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Speak Out
The threat is real
Mr. Ducker's article on whether or not to support the Justice Departments request to interview local residents in support of the terrorism investigation left out some very important background information.
The Al-Qaeda terrorists have been involved in attacking and killing Americans for over 10 years. Some prime examples include the bombing of the Marine barracks, the bombing of the destroyer U.S.S. Cole, the 1992 bombing of the World Trade Center and of course its destruction as well as a portion of the Pentagon in Washington DC. Over 3,000 people were murdered in cold blood in these recent incidences. Included were people of all races, all religions, and all nationalities including countries in the Middle East. The Justice Department has a massive job in conducting the investigation to apprehend the guilty parties and needs all the help it can get from local police departments. Conducting voluntary interviews I don't believe interferes with anybody's rights.
Al-Qaeda cells are operating all over the world, all over this country, and in the South Bay, as was reported by NBC News. I think its presumptive to state that on the basis of a sample of eleven names out of probably several thousand that the Justice Department picked these people by profiling. I'm sure that many factors were used, otherwise the list would have several million names on it with a Middle East origin. In the same way that you would expect to find Irish Sir names if you were investigating Irish terrorists, or German Sir names if you were investigating German terrorists, and so on,
Following the "What If" theme in The Sun article I would like to present the following--What should we do in the bay area if terrorists destroyed the Golden Gate bridge? Sunnyvale's water~purification plant? San Jose's waste treatment plant? The control tower at the San Jose Airport? Or even poisoned Sunnyvale's water supply?
These are serious, worrisome and difficult times. Our government needs all the help it can get if we are going to prevent future acts of terrorism. I applaud the four council members who supported the Justice Department's request. As for The Sun and the three council members who did not, I question whether they took all the factors into account before making a decision.
Werner Gans
Sunnyvale
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
