PlanetAlbany

Surveillance much better than stings

I'm glad to see some push-back from Muslims and othersin support of the New York City Police Department's surveillance tactics that seek to prevent terrorist attacks. The NYPD is doing exactly what the FBI and Justice Department should be doing -- instead of conducting sting operations which may have railroaded "a significant number of Muslims who were in fact innocent of any crime," including two in Albany at a trial I covered.

Those two, Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain, are currently serving 15-year sentences in federal prison. The U.S. District Court said it wasn't entrapment, but that's sure what it looked like to me and most of the other reporters who were therein 2006. Aref and Hossain ought to be released immediately in the interest of justice.  And the feds should emulate the NYPD in trying to prevent actual terrorism, instead of inventing plots into which they try to lure innocent people.

Local troops leave for training mission

"New York soldiers to train Afghan army, police", says today's Saratogian. Forty-five National Guard soldiers, some from the Albany area, left Wednesday for a nine-month deployment to Afghanistan "where they will advise and train Afghan National Army and police."

Does anyone think this is a good idea? Does President Obama? Do the three hawkish Republican presidential candidates (Romney, Santorum and Gingrich)? If so, they ought to explain publicly why, since the main threat to our soldiers is currently coming from people they are supposed to be advising and training. There are other ways U.S. money can be used for training at much less risk to our soldiers.

Politicians tend to think in terms of their own political advantage, e.g. "Will x make me -- or him -- look weak?" This issue cries out for nonpolitical, rational, yet urgent reappraisal and consensus.

Two more U.S. soldiers killed by purported allies

These deaths bring to six the number of American soldiers apparently killed by Afghan security forces since the protests over burned Korans began a week or two ago. A switch in strategy along the lines advocated by Fareed Zakaria seems overdue. But the main point has little to do with politics or strategy, yet is as sharp to me -- with two U.S. Army veterans of Afghanistan in the family, both having served two tours, one due to go back soon -- as Occam's Razor: How can we keep deploying our soldiers there as trainers for the Afghan army and police, when the main threat to them now comes precisely from the people they are training? So bring them home, now.