An administration ignores the findings and recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.
Michael Cutler | FrontPage Mag
Huge sums of money are spent by our government and the governments of other countries to enable meteorologists to more accurately predict the weather.
For decades the United States has orbited fleets of ever more sophisticated weather satellites that circle the globe, taking measurements and tracking storms from orbit, while super-computers on the ground create models to predict when hurricanes or tornados may form and then predict the areas that will likely be endangered.
Courageous storm-hunters on the ground, who seek to observe and measure tornados “up close and in person,” drive heavily armored vehicles with a wide array of instruments in efforts to get a front-row view and develop a better understanding of how tornados form and better predict their destructive paths.
Heroic pilots and their crews of intrepid meteorologists fly into the hearts of violent hurricanes for similar purposes.
However, the purpose of all of these efforts is not simply garner information as a matter of academic curiosity, but to make certain that those who may be at risk are warned about the risks they face. Once the likely track of dangerous storms are established, those who live within the path of the storms are warned to take appropriate action.
Such action may require residents of low-lying areas or those areas along threatened coastlines to evacuate their homes and head for higher ground. It may require that homeowners and store-keepers board up windows and doors and remove anything from their property that could become a dangerous flying projectile.
Those in the path of such monstrous storms might be advised to stock up on food, water, batteries and other supplies to help them ride out the storm.
Those in the path of tornadoes are alerted to head for their storm cellars to maximize their likelihood of surviving the onslaught of winds and destruction.
Storms of course, are not the only threat we face, especially in this turbulent and volatile era. Increasingly terrorists have gone on bloody rampages around the world and here, within the borders of our nation.
Huge sums of money and Herculean efforts are being expended by various elements of our military and intelligence and law enforcement agencies to develop effective intelligence about the activities of these terrorist organizations that, not unlike major storms, are on the move around the world. The intelligence reports that these agencies produce forecast threats America and Americans face- not from natural events but from threats posed by America’s adversaries.
While the mission of our armed services is to work with our allies to locate and engage these terrorists overseas, our law enforcement agencies are tasked with protecting America and Americans within our borders. In the wake of the deadly terror attack in San Bernardino, California I wrote an article: “Fighting The War On Terror Here, There and Everywhere” in which I took on the false argument that by fighting the terrorists overseas we won’t have to fight them here.
The “War on Terror” is a multi-front battle that must be won on all fronts.
James Comey, the Director of the FBI heads up a key agency that has the dual responsibility of gathering intelligence on terrorist organization and acting on that intelligence through law enforcement actions by its Joint Terrorism Task Force.
The 9/11 Commission was clear about how it was multiple failures of the immigration system- ranging from the visa adjudications process, to border security, including the way that aliens are lawfully admitted into the United States through the legal inspections process conducted at ports of entry enabled terrorists to enter the United States. The Commission also warned that failures of the immigration benefits program whereby aliens were granted employment authorization and lawful immigration status including political asylum and even United States citizenship enable terrorists to embed themselves in the United States as they prepare their deadly attacks.
I addressed this issue in my July19, 2016 article, “Immigration and the Terrorist Threat: How our leaders are spawning catastrophe.”
Roughly one week after I wrote my article, on July 27, 2016 the New York Times headline, “Defeat of ISIS Could Send ‘Terrorist Diaspora’ to West, F.B.I. Chief Says” should certainly give us all, “cause for pause.”
On July 28, 2016 the Washington Times ominously reported, “FBI director warns of ‘terrorist diaspora out of Syria like we’ve never seen before.’
More recently, just days ago, on September 26, 2016 Business Insider warned, “FBI director: ISIS’ loss will create a ‘terrorist diaspora’ like we’ve never seen before,” while a day later NBC reported, “FBI’s Comey: Officials Worry About ‘Terrorist Diaspora’ from Syria, Iraq.”
Furthermore, John Brennan, the Director of the CIA has also warned about how ISIS and other terrorist organizations are embedding their operatives in refugee flows.
America has been handed one hell of a “weather forecast” predicting an onslaught of terror-related violence, destruction and death.
Yet the administration continues to admit refugees in increasing numbers, even though multiple high-ranking administration officials have, with crystal-clarity, warned that these refugees cannot be vetted.
While on the topic of vetting, the administration continues to seek to legalize millions of illegal aliens who entered the United States without being vetted, at all. In point of fact, Entry Without Inspection = Entry Without Vetting.
What the administration refers to as a population of aliens who entered “undocumented” a manufactured term of Jimmy Carter: Originator of the Orwellian Term ‘Undocumented Immigrant,’ these aliens actually entered the United States without inspection.
Even in the face of all of the foregoing, Hillary Clinton insists that if elected she would greatly increase the number of Syrian refugees she would admit into the United States. She has repeatedly complained bitterly about her beliefs that the administration has acted far too aggressively to enforce our immigration laws and out of “compassion” she would, within one hundred days of taking office, provide unknown millions of illegal aliens with lawful status and pathways to United States citizenship, blithely ignoring the findings and recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.
During that first Presidential debate, when she declared that she had been preparing for the debate and preparing to be president, I had wished that she would have been asked if her preparation had included reading the 9/11 Commission Report and/or the companion report, The 9/11 Commission Staff Report on Terrorist Travel.
Terrorists have weaponized immigration, seeing in America’s kindness and compassion weakness and vulnerabilities they can exploit to enter the United States and launch deadly attacks within our borders.
When heavy rains threaten, homeowners close all of their windows.
When hurricanes loom on the horizon folks generally board up their windows and take other steps to fortify and secure their buildings.
However when the heads of the FBI and the CIA along with other high-ranking officials of our government warn of an impending onslaught of terrorists and their violence, this administration has consistently turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to those warnings and has continued to admit ever more refugees who cannot be vetted. It has refused to ramp up efforts to locate and deport aliens who have violated our borders and our immigration laws.
These actions fly in the face of commonsense and the findings and recommendations of the 9/11 commission.
Hillary Clinton was, as Secretary of State, the leader of the State Department. The State Department administers the visa program at embassies and consulates around the world. Clinton’s role at State Department should have provided her with a clear understanding of the nexus between immigration and national security.
The visa program plays an intrinsic role in determining whether or not aliens may be admitted into the United States. Guidance for those decisions is provided by Title 8, United States Code, Section 1182, which enumerates the categoreis of aliens who are statutorily ineligible to enter the United States.
Among those categories are aliens who have dangerous communicable diseases or are suffer severe mental illness. Additionally aliens who as are criminals, terrorists, spies, war criminals are also ineligible to be granted visas and/or enter the United States.
The 9/11 Commission determined that deficiencies and laxity in the visa process enabled terrorists to enter the United States.
The first step in solving a problem is to identify the problem.
However, Hillary Clinton obviously still believes that the only problem with the immigration system and/or the visa program is that they impede the entry of aliens into the United States or require that aliens be removed from the United States for violating our laws.
It has been said, “Forewarned is forearmed.” It is clear that the administration has been repeatedly warned about the threats posed by terrorists and that multiple failures of the immigration system have repeatedly enabled terrorists to enter the United States.
What is particularly confounding is that the messengers of those warnings are, themselves, key members of this administration.
Nevertheless, Ms Clinton, with reckless disregard to national security or public safety, promises to admit increasing numbers of refugees who cannot be vetted. This literally and figuratively would open America’s doors to potential terrorists and criminals.
Metaphorically the sirens are blaring but Hillary refuses to heed the warnings. Incredibly she has declared that anyone who would want our borders secured and our immigration laws enforced should not be sent to a storm cellar but to the “Basket of Deplorables.”
It is her position and assertions about immigration, especially in this particularly perilous era, that is deplorable.
There is a storm coming and America must batten down the hatches.
SOURCE: FRONTPAGE MAG