TERRORISTS TRAVEL FREELY AROUND OUR COUNTRY
By Michael Cutler
March 21, 2009
NewsWithViews.com
A news article appeared in yesterday's edition of the Washington Times and deals with the threat posed to our nation by spies fielded against our nation by the People's Republic of China.
I'm also including couple of news links to articles that chronicled previous spy cases involving citizens of China who had acquired United States citizenship before they embarked on their missions of espionage. News link one, and news link two.
Time and again the point has been hammered home that the immigration benefits program has significant national security implications. Terrorists who attacked out nation often used the immigration benefits program as an embedding tactic as have spies and other nefarious individuals who understood that in order to "hide in plain sight" they needed to acquire lawful immigrant status and then United States citizenship.
Obviously spies require the same ability to hide in plain sight- in fact, someone once said that an effective spy is someone who would not attract the attention of a waiter or waitress at a "greasy spoon" diner. In point of fact, that spy (or terrorist) might well be that waiter!
When an alien is able to attain lawful immigrant status, that alien is able to work on many jobs, travel freely around our country and even in and out of our country. When an alien acquires lawful immigrant status, that alien is also on the pathway to United States citizenship. U.S. citizenship opens every door that any spy or terrorist could hope for. It represents the "key to the kingdom."
Today the issue of immigration benefits is the area of responsibility of a division of DHS: USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services).
A couple of years ago I was a guest on the MSNBC program, "Scarborough Country" to discuss the national security implications of the immigration benefits program, specifically the way that terrorists had engaged in marriage fraud as an embedding tactic. You can view that segment at this link.
Over the past decades here have been a succession of reports issued by the GAO (Government Accountability Office) and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) dealing with the lack of integrity to the immigration benefits program with extra emphasis having been placed on this seemingly prosaic area of concern since the terrorist attacks in 1993 and 2001. Each report details major failings and vulnerabilities, yet most of these vulnerabilities continue to threaten our nation's security.
The most recent such report was issued by the GAO in December 2008 and was entitled:
"IMMIGRATION BENEFITS: Actions Needed to Address Vulnerabilities in Process for Granting Permanent Residency"
How many more reports of investigations into vulnerabilities in the critical area of immigration benefits will be written before these issues are addressed?
How many more of these reports must be written before, God forbid, there is another terrorist attack or more irreparable damage done to our nation and our citizens by spies, terrorists and criminals?
What is extremely important to understand is that the massive "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" legislation, now being referred to as "CIR" would be administered by the same incompetent USCIS. This is the same agency that, according to the GAO a couple of years ago, claimed to have "lost" 111,000 immigration alien files relating to aliens seeking all sorts of immigration benefits including 30,000 aliens who applied to naturalize (be granted United States citizenship. The purported loss of those files is unacceptable. What was truly unforgivable and utterly outrageous, is the fact that all of those tens of thousands of applications for all of those benefits including the 30,000 applications for United States citizenship were adjudicated without the relating files being provided to the adjudicators who simply proceeded blindly!
I want you to think about these issues the next time you hear members of the United States Senate or the House of Representatives advocate a massive amnesty program for millions of aliens who are illegally present in the United States.
I want you to consider that if our nation's leaders foist this madness on this nation, that they will be endangering the lives of every American and the very survival of our nation!
I have often made the point that the only thing that is worse than no security is false security. A massive amnesty program would represent the ultimate false security!
In the days and weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 a veritable parade of politicians stood before the cameras and microphones and demanded to know why no one had "connected the dots?"
The 911 Commission (to which I provided testimony) made it clear that the immigration benefits program and the process by which visas are issued to aliens had unwittingly aided and abetted the terrorists who attacked our nation.
Today the Visa Waiver Program (another major threat to national security as noted by the 9/11 Commission and others, myself included) enables aliens from 34 countries to seek to enter our country without first applying for a visa. incredibly, this dangerous program was expanded late last year, from 27 countries to 34 countries, at the behest of various corporate executive, predominantly those from the travel and hospitality industries.
Our nation is being hammered from so many directions simultaneously. Arguably some of the most serious threats come from within our own government by politicians who will apparently do anything to receive campaign contributions or promises of votes!
What needs to be understood is that the issue of immigration impacts everything from national security and criminal justice, to the economy, the environment, health care and education, to name some of the most serious.
In less than two years each and every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection. In less than two years more than one third of the members of the United States Senate will have to face their constituents. They need to be reminded that they work for us, We the People!
The large scale apathy demonstrated by citizens of this nation has 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. There is much that we cannot do but there is one thing that We the People absolutely must do- we must stop sitting on the sidelines!
Here is the good news. We the People vastly outnumber the members of Congress! There are about 300 million Americans and a mere 535 members of both Houses of Congress!
Our voices can and must be much louder than theirs! The collective failure of We the People to get involved in make our concerns known to our politicians have nearly made the concerns of the great majority of the citizens of this nation all but irrelevant to the politicians.
I implore you to get involved!
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.
© 2009 - Michael Cutler - All Rights Reserved
By Michael Cutler
March 21, 2009
NewsWithViews.com
A news article appeared in yesterday's edition of the Washington Times and deals with the threat posed to our nation by spies fielded against our nation by the People's Republic of China.
I'm also including couple of news links to articles that chronicled previous spy cases involving citizens of China who had acquired United States citizenship before they embarked on their missions of espionage. News link one, and news link two.
Time and again the point has been hammered home that the immigration benefits program has significant national security implications. Terrorists who attacked out nation often used the immigration benefits program as an embedding tactic as have spies and other nefarious individuals who understood that in order to "hide in plain sight" they needed to acquire lawful immigrant status and then United States citizenship.
Obviously spies require the same ability to hide in plain sight- in fact, someone once said that an effective spy is someone who would not attract the attention of a waiter or waitress at a "greasy spoon" diner. In point of fact, that spy (or terrorist) might well be that waiter!
When an alien is able to attain lawful immigrant status, that alien is able to work on many jobs, travel freely around our country and even in and out of our country. When an alien acquires lawful immigrant status, that alien is also on the pathway to United States citizenship. U.S. citizenship opens every door that any spy or terrorist could hope for. It represents the "key to the kingdom."
Today the issue of immigration benefits is the area of responsibility of a division of DHS: USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services).
A couple of years ago I was a guest on the MSNBC program, "Scarborough Country" to discuss the national security implications of the immigration benefits program, specifically the way that terrorists had engaged in marriage fraud as an embedding tactic. You can view that segment at this link.
Over the past decades here have been a succession of reports issued by the GAO (Government Accountability Office) and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) dealing with the lack of integrity to the immigration benefits program with extra emphasis having been placed on this seemingly prosaic area of concern since the terrorist attacks in 1993 and 2001. Each report details major failings and vulnerabilities, yet most of these vulnerabilities continue to threaten our nation's security.
The most recent such report was issued by the GAO in December 2008 and was entitled:
"IMMIGRATION BENEFITS: Actions Needed to Address Vulnerabilities in Process for Granting Permanent Residency"
How many more reports of investigations into vulnerabilities in the critical area of immigration benefits will be written before these issues are addressed?
How many more of these reports must be written before, God forbid, there is another terrorist attack or more irreparable damage done to our nation and our citizens by spies, terrorists and criminals?
What is extremely important to understand is that the massive "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" legislation, now being referred to as "CIR" would be administered by the same incompetent USCIS. This is the same agency that, according to the GAO a couple of years ago, claimed to have "lost" 111,000 immigration alien files relating to aliens seeking all sorts of immigration benefits including 30,000 aliens who applied to naturalize (be granted United States citizenship. The purported loss of those files is unacceptable. What was truly unforgivable and utterly outrageous, is the fact that all of those tens of thousands of applications for all of those benefits including the 30,000 applications for United States citizenship were adjudicated without the relating files being provided to the adjudicators who simply proceeded blindly!
I want you to think about these issues the next time you hear members of the United States Senate or the House of Representatives advocate a massive amnesty program for millions of aliens who are illegally present in the United States.
I want you to consider that if our nation's leaders foist this madness on this nation, that they will be endangering the lives of every American and the very survival of our nation!
I have often made the point that the only thing that is worse than no security is false security. A massive amnesty program would represent the ultimate false security!
In the days and weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 a veritable parade of politicians stood before the cameras and microphones and demanded to know why no one had "connected the dots?"
The 911 Commission (to which I provided testimony) made it clear that the immigration benefits program and the process by which visas are issued to aliens had unwittingly aided and abetted the terrorists who attacked our nation.
Today the Visa Waiver Program (another major threat to national security as noted by the 9/11 Commission and others, myself included) enables aliens from 34 countries to seek to enter our country without first applying for a visa. incredibly, this dangerous program was expanded late last year, from 27 countries to 34 countries, at the behest of various corporate executive, predominantly those from the travel and hospitality industries.
Our nation is being hammered from so many directions simultaneously. Arguably some of the most serious threats come from within our own government by politicians who will apparently do anything to receive campaign contributions or promises of votes!
What needs to be understood is that the issue of immigration impacts everything from national security and criminal justice, to the economy, the environment, health care and education, to name some of the most serious.
In less than two years each and every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection. In less than two years more than one third of the members of the United States Senate will have to face their constituents. They need to be reminded that they work for us, We the People!
The large scale apathy demonstrated by citizens of this nation has 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. There is much that we cannot do but there is one thing that We the People absolutely must do- we must stop sitting on the sidelines!
Here is the good news. We the People vastly outnumber the members of Congress! There are about 300 million Americans and a mere 535 members of both Houses of Congress!
Our voices can and must be much louder than theirs! The collective failure of We the People to get involved in make our concerns known to our politicians have nearly made the concerns of the great majority of the citizens of this nation all but irrelevant to the politicians.
I implore you to get involved!
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.
© 2009 - Michael Cutler - All Rights Reserved
posted by shummer60 at Wednesday, March 25, 2009
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