[antimedia] antimedia: If you are one who believes....

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Posted by antimedia:
If you are one who believes....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1177557417.shtml


   ....that our government was behind 9/11 (a really stupid thought),
   then perhaps [1]this will help cure you of your disease of idiocy.

     HH: Mr. Wright, back to the situation at hand. In the United
     States, how, how deep is the penetration of al Qaeda into the
     American Muslim community?
     LW: Oh, we are so fortunate, Hugh, by comparison with the situation
     in Europe. And people are always asking me, you know, what makes us
     safe? Are we safer? And what makes us safe is not the contact lens
     solution they might take away from you at the airport. What makes
     us safer is the fact that the average American Muslim makes a
     higher wage than the average American, is twice as likely to go to
     college, is much less likely to go to prison. Compare that with the
     situation in France, where you have about 10% of the population is
     Muslim, 50% of the prisoners are. The degree of alienation and
     marginalization that is felt in the Islamic communities in Europe
     is so stark by comparison with the integration of American Muslims
     into our society. That is justâ¦itâs a profound difference. And
     there are radicals in America, plenty of them. But I remember one
     night in Birmingham, England. I was having Iftar with a group of
     radical Islamists, and one of them, this was maybe 2004, and one of
     them was talking about how he approved of the kidnapping and
     beheading of aid workers in Iraq. And as he was saying that, I
     thought you know, this guy is dangerous, and I know there are guys
     like him in the U.S. But I looked around the room, and there were
     these other people nodding their heads in agreement. And I thought
     itâs those nodding heads that are really dangerous, because they
     surround him with an approving community that allows him to
     conspire, and allows him to think these wicked thoughts. And thatâs
     the difference, I think, between the Europe situation and the
     American. We donât have the nodding heads. We might one day, but
     thatâs the thing that makes it so difficult for sleeper cells and
     that kind of thing to organize in this country, because they donât
     have the approving community they do in Europe.
     HH: Do you, from your conversations with American intelligence
     analysts and police officers, do you believe that the cooperation
     with American authorities within the American Muslim community is
     to such an extent that we can spot and prevent jihadi attacks, as
     opposed to London where they say itâs a matter of time before they
     get hit again?
     LW: No, I think itâs a failure on both sides. I think the American
     Muslim community, although successful by comparison, has always
     been a very reticent and self-enclosed and unwilling to be very
     open to American intelligence. And on the side of American
     intelligence, they have a pronounced discrimination against the
     hiring of Muslims, and Arabic speaking peoples. So they donât know
     anything about those communities. And I mean, their ignorance is so
     dismal that they wouldnât know how toâ¦the first thing about
     approaching a mosque, or whether it was a Shia or a Sunni mosque,
     or any of those things. Itâs just reallyâ¦you know, itâs a failure
     on both sides that we really need to address.
     HH: Are we essentially blind then to whatever level of al Qaeda
     exists in America?
     LW: Not entirely blind. I mean, thereâs certainly a tremendous
     amount of scrutiny thatâs going on, but you know, and Iâll give you
     an example. This is the kind of thing that is, I think,
     unfortunately characteristic of the state of American intelligence
     right now. I had the FBI come to my house a couple of years ago,
     and they wanted to know about some calls that had been made from my
     phone to a number in England. It was a 44-207 number. And they
     wanted to know if I could tell them who it was. And I said well,
     you know, first of all, Iâm surprised that they didnât know. And so
     I thought it was a business number in London. So I looked it up and
     it belonged to a solicitor that represented some of the jihadis
     that Iâd been interviewing. And then they asked if I could identify
     a person named Caroline Wright. Thatâs my daughter. And they had
     gotten the idea that it was Caroline Wright who was involved in
     these calls. And you know, Caroline is not on any of our phones. So
     I didnât know how sheâd gotten, theyâd gotten her name. Sheâs not a
     terrorist. She went to high school with the Bush twins. And
     sheâ¦yet now, sheâs on the link chart as an al Qaeda connection.
     Now thatâs the level of incompetence that weâre talking about.

   Still think these boobs are competent enough to plan and pull off a
   major conspiracy? And keep it a secret?
   And yes, I think there are good and dedicated people in government who
   really care about this country and do much more than what's expected
   of them. But there are also complete idiots like these. (Hat tip to
   [2]The Discerning Texan.)

References

   1. http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/Transcript_Page.aspx?ContentGuid=194b57f3-1030-40fe-89f6-c1c439f9d6b6
   2. http://discerningtexan.blogspot.com/2007/04/lawrence-wright-on-state-of-al-qaeda.html