Originally posted at American Thinker. blog
Most Americans are as not as committed to “peace and justice” as the progressive residents of Berkeley, California. In an effort to extend an olive branch to “one or two cleared” Gitmo detainees, Berkeleyites have decided to invite enemy combatants to anchor their tent pegs in People’s Park.
That’s right – in response to the recommendation of the Peace and Justice Commission, the Berkeley City Council plans to vote on a motion to share a cup of sugar with a terrorist. According to Peace and Justice Commissioner Rita Maran, the proposal is a way to welcome to the community “the kind of people you’d like to have living next door to you or dating your cousin.”
The Berkeley webpage brags the city “is famous around the globe as a center for academic achievement, scientific exploration, free speech and the arts…[and]… is a constantly changing mix of long-time residents and new neighbors, and whether you just arrived from Albany or Azerbaijan” Berkeley is so gracious, even terrorists are welcome.
Receiving “new neighbors” from Guantanamo Bay could make the home to heiress/bank robber Patty Hearst, the late LSD guru Dr. Timothy Leary, and deceased Communist-poet Allen Ginsberg even more notorious than before.
If the resolution passes, Algerian and Russian-born “cleared” enemy combatants Djamel Ameziane and Ravil Mingazov, Tora Bora-trained weapons instructor associates of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, will be added to Berkeley’s eclectic tapestry.
The Peace and Justice Commission maintains that Ameziane and Mingazov “pose no threat to the United States.” Yet Thomas Joscelyn, senior fellow for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, maintains that “There’s an ‘entire mythology’ about detainees being exonerated, when they’ve simply won conditional releases or habeas corpus petitions.”
Berkeley’s cordial commission doesn’t seem to care that Djamel Ameziane has verifiable ties to a Tunisian recruiter who financed Gitmo prisoner journeys to an Afghan/Taliban guesthouse where admittance was gained only if a “certified Taliban or al Qaeda members vouch[ed] for their commitment to jihad.”
So, after relocating to sunny California maybe Ameziane, with his “cleared” terrorist’s experience living in Gitmo as well as living communally with Afghan/Taliban fighters, could help establish a much-desired “intentional community” in Berkeley.
Purportedly, the second potential Berkeley newcomer, ballet dancer/Russian military vet Ravil Mingazov, “fabricated stories about himself – that he had attended the al-Farouq training camp and that he had listened to Osama bin Laden ‘because he wanted to be sent to Gitmo.'” Maybe Ravil heard the food was outstanding and the facilities second to none, especially after spending a night in the home of Al Qaeda senior facilitator Abu Zubaydah.
It’s comforting to know that after moving to Berkeley, Mingazov could add diversity to the Berkeley City Ballet or, as evidenced in Beslan, he could further express a Russian-terrorist-type fondness for children by applying for a position at the crowded Berkeley Children’s museum.
To be fair, the forgive-and-forget commission should also invite “rehabilitated” sex offenders to move into the larger Berkeley community to work as elementary school lunch monitors.
America should be grateful for a place like Berkeley where groups like the Peace and Justice Commission are enlightened enough to hear the universe speaking and sufficiently open-minded enough to not judge another person’s journey in life, even if that person is allegedly a bomb-throwing, AK-47-toting terrorist. Berkeley’s willingness to offer itself up as a “magnet for resettlement of Gitmo detainees” will not only provide a friendly neighbor to chat with over the fence, but single female cousins waiting for that special someone to come along may finally have a date.
