

A critic, after all, could look at Moussaoui on Aug. 21 -- the day before operatives started buying airline tickets -- and see a man unfairly detained for four months based on his videos, his reading material, his speech, his quirky ideas about flying -- and his radical Islamic associations. A purist would have demanded that Moussaoui be released, which would allow him to disappear into America while awaiting a hearing that would never happen.

Release might have left him free to fly a crop duster full of poison or to provide one more body to fight off the rebellious passengers on United Flight 93.

This American can't help but wonder how many lives federal agents may have saved when they decided, back in August, that Moussaoui had violated immigration law, that it looked as if he were up to something very rotten, and they weren't going to let him run after a slap on the wrist.


Comment JWR contributor Debra J. Saunders's column by clicking here.


Up


12/10/01 Old friends
12/06/01 I read the news today, oh boy
12/03/01 It's not cricket
11/28/01 Admissions and omissions
11/26/01 Guns and abayas
11/21/01 Depraved minds think alike
11/19/01 Guilty, a la carte
11/14/01 Interpreting the entrails of Election 2000
11/12/01 Life and liberty
11/09/01 Safety is as safety does
11/07/01 More hot air on global warming
11/05/01 Bumped Pakistani's molehill
11/01/01 Freedom snuffed out
10/29/01 Give war a chance
10/26/01 Airline bill needs liftoff
10/22/01 The Riordan Principle
10/19/01 Before America gets tired of the war on terrorism
10/17/01 Patriot games
10/15/01 I was a 'McCainiac,' and I have seen the light
10/12/01 University of Censorship's fall semester
10/11/01 Poor little rich boy, Osama
10/07/01 Don't feed Israel to the beast
10/05/01: bin Laden is not our Frankenstein monster
10/04/01: Where no man has gone before
09/26/01: Who's bloodthirsty?
09/26/01: What's to understand?
09/20/01: Barbara Lee's line in the sand
09/14/01: You gotta love this country
09/13/01: ENTER TERROR
09/11/01: You can't clone ethics
09/06/01: NOW's goal: equal rights for women without equal responsibility
08/30/01: What's love got to do with it?
08/24/01: A clean, well-lighted place for junkies
08/20/01: Bush should stand up for justice
08/08/01: Don't give Peace (Dept). a chance
08/03/01: Lose a kid, pass a law
08/01/01: Welcome to France, killers
07/30/01: Why it's easy being green (in Europe)
07/26/01: If disabled means expendable
07/23/01: Condit should not resign
07/18/01: Feinstein should learn her limit
07/16/01: A drought of common sense
07/13/01: The catalog has no clothes
07/05/01: It's Bush against the planet
07/03/01: The man who would be guv
06/29/01: Wheeled, wired and free
06/27/01: O, fearful new world
06/25/01: End HMO horrors
06/21/01: Either they're dishonest or clueless
06/18/01: Freedom is a puff of smoke
06/15/01: In praise of going heavy: Yes, you can take it all
06/13/01: McVeigh: 'Unbowed' maybe, but dead for sure
06/11/01: Gumby strikes back
06/08/01: Los Angeles' last white mayor?
06/07/01: Kids will be kids, media will be media
06/04/01: Draw a line in the sand
05/30/01: Just don't call him a moderate
05/29/01: Operation: Beat up on civil rights
05/24/01: Of puppies, kittens and huge credit-card debts
05/22/01: Bush needs an energy tinkerbell
05/18/01: Divided we stand, united they fall
05/16/01: Big Bench backs might over right
05/15/01: Close SUV loophole
05/11/01: Kill the test, welcome failure
05/09/01: DA mayor's disappointing legacy
05/07/01: If it ain't broken ...
05/03/01: They shoot civilians, don't they?
04/30/01: Executions are not for prime time
04/12/01: White House and the green myth
04/10/01: The perjurer as celeb
04/04/01: Bush bashers don't know squat
04/02/01: Drugging our oldsters
03/30/01: Robert Lee Massie exercises his death wish
03/28/01: Cheney's nuclear reactor
03/26/01: Where California and Mexico meet
03/16/01: Boy's sentence was no accident
03/14/01: Soft money, hard reform
03/12/01: Banks, big credit lines and consumer bankruptcy
03/09/01: Free speech dies in Berkeley
03/02/01: When rats have rights
02/28/01: Move a frog, go to jail?
02/26/01: They knew they'd get away with it
02/20/01: How Dems define tax fairness
02/16/01: The jackpot casino Carmel tribe?
02/14/01: You can fight school success
02/12/01: Hannibal -- with guts this time
02/08/01: A family of jailbirds
02/05/01: Reality's most demeaning TV moments
02/01/01: Justice for the non-Rich
01/26/01: Hail to the chiefs of D.C. opinion
01/24/01: A day of mud and monuments
01/22/01: Diversity, division, de-lovely D.C.
01/19/01: Parties agree: Give back the money
01/17/01: Get tough with the oil companies, or forget pumping more Alaskan crude
01/15/01: Mineta better pray that no attending confirmation senator has ever driven to San Jose during rush hour
01/12/01: Europeans should look in the mirror
01/10/01: Dems' reasons for dissin' Dubya's picks
01/08/01: Jerry, curb your guru
01/03/01: A foe of Hitler and friend of Keating
12/28/00: Nice people think nice thoughts
12/26/00: The Clinton years: Epilogue
12/21/00: 'Tis the season to free nonviolent drug offenders 12/18/00: A golden opportunity is squandered
12/15/00: You can take the 24 years, good son
12/13/00: Court of law vs. court of public opinion
12/08/00: A salvo in the war on the war on drugs
12/06/00: Don't cry, Butterfly: Big trees make great decks
12/04/00: Florida: Don't do as Romans did
11/30/00: Special City's hotel parking ticket
11/27/00: No means yes, yes means more than yes
11/22/00: The bench, the ballot and fairness
11/20/00: Mendocino, how green is your ballot?

© 2000, Creators Syndicate