A Line in the Sand: Countering Crime, Violence and Terror at the Southwest Border
Published on November 30th, 2012
I’ve taken my title from a disturbing report released November 2012 and prepared by the Homeland Security Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee at the behest of Congressman Michael McCaul, the subcommittee's chairman.
The report focused on the growing presence of Iranian Qodz (Shock Troops) in Venezuela, Iran's growing sphere of influence throughout the Western Hemisphere and also on evidence of increasing cooperation between Latin American drug trafficking organizations and terrorist organizations like Hezbollah.
The Subcommittee believes Iran and Hezbollah’s Latin American presence represents a strategic location that places terrorist operations within striking distance of the United States. If Iran is provoked, the report asserts Hezbollah’s Latin American finance cells could turn operational.
McCaul’s report cites the 9/11 Commission main criticism which was that the United States failed to connect the dots and to use foresight when assessing existing threats.
If we “connect the dots” we can see that President Obama’s massive amnesty program for DREAMers presents the same threats to our national security. His amnesty offers the potential for hundreds of thousands or, perhaps, millions of aliens who can't or won't provide reliable proof of their true identities or their legal entry to eventually be issued official documents that will enable them to subsequently obtain Social Security Cards, driver's licenses, library cards (useful for access to the internet), credit cards etc. in false names.
The 9/11 Commission Report presented an in-depth analysis of how the terrorists entered the United States and then secured official documents to embed themselves into mainstream society. The 9/11 Commission also prepared an extensive report titled the “Staff Report (Monograph) on Terrorist Travel.”
Here are two important excerpts from the Staff Report on Terrorist Travel. The first is from the report’s preface:
"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."
The second is found on Page 98 under the title “Immigration Benefits”:
"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."
Massive amnesty programs like the administration’s utterly ignore the 9/11 Commission’s findings and warnings.