War of Words

While much is being made of the anger of many Americans with their government, journalists are often the accomplices of the politicians who attempt to dupe the citizens of our nation. Few Americans actually read proposed legislation but take the words of the journalists who report on legislative matters.  Back in high school and even in college, overworked students often resorted to reading “Cliff Notes” or other such publications that cut down huge books to size.  The required reading lists posted by so many instructors would have made it all but impossible for students to actually read the unabridged volumes that their teachers told them they had to read.  These students came to expect that the greatly truncated versions of those books would provide accurate although greatly shortened versions of the books they needed to read and digest in order to be prepared for class and the exams and papers that would follow. Similarly, our citizens who are attempting to support themselves and their families while tending to all sorts of matters required of them in this fast-paced world use newspapers, magazines and other such publications, augmented by radio and television news programs, as their current equivalent of “Cliff Notes.” In order to sort out the meaning of the news that hurtles at us at warp speed the most diligent and educated citizens of our nation have no alternative other than to attempt to glean information about a wide variety of information than to rely on the information provided by journalists.  Trying to keep up with current events is a bit like standing under Niagara Falls with an 8-ounce water glass and attempt to capture as much of the rushing water as possible. There are some journalists who truly do a credible job of attempting to accurately and objectively report on the news.  Those journalists are truly national treasures and serve their audience as well as our nation well — providing information that is vital for our citizens to be able to understand the important issues and thereby gain fact-based opinions of what elected officials are worthy of their votes the next time they run for office.  These facts also help our citizens to make informed decisions about a broad spectrum of issues. The problem is that there are many journalists who fail to live up to their obligations of integrity and honesty.  They may fail because they are lazy or inept.  They may fail at their jobs because they are biased.  The problem is that when they fail to provide objective news reporting they do a huge disservice to their profession, and the harm that is done literally ripples throughout virtually aspect of our nation. Last week a reporter who works for a highly respected news publication in Washington wrote a story about the DREAM Act.  He stated that the DREAM Act had been defeated but that there were politicians who he believed might attempt to resurrect that legislation as a stand-alone bill rather than tack it onto another piece of legislation as had just been attempted when it was attached to a Pentagon funding bill.  What was frustrating and indeed infuriating to me was that he stated that the DREAM Act had been intended to assist young immigrants!  Once again the mythology that the DREAM Act was simply about helping young immigrants was being propagated by a reporter who was employed by a respected news source in our nation’s Capitol.  What was also upsetting is that I have known this reporter for some time and, to my recollection, was interviewed by him several years ago.  So I called him up and asked him about his report and asked him how he could state that the DREAM Act was designed to assist young immigrants when the House version of the bill said that aliens who had not attained the age of 35 would be eligible to participate in the program while the Senate version had no age limit at all?  Furthermore I pointed out, both bills had “waiver clauses” that said that factors that might prevent an alien from participating in the program might be able to get a waiver to participate in any event! For the next couple of minutes this normally very calm and articulate reporter stuttered and stammered about what I had told him and then he said, “Mike, what is the big deal, the bill was defeated, wasn’t it?” I reminded him that he himself had written that the supporters of the DREAM Act might attempt to do some CPR on it and bring it back as a stand alone bill!  Some more stuttering and stammering followed, and he then changed the subject and asked me why I was so opposed to “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” when a “Conservative,” Mayor Bloomberg of New York, had come out in support of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. I reminded the reporter that Bloomberg had been a Democrat and that he was actually s self-serving elitist who had bent the rules in New York to seek and win a third term as Mayor.  In my judgment, Bloomberg is neither a Liberal nor a Conservative, neither a Republican nor a Democrat, but is actually what all too many politicians currently are: “Self-Servatives!” Hoping to continue to move the conversation away from the reason I called him in the first place, the reporter asked me in a bit of an accusatory tone, “Why do you keep saying that terrorists would seek to participate in Comprehensive Immigration Reform?” I explained my concerns about how aliens could used Comprehensive Immigration Reform as an means of acquiring brand new identities and that this would create a national security nightmare for our nation and that it most certainly should be expected that terrorists would take advantage to game the system. Defiantly he asked me to provide one example of a terrorist who had sought to game the system! Remember this guy has been reporting on DHS for years — I told him that each and every one of the 19 terrorists who attacked our nation on September 11, 2001 had gone to U.S. Embassies and Consulates in order to acquire the visas they used to enter our country as they prepared to attack us. I told him to think back to the hearing at which I testified before the House Immigration Subcommittee hearing on March 19, 2002 about how two of the 9/11 terrorists, Mohammed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi, had applied for a change of status to attend flight school and how their applications were approved precisely 6 months after the attacks of September 11, 2001 — attacks in which they played significant roles! I also reminded him how of 94 terrorists who had been identified as operating in the United States in the decade prior to the attacks of 9/11 some 59 of them had used visa fraud or immigration benefit fraud in order to enter the United States and/embed themselves in our country. He promptly told me he forgot he had a meeting to go to!  Conversation ended! This is one of all too many examples of reporters who don’t “get it right!” Recently ABC News in reporting on the continuing threats posed by terrorists operating in Europe noted that Faisal Shahzad, the so-called, “Times Square Bomber,” was “Home Grown!” This now-convicted terrorist was born in Pakistan on June 30, 1979 and was granted an H-1B nonimmigrant visa as a skilled worker in 2002 when he was 23 years old and became a resident alien in 2006 and a United States citizen just last year — yet ABC News refers to him as “Home Grown!” The obvious problem is that if it is clear that our country admitted an alien into our country who was involved in terrorism or became involved in terrorism after his admission into our country, then it would be quite clear that the way that our nation issues visas and administers the immigration benefits program contributes to a national security nightmare.  Referring to such terrorists as “home-grown” or of “Pakistani decent” ignores nothing less than the truth and obfuscates the issue for those who don’t take the time to seek other sources of information. The continuing expansion of the Visa Waiver Program also creates a huge vulnerability for our nation and our citizens.  Europeans are highly coveted by al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations because Europeans don’t need to apply for visas before they seek to enter the United States. Clearly immigration and border security are major factors in our nation’s vulnerability to terrorism.  However, it is unfashionable to make this connection especially when efforts continue to expand the globalist agenda! In the days, weeks and months after the attacks of September 11, 2001 a line of politicians formed in front of microphones and television cameras to demand to know “why no one connected the dots!”  In point of fact, you cannot connect dots you are unwilling to see! If the executives at newspapers and other “mainstream” news services are perplexed as to why fewer people are buying their papers and tuning into their programs, they should first come to the understanding that we are not only not buying the newspapers, we are not buying their reporting, either! Jack Nicholson famously barked, from the witness stand at a Court Marshal in “A Few Good Men,” one of the most remembered phrases to be found in a film, “You can’t handle the truth!” The point is that our democratic form of government is utterly dependent on We the People getting the truth, and, if the “journalists” out there won’t provide it, we will go elsewhere to find it!