Gingrich: 'Time to Know, to Profile, and to Discriminate'
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/08/12/newt.0811.gi.jpg caption="Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich wrote in a letter published Wednesday that now is the time 'to profile for terrorists.'"]Washington (CNN) - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich went after the Obama administration for its strategy to fight terrorism, accusing them of believing that "protecting the rights of terrorists has been more important than protecting the lives of Americans."
In a letter published in the conservative Human Events magazine on Wednesday, the former Republican leader criticized the Obama administration's response to the failed Christmas Day terror plot, saying that the administration is "imposing hopelessly meaningless rules" for travelers instead of "targeting the source of the threats."
"Today, because our elites fear politically incorrect honesty, they believe that it is better to harass the innocent, delay the harmless, and risk the lives of every American than to do the obvious, the effective, and the necessary," Gingrich wrote.
He added this fear of political correctness has caused the government to miss critical signs that could point towards potential terrorists.
"In the Obama Administration, protecting the rights of terrorists has been more important than protecting the lives of Americans. That must now change decisively," Gingrich wrote. "It is time to know more about would-be terrorists, to profile for terrorists and to actively discriminate based on suspicious terrorist information."
Gingrich said the Obama administration needs to do more to combat terrorism by rooting out terrorist Web sites, focusing more on Yemen and cancelling plans to try the 9/11 conspirators on American soil.
The only thing this scumbag has the authority comment on is how to be a serial adulterer. Please die as soon as possible and spare us any more of your stupid drivel!
Forget profiling, let any US citizen get a card or rider for their passports that has photo ID and shows that they have already been cleared. Then we could get in a fast pass line like Disneyland!
I agree. A fat, Right Wing Neocatholic Nazi such as you should not be allowed on airplanes arriving in America. You do not personify the meaning of "An American". Please leave for a day or two, so we can ban you forever, you creep.
If the terrorits trying to kill americans are all Middle easterners, muslims, or Africans, then it makes little sense to waste time and money screening 87 year old white grandmothers from Milwaukee. Wake up American and tell the politicall correct left that if they do not value their own lives to just shut up and let TSA and the intelligence community to docus on the LIKELY SUSPECTS and if some folks feel like they are being profiled – tough banannas
Newt is such a slimy guy. I'm sorry to all of you. Whatever rock he spawned out from under it was somewhere in my state.
9-11 happened under the watch of a Democratically controlled Congress - Dems have controlled the House of Representatives for 36 of the past 40 years and it is in the House where all the resistance has been
Talk is cheap! Anyone can spout thrash to fan the flames of partisanship and stir up their base.
If Newt Gingrich and Dick Cheney believe their views and ideas are more in sync with the American people, they should run against Obama in 2012 and have the American people decide who has the best ideas, judgment, intellect and sound mind to lead the country.
Obama's intellect and judgment is far superior to that of Gingrich, Cheney and Palin put together.
Spoken like a true racist Newt.
Ummm.. Who is he talking about profiling? Muslims?? How do you profile a Muslim?? This was a black man from Nigeria – He wasn't even middle eastern. There are quite a few Nigerian Christians. I'm totally confused here – are people talking about making passengers fill out a card that states their religion – and then trusting that the terrorists will mark the "Islam" box?? I'm seriously confused about what Newt is recommending. I'm Jewish but you probably couldn't tell me from a Lebanese man just by looking at me.
My God I am baginning to believe that all the Obamabots are terrorist sympathizers. When they move the terrorists from Gitmo to Illinois, watch for Obama to let them out on weekends .....
So Newt why not condem the terrorist instead of the elected President of the United Staes of America. Stand behind the President that is cleaning your old house
how do you profile, the likes of Tim McVeigh, that is domestic terrorist, the intelligence that failed was intelligence 101, for dummies
Lord, CNN. Will it ever stop?
You spend a lot of time reporting on people that don't matter - Gingrich, Palin, Cheney. . .
From now on, how about just report on statements from folks who people actually voted for? Democratic or Republican, doesn't matter. Only elected folks. Please???
They are the only ones who matter. GINGRICH MAKES NO POLICY. HE'S A TALKING HEAD.
Newt and Cheney are domestic terrorists,always trying to instill fear in Americans.
Preach the fear, Newt. It's nice to know that you don't value the principles this country was founded.
Since when does protecting the country mean destroying everything it stands for to "protect lives"? To be the home of the free, we have to take the risk that someone is going to attack that freedom. By taking those freedoms away (discriminating and profiling does just that) you have already handed victory to the terrorists.
I am tired of this worn old saw by Republicans and others on the right. Protecting the rights of the accused is a treasured part of American justice NOT because it is protecting the rights of the guilty but because it protects the rights of the innocent who are wrongly accused.
When will Newt advocate ethnic profiling of domestic terrorists? But they're white, right-wing males! Can't profile them...
Spoken like the king of bigots can only speak.
Liberals and Obama are the ones endangering the lives of Americans. If Obama were president when the 9/11 tradegy occurred, it would have been worst as the terrorist will have been able to sneak in a much more catastrophic instrument! Obama is more concerned about his stature than the safety of Americans. It is time for America to wake up and kick out the useless Obama administration and its ineffective policy that seem to benefit terrorists than Americans. Let us call radical islamic terrorists as they are - terrorists, period!