Forget the banter about Paris Hilton among the panelists on last evening's Fox News Watch. A deadly-serious matter later arose. Conservative columnist Jim Pinkerton flatly alleged that to promote multiculturalism and allay Americans' concerns about immigration, the MSM and the Department of Homeland Security spiked a story about a terrorist dry run by 12 Syrians.
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Pinkerton had discussed the story in a recent Newsday column:
Discussing the matter on Fox News Watch last evening at 6:43 pm EDT, Pinkerton observed:
JIM PINKERTON: The case three years ago where 12 Syrians, as in carrying Syrian passports, got on an airplane, did suspicious things, went to the lavatory, made hand-signal to each other. The passengers at the time reported this as an incident. The cops interviewed them, let them go, they hadn't done anything, at least officially.
As Pinkerton had detailed in his column, "DHS officials declared that the Americans were 'hysterical' in their reaction to the Syrians, chalking up the incident to cultural misunderstanding, if not outright racism. But now the story gets worse, from a trust-the-government point of view. The DHS inspector general looked into the incident, completing a report March 30, 2006, confirming the eyewitness accounts of suspicious behavior, raising the distinct possibility that the Syrians' actions aboard the plane were part of a "dry run" for an attack."
PINKERTON: And then the Homeland Security Department buried it for three years until the Washington Times broke the story. That was a big story, and it speaks to the larger issue, which is the media are systematically trying to squelch concerns about domestic terrorism in the name of defending multiculturalism.
Interestingly, the generally left-leaning Jane Hall was of a similar mind.
JANE HALL: I think the Washington Times story was very serious and bravo to them for reporting it. And I agree with Rich [Lowry, of the National Review, pinch-hitting for Cal Thomas] that if you think we should be concerned about this, somehow you're a Bush supporter, I mean, as opposed to you want the country to have a decent homeland security operation.
PINKERTON: To make it more perverse, the Bush supporters, like Michael Chertoff, who is the Homeland Security Secretary, they want to squelch this because they want to keep the immigration bill alive. They want open borders, that's part of their plan. They don't want to make people afraid here at home.
Pinkerton feels so strongly about the issue that he closed his Newsday column by asking: "Why does DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff still have his job?"
Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net
