Is the New York City Department of Environmental Protection using the terrorist threat to quietly push through a nannyish, anti-sportsmen waterway agenda? Brendan Miniter thinks so.

Although the right to fish (and cut ice) was guaranteed when the city bought out small towns, moved cemeteries and flooded valleys, sportsmen have had to endure a sustained and comprehensive campaign to stop them from using the more than 100,000 acres the city has acquired over the last century. Call it the hassle factor–create enough bureaucratic hoops and very few people will want to exercise their ‘right’ to fish.

Fishermen have long needed a special reservoir permit, available at an office that is miles from where you’d fish and has typical government hours. A few years ago the city stopped issuing lifetime permits, so fishermen have to go back to the tiny office every few years. Since Sept. 11 all permits have been suspended and, according to a Department of Environmental Protection spokesmen, the city isn’t sure how it will handle the permits now. Do city officials really believe a Middle Eastern terrorist got a lifetime permit a decade ago and won’t be found by investigators scouring the country in search of al Qaeda members?

I don’t fish, but I have friends who are fanatical about it. And having listened to their bullshit for years, I can announce with confidence: If we don’t get back to lying about the size of the fish we nearly caught, the terrorists will have won…

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