LOOK INWARD, AMERICA
Wed Mar 26, 4:15 AM ET Add Op/Ed - New York Post to My Yahoo!
It has become painfully obvious that America faces a threat from within.
The threat comes not just from terrorists who have managed to penetrate America's porous borders - the 9/11 terrorists, for example - though that danger is real enough.
It also comes from disgruntled Americans - converts to militarized Islam or to radical anti-Americanism.
In a sense, these folks are more dangerous, because they often enjoy full rights as U.S. citizens: Not only do our laws protect them, but so does our culture.
Take Sgt. Asan Akbar - the alleged turncoat who rolled live grenades into the tents of his sleeping superiors Sunday in Kuwait, killing one and injuring 15.
In nearly every early report of the incident, Akbar's religious persuasion - he was a convert to Islam - was omitted.
Why? Because in America, it's verbotten to even hint that religion or heritage may be a factor in criminal behavior.
Ironically, the taboo against citing religion became stronger in some quarters (including, notably, the press) after the 9/11 attacks.
So, Sunday, journalists played dumb to his background, and even his chosen name, Akbar - an Arabic word that's part of the terrorists' battle cry, "Allahu Akhbar," meaning "God is great."
The motives offered for his attack: He had "an attitude problem." He was upset because his commanders decided to keep him out of the battle.
But a Los Angeles Times report may shed light on Akbar's true loyalties: Upon being caught, he reportedly told his captors, "You guys are coming into our countries, and you're gong to rape our women and kill our children."
You guys?
Our countries?
Wasn't he American, too?
The attack recalls another incident, in 1991, when the Army's 84th Engineering Company was preparing for action in the first war against Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).
According to the Seattle Times last November, someone set off a thermite grenade in a tent with 16 soldiers. Though no formal charges were brought, the Army's Criminal Investigation Division reportedly came up with a lead suspect: John Allen Muhammad.
If that name sounds familiar, it should: He's the adult suspect in last fall's Beltway sniper attacks. No one wanted to talk about his religion, either.
Then there are sympathizers, like Lynne Stewart, the lawyer for Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who is serving a life sentence for terroristic plotting.
Stewart faces charges she aided Rahman in issuing instructions to an agent linked to his terrorist organization, the Islamic Group.
She claims she was exercising her free-speech rights. But federal prosecutors liken her verbal distractions to those of an accomplice who distracts security guards in a bank heist.
Meanwhile, the second and third members of the "Lackawanna Six" - a potential sleeper cell based near Buffalo and linked to al Qaeda - pleaded guilty this week, and more such pleas are expected.
At a mosque as close to home as Brooklyn, a Yemeni cleric, Al Hasan al-Moayad, was accused of raising millions that was then funneled to al Qaeda.
Prison imams and military chaplains are said to have been tapped on recommendation from Saudi Arabian Wahhabi groups, some with ties to terrorist or terror-sympathizing organizations.
As researchers like Frank Gaffney, Jr., Steve Emerson and Post columnist Daniel Pipes have suggested, numerous student associations, professors, fund-raising groups and political organizations with similar ties have embedded themselves deep into American culture.
Recently, a Florida professor, Sami Al-Arian, was indicted on 50 counts of racketeering, extortion, money-laundering, perjury and fraud linked to his role as head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in America.
And so on.
Radical Islam is a domestic threat; it's a potentially deadly mistake to pretend otherwise.
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