‘THERE’S A GRAND DECEPTION GOING ON’:
AN INTERVIEW WITH TERRORISM EXPERT STEVEN EMERSON

The New York Post called him “the nation’s foremost journalistic expert on terrorism.” Richard Clarke, former White House counterterrorism chief, called him the “Paul Revere of terrorism.” For 16 years, Steven Emerson has been conducting research, reporting, writing, speaking, and testifying before Congress on the threat of radical Islam.
The author of six books, Emerson is also executive director of The Investigative Project on Terrorism, one of the world’s largest storehouses of data on radical Islamic terrorist groups, and the producer of “Jihad in America,” an award-winning film on radical Muslim groups in the United States.
The Jewish Press recently spoke with him.
The Jewish Press: In the past few months, a Muslim army psychiatrist killed 13 military personnel in Fort Hood, Texas, and a Muslim passenger on a flight to Detroit nearly succeeded in blowing up a plane with 290 passengers. How do we prevent such attacks from occurring in the future?
Emerson: Look, we stopped most attacks last year through intelligence and informants. That’s really the key.
Will that be enough to stop all attacks or are you inclined to agree with Dick Cheney’s statement in 2002 that the question is not if there will be another terrorist attack on U.S. soil, but when?
There’s no doubt there will be another attack. There’s no foolproof system for preventing an attack from occurring. Even the Israelis, who have incredible intelligence, can’t stop all acts of terror.
Would more extreme measures – such as barring all Arab immigration from the Middle East or keeping a closer eye on all mosques in America – do the trick?
I don’t believe that would be constitutional. Sometimes you can wiretap, but there has to be a criminal predicate. Law enforcement can’t just walk in and tape-record something.
As far as barring immigration from the Middle East, I don’t think that’s the proper way to go. But people applying for immigration from certain countries known to sponsor terrorism should undergo better and more extensive background checks.
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