Drawing a line in the dust at Ground Zero
By Douglas J. Hagmann, Director
NORTHEAST INTELLIGENCE NETWORK
NORTHEAST INTELLIGENCE NETWORK
26 May 2010: Shortly after efforts turned from rescue to recovery at Ground Zero, I walked amid the rubble with a New York City police officer named “Mark.” It was just after daybreak over lower Manhattan, and the noxious odors of death, jet fuel and oppressive toxic dust still filled the air. We said nothing to each other as we stopped at the edge of a darkly stained area on the ground where bodies had fallen or people had jumped to their deaths. Debris and dust covered over portions of the grotesque paisley patterns that extended beyond yellow police tape that flapped in the morning breeze.
The NYPD officer was first to break the silence. “I remember the first one,” he said, referring to the February 26, 1993 bombing that killed 6 people and injured over a thousand more. “This time it’s going be a whole lot different,” he added. As we walked away from the area, he said that our response was going to be decisive. America was deeply wounded, but Americans were angry. And it seemed like we were united in our anger.
We were going to fight, prevail, rebuild and grow stronger. Standing there that morning, neither of us had any doubt that our leaders would not just avenge the deaths of 9/11, but take steps to make sure that such an attack would never happen again. We would emerge stronger and smarter.
That was 8 ½ years ago. Earlier this month, I stood with Mark at the outer perimeter of what once was the World Trade Center, reflecting back on that day. “We were wrong,” said Mark, gesturing to the fenced void where the North Tower once stood. For the next few hours, we talked about just how wrong we were, and how wrong things are. We talked about some of the heroes that died that day, and their families.
I left Ground Zero that day angry. And if you are not angry, you’ve simply not been paying attention, or worse, you are part of the problem. In either case, it’s time for a dose of intellectual honesty without fear or the constraint of political correctness. Americans deserve it. The victims of Islamic terrorism demand it, and the very future and salvation of our country depends on it.
Think back for a moment to those sad and mournful days in the wake of 9/11, when the images of death were being replayed over all the news channels. Think back to the occasional clips of our Muslim enemies dancing in the streets of their countries, celebrating the death and destruction on American soil. Think back to the unity and resolve of Americans in the heartland, and the selflessness of those who prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Now consider being given a glimpse into the future, and answer the following honestly:
Had you been told that in seven years, a little-known man of questionable background named Barack Hussein Obama, a man considered by many Muslims to be a Muslim himself, a man who proudly admits to being accomplished at reciting the adhan (the Islamic call to prayer) would occupy the White House, would you have believed it? Or would you have scoffed, or at least wondered how we lost the war or permitted our country to be overtaken?
If you were told that in 2010, the construction of a 13-story mosque just two blocks from Ground Zero would be unanimously approved by New York City planners, and just a few hundred yards from where you stood, where bodies fell and others jumped to their deaths, would you have believed it? What if you were told that the funding source for that mosque originated from the same blood money declined by then Mayor Rudy Giuliani when it was offered to him on October 11, 2001 by Saudi Prince al Waleed bin Talal. You probably would have asked how any American, let alone any New Yorker, would allow that to happen. Is it a case of their unbridled stupidity, naiveté, or perhaps something more nefarious?
If you were told that a memorial planned and approved for the heroes and victims of Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA would contain Islamic symbolism, you probably would have laughed, as many still do in their attempts to marginalize those who point out the obvious. I wonder if those who called such claims conspiratorial nonsense might reconsider, in light of the planned construction of the ultimate Islamic symbol of victory – a mosque – at Ground Zero.
If you were told that in the ensuing years fighting domestic threats posed by Islamic terrorism that our Justice Department, policymakers and leaders in law enforcement would succumb to the pressure of Muslim advocacy groups, and permit co-conspirators to influence and actually help create counter-terrorism policies to their current absurd levels, would you have believed it?
If you were told that a man named al-Awlaki (a/k/a Anwar Nasser Abdulla Aulaqi), identified as a Muslim cleric who assisted at least two of the 9/11 hijackers was in federal custody after the attacks but was ordered released? Of course, if you’ve been paying attention, you would know that al-Awlaki was the inspiration behind the mass murder of our soldiers at Fort Hood in November 2009 and involved in numerous other post-9/11 plots. Looking across the debris field at Ground Zero, would you not demand answers and accountability for those who let al-Awlaki go?
If you were told that you faced the threat of being sued for reporting suspicious activity, even if your observations were accurate and your concerns legitimate, would you have believed it?
If you were told that in the process of holding those responsible for the atrocities on 9/11 and those harboring or aiding them, our justice department under new leadership would revert back to 1993 standards to deal with the perpetrators by handling these acts of terrorism as criminal acts, and not acts of war?
Standing amid the rubble as victims were still being identified, would you not have been offended at the instruction of having to carefully avoid using Islam and terrorism in the same sentence, or having to refer to the scene before you as a “man-caused disaster?” Is there no one left in authority with the guts or integrity to point out just how preposterous and self-destructive this game of semantics is?
Had you been told that you, as a proud American and not simply the Muslim terrorists, would be placed on a watch list of potential threats to our country within the next five years, would you have not asked how that could possibly happen?
Even before the dust began to settle over New York, Americans were being sold a bill of goods about the agenda of Islamists. The fact that Islam is much more than a religion is carefully omitted from academic discussion. The fact that Islamists, having found common ground with progressives, are deliberately infiltrating all aspects of our government, our military and our law enforcement and adversely affecting our policies is being hidden from the public or mocked by the media.
Hardworking and patriotic Americans have been duped by our elected officials, our corporate media, many of our religious leaders, pundits, commentators, anchors, and others over the last 8 ½ years. Many have stood by and allowed our country to be psychologically raped to the point of perverse acquiescence to the agenda of the global elite, who are teamed with the progressive left and the current incarnation of the Muslim Brotherhood in a fight for control over our country.
What hijacked airplanes and bombs have yet to accomplish, the policies of our leaders and the politics of the progressive movement are working toward completion. Failing to recognize that political correctness is nothing more than a perversion of truth and a strategic smokescreen for the common goals of Islamists and the progressives is to be blissfully ignorant, or willfully complicit in the destruction of our country.
If you are not angry, I would like to know why.
