Newt Gingrich on Terrorist Threat: 'It's Time to Profile'

Nearly one week after the attempted bombing of an American airliner, Newt Gingrich writes that the Obama administration is more concerned with "protecting the rights of terrorists" than protecting the lives of Americans and calls for "profiling for terrorists."

In a new column at HumanEvents.com, the former House Speaker lays out his prescription for handling what he says is a persistent, sophisticated, large-scale effort to attack the United States and its interests around the globe. He argues that the Obama administration is too "politically correct" to take the steps necessary to protect the American people.

"Today, because our elites fear politically incorrect honesty, they believe that it is better to harass the innocent, delay the harmless, and risk the lives of every American than to do the obvious, the effective, and the necessary," he writes.

Among the steps Gingrich says the U.S. government must take: discussing openly the threat from Islamist extremists; "profiling for terrorists" and "actively discriminating" against them based on suspicious terrorist information; tracking down proprietors of Web sites that promote terrorism; creating a national strategy to fight terror that goes beyond the war in Afghanistan; aborting the administration's plan to try the 9-11 masterminds in federal court; and firing Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

"We have been warned. Again," he warns. "Will we now act?"