InstaPundit says Hamas’s message to Iraq about suicide bombing is not a new idea; Iraq “has already made preparations for this sort of thing, without striking much fear into Americans’ hearts.” Well, I’m a little scared.

I’m even more scared about this: possible suicide bombings on American soil. I’m slightly less scared about this: possible attacks in Zanzibar. Then again, I don’t live in Zanzibar.

Scariest of all, though, might be the INS’s ongoing effort to register all foreign nationals from countries that are deemed potentially dangerous. I believe the administration is doing this with the best of intentions, but imagine what uses such a list might be put to in a nightmare scenario.

Let’s say terrorists release anthrax in Chicago, set off a dirty bomb in New York, and bomb the White House, killing thousands –”another 9/11.” Or, worse, let’s imagine that they manage to smuggle a suitcase bomb — a “small” nuke — into the country, and they set it off in Washington. Hundreds of thousands die, the government is paralyzed, and America goes into a true state of seige. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to imagine that a virtual police state would emerge, at least in the short-term. And, lo and behold, we have this nice little list of Muslim immigrants. Do you feel you can confidently assert that it wouldn’t be used to stage a repeat of the 1940s Japanese internment camps? Because I sure don’t.

I hated it when anti-war liberals and overzealous ACLU types used the “Japanese internment camp” line in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, when it was quite clear we were not moving in that direction. But I fear we could be one major attack away from going to a far, far worse place than we can presently imagine. (Have you ever seen “The Seige”?) And since another major attack is very possible, I think it’s prudent to wonder about the possible unintended consequences of creating what could become a convenient list of undesirables.

None of which would necessarily mean that the list is a bad idea, if its benefits actually outweighed its potential for misuse. But I’m not sure its benefits are terribly great. Think about it: are terrorists really going to walk down the local INS office and register? Of course not. They’re going to stay at home, stay in secret, and keep plotting. And unless the INS has suddenly become a lot more competent that its current reputation would suggest, the terrorists probably are not going to get caught. More likely than not, this registration thing is just going to result in more deportations for minor immigration violations (such as the new crime of failing to register) and very little actual progress in the war on terrorism.

On a considerably lighter note, eBay has removed a family’s offer to sell itself to the highest bidder. Like the song says, only in America.