On Sunday evening, my family and I – along with hundreds of our neighbors – gathered in Francis Park for our neighborhood Christmas tree lighting.  The weather cooperated as it was cold enough to feel like winter but warm enough to feel your toes!

As Fredbird led us in a countdown to the lighting, my [...]]]> Dear Friend,

On Sunday evening, my family and I – along with hundreds of our neighbors – gathered in Francis Park for our neighborhood Christmas tree lighting.  The weather cooperated as it was cold enough to feel like winter but warm enough to feel your toes!

As Fredbird led us in a countdown to the lighting, my mind briefly rushed to the story in Portland,  of the Somali-born terrorist’s willingness to murder our fellow citizens who had gathered just as we were.  My thoughts momentarily became that of bombs and mayhem and what I would do if something terrible happened when we got to the end of the count.  I pushed these thoughts away and hugged my son as he cheered the lights.  In Oregon this weekend, we saw evidence that the war on terror is not fading away.  Happily and thankfully, our law enforcement caught this man and denied him the opportunity to kill or maim holiday revelers, or anyone else.

However, the extent of his plans and his connection to terrorists should give us all pause this holiday season.  There are some bad, bad people out there who don’t wish us “peace on Earth and goodwill toward men.”  The would-be “Christmas Tree Bomber” is a sober reminder that we are at war, and we must take security seriously.  Unfortunately it seems for each story like the capture of a profoundly wicked man by good counter-terror work we have many where we are spared disaster by luck and the pluck of alert citizens. I fear that America is as much playing at being secure as actually being secure.  The last few weeks events have highlighted this.

Grope and Change – Round 2: I think that the Transportation Security Agency engages in “security theater” rather than security practices that would actually prevent a Shoe Bomber, a Shampoo Bomber or an Underwear Bomber, but this is what one would expect from sclerotic bureaucracies.

Israel is held up as a model of security, and they do very well.  The problem is that the Israeli procedures require excellent judgment on the part of the security staff and a willingness for leaders to let them do their work without excessive, politically motivated interference.  American government bureaucracies lean toward rote procedures.  Should a tragedy befall air travelers our collective wrath will have only an amoebic blob of a “system” with which to be angry.  There is no head to roll.  Such a system is no substitute for the instincts of an experienced and well trained expert on security providing vigilant eyes and ears in public.

To be safe, a city needs well-trained beat cops with good judgment and experience. Those cops need to have the freedom and discretion to act on their training and experience under appropriate oversight.  We need the same at our airports if we are going to take security seriously.

Wikileaks: I am interested to know how a Private First Class (PFC) accessed mountains of sensitive information, copied it to a mass storage medium and successfully passed it off to the owner of the Wikileaks. I would also like to know who was responsible for maintaining security on the network he accessed and if that individual or individuals have been cashiered out of their positions of authority.

Each of these individual pieces of data now on Wikileaks had an original owner, all of whom had an individual responsibility to secure their information.  How did all this get onto a network or networks accessible to such a low-level analyst?

When Abu Ghraib was the story of the year, we learned of a wide swath of soldiers who were given a variety of punishments for their conduct.  High ranking officers and mid-level non-commissioned officers along with junior enlisted all suffered career-ending reprimands or jail.

So far all we know is that one lone Private First Class is the mastermind behind one of the most embarrassing espionage events in America’s history.  That young man had to have had multiple layers in his chain of command, along with any number of bureaucrats who were charged with assessing his security risk.  When will we hear their explanation for all this?

Somewhere along the line, the Federal Government stopped taking espionage seriously.  Scooter Libby is the only person punished in the Valerie Plame affair, and he had nothing to do with the actual “outing” of this erstwhile spy – he was convicted of not cooperating with the investigators. Leak after leak was given to the New York Times and other news outlets, and nobody was charged with treason.

If this young Private had learned in training of a State Department or Department of Defense employee who is serving life a sentence in Leavenworth for leaking sensitive information to the press it would likely have been a deterrent.  Instead these treasonous wretches are lauded for their “bravery” along with the editors who publish our secrets.  The administration of presidents Bush and Obama have telegraphed a weakness about state secrets that is now being played out, harming us and our allies.

Congress has a key role in providing oversight in both the matter of counter-terrorism, airport security as well as how our nation’s secrets are protected.  Among the many things this new Congress needs to do is to take on its critical oversight role in national security and demand the bureaucracies in charge of our safety spend less time worrying about how the editorial boards and newsrooms view them, and more about protecting the citizens of this nation. Congress needs to begin the hard work of holding those responsible for these failures accountable.

All the best.

Ed

That said, [...]]]> I have been asked my opinion on the proposed mosque at Ground Zero.  I confess that this is a difficult topic for me because I lost a friend when the twin towers fell at the hands of murderers who to a man claimed their incalculably evil act was done in the name of Islam.

That said, it is important to set aside personal feelings in cases that collide with matters of freedom and law.  Popular things do not need constitutional protection – it is the unpopular or unfamiliar that need the shield of the bill of rights.

If this were simply the case of adherents to a faith somewhat alien to Americans being harassed, I would side with the building of the mosque and stand foursquare with those who purport to be defending freedom of religion.  If there is any component of the bill of rights that deserves a wide berth from the state, it is the freedom to worship without government interference.  All faiths without regard to their popularity ought to be able to build a house of worship if they have the desire, means and opportunity.

That’s not what this is.

The Ground Zero Mosque is a spoil of war.  I have been to a Muslim house of worship.  I have spoken with a Muslim cleric.  Anyone with eyes to see could see the difference between a legitimate community of believers pursuing holiness and those who are following a political ideology looking to plant a trophy on the very site of the greatest assault on the West by Islamic Fascists in centuries.

Tens of thousands of Muslims worship and work in America.  They are neighbors and friends.  Their belief is no affair of mine save that we can all live together in peace.  Those who seek to erect a victory monument in New York where our fellow citizens were immolated and crushed by a profoundly wicked strain of Islam do not deserve the cloak of religious freedom that our peaceful Muslim neighbors enjoy and to which they are entitled.

I absolutely oppose the so-called mosque at Ground Zero and believe those who are patting themselves on the back as paragons of religious liberty are either deeply naïve or incredibly cynical.  The average American reveres freedom of religion and it would take a mighty provocation for them to oppose a house of worship.  This is such a  provocation, and we see it clearly for what it is, a thumb in the eye of America that has lead the way for nearly 10 years in beating back a brutal ideology.

Normal Americans know an intentional insult when they see it.  One is not a bigot if they have moral clarity and recognize the act of an enemy posing as a friend.  I would like to hear such clarity from our political leaders in both affirming freedom of religion and in pointing out in no uncertain terms that this particular group building this particular mosque at ground zero is not an act of faith and healing, but a naked attempt to grind salt into our wounds and provide a rallying point for terrorists all around the world.  To stand by idly as the friends of our enemies replace a symbol of American might with a symbol of their might is an act of cowardice, not nobility.

Dec, 1, 2009 - Statement of Ed Martin on President Obama’s Afghanistan Speech (Acrobat)