Terror Suspects

Published Friday, Nov. 10, 2017

Letters to the Editor

The Post & Courier

Charleston, SC

Dear Editor

Marc A. Thiessen’s column (Nov 6) criticizing President Trump for treating terrorists like former President Obama, is truly off the mark and implies the United States would do better to treat these terrorists as “enemy combatants” and send them to Guantanamo, rather than read them their Miranda rights and try them in civilian courts  He wrote this would assist intelligence agencies in gathering data. 

The organization Human Rights First provides reliable information more likely to make Americans sleep better at night. For example, consider just these four points they make: 

(1) Federal civilian criminal courts have convicted more than 620 individuals on terrorism-related charges since 9/11. Military commissions have convicted only eight, three of which have been overturned completely and one partially.

(2) Federal prisons hold hundreds of individuals convicted of terrorism-related offenses. None have ever escaped.

(3) Prosecuting terror suspects before military commissions makes them look like warriors rather than the criminals that they are. As Judge William Young said when sentencing Shoe Bomber Richard Reid, “You’re no warrior….You are a terrorist. A species of criminal guilty of multiple attempted murders.”

(4) Miranda is an effective law enforcement tool that provides valuable information. Phil Mudd, former deputy director of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center and a senior intelligence adviser to the FBI, wrote that he “sat at hundreds of briefing tables for nine years after Sept. 11, 2001, and I can't remember a time when Miranda impeded a decision on whether to pursue an intelligence interview.” 

It's embarrassing

I begin each day with coffee, English muffin, and the local newspaper, The Island Packet. It is a ritual I began when I retired a couple of decades ago. Former Chief Justice Earl Warren started his morning paper with the sports section because it is “about winners” and the front section is “about losers.” I wade right in, however, and take on the front section, then sports and end with the comics and feel good stories.

Today, before I left page 7 of the 10 page front section I felt embarrassed for our country and personally down hearted that we have in many quarters not advanced much in the last 50 or 60 years. Discrimination, hate and meanness still reverberate throughout many segments of society.

In Oxford, Mississippi, members of a fraternity hung a noose and old confederate flag on the statue of James Meredith, the first black to enter the University of Mississippi in 1962. The offenders have been kicked out of the fraternity and the fraternity chapter has been suspended indefinitely by the national organization. While the response is good, the basic act itself is vile and contemptible.

Down in Texas, the rock guitarist, Ted Nugent, on the campaign trail for a gubernatorial candidate publicly called President Obama a “subhuman mongrel.” Later as protests arose he went on a radio station to apologize – not to the President – but on behalf of “much better men than myself.” Obviously, referring to the candidate with whom he was stumping for votes. Such insults are the stuff of meanness, hatefulness and stupidity. They demean all of us and are unworthy of Americans.

And then there is the Arizona legislature, which it is fair to say, leads the country in anti-immigration legislation and other progressive acts called for in the 21^st Century. This time gay rights are the focus of the legislative ire.  Over “shrill objections” of Democrats and three Republicans, a bill has been passed, and is on the governor’s desk, which allows business owners with strongly held religious beliefs to deny service to gays. (It doesn’t say how to identify gay people.) Opponents of the measure said it was clearly designed to allow discrimination against gays. Governor Jan Brewer’s decision may come next week. The business community considers the bill another “black eye” for the state, and a major distraction as Arizona prepares to host the Super Bowl next year. Reportedly four companies have put on hold plans to open facilities in Arizona until they see if the bill becomes law.

And this is just three stories on one day. Tomorrow it will be something else. It is embarrassing.We are better than this; if only we would act it.

Inappropriate comments in advertising

Dear Ms. Washo

I preferred the "turkey cover" over the tattooed man. That said, I write about another subject: the inappropriateness of Frank Dunne, Jr.'s column in CH2, a magazine designed to acquaint readers with the many services and providers in the Hilton Head area.

Mr. Dunne labeled the national Common Core education standards "a stupid idea" simply because President Obama is a supporter.  He then called Common Core "a bunch of B.S." and said we know this because it is a "federal program." He later refers to the U.S., Department of Education as the "Department of Non-Education," and says its employees are "clowns."

Mr. Dunne is disrespectful to the President of the United States, dismissive of Common Core simply because it is a federal program and insulting to the many fine people who work for his, yours and my government. (Fair disclosure: I am a retired federal security director.)

It is immaterial that a column in support of Common Core was in space opposite Mr. Dunne's disrespectful and obnoxious comments.

I don't object to Mr. Dunne having such views, and some of his comments might be appropriate in a political column on the op-ed page of a newspaper, or some other place pandering to the extreme rightists in our beloved country, but they have no business in a magazine with the obvious goal of CH2.

Obviously, I cannot pick and chose what items flesh out this 120 page advertising medium but I can ignore it in the future and encourage others to do so.