Vince Flynn Can Do Way More Than Just Write

Novelist Vince Flynn has the same taste in music as 11-year old Wyatt Imus, in that they are both huge Green Day fans.

"They're everything a rock band should be," said Flynn. "Giving the finger to everybody."

Though a non-fiction writer, Flynn's books, like the current New York Times bestseller "Pursuit of Honor," require extensive research about the national security and intelligence operations in the United States. Thus, his thoughts on the recent attempted terrorist attack are more valid than one might think.

"The 'Christmas Day Underwear Bomber' — if it wasn't such a serious subject, it would be hilarious," said Flynn, calling the security breach "a huge failure" stemming from too much political correctness.

"We refuse to get down to what this is all about, which is Islam," he continued. "Not all Muslims are terrorists. But 99.9 percent of terrorist attacks are committed by Muslims."

He advocated for profiling airline passengers, and for the cessation of "strip-searches to Grandma Myrtle in the wheelchair" before she gets on a plane. "You take 80 percent of your resources and you direct them towards young men between the ages of 16 and 36, especially if they look swarthy, or have a Middle Eastern background," said Flynn. "And you pull them, and you question them."

Until that happens, he believes the United States will be vulnerable. And going after Al-Qaeda, as President Obama has pledged to do, might not necessarily do the trick either.

"There's multiple terrorist organizations all across the globe now, and their one common link is Islamic radical fundamentalism," said Flynn. Mainstream Muslims, he added, need to band together with the U.S. to squash the extremists who have hijacked their faith.

Flynn believes the U.S. should start "whacking" the radical Muslim clerics who recruit disillusioned men like the Christmas Day bomber and the Ft. Hood shooter.

"They are the root of the problem," he said, and posed this question: "From a moral standpoint, what is so okay about firing a hellfire missile, but so wrong about taking a Delta Force sniper or a Navy SEAL, or even a private contactor, and shooting some guy in the head from a mile away in Yemen, for instance?"

He is unsure Obama has the stomach for that sort of thing, or to change the venue of the 9/11 masterminds' trial from New York City to, say, Guantanamo Bay.

"Hopefully they're going to wake up and move that trial somewhere," said Flynn, worried that a Mumbai-style attack could happen here on U.S. soil. He also balked at Obama's plan to shut down Guantanamo, where he said prisoners get three square meals a day, fresh prayer mats, and clean sheets.

"They're living the dream!" said Imus. "Well, maybe not."

-Julie Kanfer