THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 294, December 23, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
WILLFUL BLINDNESS TOWARD ISLAMIST TERRORISTS
AT UCLA A DECADE AFTER 9-11
By Judith Greblya
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION OF THE FOURTH WORLD WAR: A DECADE OF THE ISLAMIST TERROR WAR WAGED AGAINST THE U.S.A. & THE WEST -- THE
EXISTENCE OF ISLAMIST TERRORISM CALLED INTO QUESTION BY THE SPEAKERS PARTICIPATING IN THE DISCUSSION -- THE SPEAKERS ACTING AS IF THE
ISLAMIST ATTACKS OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, NEVER OCCURRED -- THE EVENTS OF 9-11 WHITEWASHED -- AMERICA BASHED -- COUNTRIES THAT HARBOR
ISLAMIST TERRORISTS IGNORED -- THE U.S.A.'S DETENTION PROGRAM ABROAD CALLED INTO QUESTION -- ISLAMIC TERRORISM DESCRIBED AS AN
IMAGINARY MONSTER CREATED BY THE WEST IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE WORLD DOMINATION
FULL STORY:
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Center for Near Eastern Studies hosted a roundtable discussion last month titled, "After a Decade of the 'War
on Terror': The Middle East, Human Rights, and American Muslims." Sponsored by the UCLA School of Law Critical Race Studies Program, the event featured
UCLA Law Professor Asli Bali, University of California, Santa Barbara Sociology Professor Lisa Hajjar, and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Southern
California attorney Ahilan Arulanantham. The audience of approximately twenty people was comprised mostly of law and graduate students, along with a few
members of the community.
According to the introduction, the speakers were to "examine this decade on the War on Terror in the broader context of the international community," but the
two-hour event quickly descended into a forum for America-bashing. All three speakers called the existence of Islamic terrorism into question and, what's worse,
behaved as if the attacks of September 11, 2001 never occurred.
Bali of UCLA Law began by framing the discussion around how "the War on Terror has affected the international law community and American Muslims." She
argued that the "War on Terror has created a political entrepreneurial class that has benefited from the war" and called the Patriot Act a "violation of the Fourth
Amendment" that has played out "quite viciously on the global stage." The U.S.A., Bali maintained, has been allotted extraordinary executive license and now
has the "power to detain anyone, even U.S. citizens."
Presenting U.N. Resolution 1373 — a counter-terrorism measure passed unanimously on September 28, 2001 to restrict the movement, organization, and
fundraising activities of terrorist groups — as evidence of America's overarching power, Bali concluded that this "is a case in point of how the U.S.A. has
sculpted and shifted the global community to do what they want." With no evidence, she then asserted that the American "and the Israeli government benefit
economically from the resolution." In sum, Bali whitewashed the events of 9/11, bashed the U.S.A., and ignored countries that harbor Islamic terrorists.
ACLU attorney Ahilan Arulanantham followed and called America's detention program abroad into question. Urging the U.S.A. to have "some sort of
accountability for abusing and torturing humans," Arulanantham limned a portrait of America as a dictatorial state that "secretly detains people abroad."
Building on Bali's insinuation that the U.S.A. conducts secret and illegal missions worldwide, he called upon the audience to "look into worldwide cases of
people being secretly detained and tortured, some of whom are U.S. citizens." Labeling the U.S.A. "a surveillance industrial complex," Arulanantham advised
audience members to obtain a "freedom of information act form in order to acquire information from the government about what is happening on your own
campus." Arulanatham's paranoid assertion that the U.S. government, with the assistance of local FBI cells, is secretly "monitoring the lives of students on
college campuses" illustrated the level of fear mongering at this event.
Lisa Hajjar of UC, Santa Barbara, focused on what she called "a sociological approach to the War on Terror." She never explained what this analysis would
entail, but instead went on a diatribe about the U.S.A. and the Bush/Cheney administration. "Bush and Cheney used targeted killings to torture and kill
Muslim Americans," she stated, as well as lamenting the Obama administration's continuance of the same counterterrorism policies. From that point on, her
talk focused mostly on prisoners in Bagram, Afghanistan. "It is a human right not to be tortured," she stated, before adding, "The U.S. government and Israel
constantly break this rule." Overlooking the human right violated by terrorists on 9/11, Hajjar and her cohorts presumed that Islamic terrorism is an imaginary
monster created by the West — particularly the U.S.A. and Israel — in order to achieve world domination.
Presenting the audience with photographs of inmates allegedly being tortured and humiliated by American guards at the Bagram detention camp and
Guantanamo Bay, Hajjar ranted:
"Dick Cheney, who had neither military experience nor any experience
in torture tactics, spearheaded this movement. The CIA has virtually
zero experience in torture tactics, but was given great license under
Cheney."
She next asserted, inexplicably, that "people only need to torture or kidnap people when they have no concrete evidence." Concluding her slideshow with a
photograph of a sleep-deprived Khalil Sheikh Muhammed, the mastermind behind 9/11, Hajjar expressed alarm over how "badly we tortured him." More
alarming was Hajjar's sympathy for a man who played a direct role in the slaughter of thousands of innocent people.
The evening concluded with a brief question and answer session wherein audience members echoed the worries of the speakers and asked how to "get
involved in the fight against torture." Not one person challenged the speakers.
The event offered nothing new regarding the War on Terror, but rather trite tropes such as America as a "military state," America as the voracious imperial
state, and America as a "surveillance industrial complex." These analogies evince a far greater problem in academia, where dissent is only patriotic if aimed at
the West. A truly courageous act in such a setting would examine the forbidden topic of Islamic terrorism and the apologetic stance of today's professors.
Please email your concerns and comments to University of California, Los Angeles, Chancellor Gene Bock (chancellor@ucla.edu) and University of California,
Santa Barbara, Chancellor Henry T. Yang (henry.yang@chancellor.ucsb.edu).
Originally Published in Front Page Magazine, December 23, 2011.
Reprinted from Campus Watch, December 23, 2011.
Reprinted with Permission of Campus Watch
http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/11947
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/12/23/willful-blindness-toward-terrorists-
at-ucla-a-decade-after-9-11/
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Islamist Fifth Column -- America's Internal Enemies:
Disloyalty, Subversion, Sedition, & Treason
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Judith Greblya wrote this article for Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum. She can be reached at jgreblya@aol.com.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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