Rep. Jane Harman held a hearing today on homegrown terrorism. The issue has resurfaced in the wake of the arrest of five American Muslims in Pakistan, where they were allegedly attempting to enlist in jihad against the U.S. A Chicago man was also recently charged with participating in the Mumbai attacks.
Harman has taken some heat from civil liberties advocates for taking on this issue in the past. Harman authored a bill two years ago to set up a center to study violent radicalization, which some characterized as an open door to infringement on free speech. (She disagrees.) The bill passed the House, but died in the Senate.
Today, Harman took on the issue again, convening a panel of experts from the ACLU and the RAND Corporation. At one point, she got into a back-and-forth with Michael Macleod-Ball, the acting director of the ACLU's Washington legislative office:
Harman wasn't satisfied with Macleod-Ball's assertion that protecting the First Amendment promotes security.
Harman also discussed the topic with Andrea Mitchell today, who seems to interview Harman even more often than I do:"Of course we must protect these freedoms," she said, "but we also
must prevent recruiters from cherry-picking kids from our communities
and sending them to become jihadists overseas."
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