American Border Secrets (snip)
When Daniel W. Sutherland, officer for civil rights and civil liberties at the Department of Homeland Security, the CBP's parent organization, spoke in Buffalo earlier this month, he discussed the December episode. On principle, however, he neither justified nor condemned CBP's procedures. Rather, he only acknowledged that CBP did an "after-action review" and refined a few points. Mr. Sutherland placed the detaining of citizens into a larger context ("There are multiple pieces to that puzzle") and spent most of his time emphasizing the need for his department and Muslim groups to work better together.
He was right to remain discreetly uninformative. America finds itself at war with radical Islam not just in Afghanistan but in Buffalo, Boston, Boca Raton, and Baltimore. Controlling the border flow, therefore, has paramount importance. As a law enforcement agency, the CBP in this and other cases (notably that of Tariq Ramadan) should not divulge its exact reasons for excluding foreigners or detaining citizens. To do otherwise would compromise national security.
Which in turn probably explains why, last week, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the American Civil Liberties Union – two organizations consistently hostile to American self-protection – goaded five of the detained travelers to sue the federal government on the grounds that they "were unlawfully detained, interrogated, fingerprinted, and photographed."
Two of the plaintiffs' demands have lasting implications: that the court declare the CBP had violated the travelers' rights and that it enjoin the CBP from "detaining, interrogating, fingerprinting, and photographing United States citizens who are Muslim because they are returning to the country after having attended religious conferences."
Were the plaintiffs to prevail in this case, attending religious conferences would instantly become the favored method for terrorists and other Islamists to cross the American border without hindrance. Such a malign implication means this lawsuit needs to be tossed out by the courts.
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2557
Thought I might let Daniel Pipes have the last word. And thanks to jan in Colorado for posting this article.
Hey, and there I was, planning to bring back some sacred religious objects after I attend an Islamic conference this summer!
They better not dare go searching muslim womens bras again either, or I'll get CAIR on thom quicker than you can yell, "Allah Fubar!"