Credit Where Credit is Due
By Bernard B. Kerik

This week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey arrested and charged six men with plotting to massacre soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Four of them were ethnic Albanians from the former Yugoslavia, one from Jordan and one from Turkey. Three out of the six were in this country illegally.

According to several published reports, the men were preparing to buy automatic weapons to use in the attack on Fort Dix when they were arrested. They targeted the U.S. Army post 25 miles east of Philadelphia which is primarily used to train military reservists. Their objective was to kill “as many American soldiers as possible”. They were even said to have taken a training trip to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, where they fired weapons and played paintball games in preparation for the attack.

Smack in the middle of this global war against terror, the FBI, working with the U.S. Department of Justice, conducts an operation that touches on every aspect of what we should all fear most today in a post 9/11 world; U.S. based cells of Islamic radical extremists, training with and buying automatics weapons, illegal immigration and the targeting of the U.S. government, specifically our military. The plot is foiled, the suspects are arrested and charged and eventually will be held accountable for their actions.

Just as deafly silent as the air was on the morning of September 11th after the towers fell, so too are the voices of our political leaders today following this operation. Where are those that are so fast to criticize the FBI, CIA and DOJ? Where are those that hold Sunday morning press conferences and attack our federal law enforcement authorities, when there is even a mere perception of  error.  Likewise, where are those that call for the removal of the Department of Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, the National Security Intercept Program, and other critical reforms created post 9/11?

The U.S. government agencies responsible for intercepting and foiling this enemy planned attack, should have been acknowledged, applauded and commended for their work and success. To the contrary, however, the airwaves are so transparently silent that it defies logic, description or understanding. One has to wonder, why? If our political leaders were as fast to acknowledge and give credit where credit is due, as they are to criticize and commit to political attacks, perhaps their constituents would begin to believe that they are truly concerned for our safety and security, and not just for the security of the very political seats they hold. Given the world we live in today and the threats we face, they should be even quicker to praise, commend and applaud our public servants. And yet, not one public notice or thank you.

So, to the men and woman involved in this case and so many others that we never hear about, on behalf of the millions of Americans that have the same concerns and fears that I do for my family and this country in the years ahead, thank you for a job well done.  Keep up the great work and stay safe always.

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