Heather Mac Donald says Amnesty International’s strangely vehement reports on US human rights “violations” do make sense—when you realize that they don’t seem to want to admit 9/11 ever happened.

Nothing so outrages the civil libertarians and rights advocates as the fact that most of the detainees are Muslims from the Middle East or South Asia. Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch admits that “yes, the government is lawfully allowed to do what it is doing,” but the question, he says, is: “Why is it discriminating in this manner?”

Earth to Roth: Because we were struck by a terrorist group that defines itself by religious and regional identity. We were not struck by proponents of Danish sovereignty or Italian workers’ rights or British hunting privileges but by radical Muslims who seek to vindicate radical Muslim interests in the Middle East. The rights lobby argues that only American racism explains why al Qaida suspects in custody are predominantly from Muslim countries known to breed terrorists. The lobby is going after the wrong culprit. It should take its beef to Usama bin Ladin and ask why he doesn’t open up his organization to Swedish Lutherans.