How Should One Respond to this Nightmare?
by Edward I. Nelson, Chairman
U.S. Border Control
How we respond to the September 11th attack will define who we are both as a people and a nation during this century.
I say "we" for it is time that we, the people, had a say in what our response should be. Why? Because the answers our leaders have come up with in the past have fallen far short of meeting the mark.
While there may be reprisals at terrorist targets, such attacks will not bring back the many innocent lives lost. And while such a tragedy will certainly arouse anger and fury, we must be careful to ensure that such emotions are not misplaced.
While this disaster was caused by a handful of hate-filled religious fanatics bent on our destruction, some of the blame for this terrible tragedy must also be placed on the people in our government who we have trusted to protect our nation against such threats but who,
it seems to me, have not done all they could to prevent this catastrophe.
When Presidents Bush and Clinton, while in office, were warned that terrorist threats existed, they took swift action ... to protect themselves and their fellow bureaucrats. They closed off streets; they put cement barriers in front of government buildings to stop terrorist attacks by truck bombs; and, they beefed up security at all government centers. But they did nothing -- absolutely nothing -- to protect the American people.
Vice-President Al Gore put politics ahead of the safety of the nation when, under a program called "Citizenship USA," he waived the background checks normally given to all applicants for U.S. citizenship in order to rush through one million new citizens in time to vote for Clinton-Gore in their reelection bid. Did any of the thousands of criminals, felons, rapists and murderers they turned into citizens participate in the September 11th attacks?
For years, our "intelligence" community has put minimal effort in rooting out those in our society whose only goal in life is to destroy our county. It was considered "politically incorrect" to "profile" individuals, which means to be extra vigilant towards people who come from countries that have sworn a blood oath to destroy us.
So our law enforcement agencies have been retrained to ignore what was once probable cause for stopping a suspicious vehicle or profiling people with the highest likelihood of committing a crime. While this may have been a great victory for civil rights, it was a stunning defeat for law enforcement and crime prevention.
And, in all fairness, how could our intelligence agencies possibly hope to keep track of all the known terrorists in America when our borders are wide open and thousands of illegal entries are taking place every day.
America's borders remain an open invitation to terrorists. Anybody who has ever traveled abroad knows that the rest of the world takes airport security seriously. Overseas, real professionals work hard to ensure that terrorists will not have an easy time grabbing their planes. By comparison, our airport security is pathetic.
Our organization, U.S. Border, Control has always been strident in its opposition to illegal immigration because there is no way of knowing who these immigrants are or what their intentions might be. But while we strongly oppose illegal immigration, we do not oppose legal immigration in such numbers as would benefit our nation.
Unfortunately, as long as our leaders see fit to allow massive illegal immigration and reward the illegals with welfare benefits, amnesty and insane concepts like "family reunification," there is no hope for the legal immigrants who have applied and waited, patiently, for years for their chance to become Americans.
Because of our flawed immigration policies, there are thousands of individuals from countries that hate America who came here under orders to wait for their opportunity to murder as many of us as they possibly can. They started coming here decades ago on student visas, now expired, and have disappeared into the landscape. More are arriving daily simply by walking across our unprotected borders, north and south.
These people are ticking time bombs and some of them were involved in the September 11th attack on America. There has been absolutely no effort to track down and remove these highly suspect people.
No matter how many bombs we drop on our enemies, the cells of terrorists we have allowed to be established in our country will remain, thanks to politicians who send out birthday cards to their constituents instead of accepting the responsibility of their office to uphold the Constitution and defend our nation against all enemies, both foreign and domestic.
Even now, with the world's economy in trouble and our unemployment numbers rising, President Bush wants to (a) redirect our Border Patrol to hand out milk and cookies for illegal immigrants; (b) open the entire nation to uninspected Mexican trucks that are already known to be smuggling drugs and illegal aliens and, for a few dollars more, would happily transport terrorists and their weapons of mass destruction into the heartland of America; and (c) grant amnesty to uncounted millions of illegal aliens already residing here.
Last month, a judge ordered the release of thousands of illegal aliens into our society because their native countries refused to take them back. Among their number were hardened criminals and, possibly, terrorists. Did any of these freed criminals take part in the twin horrors at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon? We'll never be told, that's for sure.
Why hasn't our State Department told these countries that if they don't take back their citizens and imprison them, we will cut off aid and trade until they do. Why is the most powerful nation in the history of the world unable to defend itself or even police its own borders?
The people who have earned my fury are our own leaders who, even during this crisis, when every airport in the western world had been shut down and military forces have been put on high alert, have left the Mexican-American border open to all traffic!
Right now, despite all the tough talk coming out of Washington, and with full knowledge that at least some of the terrorists crossed our border just prior to high jacking the plane, our borders are still wide open and thousands of trucks, potentially carrying more terrorists or even biological weapons, are still being waived through.
This is a dangerous time for America. Can we fight terrorism without curtailing our freedom? Will we allow our leaders to use this as an excuse to clamp down on the rights of all Americans? Is it possible to root out those who are here to destroy us without infringing on the rights of those good people who come from the same countries and who are loyal patriotic Americans?
For years, Border Control has tried to let the American people know that the vast majority of immigrants in America oppose our government's overly generous treatment of illegal aliens. A Zogby poll recently commissioned by the Center for Immigration Studies confirms this fact.
That is why it is essential that we do not take out our rage against immigrants. Statistically, they seem to have taken a much stronger position on border and immigration reform than most members of Congress! And I would prefer to share my foxhole with them than some of the simpering, whimpering bureaucrats I have met in Washington.
I agree that we, as a nation, should come together in our resolve to punish those responsible for this most tragic of events. But, I would not limit my response to putting Osama bin Laden's head on a spit. I would make certain that all those in our government responsible for protecting American lives and property be held accountable for their failure to do so.
The Border Patrol cannot do its job because the people at the top won't let them. This, I know for a fact. But I can also surmise the same truth holds for our intelligence agencies and our defense establishment.
If we are serious about putting an end to terrorism, we must look at those who provide the funds, the weaponry and the logistical support to the fanatics who could do nothing without such assets being made available to them.
And than may mean we take a very close look, not just at easy targets like Afghanistan, but at China, Pakistan, North Korea, Russia, Iran and Iraq and, yes, even Mexico. And if our "allies" in cannot join us in our efforts to eradicate terrorism for fear of offending some of their trading partners, so be it.
But unlike Desert Storm, we shouldn't try to buy Coalition partners, as we did, by forgiving debt in the billions owed to the U.S. This time we should play hard ball. We need to let any country know that if they won't help us now when we need it, they can forget about our help the next time there is a flare-up in their part of the world.
It's time we woke up and smelled the coffee. The deaths of those thousands of Americans who perished in New York and Washington can have some meaning if we take this opportunity to put our own house in order.
U.S. Border Control
8180 Greensboro Drive #1070
McLean, VA 22102
703-356-6568
info@usbc.org
www.usbc.org
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