A Study in Contemporary History

Contemporary History 101
Term Paper
UCLA: Spring Semester 2020
Instructor: Jeffery Smith

It was called the American Hiroshima.

Within 24 hours of eight American cities suffering the effects of radiation and blast damage in June of 2010, Islamic terrorists claimed responsibility. Immediately middle-east and far-east Muslim news outlets praised the attacks as a retribution from Allah.

Those are the widely known facts. But my research, as this paper will show, based on sources in the government who now have come forth years later, will show what actually transpired after the attack and the outcome that we live with today.

In less than week after the attack, a vast majority of Americans demanded retaliation on someone – anyone - for the hundreds of thousands of American killed or dying from radiation poison. Not to mention the economic havoc caused by the total disruption of commerce between our major cities after New York, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Boston were nuked. Within the week, the DOW had dropped 10,000 points and the NASDQ Index was virtually wiped out.

Only Washington DC was spared when the nuke misfired and did not initiate a nuclear detonation in a subway car under the Capital. The ‘dirty bomb’ and the resulting radioactivity was contained underground.

The White House under President Giuliani was stormed with demands from Americans to revenge the dead. Some mosques across the country were bombed or set aflame with some Muslim congregation casualties and many middle-east looking places of businesses were ransacked by mobs. CAIR and other Islamic civil rights organizations demanded that the White House protect Muslim-Americans. The President called out the National Guard and imposed a curfew on the affected cities threatening martial law in the personal retributions did not cease.

Based on transcripts from White House meetings that week President Giuliani knew an incorrect response would hurl the world into a holy war that would result in hundreds of millions of people dead that would make WWII look like a domestic squabble. He was quite aware of, and warned against in his campaign speeches that Islamists wanted to actually bring on this holy war. They had to force America to violently and irrationally act in order to gain the rabid support of over one billion Muslim throughout the world. Giuliani knew that any reaction by America – passive or active – would give the Islamists the proof that America was either too weak to respond to attack or would embark on persecuting Muslims in their midst. Thus was the impetus for his historic speech to the nation on June 11, 2010. It’s reproduced here.

My fellow Americans

I come to you tonight with a heavy heart. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are either dead or dying this week and you want to know how we will respond to this infamous attack.

I have a response to your requests tonight. But first in order to execute a proper response to those that have killed so many our fellow Americans, you need to know that these attacks had two objectives in mind. One, to kill as many Americans as possible and two, to elicit a response that they hope for.

But let me clear the air of just who our enemy is, was, and will continue to be in the future.

Our enemy is an ideology. The ideology of Islamism. And that’s important to understand. It’s not just a group of fanatical individuals we call terrorists nor is it a war on terror. Our war against the ideology of Islamism begins with terrorism, but it does not end there. It will not end until every Islamist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated. Both overseas and this country as well.

As before 1941, we have underestimated the power of a fascist ideology. Islamists want to overthrow existing governments in many Muslim countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. They want to drive Israel out of the Middle East. They want to drive Christians and Jews out of vast regions of Asia and Africa. The violent adherents of Islamism kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life. With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends. They stand against us, because we stand in their way.

But Islamism has its non-violent side, too. They are waging a form of jihad on the free world that is more insidious than the out right tactics of their terrorists. The non-violent jihads seek to intimidate, infiltrate and misinform us in an attempt to soften us up, so to speak, by confusing our response to their overall aggressive agenda of domination by their Islamist ideology. These jihads must be identified and countered in our freedom loving and pluralistic society for they, though not in themselves violent, have the same objective as the overall Islamist ideology –the imposition of Sharia law upon non-Muslim and moderate Muslim nations alike.

That’s what and who we are fighting. But there is one other objective of the Islamists. If our response to this weeks barbaric attack on our nation is uncontrolled and indiscriminate revenge, we would have given the Islamists the weapon they need to recruit Muslims around the world to their holy war.

I will not give them that weapon.

I know many of you want revenge and retaliation on anyone or any place that might have contributed to the slaughter of so many innocent Americans this week no matter how distant. But now that America has awakened to the threat before us and the voices of appeasement and restraint have been drowned out, we need to respond with a rational and logical plan of retaliation and defense that would not alienate our Muslim-Americans. Though the Executive Order I signed tonight will bring concern to many Muslim-Americans, I believe they will see the logic in it and work with their fellow Americans to make this country safe again and defeat the enemy both without and within.

The Executive Order I signed tonight will remove the different weapons that the supporters of the Islamist ideology use against us, find those that work to strike us again in our homeland, remove the cancerous indoctrination of Muslim-American youth, and stop the invasion we are facing.

First, if and when we can definitely determine if any country or countries were directly responsible for providing these nuclear weapons to the terrorists, we will take swift and deadly action upon their nation. Tracing the weapons back to their source and definitely proving in the court of world opinion that a certain nation or nations is responsible will not be easy but we will diligently pursue that path and seek retribution.

Second, our country has been invaded. There is no other word for it. Those that executed this infamous act were able to obtain these weapons by having them cross our borders. We can not afford to have that happen again. As of tonight, I have ordered the National Guard supported by the Armed Forces of this nation to secure the Canadian and Mexican borders.

Third, I have ordered the cessation of all immigration to the United States until the time when the INS is able to perform its duties properly in accordance with protecting the sovereignty of this nation. The INS must vet every documented and non-documented alien in the country before any new immigration will be allowed to take place. It is up to Congress to pass a fair and workable law in this regard.

Fourth, I have ordered that all mosques in this country register with Homeland Security, that their imams be vetted for loyalty to the United States, and all lectures be given in English and provided weekly to Homeland Security.

Fifth, as of tonight the sedition laws on the books will be enforced. Anyone person or organization that preaches the destruction of the United States or its downfall or the replacement of our Constitution with some other form of governance will be deemed a seditionist. This will not affect criticism of Administration policies as long as it does not advocate overthrow of the government. Criticisms in the free press will continue and legal suits can continue to be filed through our court system under the protection of the Constitution.

Sixth, the preaching or teaching of Sharia law or attempts at implementing such a law will not be permitted. Attempts at the imposition of Sharia law in this country – the political objective of Islamism - will fall under the sedition laws.

Seventh, all non-profit charitable organizations and foundations that support middle-east humanitarian services will cease operation until they can be properly vetted for support of terrorism, terrorist states or organizations, and seditious organizations in this country as deemed by the Department of Justice and Congress.

Finally, our dependence on foreign energy sources is a threat to national security and it must cease. I have ordered a 10-year plan that will open every and all possible sources for oil in the country to drilling and have ordered a fast track permit program for nuclear energy. Tax credits will be issued to any and all companies and individuals who develop or use alternative technologies to reduce the use of oil and natural gas products. I’ve ordered the temporary lifting of controls on the mining and use of coal in this country. We have more coal in this country than the entire middle-east has oil. We have a national crisis on our hands and we are going to use the coal – cleanly.

Some will feel that this executive order is too draconian. But I ask you, my fellow Americans, the alternative is worse for Muslim-Americans and our Constitution. As I said, I will not give the Islamist the ultimate weapon they seek. I will not allow the persecution of Muslim-Americans or threaten them with internment camps. I warn those who will try and take foreign policy into their own hands in this country or seek to unilaterally initiate meetings with declared enemies of this country. Hate crimes will be dealt swiftly and harshly. All Muslim-Americans will be treated as Americans and not as enemy combatants and will be protected under the laws of the United States.

I hope both Muslim and non-Muslim citizens alike can accept that this executive order as the correct way to deal with the threat before us without giving the enemy the weapon they seek. If so, our nation can see itself through this crisis, defeat our enemy, and once again help create a peaceful world.

Good night and God bless.

One moderate, anti-Islamic organization called the American Islamic Forum for Democracy followed up on the President’s speech with this press release. The call for a proactive approach by Muslim-Americans. The pertinent parts to the president’s executive order follows:

While the engagement by government of the (actual) Muslim community is to be lauded and a necessary component of victory against the ideology of militant Islamism, that engagement must be done in the setting of clear ideological standards. Those standards should be articulated as follows:

The Rejection of Islamism as a political ideology-- Simply being 'anti-terror' does not make a Muslim necessarily moderate in the American context. It simply gives him or her a seat at the table of humanity. It is a core belief at the AIFD that political moderation within the Muslim community is manifested most significantly in a rejection of political Islam (anti-Islamism).

A Rejection of the concept of the 'Islamic state'- Islamist Muslims may endorse democracies, elections, citizenship, and the rule of law, but they are driven by an overriding vision of a Muslim majority society led by theologians (imams and clerics) who run government through their interpretation and enactment of Islamic law (sharia). Our government should engage anti-Islamist Muslims predominantly and at the minimum- non-Islamist Muslims. The ideology of Islamism- or the desire to put into place an 'Islamic state'- is a clear and present danger to free people everywhere and directly conflicts with the interests of the United States. Muslim moderates are those who embrace both Americanism and a spiritual Islam while wholly rejecting Islamism as a movement for the body politic and government of every nation, and not just the one they happen to live in as a minority. Moderate Muslims unequivocally advocate for American Constitutional government above all other forms of governance whether Muslims are a minority or a majority.

Identification of radical Islamist organizations by name as enemies of the United States- Moderate Muslims are able to both condemn terrorism as an act, as well as the individuals and organizations -by name -that utilize terrorism as a tactic for political change. Thus, a moderate Muslim should be able to identify radical Islamist organizations by name such as Al Qaeda, HAMAS, Hezbullah, and Islamic Jihad as ideological enemies of America. Similarly, moderate Muslims should condemn by name global Islamist organizations which seek to put into place Islamic states such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Hizb ut-Tahrir, or Tabligh Jamaat. While these organizations may at times "condemn terrorism" they often offer apologetics (if not justifications) for terrorism and seek the establishment of both individual Islamic states and a global or regional caliphate of them. Anti-Islamism is central to being moderate in the American context.

The acceptance that the root cause of terrorism is political Islam. Terror is only a means to the ends of the Islamic state. While many Islamists may say they are against "terror," moderate, liberty-loving Muslims accept the fact that the root cause of terrorism is the ideology of Islamism and its intoxicating dreams of the Islamic state poised against the ascendancy of western secular democracies. To blame American foreign policy and other conspiracy theories for terrorism is to live in denial.

To articulate the toxic role that Wahhabism (a radical Saudi Arabian interpretation of Islam) has had upon the radicalization of some members of the Muslim community. We must acknowledge the reality that 15 of the 19 terrorists who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks were indoctrinated in the Wahhabiist ideology of jihad and its global goals.

Separate faith (spirituality) and nationalism. Moderate Muslims in the west reject the mixture of their membership in the Muslim community with their citizenship or membership in their nation's military. Moderate Muslims understand that the personal practice of Islam, like all the world religions, is threatened when a government is driven by the interpretation of any one faith and not simply by overriding universal human principles 'under God'.

To advocate for individual freedom and liberty. Moderate Muslims stand firmly for gender equality, free speech and against Islamist laws concerning blasphemy and apostasy both within the Muslim community and outside the Muslim community.

To acknowledge that much of current Islamic jurisprudence (sharia) is in dire need of ijtihad (reform) and being brought into the 21st century and modernity with a focus on liberty. Just as Christianity and other faiths underwent reformation, so too is much of the current legal doctrine of Islam in need of a similar modernization to be in full synergy with the principles of individual freedom, limited constitutional government, and the separation of religion and state.

Moderate Muslims refuse to accept victimization as the focus of Muslim activism in the U.S. They accept the fact that Muslims should rather be leading counterterrorism against militant Islamists in the U.S. and around the world.

And so our nation over the next ten years played that most American of games – catch up.

The nation did meet its ten year plan to remove its dependence on foreign energy sources. Over time the majority of Muslim-Americans supported the Presidential order helped by no small means with what was happening in Europe. Out right civil war had broken out between Muslim and non-Muslim populations supported on the continent by Islamic insurgency from southern Muslim Russia and through Turkey from Islamic jihadists from the middle-east. Only Great Britain was able to contain the violence due to it being separated from the continent of Europe by the English Channel.

Seeing the chaos in Europe and the resulting murder and persecution of Muslims that resulted in the civil war, Muslim-Americans vowed never to have that happen in the U.S. and those that agitated for the Islamist agenda were reported to the authorities by Muslim-Americans.

In turn, the moderate Muslim nations saw that America stood by its Constitution and the rights of Muslim-Americans thus defeating the plans of the Islamists to recruit them to a holy war. It was a rough dozen of so years but the world settled into an uneasy peace where what many liberals demanded came to pass. Breathing room for talk and negotiation without the threat of violence by those who would seek to undermine that attempt at consensus. Islam and democracy settled into sort of a ‘glasnost’ and the religion of Islam shed almost its entire political Islamic agenda.

The Islamists, stripped of their weapon of holy war, were slowly dealt with over the next ten years and other free nations joined the US in removing their threats to national security as outlined in the Presidents speech.