# An idea that is picking up momentum behind closed doors on terrorism. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 22, 2005, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-that-is-picking-up-momentum-behind-closed-doors-on-terrorism/313697 "2005-07-22T19:44:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2005, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-that-is-picking-up-momentum-behind-closed-doors-on-terrorism/313697/181 "2005-07-27T04:04:10Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Thanks for the info about France, **clairobscur**. I shouldn’t have mentioned it in the first place, since between its history, international prominence and headscarf laws it’s a target anyway. We already got our share of subway bombings by muslim extremists in the mid-90, thank you very much… A bus of french workers has been blown up too last year in Pakistan (though they were working on a military project, so I assume they woul be considered as a more legitimate target than random people in a bus or at a vacation spot). But yes, I think we’re on the “to do” list of some group or another, for some reason or another. > [@](#): > > So Bin Laden’s warning that “any nation that does not attack us will not be attacked” was retroactive to thirteen years earlier? Once again, my comments about the the two statements by Bin Laden not being contradictory and my comments about Egypt being a target are unrelated. The involvment of Egypt in the first gulf war most cetainly hasn’t been forgotten and is certainly considered as an evidence that the egyptian government is an accomplice of the USA. That’s why I added it to my list of “good reasons to plant bombs in Egypt”. Besides, it’s not the first time Egypt, and even specifically her touristic spots, is targeted by muslim extremists, though I don’t remember when it happened last time. So, it’s not really surprising. Actually, when I think about it, I can’t think of an arab country that isn’t a potential target for such attacks. Morrocco and even much more so Algeria already had their share of the attacks, we covered Egypt, Jordan is too compliant re. the USA, Syria too secular, the gulf monarchies are corrupt and so on… ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2005, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-that-is-picking-up-momentum-behind-closed-doors-on-terrorism/313697/182 "2005-07-27T04:14:26Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Once again, my comments about the the two statements by Bin Laden not being contradictory and my comments about Egypt being a target are unrelated. What I’m trying to say is that if his statements are taken at face value, it doesn’t make sense for them to attack Egypt. My answers here have been phrased in that context; I do understand why they’re targeting Egypt. This has drifted, I’m sure, but it refers back to the ‘war between civilizations’ thing. > [@](#): > > Besides, it’s not the first time Egypt, and even specifically her touristic spots, is targeted by muslim extremists, though I don’t remember when it happened last time. So, it’s not really surprising. October 2004 was the last time. ---
**Author:** ![Thin\_Lizzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9a140/32.png) [@Thin\_Lizzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thin_Lizzy)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2005, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-that-is-picking-up-momentum-behind-closed-doors-on-terrorism/313697/183 "2005-07-27T04:26:17Z")
Why wait for an attack, just go ahead and deport them now! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2005, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-that-is-picking-up-momentum-behind-closed-doors-on-terrorism/313697/184 "2005-07-27T04:37:22Z")
> [@Thin Lizzy](#): > > Why wait for an attack, just go ahead and deport them now! Why waste time waiting for the deportations when you can go ahead and leave now? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2005, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-that-is-picking-up-momentum-behind-closed-doors-on-terrorism/313697/185 "2005-07-27T05:33:20Z")
> [@Thin Lizzy](#): > > Why wait for an attack, just go ahead and deport them now! There’s an idea! Let’s start with the groups that we know we should throw out of the country. First, John Walker Lindh (“The American Taliban”). Obviously, we need to get rid of everyone of Anglo-Saxon or Swedish ancestry. Next, Richard Colvin Reid (“The Shoe Bomber”). Well, here is British ancestry, again, along with a bit of Jamaican. Jose Padilla (disreputable person with potential ties to al Qaida, illegally declared an “enemy combatant” by the U.S. gov’t., now in limbo with courts dodging the issue of his status). Certainly, we need to toss out anyone of Puerto Rican ancestry, and (perhaps) Spanish ancestry, as well. So, right away we know that we can deport anyone of British, Jamaican, and Spanish ancestry. Anyone else? I suppose that it is a given that we need to get rid of all the Arabs, but then I don’t want to be the one to tell the Navy it has to release Lt. Jg. Houssain Sareini (whose mother is a Dearborn MI city councilwoman), after all the money they invested in him, training him to be an officer after previously training him to be an NCO. And, of course, there is the minor problem that the U.S. military (and the U.S. intelligence agencies) are having troubles finding enough interpreters for Arabic, but I guess deporting all the people who are already citizens and already speak Arabic is not really a problem. On the other hand, perhaps the quoted post is just rather stupid. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2005, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-that-is-picking-up-momentum-behind-closed-doors-on-terrorism/313697/186 "2005-07-27T05:53:58Z")
> [@DougC](#): > > - > - > - I had another idea: every time a Moslem terrorist blows something up elsewhere, how about a randomly-detonated bomb in Mecca? I for one think we’d see a _lot_ less Moslem terrorist bombs after just a few hits on the holy city… If the US ever did anything to Mecca it would probally trigger a holy war the likes of which the world has never seen. Every Islamic country on Earth would turn against the US (including moderate ones like Indonesia, Malayasia, and possible even Turkey). The overwhelming majority of Muslims are not fanatics or terrorists, but most of them would be infuriated at an attack on their holiest city. Imagine the response from the West if Islamic terrorists attacked the Conclave and bombed Vatican City _and magnify that_! ---
**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2005, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-that-is-picking-up-momentum-behind-closed-doors-on-terrorism/313697/187 "2005-07-27T13:12:41Z")
Well the OPs idea was carried out soon after 9/11… they picked up all those nasty Bin Laden relatives and “deported” them back to Saudi Arabia… that ought to “teach” those nasty Saudi guys that were shopping in the USA. I think more than a few wanna be terrorists would actually be happy… their westernized and complacent family members would get a free trip to Islamic Law Paradise in some backward muslim country of origin. ---
**Author:** ![blackhobyah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blackhobyah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blackhobyah)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-that-is-picking-up-momentum-behind-closed-doors-on-terrorism/313697/188 "2005-07-28T05:57:24Z")
> [@Kaleidoscope](#): > > Well I’ve seen a lot of internet barking by the con side, but no ideas on how to combat the world’s #1 problem, which is terrorism. Nonsense. The world’s biggest problems are hunger, the spread of AIDS in Africa, the damage to the environment, possibly the rise of bird flu in Asia and I’m sure there are things I’ve left out that have a case. The lowest suggested figure for the numbers of people who have died in the Dafur region in the Sudan is 70,000 people over two years, it could be four or five times that. Compared to that old horseman, Famine, Islamic terrorists are small time operators. Or is it that terrorism, as in, the terrorism you are choosing to worry about (unless you’re also suggesting that the families of ETA members be sent … where?), is important because it affects Westerners in big cities? > [@Kaleidoscope](#): > > Trying to understand them or issuing arrest warrants simply don’t work. We didn’t create these enemies, our freedom did. Why can’t you understand these terrorists? You’re proposing unjust treatment of innocent civilians in order to further what you have self-defined as an over-whelmingly important issue. I’d have thought that was pretty much the mind-set of a terrorist. Nor do I think it’s true that arrest warrants don’t work. The British police seem to have done an excellent job of investigating the bombings by treating them as crimes. Because, you know, bombing trains is a criminal act, pretty much always has been. As is conspiracy to commit murder (that’s sitting around planning to bomb trains), aiding and abetting such an act, concealing a suspect, possessing illegal explosives and a whole raft of other crimes. > [@Kaleidoscope](#): > > If relocation of a select few diminished terrorism recruitment, it is a policy that deserves serious thought. As has been pointed out, effective intelligence operations allied with good investigations appear to be pretty effective. There seems to be no evidence at all that your “solution” will have an effect at all, but reduce us to the level of barbarism displayed by terrorists. Me, if I have to risk being blown up in the Loop, I’d just as soon be occupying the moral high ground at the time. I believe that once we start believing that the ends justify the means, we’ve pretty much got nothing important left to care about anyway. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-that-is-picking-up-momentum-behind-closed-doors-on-terrorism/313697/189 "2005-07-28T14:19:31Z")
> [@Thin Lizzy](#): > > Why wait for an attack, just go ahead and deport them now! Some of them are us. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-idea-that-is-picking-up-momentum-behind-closed-doors-on-terrorism/313697.md?page=9)