On the 25 Year Anniversary of the First World Trade Center Attack

Today is the sad anniversary of the first World Trade Center bombing. Twenty five years ago today, Islamic terrorists drov a truck bomb into the basement of the WTC, and detonated it, killing six and wounding many others.

Today, in the dueling memos of the House Intelligence Committee, we hear a lot about "sources and methods" that need to be kept secret. In 1993, instead of treating this as an act of war, President Bill Clinton treated it as a crime. And when the suspects were brought to trial, the defendants were entitled by law to "discovery": all of the evidence the prosecution had against them and how it was obtained. Sometimes referred to as "sources and methods".

The enemy defendants learning that the satellite phones they thought could not be tapped were intercepted routinely by the NSA, afterwards stopped using them to coordinate their attacks. Likewise there was an attorney doing pro-bono work for terrorists at Gitmo, who also wanted them tried in a court of law as criminals rather than enemy combatants. That would be Eric Holder, and the results would have been the same: legally requiring US intelligence agencies to give up sources and methods so that these non-citizens could be afforded all the rights of American citizens.

The liberals' idea of "lawfare", treating acts of war as criminal acts, did not end well. The terrorists redoubled their efforts and eight years later attacked again, this time with more devastating results. Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it. Terrorism is a scourge and we should not extend all of the rights and niceties that accompany US citizenship to foreign, terrorist combatants, not if we are serious in trying to end them.