November 30, 2006, - 8:31 am
On Crack?: Bush Wants to Make it Easier For Terrorists to Enter
By Debbie Schlussel
Dear President Bush:
What was the message you got from the resounding loss of your party in the recent elections? Was the message you heard from America something like this?:
President Bush, We want to make it easier for terrorists and other sordid “visitors” to come to America. We need them to shop at our 7-Elevens and Wal-Marts to pump up our economy while they plan their next attacks on America.
Apparently, you must think that was the message. Either that, or you are on crack . . . or mushrooms . . . or some other mind-altering drugs.
Otherwise you would not tell Europe, as you did, yesterday, in Estonia, that you want to enable Estonians and other foreign nationals to get into America without visas. You want to expand a disastrous Visa Waiver program that should, instead, be cancelled.
Mr. Prez, did you forget that the shoe-bomber, Richard Reid, 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, and assorted other Islamic terrorists got into the country with passports from visa-waiver nations?
Don’t you know that by expanding–instead of canceling–this absurd program, you are allowing more dangerous individuals to get into America without having to go through lengthy security interviews and checks required for those who must apply for visas?
Didn’t you read the September Government Accountability Office report that
stolen passports from visa-waiver countries are prized travel documents among terrorists, criminals, and immigration law violators?
Mr. Bush, check out the visa waiver, pictured above, for Michael Steger, issued in 2005. Did it occur to you and the folks at Homeland “Security” that there is no longer an East Germany (and there hasn’t been for some time, FYI)? Doesn’t this tell you that maybe your silly program isn’t working? That maybe it’s jeopardizing American lives on our own shores?
As Steger comments:
Funny guys! How can they secure their homeland when they can’t even read? No, Mr. President, East Germany does no longer exist! And I have never even been there
Don’t believe your so-called Homeland Security expert Michael Chertoff a/k/a “Mr. Burns” who claims that it’s okay to expand this absurd program. He claims that if those countries provide more info about airline passengers before takeoff, that U.S. officials will have more time to check names against terrorist watch lists.
That won’t change a thing. Terrorist watch lists are not as extensive as a personal interview and other checks the State Department conducts for visitor visas.
Why won’t you listen to real experts, like your own former appointee, Clark Kent Ervin, former Inspector General of Homeland Security, who says that your proposed expansion of this ill-advised program is “a step in the wrong direction”?
My friend, Michael W. Cutler, a retired senior agent with the former INS, told The Washington Times he is “outraged” by your attempt to expand this program and further damage national security:
The president is apparently willing to ignore high refusal rates for visa applications and is claiming that because aliens from visa-waiver countries generally leave the United States within [the authorized period], it is reasonable to have the citizens of those countries participate in a program that creates inherent national security vulnerabilities.
He makes those assertions even though he knows our government lacks the ability to know when these aliens leave our country.
Your and Ohio Republican Senator Voinovich’s attempts to expand this failed program tells us that neither he nor you have heard America’s outcry against lax immigration policies, since we know that many of those who get visas under this program become illegal aliens who’ve overstayed their visa ad infinitum.
The Washington Times says Voinovich
planned to introduce a bill next week to extend visa-free travel privileges to countries allied with the United States in the global war on terrorism.
But two of those countries reportedly “on the doorstep” to become part of the visa-waiver program are Malta and Cypress, Muslim-dominated countries that are hotbeds of terrorism. Did you not forget the PLO’s use of Cypress as a base of operations? How about the fact that in 2002, the Nativity Church Palestinian terrorists (who murdered several innocent civilians, including four Americans) were welcomed to freedom in Cypress? Apparently, you like Cypress Muslims’ Haloumi cheese better than you like our safety.
If so many countries will qualify for visa waviers, why even have visas? Why have borders? Let’s just let everyone in, no strings or questions.
The only people applauding this ludicrous suggestion are travel industry professionals who don’t care if dangerous people come here, so long as they pay top dollar for their ticket, car, and hotel package. Rick Webster of the Travel Industry Association said,
It’s good for our economy . . . . The end of the program would mean tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue and a worsened U.S. image.
Remember how bad our economy was for years after 9/11? The best thing for our economy is to prevent another attack like that from happening. Image may matter in sports and entertainment, but an image of kowtow nation won’t keep America secure.
The only image we should be concerned with is that of a tough, take-no-prisoners-in-the-War-on-Terror nation. Until then, we will be a magnet for terrorists and criminals, who laugh at your silly visa-waiver program.
End it. Don’t “mend” (or expand) it.
Regards,
Debbie
Tags: airline passengers, America, Bush Wants, Clark Kent Ervin, conspirator, Debbie Schlussel, Department of State, East Germany, Estonia, Europe, immigration law violators, Inspector General, Malta, Michael Chertoff, Michael Steger, Michael W. Cutler, Ohio, Palestine Liberation Organization, President, Prez, Richard Reid, Rick Webster, The Washington Times, travel documents, Travel Industry Association, travel industry professionals, United States, visa applications, visa-free travel privileges, Voinovich, Zacarias Moussaoui
“The end of the program would mean tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue and a worsened U.S. image.”
I hate it with a passion when people worry about what France or any other stupid county thinks about us. We are #1 by a mile and we didn’t get that way following but leading.
Simply amazing how President Bush and the Republican Party keep ignoring the people who put them in power!
You said it just perfectly, Debbie.
Jeff_W on November 30, 2006 at 9:15 am