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December 31, 2006
U.S. Agencies missing links between illegal immigration and terrorism
On Sept. 5, a man calling himself Miguel Alfonso Salinas was apprehended off a deserted highway near the U.S.-Mexico border. The tinted windows on Alfonso Salinas' vehicle aroused the suspicion of Border Patrol agents patrolling a dark and desolate stretch of Highway 9, which runs parallel to the border and is the site of large numbers of illegal crossings. The agents discovered three Mexican migrants in the vehicle with Alfonso Salinas. But what they discovered several days later made a far greater impression.
In what Robert Spencer refers to as "another story highlighting the howling need for immigration reform, and underscoring its status as a national security issue," It would take nearly a week of interviews with federal agents before Alfonso Salinas would give his real name: Ayman Sulmane Kamal, a Muslim born in Egypt - a country designated as "special-interest" by the United States for sponsoring terrorism.
Federal agents say getting bureaucrats to understand the growing danger is difficult when most lawmakers won't even acknowledge many of the problems already happening along the U.S. border. For more on why illegal immigration must be stopped and legal immigration drastically curtailed, read all of Sara A. Carter's piece at the San Bernardino County Sun, "U.S. agencies missing links between illegal immigration and terrorism."
And by the way, the problem isn't new, it's been overlooked on purpose for a long time. John Perazzo's FrontPage magazine piece back in 2002 noted that the single greatest threat to the lives of America's 280 million people remains, to this day, utterly unaddressed by political leaders afraid to lose the votes of ethnicity lobbies that would be "offended" by tighter government controls of our nation's borders.
Consequently, illegal aliens are free to enter our country - virtually without encumbrance - by land, sea, and air. Michelle Malkin's startling new book Invasion documents how truly grave the danger of illegal immigration is, and how appallingly meek has been our government's response to the problem.According to Public Agenda, surveys show that the public consistently makes a sharp distinction between legal and illegal immigrants. In general, the public looks more favorably on immigrants perceived as "playing by the rules." Illegal immigrants are viewed with much less sympathy. Half of those surveyed by Public Agenda say giving the government the power to detain legal immigrants indefinitely in the war on terrorism "goes too far," but six in 10 say illegal immigrants who are detained "don't deserve such protections because they are here illegally." What's more, six in 10 also say illegal immigrants should be deported immediately after being caught, without recourse to the courts. The distinction is strong enough that caution should be taken in reporting survey questions that do not distinguish between legal and illegal immigration or those that combine these elements.So just how bad is our situation? A recent former military intelligence analyst told William H. Calhoun, "There currently exists a third-world invasion of America. And it is bad. Very bad. If things are not stopped soon, all will be lost. America will become a third-world sewer."Malkin points out, for instance, that seven months ago the US Coast Guard received intelligence information that some twenty-five al Qaeda-linked Islamic extremists had entered our country as stowaways aboard commercial cargo vessels docking in Florida, Georgia, and California ports. Yet it is by no means surprising that some of the world's most bloodthirsty monsters were able to sneak into our midst in this manner. Barely 3 percent of all cargo containers on US-bound ships are inspected upon arrival. According to Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution, that fact "may be our single greatest vulnerability that we have not yet made much progress toward addressing."
We know that at least two of the terrorist conspirators who plotted the foiled Los Angeles International Airport millennium bombing illegally entered the US aboard ships from Algeria. The INS reports that at the Norfolk, Virginia seaport alone, the crews of at least forty foreign cargo vessels have been permitted ashore without proper authorization since the 9/11 attacks. Such a state of affairs would hardly even qualify for a television script, as no intelligent audience could realistically be expected to believe it.
And like the man says, "that's bad"!
Related (from June 04): ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION - Too Late to Close the Floodgate? "The opening of U.S. borders to a never-ending tide of illegal aliens is a relatively new phenomenon. Though most "illegals" are laborers, others are hardened criminals, including a small army of terrorists. What does this mean for America? "
Other related:
The Pelosi-Conyers Team:Helping Terrorists and Illegal Aliens
Illegal Aliens Busted with Airport Security Badges
Cross posted by Hyscience
Posted by Richard at December 31, 2006 9:24 AM
