Harman can't understand how someone who expresses radical and violent ideologies turns into a terrorist

"Democrats are joining a chorus led by [President] Obama in declaring the government's intelligence procedures in need of repair. Among them, Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., said that when the government gets tipped to trouble as it did before a Nigerian man boarded a Detroit-bound jet with explosives, "someone's hair should be on fire." - Source, the AP

Unfortunately, it is due to the scattered-brain policies of people like Jane Harman and Barack Obama that we are in this sorry state of affairs right now.

On Dec. 15, Jane Harman presided over a hearing of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, which addressed the following question: "Violent extremism: How people are moved from constitutionally-protected thought to acts of terrorism?"

The wording of that question, in and of itself, should raise eye-brows:

Here's what Rep. Harman said during her opening remarks at the hearing. [In attendance at the hearing, were also several members of the ACLU, who, of course, share a large part of the responsibility for our country's security woes.]:

Since early 2007, we've held a serious of careful hearings to understand how someone with radical views, which are protected by our constitution - let me say that again, 'radical views which are protected by our constitution' - becomes willing to engage in violent behavior, and in some cases to seek to inflict maximum harm on a maximum number of innocent civilians.... I hope our witnesses [from the ACLU] can help us to separate the intellectual process of committing to a political agenda, protected by the first amendment, from the operational process of moving from non-violence to violence... "

Later in the day, MSNBC anchor, Andrea Mitchell, had the following exchange with Rep. Harman:

MITCHELL: Let's talk about some of these extremists and the use of social networking. Talk about what you've learned through your examination about the way the new technologies - not just email now, but all kinds of other social networking - is helping to recruit some of these young people from our own country.

HARMAN: Well let me be clear, Andrea. We're not talking about holding extreme views. Holding extreme views is protected by the first amendment to our constitution. And, being with people who hold extreme views is also protected. It's violent behavior that is the problem. And we're trying to understand how someone who holds extreme views... transitions into a terrorist and where to intervene - again, consistent with our laws and our values. So, we held another hearing today with the head of the Arab American Institute, the ACLU and a couple of scholars to try to understand better what's happening....

So, according to Harman, Obama and the rest of the gang, "holding extreme views is protected by the first amendment to our constitution. And, being with people who hold extreme views is also protected." Nonetheless, Harman is having difficulty understanding "how someone who holds extreme views transitions into a terrorist."

A conundrum, indeed......

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