<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>Is this what our country is degenerating towards?</div><div><br></div><div>Courtesy of today's (March 23, 2016) Spokesman-Review.</div><div><br></div><div>---------------------------------</div><div><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 48px; margin: 5px 0px 20px; font-family: 'Chronicle Display A', 'Chronicle Display B', serif; line-height: 1; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'dlig' 1; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Cruz and Trump: Boost surveillance of Muslims after Brussels attacks</h1><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">NEW YORK - Republican presidential candidate date Ted Cruz said Tuesday that surveillance in Muslim neighborhoods in the U.S. must be intensified following the deadly bombings at Brussels, while rival Donald Trump suggested torturing a suspect in last year’s Paris attacks would have prevented the carnage. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Echoing Trump’s earlier statements, Cruz said the U.S. should stop the flow of refugees from countries where the Islamic State militant group has a significant presence. The Islamic State took credit for the attacks at the Brussels airport and a subway station that killed dozens Tuesday and wounded many more. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized,” the Texas senator said in a statement. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Trump praised Cruz’s plan as a “good idea” that he supports “100 percent” in an interview with CNN. The GOP front-runner also intensified his past calls for the U.S. to engage in harsher interrogation techniques, arguing that Belgium could have prevented the bombings had it tortured a suspect in last year’s Paris attacks who was arrested last week.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Well, you know, he may be talking, but he’ll talk a lot faster with the torture. … Because he probably knew about it. I would be willing to bet that he knew about this bombing that took place today,” Trump said. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Trump, who has proposed a temporary ban on foreign Muslims entering the U.S., said “nothing’s nice” about techniques such as waterboarding, which simulates drowning. He added, “It’s your minimal form of torture. We can’t waterboard, and they can chop off heads.” </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said earlier Tuesday the Brussels plot was probably already underway before the suspect’s arrest and that his apprehension may have sped up its execution. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When reminded that international law prohibits torture, Trump responded: “Well, I would say that the eggheads that came up with this international law should turn on their television and watch CNN right now, because I’m looking at scenes on CNN right now as I’m speaking to you that are absolutely atrocious.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Speaking Tuesday afternoon in New York, Cruz praised the city police department’s former program of conducting surveillance in Muslim neighborhoods, called for its reinstatement and said it could be a model for police departments nationwide. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“New Yorkers want a safe and secure America,” Cruz said. “New Yorkers saw first-hand the tragic consequences of radical Islamic terrorism.” </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After the 9/11 attacks, the New York Police Department used its intelligence division to cultivate informants and conduct surveillance in Muslim communities. In a series of articles, the Associated Press revealed the intelligence division had infiltrated dozens of mosques and Muslim student groups and investigated hundreds. The program was disbanded amid complaints of religious and racial profiling. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Trump said the city had had “the finest surveillance of the whole radical Islam situation that there is.” He joined Cruz in blaming the city’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, for ending it. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“He took it down and he knocked it out and that was a terrible mistake,” said Trump, adding: “We can be nice about it and we can be politically correct about it, but we’re being fools, OK?” </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">New York Police Department Commissioner William Bratton objected to Cruz’s remarks Tuesday, saying: “I take great offense at his characterization of that whole population. … He’s really out of line.” </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, condemned the calls for surveillance, saying it sends “an alarming message to American-Muslims who increasingly fear for their future in this nation and to all Americans who value the Constitution and religious liberties.” </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders, campaigning in Arizona on Tuesday, said boosting national security and protecting civil rights must go hand in hand. He said he strongly disagrees with calls for heightened domestic surveillance of Muslims.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“That would be unconstitutional – it would be wrong,” Sanders said. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Imam Abdisalam Adam, the board chair of Dar Al-Hijrah Riverside Islamic Center, a mosque in a Somali neighborhood in Minneapolis, said putting more scrutiny on Muslim communities is not a way to keep the country safe. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It’s counterproductive,” he said. “When you look at the American Muslim community, it’s very well integrated and very involved in civic unification … It’s a patriotic community that’s involved in so many aspects of the American life.” </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Asked about Cruz’s comment, none of a half-dozen conservative House Republicans meeting with reporters Tuesday criticized him and most spoke of the need to keep the country safe. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Nearly every neighborhood is patrolled. That’s what local law enforcement does,” said Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., who has endorsed Cruz. He added that he didn’t know specifically what Cruz was referring to. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I believe in the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, every one of them, but we also know that in this country, we’re going to have to step up security in every neighborhood across America,” said Rep. Matt Salmon, an Arizona Republican who has endorsed Cruz.</span></p></div><div>---------------------------------</div><div><br><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares"</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div></div></div></body></html>