FACES AND PLACES: Happiness comes with security (10/29/06)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Happiness comes with security

In his Ukrainian Weekly column of October 15, Yaro Bihun strikes an ominous note. He suggests that under President George W. Bush our country might well be on the eve of a long, dark night.

His litany of administration "evils" includes "Guantanamo, indefinite detentions, without what a normal American would consider due process, secret arrests, secret prisons for 'high-value' terrorist suspects, 'renditions,' a 'program' of alternative interrogation techniques by CIA 'professionals' who are being forgiven any past transgressions of U.S. and international laws against torture."

Mr. Bihun cites a September 18 Washington Post article by Tom Malinowski, advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, suggesting that President Bush read Robert Conquest's "The Great Terror" to learn how the Soviets obtained confessions through sleep deprivation, a technique employed by the CIA against Islamic terrorists.

Two observations: 1) Mr. Malinowski is a former special assistant to President Bill Clinton, the man who let Osama Bin Laden slip away when our CIA had him in its sights; 2) Mr. Malinowski is on the board of Human Rights Watch and Americans for Informed Democracy, two organizations founded and heavily funded by George Soros, the man who, according to the Center for Public Integrity, spent $24 million of his own money to defeat George W. Bush in 2004.

Mr. Soros is the Daddy Warbucks of leftist causes, funding such anti-Bush organizations as the Open Society Institute (which funnels millions of dollars to groups opposed to the war on terror), MoveOn.org, the Center for American Progress, Media Matters and others of similar ilk. Mr. Soros has also contributed heavily to the defense fund of New York City attorney Anne Stewart, who was convicted of supplying material aid to terrorists during the trial of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. Ms. Stewart recently received a light sentence from a Clinton-appointed judge for her treachery. Given Mr. Malinowski's past and present associations, can we believe that his recommendation is truly an honest, goodwill attempt to be helpful?

Personally, I have no problem with the way we treat terrorists captured in battle or while in the process of committing crimes against humanity. Should these murderers now be read their Miranda rights on the battlefield? Are they entitled to due process? Is sleep deprivation so awful when it yields information that saves American lives? Islamists behead their prisoners. We retaliate by depriving them of sleep. Who are the bad guys here?

Despite years of effort by the major media to smear our Guantanamo detention center, Islamic prisoners there receive good treatment. They get a Koran, prayer-time, visits by imams, Islamic-correct meals and superb healthcare, including colonoscopies. Upon release most quickly re-rejoin the Jihad. The ACLU demands that all of them be tried in American courts or released immediately. The USA Patriot Act, initially passed by the Senate 98-1 and 357-66 by the House, was renewed on March 9, despite partisan brickbats and ACLU lobbying. Since its initial passage, the Patriot Act has helped uncover terrorist cells and disrupt terrorist plots. The fact that there have been no attacks on American soil in five years suggests that the Patriot Act is working.

The Patriot Act authorizes vital information-sharing between law enforcement and intelligence officials. As we learned during the 9-11 Commission hearings, this activity was forbidden during the previous administration. The Patriot Act also permits law enforcement agents to pursue terrorists with the same tools traditionally used against organized crime and drug dealers. Makes sense to me. Also allowed is the reformatting of secret tracking of terrorist financing. The original format, you will recall, was leaked by The New York Times. The Canadian Anti-terrorism Act of 2001 helped foil an al-Qaeda-inspired plot by 17 home-grown terrorists to bomb Canadian institutions and behead the prime minister last June. Canada allows police to secretly arrest suspects and hold them for up to 72 hours if they're suspected of planning terrorism. It also permits electronic surveillance (wiretaps) in their investigation of suspected terrorists. Should we do less? We are at war, dear reader, with a fanatical, merciless gang of cut-throats who despise our way of life and seek nothing less than conversion to Islam or our total destruction. If they become martyrs in the process, so much the better. Can we afford to treat them as ordinary criminals?

What President Bush is doing is hardly new. Past U.S. presidents have always taken measures to protect our national security during wartime. President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus rights during the Civil War. Like President Bush he was reviled and constantly attacked by the media and the cut-and-run crowd (called Copperheads then) during his presidency. President Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage, Sabotage and Sedition Acts of 1917 and 1918 during World War I. Slandering the Constitution was considered an act of sabotage. Wilson promised the American people that he would not involve our nation in the European war. Did he lie? He also established internment camps for immigrants from Austro-Hungary including an occasional Ukrainian. Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1918 for opposing the war effort. During World War II President Franklin D. Roosevelt established internment camps for innocent Japanese Americans and the U.S. Supreme Court approved.

Yaro Bihun believes that "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" are more important than "safety, security and prosperity." In reality, the former is impossible without the latter. Psychologist Abraham Maslow developed a hierarchy of needs gratification. He believed that human needs are satisfied in sequential order, beginning with our physiological needs (food, water, shelter), followed by safety needs (order, security, predictability), needs of love and belonging (family, friends), recognition and esteem needs (prestige, acceptance) and the need for self-actualization (transcendence and ecstatic happiness).

Think about it. Is it possible to be happy and free without first being safe and secure? I think not.

Myron Kuropas's e-mail address is: [email protected].

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