"Connecting the Dots Essential to Preventing Iranian-Sponsored Terrorist Attacks on U.S. Soil"

Hi Gang:

Today my commentary is based on an article I recently wrote for the CAPS (Californians for Population Stabilization) website that addresses the growing threat to our nation’s security posed by Iranian Cudz (Shock Troops) that are stationed in Venezuela and by terrorist training camps located in the Tri-Border region of Brazil.  These threats were the focus of a hearing conducted by the Homeland Security Committee of the House of Representatives that is chaired by New York Congressman Peter King on March 21, 2012.

When we read disturbing accounts of the potential for Iranian “sleeper agents” setting up shop in America, poised to strike if the conflict between the United States and Iran heats up over the Iran’s nuclear program, we likely worry about the potential that these sleeper agents to do harm to us.  However in reviewing published news reports or statements made by nearly all of our politicians or high ranking government officials, there is scant attention paid to the fundamental questions relating to how such sleeper agents may enter the United States or, have likely already entered our country in the first place.  There is just about no discussion to be found anywhere as to how such terrorist sleeper agents would be able to hide in plain sight or, in the parlance of the 9/11 Commission, embed themselves in communities around our country.  Once again, the answer to these concerns can be found in our lack of border security and the ease with which aliens can game the immigration system.  This is further exacerbated by having a number of states and cities openly declaring themselves to be “Sanctuary Cities” where immigration status will be blithely ignored by all governmental agencies including law enforcement agencies.  

There is an expression that says, “Ignorance is bliss.”  Perhaps today it is easy for our elected officials to ignore the fact that there are unknown millions of illegal aliens, perhaps tens of millions of illegal aliens living in nearly every town and city in the United States.  After all, there are many individuals and organizations that are literally and figuratively making out like the proverbial bandits by exploiting the cheap labor that these illegal aliens are willing to provide because they are desperate and easy to intimidate.  There are many immigration lawyers who see, in that growing illegal alien population, a virtually limitless supply of potential clients.  Banks love to do business with illegal aliens who seek to open bank accounts and wire money from the United States to their countries of origin, making the banks and those companies that offer various financial services the “silent partners” of those illegal aliens, deriving billions of dollars per year in income by offering that growing population of illegal aliens various services.  

Advocacy organizations are raking in the contributions to take positions of advocacy in support of the illegal aliens.

Colleges and other educational institutions also want to have as many students as possible sitting in lecture halls, laboratories and classrooms as they rake in the tuition fees and other expenses.

Every one of these groups and individuals have a vested interest in seeing the numbers of aliens in the United States continue to swell.  

Local and state governments are eager to rake in the money paid by illegal aliens who pay sales tax and tolls to drive across bridges, through tunnels and on various toll roads.

Meanwhile they have thrown commonsense and decency out the window!  They are conveniently ignoring how the flood of cheap labor drives down wages for all workers and often causes American workers to be displaced by foreign workers who not only are willing to work for substandard wages, but often under working conditions that are so substandard as to be patently illegal.

In order to amass their fortunes or other selfish gains, they provide huge campaign contributions to elected officials who are grammatically challenged.  They can only conjugate verbs in the first person singular and think that the three most important people in their lives are “Me, myself and I!”

Meanwhile what is conveniently being ignored as that among the illegal alien workers and alien workers who were able to acquire visas and lawful status through fraud are terrorists and transnational criminals.  If these enemies of our nation are called into action, the bliss of our leaders will turn to horror, but the damage will have been done and the truth may then finally set in that by allowing greed and selfish motivations to trump national security, the price that our nation and our citizens are likely to pay will far and away eclipse the profits accrued by those in positions of power and authority!

This is not conjecture or a farfetched possibility.  Insanity has been defined as doing the same things the same way, repeatedly, and expecting a different result!

The 9/11 Commission Report and the 9/11 Commission Staff Report on Terrorist Travel provided an in-depth analysis of how the terrorists who attacked our nation on September 11, 2001 were able to enter the United States in the first place and then manage to embed themselves in our country thereby enabling them to easily hide in plain sight, as they prepared to launch the worst terrorist attack ever carried out on our soil.

Here is a link to the Staff Report (Monograph) on Terrorist Travel in its entirety:


Here are two important excerpts from the 9/11 Commission Staff Report on Terrorist Travel.  

First of all, here is the first paragraph from the preface of that report:

It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists cannot plan and carry out attacks in the United States if they are unable to enter the country. Yet prior to September 11, while there were efforts to enhance border security, no agency of the U.S. government thought of border security as a tool in the counterterrorism arsenal. Indeed, even after 19 hijackers demonstrated the relative ease of obtaining a U.S. visa and gaining admission into the United States, border security still is not considered a cornerstone of national security policy. We believe, for reasons we discuss in the following pages, that it must be made one.



Here is a paragraph under the title “Immigration Benefits” found on page 98:


Terrorists in the 1990s, as well as the September 11 hijackers, needed to find a way to stay in or embed themselves in the United States if their operational plans were to come to fruition. As already discussed, this could be accomplished legally by marrying an American citizen, achieving temporary worker status, or applying for asylum after entering. In many cases, the act of filing for an immigration benefit sufficed to permit the alien to remain in the country until the petition was adjudicated. Terrorists were free to conduct surveillance, coordinate operations, obtain and receive funding, go to school and learn English, make contacts in the United States, acquire necessary materials, and execute an attack.


It is absolutely impossible to comprehend how, given all of these facts, that there is even a debate about whether or not our borders should be secured and our immigration laws be enforced in such a way as to deprive terrorists the opportunity to enter our country and embed themselves in our country.

On August 6, 2011 CAPS published a commentary I wrote that was entitled:

Do We Still Need Our Armed Forces When We Don’t Secure Our Own Borders?

I would urge you to take the time to read that commentary and give some serious thought to the question that formed the title of that commentary.

Show me a politician who refuses to enforce the immigration laws or attempts to trivialize these laws, and I will show you a politician who needs to find out what it is like to stand on the unemployment line!

Benjamin Franklin, in discussing our then fledgeling nation, said that they had given us a republic if we could keep it!


What he was making clear was that this democratic republic required that its citizens take their citizenship seriously and keep the political leaders accountable.

It is time for the citizens of our nation to make certain that our nation’s leaders, on all levels, to come to terms with the fundamental fact that the purpose of our immigration laws is to protect our nation and our citizens from aliens whose presence has the potential to have a serious adverse impact.  Ignoring those laws exposes our nation and our citizens to a variety of serious threats and challenges ranging from national security and criminal justice and public safety to the economy, the environment, healthcare and education!

A country without secure borders can no more stand than can a house without walls!

I

our country is to survive and if our children and their children are to get their share of the “American Dream” the citizens of this nation must take their citizenship seriously!

We the People must be the best citizens we can be, citizens who are worthy of the gallantry demonstrated by our valiant men and women in the military, law enforcement and firefighters, who routinely go in harm’s way in defense of this nation and our citizens.  
My goal in writing this and other commentaries is to point out our nations many failings before more victims pay the ultimate price for the incompetence and ineptitude of our government.
The first step in problem-solving is to first identify the problems and vulnerabilities and then devise strategies to overcome them.

If you find yourself to be in agreement with this commentary, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same.  We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”

The practice of good citizenship does not end in the voting booth, it only begins there.

For far too long our citizens demonstrated apathy which emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups. 

I am encouraged that more and more of us, We the People, are not willing to simply sit on the sidelines anymore!


I believe our nation’s is greatly benefited by the rich diversity of our people which is why I could never imagine living anywhere except New York City, arguably the most diverse city in our nation if not, in fact, the world.  However, my idea of diversity most certainly does not include members of MS-13, the Mexican drug cartels or members of other transnational gangs or members of al-Qaeda!

I also believe that the original purpose of our nation’s immigration laws need to be be brought “front and center” to make certain that our nation does not permit the entry of aliens into our country whose presence in our country is problematic for the citizens of our nation and that if such aliens do succeed in entering our country that our nation have the resources, integrity and dedication to do everything possible to make it impossible for such aliens to function within our country so that even if they are not apprehended, they will find it pointless to remain in the United States.
As I have noted on a number of occasions, “No one would break into the amusement park if they could not get to go on the rides and no one remains in the amusement park at the end of the day when they turn shut down the rides and turn off the lights!” 

If our government’s failures to secure our nation’s borders and effectively enforce our immigration laws concerns you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional “Representative. This is not only your right- it is your obligation! 

All I ask is that you make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are!

We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance.

This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue!

You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!

Democracy is not a spectator sport!

Lead, follow or get out of the way!


-michael cutler- 

Please check out my website:

       


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http://www.caps-blog.org/articles/2012/04/07/connecting-the-dots-essential-to-preventing-iranian-sponsored-terrorist-attacks-on-u-s-soil/

Connecting the Dots Essential to Preventing Iranian-Sponsored Terrorist Attacks on U.S. Soil

On March 21, 2012, the House Committee on Homeland Security, chaired by Congressman Peter King, held a hearing titled “Iran, Hezbollah, and the Threat to the Homeland.” According to a subsequent Huffington Post article, King stated that “there may be hundreds of Hezbollah operatives in the United States.”

As the United States continues to face the potential of terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, Hezbollah posing a growing threat. The Huffington Post article states:

“As Iran moves closer to nuclear weapons and there is increasing concern over war between Iran and Israel, we must also focus on Iran’s secret operatives and their number one terrorist proxy force, Hezbollah, which we know is in America,” said New York Rep. Peter King at a Wednesday hearing of his committee.”

The hearing follows a foiled plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, D.C., and testimony by the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper that Iran’s leaders are “more willing to conduct an attack inside the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime.”

Iranians shock troops that live in South America and immerse themselves in the language and culture of Latin America could easily run our porous border and take a mundane job while they await instructions calling them to action against the U.S.

In January 1993, a Pakistani national, Mir Kansi stood outside CIA Headquarters with an AK-47 and opened fire. When the smoke dissipated, two CIA officers lay dead and three others were seriously wounded.  Kansi, who initially fled the United States was captured and made to stand trial in the United States.  He was found guilty and executed.  If was determined that he had previously lied on his application for political asylum. Had this fraud been detected and Kansi deported, those officers would be alive and well today.

Just one month later, a bomb-laden truck was detonated under the World Trade Center. The blast killed six victims, wounded hundreds and nearly brought one of the towers down sideways.  This attack was also carried out by alien terrorists who gamed the visa and immigration systems so they could enter and remain in the U.S. as they prepared for the attack.

The attacks of 9/11 were committed by foreign terrorists in the U.S. illegally. In fact, the 9/11 Commission found that of 94 terrorists identified as operating in our country in the decade leading up to 9/11, two thirds committed visa fraud and/or immigration fraud.

Clearly, failures of the immigration system have been linked to previous terrorist attacks and yet the vulnerabilities remain. Ironically, President Obama gave a speech at Disney World recently calling for streamlining the Visa process for aliens from China and Brazil saying that his goal was to cut the waiting time for visas by 40 percent.

There is an inverse proportion between speed and accuracy; the faster a task must be accomplished, the more likely that errors will be made.  Errors in this process can provide criminals and terrorists access to our nation.  Now apparently there will be even more pressure brought to bear to move the applications at warp speed!  It is easier and far quicker to approve these applications than deny them.

While most of the terrorists who have sought to or successfully attacked our nation were admitted by committing visa fraud or overstaying the terms of their admission, they weren’t taken into custody and nothing of consequence has been done to plug this gaping hole in the system.

The time has come for our government to try a novel approach – connect the dots and take appropriate actions before there is another terrorist attack!


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