My goodness, this discussion has gone on while I was away. We have Leprechaun whose over whelming paperwork keeps him from protecting us though he is in a "target rich environment". We have Don Firth whose experience is that the FBI wasn't all that concened with criminals but was concerned with watching the subversive elements of nonconformity. And we have Guest who apparently believes we should unleash the FBI so they can protect us from those evil Islamic terrorists. Does that about sum it up?

Where to begin? Let's combine Larry's concern about the FBI checking out Quaker meetings with Guest's determination that the law isn't concerned with a few Quakers. After 9/11 he's probably right. Quakers aren't likely to oppose anything but violence and the FBI's resources are stretched tight. BUT the FBI does want to attend meetings of Islamic groups. Isn't that like checking up on the Quakers? Only we all "know" that every Muslim in the USA is out to emulate their brothers and knock down another tower. So it must be all right to spy on them. Hey! That's a target rich environment.

But it ain't so. Some of those "evil" ones are really just American citizens being persecuted because some people who share a similar religion went way too far. Others are people visiting this country for good reasons, rational reasons, and would be horrified to be invited to participate in such actions.

And a very tiny percentage of those who follow Islam are truly evil.

So here we go, persecuting a whole segment of the population of this country to find a few bad apples. Does that sound right to you? Reawaken Joe McCarthy and his cronies to ride again.

And, before you justify it with some vague arguments please note that the SECOND worst terrorist act in the USA was commited in Oklahoma City by... a US citizen! And that one took people by surprise too.