I discuss Obama’s appeasement in Human Events this morning:
The New York Times reported Monday, with no hint that it understood the implications of what it was reporting, that Barack Obama is reaching out to Hamas-linked groups in the United States, while hamstringing our response to the terror threat by making obfuscation of the ideology of jihad terrorists official U.S. policy.
Times reporter Andrea Elliott says that “Muslim and Arab-American advocates” have met with top White House officials, including Obama Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Atty. Gen. Eric Holder. They’ve discussed, among other things, “counterterrorism strategy.”
Their influence has been felt. White Houses sources say they had a hand in Obama’s scrapping a policy that subjected airline passengers from 13 Muslim countries to greater security scrutiny. According to Elliott, “That emergency directive, enacted after a failed December 25 bombing plot, has been replaced with a new set of intelligence-based protocols that law enforcement officials consider more effective.”
Which ones? On what grounds? More effective for what? How can it be ineffective to subject people who come from areas where there actually are terrorists to greater scrutiny?
The Times also mentions that Hillary Clinton this month allowed controversial Muslim spokesman Tariq Ramadan, who had been barred from the U.S. by the Bush Administration, to enter the country. It did not deem fit to print, however, Ramadan’s contribution to a charity that was funneling money to Hamas–which was one of the reasons he was barred in the first place.
In any case, despite all Obama’s efforts, the objects of his affections are not yet satisfied with his performance. “Arab-American and Muslim leaders,” Elliott reports, “said they had yet to see substantive changes on a variety of issues, including what they describe as excessive airport screening, policies that have chilled Muslim charitable giving and invasive FBI surveillance guidelines.”
Yes, airport screening is excessive. So let’s relax it, at least for Muslims. What could go wrong?