A New Face On An Old Bogeyman

Despite stabbing Barack Obama in the back repeatedly, Democrats left Joe F'ckin Lieberman in charge of the Senate Homeland Security committee. Surprising absolutely nobody, Lieberman today used his chairmanship to try to scare the bejeezus out of America and remind us that THERE ARE MUSLIMS IN AMERICA.

There is an increasing threat of homegrown terror stemming from segments of a deeply isolated and alienated Somali-American community, a U.S. Senate committee hearing concluded Wednesday.

The hearing, conducted by the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee, focused on the attempted recruitment of young Somali-American men by al-Shabaab, "a violent and brutal extremist (Somali) group" with significant ties to al Qaeda, according to the U.S. State Department.

"Over the last two years, individuals from the Somali community in the United States, including American citizens, have left for Somalia to support and in some cases fight on behalf of al-Shabaab," noted the committee's chairman, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Connecticut.

Al-Shabaab -- also known as the Mujahedeen Youth Movement -- was officially designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government in March 2008.

The hearing highlighted the case of Shirwa Ahmed, a 27-year-old Somali-American who had been radicalized by al-Shabaab in his adopted home state of Minnesota before traveling to Somalia and blowing up himself and 29 others in October.

The idea that Ahmed was radicalized in the United States raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community. The incident -- the first suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen -- was the "most significant case of homegrown American terrorism recruiting based on violent Islamist ideology," Lieberman said.

I don't know about you, but I'm much more worried about homegrown American terrorism actually happening on American soil based on violent Christian ideology than I am Somali-Americans going over to Somalia and getting involved with the wars there.

I would think with the number of people actually killed on US soil by radical idealogue domestic terrorists, you'd want to instead be investigating those who publicly make threats of sedition and secession against the US, rather than demonizing Muslims.

Not saying there aren't people that want to hurt America. 9/11 was an act of massive tragedy. But it's far past time to admit there are Americans who want to hurt America, people who aren't foreign, aren't Muslim, and aren't dark-skinned. Not every terrorist in America is from out of town, folks.

I would think those folks are a far greater actual threat. They are the ones actually killing Americans on American soil. Just because they're not using planes to do it doesn't make the people killed any less dead.