Uh-uh, Nope, No Jihad Here

 
Islamic terrorist bomb attacks, whether suicide or otherwise, are coming to America. Everyone knows that; it’s only a matter of time. What the mujahideen have done in Iraq and Bali and Madrid and London they would dearly love to inflict on us, and we must assume that they are trying, twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week, to do just that.

There have been at least two reminders of this fact so far this week. The bomb threat to the New York subway and the Oklahoma “suicide” bomber represent the prodromal stage of what is certain to be a deadly and prolonged malignant effort by the Great Islamic Jihad to accomplish its objectives in the United States.

If a bomb goes off in the New York subway tomorrow morning, will Mayor Bloomberg hasten to reassure frightened New Yorkers that the bomber “had no known connection to terrorism”? Will the Chief of Police step up to the microphones and say, “As far as we know, no other persons were involved”? Will they behave like David Boren and other officials in Oklahoma?

What’s behind this urge to play down the jihadic implications of these events? Do our leaders think we Americans are too weak, too easily frightened, to hear the truth? Are they afraid of creating mass panic and an economy-damaging media obsession, as with the anthrax attacks in 2001 and the Beltway sniper in 2002?

They seem to be scripting their pronouncements based on the Ray Nagin and Kathleen Blanco playbook. When the attack finally comes, will it be George W. Bush’s fault, and the result of systemic American racism?

Seriously, though, what’s going on?

David Boren doesn’t really know that the OU bomber acted alone. Nor does he know that Joel Hinrichs had no connection to terrorists. It’s way too early to assert such things.

If it turns out that Joel Hinrichs was part of a larger jihad operation, and that operation later successfully carries out a deadly attack, David Boren’s career will be negatively impacted. What’s his motive, then, for pooh-poohing the jihad connection now?

To be sure, it postpones dealing with the issue for a little while longer. But only a little while — the other shoe may yet drop during his tenure.

It’s conceivable that officials don’t want to compromise an ongoing FBI operation, one that had already been investigating Joel Hinrichs and his buddies at the mosque. But saying “the investigation into a terrorism connection is ongoing” wouldn’t compromise anything. So why not say it?

In fact, saying “there is no connection” has the opposite effect, since it is so obviously laughable; any terrorist with half a brain knows the authorities are lying. You might as well hire a plane to fly over Norman dragging a banner that says WE ARE INVESTIGATING YOU.

So why not come out and say it?

I’m not normally a conspiracy-oriented person, but all this ham-handed dissembling is enough to make me join the tinfoil-hat brigade.