We're in the midst of a big partisan political argument about whether Bill Clinton fought terror better, smarter, with more focused attention at key moments than George W. Bush.
Bush got a presidential daily brief on bin Laden in August of 2001 which he seemed to have not taken seriously enough.
Clinton got a presidential daily brief on bin Laden preparing airline hijackings in 1998 which he may not have taken seriously enough.
We will argue and make judgments on both men.
But here is news from overseas that is definitely not the best advice on fighting terrorism.
The Times of London reports today that police in Britain have agreed to brief a panel of Muslim leaders before conducting terror raids.
Members of the panel will offer their assessment of the quality of information police have on a Muslim suspect and the panel will consider the consequences of the proposed raid on community relations as a whole.
Remember, this comes a week after the homeland security director of Britain was interrupted during a public presentation and shouted down — threatened really — by an angry Muslim man in the audience.
This arrangement between the counterterrorism officials of Great Britain and self-styled leaders of the Muslim community is tantamount to setting up Sharia law zones inside Britain's otherwise universal system of law and order.
Who else gets a panel of experts to decide if a raid by police is warranted? In the British system and in our system up till now a judge made that call. Now in Great Britain a judge is not good enough. Experts on Muslim sensitivities may now get the final word.
Think it might be possible that someone on the panel of experts, or their staff members, might warn the terror cell being targeted? Nah, nothing like that could ever happen.
Both Clinton and Bush have made mistakes, but I'll take either one over the system that is about to be instituted in Great Britain.
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