London BRIDGES

Local Arab leaders would have just cause for envy of the considerable attention being paid, at least by the small community of us who give a damn about such things, to the decision by London police announced this past Sunday. Police there have agreed to willingly hobble future investigations and raids by an agreement to submit all such decisions to a non-government group of Muslims, the Muslim Safety Forum, MSF, drawn from the target population. According to the Sunday Times, Azad Ali, chairman of the MSF, said the group will provide "independent scrutiny of intelligence.” And this within a few days of the brilliant success of the British in foiling the airline terror plot. It was nice while it lasted.

Dearborn, or more specifically the entire region under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Attorney’s office in Detroit, has had this kind of bad deal for years. It goes by the name of BRIDGES, an acronym for Building Respect In Diverse Groups to Enhance Sensitivity. It is one of the least reported programs going. If you don’t believe me, try finding anything out about it on the Internet.

Co-chair of BRIDGES is Imad Hamad, local boss of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, or ADC, and able to appear for comment to so many media outlets at once he is believed to possess the powers of bi-location. Hamad is a vocal supporter of Hezbollah, and an embarrassed FBI narrowly missed giving him an achievement award named to honor an airline attendant who behaved heroically before dying on Flight 11 on 9/11. You can read about him here.

If you want to know what kind of weight he throws around with the feds, he recently predicted the arrest of three Texas Muslims in Caro who were purchasing a suspicious number of cell phones, throwing away their chargers, and carrying suspicious photos of the Mackinac Bridge, would not result in terror charges, because “federal officials haven't told him about this case, indicating to him that it's not a serious terrorism case.”

In other words, if it were a serious terrorism case, he gets first look. And if it were a serious case, what are the odds he'd back off and say, "do your duty. boys"? Kind of like the London MSF, who are now providing the kind of “independent scrutiny of intelligence” formerly reserved under both British and American legal systems for judges or other accountable government officials.

The co-chair of BRIDGES with Hamad is US Attorney Stephen Murphy, who, (along with Hamad), is in charge of all federal law enforcement for the Eastern District of Michigan, such as it is. If Murphy were paid on commission, he'd be holding a cardboard sign by the Lonyo exit ramp off I-94.

Another key member of BRIDGES is CAIR, a group so entwined with terrorists even liberal senators like Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin had to admit as much.

These are the people who are doing to American law enforcement what the MSF in Britain plans to do to British law enforcement: chill it so cold its heart slows almost to a stop. I honestly don't understand how, if you're a cop faced with the alternatives of 1) busting terrorists who want to kill your family, or 2) chasing good relations with the Muslim community, any cop would choose 2). At least 1) is doable, as the number of terrorists must be finite. But soothing Muslim feelings is a rank impossibility, and only leads to heartache and depair.

And federal agents are getting discouraged. It has recently been reported that federal terror prosecutions are below 9/11 levels. Christopher Hamilton, former FBI terrorist investigator and senior fellow for terrorism at the Washington Institute for Near East Studies, explains why: "Terrorism cases are a whole lot of work, and the likelihood of getting a conviction is very low." I wonder if having to get a sign-off from the likes of Imad Hamad makes the FBI's job any harder?

I can’t believe but that we have the BRIDGES program to thank in part for the refusal of the feds to take seriously the two Arab-American males arrested in Ohio after lying to police about what they were doing with $10,000 in cash, and for local charges having to be dropped against 3 Texas-Arab-Americans arrested in Caro. Local authoriites can't prosecute terrorism. If the feds don't show up, guys like this go free.

As for Britain, until now they always had one advantage we lacked here in the USA—the Official Secrets Act--wuich makes it a crime for public officials to leak classified information. So isn’t it strange that the Muslims, who are given high intelligence clearances in order to act as watchdogs over British law enforcement, were not required to sign the Act? That means they are immune from prosecution if they leak classified information from investigations they’re allowed to snoop into. Between this and losing Tony Blair, I wouldn't give tuppence for British security in a couple years.

But what am I so worried about? BRIDGES here in Michigan has proved to be a huge success! Under it, hardly any one is ever actually charged with terrorism, and no one is convicted. And that must mean there really aren’t any terrorists, right, only racists, profilers, and Islamophobics who imagine terrorists?

Right?

Well, am I right?