Myrick videos warn of terrorism
Charlotte lawmaker says Fort Hood shootings and airplane bombing attempt are 'tips of the iceberg.'
By Barbara Barrett
Washington Correspondent
Posted: Saturday, Jan. 09, 2010
WASHINGTON The American people aren't being told the truth about terrorism, according to U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick.

In the wake of a failed attack on a plane bound for Detroit in December, she warns on two new videos that citizens haven't been told that some people are willing to blow themselves up to hurt Americans, that jihadists exist who want to destroy Western democracies, that extremists are being radicalized through the Internet.

Myrick, a Charlotte Republican, launched an ongoing YouTube video series last week. In the first video, called "Beyond Terrorism: The Whole Story," she warns that extremists may live in our midst, perhaps even in our government.

"You're not being told the whole story about why these incidents are happening," Myrick tells the camera. "This is something that nobody ever tells you."

Myrick, a member of the House Intelligence Committee for nearly a year, has long been worried about extreme Islam and jihadists. She held a roundtable last summer billed as the Moderate Muslim Summit on how to bring more anti-extremist views to the government's attention, and she has called for an investigation into a pro-Muslim advocacy organization.

In an interview with The Charlotte Observer, Myrick said Friday she wants to educate the public about the larger terrorism picture, to help them connect the dots between an airplane near-miss here in the United States and the web of organizations abroad.

"This isn't something that's going to go away. The radical Islamists have long-term plans, and they're willing to wait," Myrick said. "Unless you're really educated on this, it sounds pretty far-fetched and wacky."

Myrick said the videos weren't about broad-brushing the Muslim religion, but about starting conversations among Americans and teaching them to be watchful in their communities.

So far, Myrick has posted two related videos on her congressional website. On them, she warns that the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt outside Detroit and the mass shooting last year at Fort Hood, Texas, are mere "tips of the iceberg" in what she calls a jihad against America.

"There's a lot of radicalization on the Internet today," she says on the first video.

"There is radicalization in the mosques; there are people who have been indoctrinated into the same line of thinking who are in positions in our government."

In the second video, called "Fort Hood: What You're Not Hearing," Myrick's views are interspersed with four experts, including a cloaked former FBI agent, about the mass shooting by Army Maj. Nidal Hasan in November.

Among them is Steve Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, a frequent Fox News commentator who has advocated airport screening based in part on religion and ethnicity. In the Myrick video, he tells an unseen interviewer, "Maj. Hasan was an unequivocally Islamist terrorist committed to jihad."

Upcoming videos may include snippets from last summer's roundtable, or about the Muslim Brotherhood organization, Myrick said Friday.

"I call it a conversation with America," she said. "I want us as a country to talk about this, because it's like the elephant in the room. We need to face the problems that we have."

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/topsto ... 69664.html

Videos at link