Guy W. Farmer: Keeping America safe on the 9/11 anniversary

As we pause for a moment today to observe the 10th anniversary of the horrific 9/11 terrorist attacks against New York and Washington, D.C., we should thank those who have dedicated themselves to keeping us safe in the intervening years.

I cringe every time I hear someone who is overly concerned about the alleged rights of terrorists and terrorism suspects on the naïve theory that they'll change their murderous ways if we treat them with kindness and understanding, which is pure nonsense.

My alma mater, the Associated Press, last month made a big deal out of a New York Police Department program to keep New Yorkers safe from terrorist attacks. The AP questioned police cooperation with the Central Intelligence Agency to identify potential terrorists, and asserted that a police "demographic unit" was sending Arabic and Pashto speakers out to mosques as "rakers" to collect intelligence information on potential terrorist plots.

"There is no such unit," a police spokesman told the AP, which charged that "undercover NYPD officers singled out Muslim communities for surveillance and infiltration."

I have a message for those undercover cops in New York and elsewhere around the country: Go get 'em!

Of course the American Civil Liberties Union and its left-wing friends immediately accused the NYPD of racial profiling. So what else is new? They accuse me of racism every time I point out that illegal immigrants are involved in drug trafficking and gang activity here in Carson City. The name-calling goes with the territory.

Those who complain about utilizing tough measures to track down potential terrorists forget the fact that nearly 3,000 innocent civilians were killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the worst acts of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. The perpetrators of those attacks were militant Muslims who were on a holy mission to kill as many Americans as possible. But the ACLU and its friends are worried about trying 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammed in a military court. Give me a break!

Shortly after the AP expose on the alleged NYPD "demographic unit," the Washington Post ran a long investigative story about the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which tracked down and killed Osama bin Laden earlier this year. "Two presidents and three secretaries of defense routinely have asked JSOC to mount intelligence-gathering missions and lethal raids, mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan," the Post reported. As far as I'm concerned that's more good news in the war on terror, which the Obama administration calls "overseas contingency operations." I fervently hope that JSOC will conduct many more contingency operations like the one that killed bin Laden.

Last month, Ty Cobb's National Security Forum sponsored a civilized discussion in Reno about the controversial Patriot Act featuring former FBI Assistant Director Bob Gast and the Nevada ACLU's chief lobbyist, Rebecca Gasca. Afterward, I voted with the majority of mostly conservative NSF members to retain the Patriot Act because I believe that national security should be our top priority in a dangerous world.

• Guy W. Farmer of Carson City is a retired diplomat.