On September 11, 2001, Debra Burlingame lost her brother, Charles “Chic” Burlingame, who was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, which was forced to crash into the Pentagon. Now, with State Department official Liz Cheney and The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol, she’s leading a new organization devoted to keeping the public informed about national-security issues, Keep America Safe. Burlingame recently spoke to National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez about the new group and where we are in the war on terrorism.
KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: Is the Obama administration keeping America safe?
DEBRA BURLINGAME: When Barack Obama was sworn in as president, I actually had a sliver of hope that he would surprise his worst critics and govern from the center — the smart pragmatist. That hope pretty much evaporated on January 22 when he signed a series of executive orders shutting the Guantanamo Bay detention center by a date certain and suspending the trial of 9/11 conspirators – who were at that moment sitting at Gitmo, crowing about their role in the murder of 3,000 of our fellow human beings. Surrounded by 16 retired admirals and generals, the signing ceremony was clearly meant to showcase Obama as a strong, decisive commander in chief who was making a clean break from the policies of the previous administration. But it was a mistake wrapped in stagecraft. It has gone downhill from there. In nine short months, the list has grown long: abandoning our allies, appeasing our enemies, wavering on the request for additional troops for the war he declared we must win, launching criminal investigations of CIA agents. I fear he is taking us back to the policies of the 1990s, and this is worse than a “pre-9/11 mindset.” At least on 9/10, we didn’t appreciate the true extent of the danger. We do now.
LOPEZ: How do you know that?
BURLINGAME: Obama is about image and rhetoric. The retired flag officers portrayed as battle-tested warriors applauding in that White House photo op are human-rights activists; some are lawyers — recruited, sponsored, and funded since 2005 by the organization Human Rights First. Two of them joined Majority Leader Harry Reid in a press conference back in 2007 to declare that the war in Iraq had been lost and the surge was “too little, too late.” Human Rights First bragged that the executive orders Obama signed were crafted almost word for word from the blueprint they provided. My point is, Obama and his staunchest supporters, here and abroad, actually believe that giving the kind of people who beheaded Daniel Pearl the same rights as American citizens will protect us. They think that our moral superiority over brutal jihadists will somehow impress fence-sitters in the Muslim world into rejecting violence. Well, we tried that in the 1990s, before the Iraq War, before Abu Ghraib. We put a handful of terrorists on trial in federal courts. We lobbed a few missiles at al-Qaeda from far away. None of that prevented them from killing 3,000 Americans in 102 minutes. The biggest jihadi recruiting poster of all was the sight of the Twin Towers falling. We cannot go back to those failed policies.
LOPEZ: What can the average American do about it?
BURLINGAME: There is nothing more powerful than a committed American citizen armed with facts. We have to start there: familiarize ourselves with the fundamental issues and then gather some facts. We must invest a little time in the country we will leave behind for our children. Then, we get involved — and the great thing is, we can do a lot sitting in front of the computer. For example, after local officials and a bunch of suits from Washington showed up in the little town of Standish, Mich., to case the local prison as a possible destination for Gitmo detainees, concerned citizens organized their own town-hall meeting. The local residents didn’t like what they learned at that meeting and they are pushing back, letting their state and local representatives know what they think. They are organizing. They know there is strength in numbers. They are putting pressure on the politicians in Washington. These are terrific people who have a stake in the process, taking control, instead of sitting back and grumbling.
LOPEZ: What will Keep America Safe do about it?
BURLINGAME: Educate. Inform. We want to arm people with the facts that get glossed over in five-minute cable-TV segments or ignored outright in the establishment media. We want to bring thoughtful analysis. Help the policymakers find the right course and get in the way of those who have let politics trump policy. We want to give ordinary Americans a voice, help them communicate with their elected officials, help them influence legislation and executive decisions. Shake things up.
LOPEZ: What are the kinds of things KAS will be doing?
BURLINGAME: We have launched a website which will focus on key issues and provide resource material. Sometimes that means pointing out important primary documents or posting articles that the mainstream media misses. Americans are overwhelmed with information. We will try to cull some of the best information, and provide people with the critical tools they need to assess whether or not their elected officials are telling it straight. We will use every tool we can to get their attention, including the speed of instant electronic communications, web ads, and television. We have a first-rate staff supporting the website and helping us keep up with events from moment to moment.
LOPEZ: Who is Keep America Safe?
BURLINGAME: Its founding directors are Liz Cheney, the smart, formidable, and accomplished international lawyer who, as the principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs was the number-two official at State responsible for Middle East policy; Bill Kristol, who is the founder and editor in chief of The Weekly Standard, a conservative institution, and who regularly appears as a Fox News contributor; and me, a former lawyer, former Court TV producer, now full-time activist, whose awakening on the issues surrounding national security began on 9/11, the day I lost my brother Chic, the captain of American Airlines Flight 77 which was crashed into the Pentagon. But ultimately, we hope Keep America Safe will be made up of people from all over the country who feel as we do, that safety and security is the government’s number one responsibility to its citizens.
LOPEZ: When will Liz Cheney run for the Senate — or for anything?
BURLINGAME: For my money, not soon enough. Wouldn’t that be a fun campaign to follow? But Liz is not engaged in this project to further the so-called Cheney brand. She would say that this is not about her, it’s about America. She has five kids, and I think at the end of the day, she is focusing on their future, not hers.
LOPEZ: How did you get hooked up with her?
BURLINGAME: I was informally introduced to her through mutual friends, people who are involved in national-security issues in a variety of capacities. There was an ongoing dialogue that went back and forth, as we sat on the sidelines watching events unfold in the public arena with increasing concern. I’m not sure who came up with the idea of a policy group, but when it evolved into that, we all agreed that we didn’t simply want to be another website weighing in. We wanted to get the American people involved.
LOPEZ: Are we living in terrifying times, or are you optimistic?
BURLINGAME: The 9/11 Commission said that our biggest failure leading up to the events of 9/11 was our failure of imagination. Understanding this, and acting on it, is not “fear mongering.” It’s acting responsibly. You lock your door when you leave your home, not because you live in fear. You do that so you can leave home and enjoy your day without fear. Good national-security policy isn’t about fear, it’s about freedom. Whenever Americans are involved, I’m optimistic.
LOPEZ: What’s currently the most undercovered security issue, in your estimation?
BURLINGAME: Without question, the issue of Sharia law in Western banking: Sharia financing. This is not about tolerance for Islamic dietary laws or prohibitions against certain types of investments, like gambling or pornography. This is what one of the foremost Islamist Sharia finance advisors to powerhouse U.S. and Western financial institutions calls “jihad with money.” It is a complicated issue, and the U.S. Treasury Department as well as U.S. financial institutions have turned a blind eye, in part because of the enormous sums of money involved (between $1 to 2 trillion petrodollars annually, according to Sharia Finance Watch) and in part because of political correctness.