Surely we all want our government to protect us from the types of atrocities that occurred on 9/11. Surely we all want the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to succeed in its mission of preventing terrorists from doing harm. The government’s actions against Ibrahim Parlak, however, provide substantial cause for concern.

For either the DHS feels that the danger of terrorists in our midst has subsided to the point where they may now turn their scrutiny to old allegations against a former Kurdish rights activist -- or they are just too unfocused to know how to battle the real enemies of this nation.

Those enemies clearly do not include Ibrahim Parlak. What has happened (and continues to happen) to Parlak is far more than a personal tragedy for him and his extended family. It is a warning to us all that, like our pre-9/11 intelligence failures, the U.S. continues to have trouble focusing its resources effectively.

That is the real danger in our midst. It is not Ibrahim.

David Maidenberg
Red Arrow News

Autumn 2005