By Debbie Schlussel

Over and over during the Bush Administration, I decried George W. Bush’s boneheaded policy of granting visa waivers (including here, here, here, here, and here) to those with passports from an ever growing list of countries, most of them in Europe. But despite my criticism and that of others, President Bush sent his incompetent Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff to sign treaty after treaty with dozens of countries, waiving the need for a visa for anyone holding a passport (real or fake) from those countries to enter the United States. Although the program was started in 1986, President Bush is the one who not only refused to end it, but ramped it up, making visa waiver treaties with and adding most of the 36 countries on the list. Now, we learn that German Muslim terrorists planned to take advantage of the Bush visa waiver policy to get into the U.S. and attack civilians.

You probably heard the stories, this week, about the threats of terrorist attacks on European countries, like France and Great Britain, which were uncovered by German authorities when they caught a German-Pakistani Muslim returning from a terrorist training camp in July. The terrorist told him that many German Muslims, including converts, were training in Pakistan for planned terrorist attacks against “soft” and “economic” targets in France, Britain, and elsewhere. But what you don’t know–as noted in the ABC News “Nightline” video report, below–is that they also were looking to do the same thing here in the U.S. That’s why Germans were chosen. As noted in the report, they would use their German passports to avoid the scrutiny–including an interview at the U.S. Embassy and a stricter background check–required to get a visa to the U.S. By the way, most of these men went to the Hamburg Mosque, where the 9/11 attacks were planned. In August, the Germans shut down the mosque in response. (But I’m sure they’ll find a new gathering hole.)

I’m sure the partisan right that has forgotten all the horrid things the man they elected for eight years will once again remind me that Barack Obama is President now. Uh, yeah, but BUSH–NOT OBAMA–is the guy who did this. YES. BUSH. Where was your outrage when Bush did this? You’d be hollering from rooftops if Obama did it. But I guess when the Bush disaster repeatedly comes back to bite us in the butt, I should blame Obama. Sorry. But I warned you on Bush. You said and did nothing, anyway. ‘Cuz, hey, he told us he was the “counterterrorism President,” and since he said it, I must take him at his empty word and now focus on Obama. After all, like Bush said, people with British or German or French or Spanish passports would never commit terrorist attacks against America, right? There aren’t any Muslims in any of these countries, right?

We’re lucky the Germans caught this guy and learned of the plots. If they hadn’t caught him and more Americans were murdered, you could thank President Bush and his brain-addled visa waiver program. And there will be others who will make it into the U.S. because of that program. It’s probably already happened a thousand times already. Miss Bush yet? Counterterrorism President? More like Counter-Counterrorism President. Miss Him Yet?