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Nation of Spies is a Sad Reality
Wednesday, September 18, 2002
By E. R. Shipp
New York Daily News

We still don't know enough about the Lackawanna situation. It may end as the situation in Florida did last week: with anger among Muslims and various Americans with Arab roots, three medical students whose medical plans are now topsy-turvy, confusion among the public at large, apologies when it was clear that those detained were not terrorists, and praise -- or criticism -- for the person who sounded the alarm.

The customer at a Shoney's in Calhoun, Ga., may or may not have jumped the gun. The three Muslim medical students may or may not have said something about attacking the United States on Sept. 13. In New York, the young men from Lackawanna may or may not be terrorists.

But what happened down South last week, and the roundup of six Muslim men Upstate, offer uneasy glimpses into the country we live in during this open-ended war against terrorism.

In a land where free speech is a hallmark, one has never been able to say just anything, anytime, anyplace. We already knew that you don't joke about hijacking a plane or killing a president. During this war, we should know that you don't -- on Sept. 12 -- even jokingly hatch a terrorist attack in a restaurant. Even the alarmed customer, Eunice Stone, wondered afterward if they'd been "playing" her.

But don't fault Stone.

She appears to have done exactly what the government wants all of us to do: report anything even slightly suspicious -- even at the risk of later being labeled overly nosy. Indeed, Gov. George Pataki has enlisted all New Yorkers to do the same thing in announcing a terror tip hotline will be set up in a few days.

We are being asked to become a nation of spies, something that may pay off in Lackawanna.
(More: The Macon Telegraph News Source)
2002 © The New York Daily News.

Dan