Specific knowledge coupled with a failure to respond would constitute
criminal negligence. OTOH if only a general awareness that "something big"
was on the horizon then what would you have had them do?
That, of course, is the key question. Even AFTER 9/11 the left wing is screaming, with some but not total justification, over detentions without trial, over Patriot Act provisions, over many of the steps that are being taken to protect national security. Can you imagine the hue and cry, with TP in the forefront and X right on his heels, if on 9/1 the US Dept. of Justice had started rounding up Arab-looking people on mere suspicion that they might be planning some sort of terrorist attack and started interrogorating them without attorneys, or without letting them remain silent? Naturally, the suspects wouldn't have talked. And since the only weapons used were regular box cutters, perfectly legal to possess, there would be nothing to hold them on except suspicion that they might be considering some day committing a crime.
TP and his ilk would have gone ballistic. Charges of racism, illegal detention, and all. And even if they had successfully averted 9/11, they could never prove that, and TP et al would claim that the threat of any attack was all made up to justify the illegal detentions, and would have come up with some conspiracy theory about it with, of course, Bush et al painted as the bad guys.
With people like that, there's no way to win. So you just do the right thing and ignore them. |
