Phil Valentine

The day of the Fort Hood attacks I informed my listeners that there had, in all likelihood, been a terrorist attack on that esteemed Army Post. I was able to piece together the little information we had then to draw a reasonable conclusion that this was probably an act of terrorism.

Despite the empirical evidence since then, our president and countless government and law enforcement officials still refuse to acknowledge what we all know to be true. This was the first terrorist act committed on American soil since 9/11.

The admission of the obvious leads many to heap all sorts of criticism on the current administration but I’m not one to jump to that conclusion. We’re not yet sure who is responsible. Surely a thorough investigation of the facts will determine who allowed this to happen – and, yes, it was allowed to happen – but if it’s never classified as a terrorist attack then blame for it will never be assessed.
I want to know one simple fact. Who was the Norman Mineta of this terrorist attack?

You see if there was a singular person responsible for what happened on September 11, 2001 it was then-Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. Mr. Mineta, in his infinite wisdom and slavish conformity to political correctness, banned profiling at airports. Mineta’s aversion to this tried and true police technique stemmed from his experience during World War II. He and his family were “guests” of the U.S. government at a Japanese internment camp.

Flash forward 60 years and Norm Mineta was in a position to take his pent-up anger to an unthinkable level. By banning profiling in airports Mineta essentially banned common sense. Case in point was one Michael Tuohey. He was checking passengers in for U.S. Airways in Portland, Maine on the morning of September 11, 2001. When he looked up at one particular passenger he thought to himself that he was gazing upon evil incarnate. “I said to myself, ‘If this guy doesn't look like an Arab terrorist, then nothing does,’” Tuohey told a Portland newspaper. “Then I gave myself a mental slap, because in this day and age, it's not nice to say things like this.”

Had he pulled this man aside and made a couple of calls he would have learned the man in front of him was traveling on an expired visa. Instead, thanks to Mr. Mineta, the man was simply processed then sent on his way. That man was Mohamed Atta, the ringleader of the 9/11 terrorists.

Here’s what we know about Major Nidal Hassan. He’s a radical Muslim. He posted rantings on the Internet calling suicide bombers heroes. His imam in Great Falls, Va. was the imam to two of the 9/11 hijackers and later fled the country, setting up a terrorist website in Yemen. Major Hassan had numerous correspondences with this imam after he had set up the website. He also gave bizarre presentations on terrorism to his medical colleagues when he was supposed to be making medical presentations. He claimed the war on terror was a war on Islam. We are now hearing that he sent money to Pakistan, possibly to the terrorists. But all of this was found to be insignificant to the authorities. Why? Because it just wouldn’t be nice to profile.

Still, our president and law enforcement authorities search for a motive. They claim he may have cracked under stress.

Political correctness has now devolved into outright stupidity. We should demand to know who is responsible but I suspect it is not just one person. Systemic sensitivity training has turned us all into soft targets.