Doing Backflips for the Homeland

Michele Norris interviews Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. This is a fascinating study of how NPR bends over backwards to avoid the obvious questions at the heart of the so-called War on Terror.

Chertoff states: "I also have to point out that some of these plots are what we call home-grown plots where people are radicalizing themselves over the Internet or in small groups and the larger question is, you know, What do we do about the increased radicalization of some people into an ideology of terror and hatred, and that is a much more fundamental study which we are undertaking with a great deal of energy and a great deal of urgency."

At this point the OBVIOUS follow-up question, the friggin' elephant-in-the-living-room question would be, "With all due respect Mr. Secretary, aren't these people being radicalized by the US invasion/occupation of Iraq, the one-sided backing of the US for Israel's assault on Gaza and Lebanon, and the refusal of the US to insist on Israel giving up settlements in the West Bank? I mean that is what the London train bombers of last summer stated."

But instead Norris takes an even more militaristic tack than Chertoff! She asks, "Well I guess that goes to the question of how you actually vanquish this threat, because unless you can actually weaken their ability to plan and to plot and to pay for these events, it seems like you're engaged in almost like a game of 'Whack a mole' just trying to knock them down when they come up with these plots."

To which Chertoff, of course replies, "You're exactly right.....that psychology of what makes a person convert from an ordinary individual into a suiced bomber is I think at the core of a longer term strategy to winning here--which is worth a great deal of study and discussion. "