I have forgotten the title. It was one of the B movies that came out in the 40's extolling the exploits of Wild Bill Donavan's OSS agents operating behind Nazi lines. It starred Alan Ladd. In one of the scenes an agent eating in a restaurant is detected when he switched his knife and fork between hands as Americans habitually do. The hero is uncovered when a suspicious and officious neighbor informs on him to the Gestapo. It was one of the undistinguished but effective propaganda films that underscored the difference between a free America and the dark side of fascist totalitarianism. They weren't great films but they helped to shape the thinking of my generation.

A paragraph in the New York Times brought that film to mind this morning. In an article describing the continued detention of 87 foreigners ordered deported or who voluntarily agreed to return home after hearings on minor visa violations Christopher Drew and Judith Miller wrote this:

"Most of the detainees are Arabs or Muslims, and many have spent more than 100 days in jail waiting to leave the country, with no end to detention in sight. Nearly all were jailed after being picked up on visa violations at traffic stops or because of neighbors' suspicions."

The black and white image of the portly hausfrau wearing a severely cut suit striding purposely into Gestapo Headquarters came to mind, that and the singsong blare of the European siren that told us all that the villains were on their way. What set America apart from the enemy, from the real Axis of Evil, was that siren's wail followed by the knock on the door in the night. What set us apart was the military patrol asking for "your papers" in the railway station or on the street corner. It was the difference between freedom and surveillance; between liberty and control; between constitutional democracy and totalitarian dictatorship.

If in our zeal to avenge the horrendous crimes of September 11th we permit ourselves to erase that line and blur that distinction out of fear, then the Bin Laden conspiracy will have succeeding in destroying us. If we permit repeated calls by the Office of Homeland Security to the public to vigilant to cause us to report our neighbors because their differences seem to us suspicious, then we will have become the "them" that gave us cause for fear. The palpable danger is not that we will not be able to deal with terrorism but that we will by the actions we take become allies in their quest to alter our society.

Mr. Ming says: "I assume that we are friends - unless they try to hurt me. Then I bite like a Rottweiller!"