Fifth Columnists Among Us

By Patrick Hurley

"T' anam an Diabhal ... That's only down the block." It was early on the Sunday morning after the Fort Hood terrorist attack in which a radical Islamic fifth-columnist, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, had murdered 13 unarmed soldiers and a civilian, and wounded 38. We had been perusing the New York Post and our attention was now settled on the picture of a U.S.-born Woodside resident, Yousef al-Khattab, whom the Post described as a radical Islamic who runs a Website called "Revolution Muslim."

Mr. Al-Khattab was pictured in the local Internet coffee shop at 59th Street on Woodside Avenue, just a few blocks from our humble abode, in the old Irish-American neighborhood of Woodside, Queens, in New York City.

Mr. Al-Khattab had sent a "get well soon" message to the Fort Hood perpetrator. Of Maj. Hasan, who was also born in the U.S, he expounded on his Website, "An officer and a gentleman was injured while partaking in a preemptive attack." Of the dead soldiers, Mr. Al-Khattab explained to the Post, "These people are soldiers in a volunteer army. They expect to see combat. They know the danger." On his Website, he wrote of them, "Rest assured the slain terrorists at Fort Hood are in eternal hellfire."

We immediately dispatched the link via cyberspace to An Gaelgoir who, as a G-Man intensely engaged in the counterterrorist effort, has more than a passing interest in such things. "Ta an namhaid in aice linn ... Woodside! ... The enemy is near us ..." we wrote.

"Mo bhron," he replied a few minutes later "Oinseach iomraiteach ... a well known idiot!" And, indeed, the Post story endorsed An Gaelgoir's reply. It elaborated that the FBI and NYPD are "well aware of Al-Khattab's dangerous on-line lunacy, but they are unable to do much about it." With the G-Men and the cops shackled by political correctness - a condition induced by the naive left and emanating all the way from the White House - fifth columnists such as Mr. Al-Khattab are free to espouse their treasonous bile and encourage fellow traitors such as Nidal Hasan to realize their murderous acts.

It speaks volumes about tolerance in our Land of the Free and Home of the Brave that Mr. Al-Khattab, who previously mocked the beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl and prayed for the murder of Jews, can negotiate unmolested the streets of Woodside.

His presence is an affront to a staunchly patriotic neighborhood that has given so many of its sons and daughters to the military service of the United States, to law enforcement and to the rescue services. An examination of the local World War I memorial on the front of St. Sebastian's School reveals the complete dominance of Irish Americans

More U.S. servicemen died in Vietnam from the 11377 zip code than from any other zip code in the nation. Of the 28 names of the fallen on the Vietnam memorial, 16 are Irish American. Two U.S. Marines, local lads and boyhood friends, Robert Emmett O'Malley and Thomas Noonan, were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor during that conflict: O'Malley, for his heroic leadership at Chu Lai, in 1965, and Noonan, posthumously, for his selflessness and courage in Quang Tri Province, in 1969.

Then there is a New Jersey National Guardsman, Staff Sgt. Frank Carvill, who was killed in action in Iraq in June 2004. Although not from Woodside, Carvill spent enough time in the neighborhood, through his voluntary work in various Irish-American organizations, to warrant having the corner of 59th and Woodside - ironically the corner from which Mr. Al-Khattab spewed his bile to the Post - designated in his name.

The cliché is often trotted out that our City Council serves its only useful purpose as a mechanism for the naming of streets. It appears that Woodside's ongoing left-wing City Councilman, Eric Gioia, couldn't even successfully complete that task.

After the television cameras, the fanfare and the photo ops were over, Carvill's street sign disappeared into bureaucratic oblivion, leaving the corner to be invaded by our fifth columnist, Al-Khattab.

Such are some of the heroic local lads that Mr. Al-Khattab affronts. A long-time denizen of the neighborhood spoke a great truth: Mr. Al-Khattab would not have been so flippantly vocal 25 ago. The vital and volatile Irish-American gang of the time would have emphatically impressed its discontent upon him.

We encountered the ubiquitous Kerryman from Glenflesk outside of Phil and Maggie Reilly's Starting Gate Pub. Upon observing us, he advanced, agitated, thrusting his copy of the Post in our direction: "Mo lear, a bhuachaill! T'is a black day. Feach ag an sceal seo. Did you see this?" He then launched into a tirade about the menace in our midst.

The traitor Al-Khattab is giving aid and comfort to the enemy, explained our friend from The Kingdom. He should be interned at the very least. "Why isn't this buachaill in Guantanamo Bay?

Could you imagine what would have happened during World War II, if an American citizen had been loudly rejoicing at the initial successes of the Germans in the Kasserine Pass or in the Ardennes, or had been celebrating the attack on Pearl Harbor? Interned! Interned! Immediately lifted, I tell you, and facing charges of treason," elaborated the Glenflesk man.

In fairness, the Kerryman knows his World War II history. "Taimid tar eis dul a coladh ... We have fallen asleep and gone back to a pre-9/11 mentality. We have forgotten that the radical Islamics are trying to slaughter us."

He continued to vent until the emotion had drained out of him. However, in the quiet aftermath of his tirade, the Glenflesk man suddenly blindsided us with calm rationalism. "Logically, then," he elucidated with glaring clarity, a characteristic unique to Kerrymen the world over, "those of us in favor of limited government should cut out the unnecessary bureaucratic layer and convey an buachaill seo to JFK to put him on the first Aer Lingus flight out."

As our friend propounded, with the gooey-eyed naïf Irish minister of justice, Dermot Ahern, enthusiastically aiding President Obama in clearing out Guantanamo Bay, there's a chance that Mr. Al-Khattab would end up in the former Celtic Tiger anyway.

"T'is ironic," he said with devastating logic. "The Irish government are hoping that the youth will emigrate, like we had to, but they are welcoming America's enemies with open arms. No doubt, they will get the best of everything."

"Ta an domhan tar eis dul trid a cheile ... the world has been turned upside down," he finished, as he moved off down toward Roosevelt Avenue. Passing the corner of 59th Street - formerly and very briefly know as Frank Carvill Place - he looked into the Internet coffee shop, no doubt, anticipating a glimpse of the aforesaid fifth columnist. Beware, Mr. Al-Khattab: Disgruntled patriotic Kerryman on the prowl!

Patrick Hurley blogs at www.irish-american-news-opinion.blogspot.com.