King Dismisses ‘Rage and Hysteria’

This feels a bit like holding a meeting about a meeting. Rep. Pete King’s panel on homegrown terrorism opened with a debate over how best to frame the investigation. King defended the hearing on the radicalization of Muslim Americans, dismissing what he called unwarranted “rage and hysteria.” On the other side, the top Democrat on the committee, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said the hearings themselves would radicalize potential terrorists. “I cannot help but wonder how propaganda about this hearing's focus on the American Muslim Community will be used by those who seek to inspire a new generation of suicide bombers," Thompson said. The rest of the panel consisted largely of anecdotes and accounts from relatives of people who were inspired to commit acts of terrorism, including one by Melvin Bledsoe, whose son, Carlos, is charged with killing an Army private at a recruiting station in Arkansas.