Right to report suspicious activity needs safeguarding
In response, Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., introduced the "Protecting Americans Fighting Terrorism Act of 2007." The act would give legal immunity to citizens who report suspicious activity in good faith. Its provisions are retroactive to Nov. 20, in order to protect the "John Does" targeted by the flying imams.
Rep. John Kline of Minnesota's Second District, one of the bill's cosponsors, say its passage is an urgent matter. "The core of our Homeland Security system is reliance on everyday citizens to report suspicious activity," he told me.
People who fear a retaliatory lawsuit are far less likely to do so, he said.
The bill's sponsors submitted it as an amendment to another bill in March. It passed 304-121. Every House Republican and 105 Democrats voted for the it. Opponents included Minnesota's Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum and Jim Oberstar.
"This bill should have sailed through the House and the Senate and been on the president's desk in a week," says Kline. "It's amazing to me that some people still don't understand the nature of the threat we face."
One of those people being Congressman Ellison, who took quiet a bit of campaign money from Council on American Islamic Relations. Not only did CAIR give Keith money, but so did Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and on whose desk the bill is now languishing. Seems CAIR's cronyism is paying off.
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