Beware of radical Islam

I am immensely aware how vitally important it is to restore confidence in our economy and create quality jobs for Minnesotans. It is also clear that life is becoming increasingly unaffordable for average Americans.

And while I am working tirelessly every day to promote progrowth policies so Minnesota's small businesses will once again invest and hire new workers, I cannot ignore the national-security threats facing our nation.

In a recent interview, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said "the West is asleep on the issue of Islamist extremism."

Sadly, he's right. The panic-stricken reaction to the letters that four of my congressional colleagues and I recently wrote to the Inspectors General of five government agencies, asking them to simply investigate the premise of our concerns, is an illustration of exactly how unwary many of our leaders are here in the United States.

Whatever the reasons for it, Washington's political and media establishment fears an honest discussion about the real threat to this country posed by radical Islam. They are reluctant to initiate an honest assessment as to whether the Obama administration has subordinated national security to political correctness.

Our letters asked a set of important questions -- based upon publicly available information -- about the Obama administration's policy concerning radical Islam.

Consider these examples.

• A two-year study by the FBI on the Fort Hood shooting concluded that intelligence officials knew that Maj. Nadal Hassan was communicating with terrorist leader Anwar al-Awlaki. These officials nevertheless refused to launch an investigation out of fear of being labeled insensitive or bigoted. Fourteen Americans, including an unborn child, were murdered because political correctness inhibited efforts that might have prevented their murder by a radical Islamist. We want to know why. (...)