On November 27, 2006, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich spoke candidly in Manchester, New Hampshire of the risks of losing an American city to terrorists. Here are his words:
“We need to get ahead of the curve rather than wait until we actually literally lose a city, which I think could literally happen in the next decade if we're unfortunate.”
At the time, the media responded with cries of incredulity that Gingrich could even suggest such a possibility as a potential reality. Indeed, the networks and cable news channels paraded a series of talking heads to explain why this was nothing more than shrill partisan gibberish that should be ignored.
Yet, like Winston Churchill, who warned about German activities in the years leading up to World War II (as chronicled in The Gathering Storm), the former Speaker of the House has also often been a lone voice warning of future horrible realities and calling on the United States to strengthen itself against a continuing terrorist threat.
(Indeed, also like the former British Prime Minister turned author - Churchill authored Marlborough: His Life and Time and A History of the English-Speaking Peoples - Gingrich too has authored books addressing the growing threat to America - Winning the Future; Real Change; and To Save America.)
Notwithstanding the media’s and the Obama Administration’s effort to trivialize it, the former Speaker’s warning resonated in the hearts and minds of many Americans who vividly remember September 11, 2001. Now, it appears that like Churchill, history is validating the abiding sense of truth in Gingrich’s seemingly prophetic prognostication.
On Christmas Day of last year, 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane over Detroit, Michigan. But for Abdulmutallab’s bungled attempt at midair detonation over Detroit, the United States would have suffered its worst Christmas Day disaster in history.
Notwithstanding the facts that: (1) Abdulmutallab’s father warned U. S. authorities about his son; (2) Abdulmutallab was on the government’s Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE list; and, (3) he had purchased a one-way ticket with cash, President Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napalitano said that everything worked fine.
Then, less than two months later on February 2, 2010, Senator Diane Feinstein (Democrat, California) asked the following straightforward question to top intelligence officials of the United States government appearing before the United States Select Committee on Intelligence:
“What is the likelihood of another terrorist-attempted attack on the U.S. homeland in the next three to six months? High or low? Director Blair?”
Here are the exact answers to that question in testimony to Congress:
“Mr. DENNIS BLAIR (Director, National Intelligence Council): An attempted attack, the priority is certain, I would say.
Sen. FEINSTEIN: Mr. Panetta?
Mr. LEON PANETTA (Director, Central Intelligence Agency): I would agree with that.
Sen. FEINSTEIN: Mr. Mueller?
Mr. ROBERT MUELLER (Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation): Agree.
Sen. FEINSTEIN: General Burgess?
Lieutenant General RONALD BURGESS (Director, Defense Intelligence Agency): Yes, ma'am. Agree.
Sen. FEINSTEIN: Mr. Dinger?
Mr. JOHN DINGER (Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Intelligence and Research): Yes.”
They were right.
On Saturday, May 1, 2010, Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-born US citizen, attempted to bomb Times Square in New York City. He parked a car in the middle of Times Square which was filled with various explosives timed to detonate after his escape. Thousands of people were in Times Square at the time.
The White House and the media took great comfort in the fact that Shahzad’s efforts were clumsy and failed. Notably, however, the fact remained that a car bomb had been placed in Times Square, and the would be bomber actually made it onto a flight bound for Dubai, even though his name was on the government's infamous no-fly list. The government’s response was again that the system worked.
With failed attacks in Detroit, Michigan, and New York City, New York, and the continued certainty of another terrorist attack, the fact is that a pattern has emerged involving major U. S. cities. Americans have to ask: which city is next?
Churchill was indeed a harsh critic of then British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement of and weakness toward Adolf Hitler. After repeated dire predictions about Chamberlain’s policy Churchill delivered a speech to the House of Commons in which he bluntly and prophetically stated, "You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war."
Sometimes, history repeats itself. Years before the Christmas Day Bomber, Newt Gingrich delivered a similar assessment of a sitting leader and posed a choice for America. The choice is just as stark and the consequences just as dire.
Meanwhile, America waits, the terrorists plan, and an American city is on the line.
