When the Fox Guards the Henhouse

Published in El Pais
(Spain) on 13 March 2011
by Lluís Bassets (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Katherine Wootton. Edited by Drue Fergison.
The United States House Homeland Security Committee got a new chairman in January. It’s Peter King, the Irish-American Republican congressman, who has decided to investigate the American Muslim community, which he considers prone to radicalization and even terrorism. King is like a character from a TV show: a tough guy from Queens, turncoat congressman, son of a police officer, with strong roots in the New York Irish Catholic electorate.

After the 9/11 attacks, he advocated the use of nuclear weapons in Afghanistan. He ardently supported Bush’s global war on terror, including the use of torture. Since then, he hasn’t shied away from denouncing Muslims, whom he accuses collectively of colluding with terrorists.

All these descriptions would suffice to disqualify him from investigating terrorism among U.S. Muslims; but in his case, they’ve done the opposite. His prejudices are his principal qualification, but we can add a more serious one, which does qualify him to know what he’s talking about when it comes to terrorism. According to the definition in effect since 2001 — when Bush drew a red line between those who were against terrorism and fought it, and those who were for it, collaborated with it or justified it — Peter King himself has long been a terrorist.

King’s declarations of support for the Irish Republican Army during its bloodiest years leave no room for doubt. Nor does his affiliation with the organization Irish Northern Aid, considered to be the main channel for supplying U.S. weapons and money to Irish terrorists. The Secret Service and the FBI followed King, and when it came to making peace the Clinton administration, which played an important role as intermediary between the two sides, also relied on the terrorists’ friend in New York.

King has made his political career as one of the most prominent lobbyists for the Irish Republican movement in the U.S. First the Good Friday Agreement (1998) and later the 9/11 attacks converted King the terrorist collaborator into King the terrorism fighter. There are two notable differences: his terrorism was Catholic, while his enemies’ is Muslim, and the former did not attack the United States, while the latter considers the U.S. its main enemy.

King has convened the investigating committee to draw conclusions that corroborate his own prejudices about American Muslims. Maybe in a few years, when our own Good Friday agreement is also a thing of the past, we will have the opportunity to see someone of Arnaldo Otegui’s caliber chair a parliamentary committee that’s investigating the new terrorist threat of the time.


Cuando el zorro guarda el gallinero
El Comité de Seguridad Interior del Congreso de Estados Unidos tiene desde enero un nuevo presidente. Se trata de Peter King, un congresista republicano y de ascendencia irlandesa, que ha decidido investigar a la comunidad musulmana estadounidense, a la que considera propensa a la radicalización e incluso al terrorismo. King es un personaje de teleserie: un duro de Queens, parlamentario chaquetero, hijo de policía y sólidamente enraizado en el electorado católico irlandés de Nueva York.

Después de los atentados del 11-S propugnó el uso de armas nucleares en Afganistán. Apoyó ardorosamente la guerra global contra el terror de Bush, incluyendo la utilización de la tortura. No se corta un pelo, desde entonces, en denunciar a los musulmanes, a los que acusa colectivamente de connivencia con los terroristas.

Todos estos títulos bastarían para descalificarle para investigar la penetración del terrorismo entre los musulmanes de EE UU. En su caso es lo contrario. Sus perjuicios son su principal credencial, a la que se añade otra más seria y que esa sí le permite saber de qué habla cuando se trata de terrorismo: el propio Peter King ha sido durante mucho tiempo un terrorista según los estándares aplicados por Bush desde 2001, cuando marcó una línea roja entre los que estaban en contra y lo combatían y quienes estaban a favor, colaboraban con él o lo justificaban.

Sus declaraciones de apoyo al IRA en sus años más sangrientos no ofrecen lugar a dudas. Tampoco su militancia en la asociación Ireland Northern Aid, considerada como el principal canal estadounidense de aprovisionamiento de armas y dinero para los terroristas irlandeses. Los servicios secretos y el FBI siguieron sus pasos, y cuando fue cuestión de hacer la paz, la Administración de Bill Clinton, que tan relevante papel jugó como intermediario entre las partes, contó también con el amigo que los terroristas tenían en Nueva York.

King ha hecho su carrera política como uno de los más destacados agentes del lobby republicano irlandés en EE UU. Los Acuerdos del Viernes Santo (1998) primero y los atentados del 11-S más tarde convirtieron al King que colaboraba con el terrorismo en el King que combate el terrorismo. Con dos diferencias notables: el suyo era católico, mientras el de sus enemigos es musulmán; el primero no combatía a EE UU, el segundo lo considera su principal enemigo.

King ha convocado al comité de investigación para corroborar como conclusiones sus propios prejuicios sobre los musulmanes americanos. Quizá dentro de unos pocos años, cuando nuestros propios acuerdos del Viernes Santo sean también cosa del pasado, podremos ver a alguien del calibre de Arnaldo Otegui presidiendo una comisión parlamentaria que investigue la nueva amenaza terrorista de la época.
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