Tonight’s NCIS: Los Angeles episode, “Defectors,” was supposed to run last week but was postponed because of the Paris terror attacks. The episode deals with recruitment of American teenage girls for ISIS, which, sadly, is actually happening, and it is especially relevant in light of the female terrorist involved in Paris.
In this episode, a teenager born to Iraqi refugee parents, named Zahra, is missing. A terrorist called Badr Al Din is found to be recruiting American teenage girls to become ISIS brides through a modeling agency. Innocent-looking enough, the principals in the agency play on vulnerable young girls’ dreams of a model’s life. Her clueless parents had no idea Zahra was being sucked into ISIS. “They are coming for our children,” Hetty Lange warns ominously.
Father: A lady came to our table. She wanted to talk to Zahra about modeling.
Sam: Zahra got in contact with her?
Father: Yes. But all that came of it was some photo shoot. I don't think they've spoken again since then.
Mother: Zahra never mentioned her name again. Uh, Allison, I think it was. But it's hardly ISIS, is it?
Eric: Hetty, you're not gonna like this.
Hetty: Lay it on me thick, Mr. Beale.
(Sighs) We found Zahra Yacoob.
Hetty: Is she alive?
Nell: That's the good news. The bad news is she's been watching ISIS propaganda videos.
Eric: We think she used a fake passport to board a flight to Ataturk International in Istanbul this morning.
Hetty: They're coming for our children.
Nell: The videos she's watched lead us to believe that Zahra is going to offer herself as an ISIS bride.
Hetty: We're going to stop it. I need you to get in touch with Turkish authorities. Tell them to meet her at the gate.
Eric: Yeah.
The terror ring takes girls to the airport and flies them to Turkey or Iran. From there they go on to become comfort women for brutal ISIS terrorists.
The female owner of the modeling agency, as it turns out, has a boyfriend on the terror watch list. She doesn’t have a passport herself and claims to have never been to the Middle East but she is setting girls on a “righteous path.” When confronted with the evil of ISIS, she sounds brainwashed as she reasons that girls beaten and abused by ISIS “must have done something to deserve it.”
Callen: You know good manners isn't gonna change where we're sending you, right?
Nicole: It doesn't really matter where you send me. I'm still not going to talk.
Sam: Are you waiting for your lawyer? You know we can keep you.
Nicole: No, I don't need a lawyer, either. I'm just not gonna cooperate.
Sam: Well, we'll see about that. Born and raised in Arizona. Dropped out of Arizona State to become a receptionist at Daddy's office. Moved to L.A. In 2012. Says here you don't have a passport. So? Have you ever been to the Middle East?
Nicole: I went to Tijuana once.
Callen: But you have no problem taking young girls from their families, sending them halfway around the world to a place you've never been to marry terrorists?
Nicole: (Quiet laugh) So typical. You label anyone you don't understand as a terrorist.
Callen: Your boyfriend there is Faraz Hadi. He was born in Detroit and currently he is on the FBI watch list as a suspected ISIS fighter.
Sam: The Islamic State is not what you think it is. These girls are gonna be sold, whipped, stoned to death.
Nicole: Then they must have done something to deserve that punishment. I can only guide these girls towards a more righteous path. What happens after that is on them.
That’s a standard in liberal thinking – you just label people you don’t understand. One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, and other false moral equivalence. Kudos to CBS for not falling into that trap on this one, though. This time they got it right and put the spotlight on the very serious issue of women under ISIS control being "sold, whipped, stoned to death" - and worse.
