Posted on 12/05/2004 6:43:50 AM PST by 4.1O dana super trac pak
If the intelligence bill has any chance of passage when Congress returns to the Capitol this week, it must meet all the goals outlined by the September 11 commission's comprehensive report, not just the few selected by the Senate. Specifically, it will have to address illegal immigration as a national security threat.
"The challenge for national security in an age of terrorism is to prevent the very few people who pose overwhelming risks from entering or remaining in the United States undetected," the September 11 commissioners wrote.
The September 11 Reccomendations Implementation Act as passed by the House of Representatives on Oct. 8 would have gone a long way toward meeting that challenge. The Senate-House compromise would not. That's why a solid majority of Republican House members refused to support it the week before Thanksgiving, forcing leadership to pull it from consideration. This is Congress' best oppurtunity to reform our laws to make the nation safer. It's critical Congress do it right.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
-ping-
Yep. Better do it right or not at all. If the Senate still balks, a better intelligence reform bill can be passed next year.
Thank God for congressmen who want to get the Intelligence Bill right the first time. The Country Club...I mean senate better understand that some things are worth fighting for, and the House Republicans have already sent that message last month. When will senate Republicans grow a spine?
The intelligence community needs a whole new outlook to adapt to the changes that have taken place in the world. CIA has a James Bond complex. FBI has a J. Edgar Hoover complex. World War II is over. Prohibition is over. You don't catch terrorists by checking ID's. They have valid (or valid looking) ID's. You don't catch them by interrogating 5000 people. You don't have enough manpower to do that.
We need a lot of intelligence gathering agents. That's not "spies". We are not looking for intelligence about governments, we are looking for information about ordinary people who hate the US and are doing things about it. Their neighbors know who they are and what they are doing. We just need ordinary people visiting neighborhoods and chatting with the neighbors. It is best done as part of some legitimate reason for being in the neighborhood.
We also need to use internet chat lines. One lady in Virginia identified 12 Al Qaeda guys by chatting with them on the internet. That seems to be too simple for the James Bond types.
"63 licenses" should be the rallying cry for immigration reform as it pertains to this Senate lead sellout.
btt
Here also is the quote from Sen. Kit Bond (R),Intelligence Committee, from tuesday (wasn't reported until yesterday!)
"I THINK THERE ARE ENOUGH QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS BILL THAT WE OUGHT TO COME BACK AND DO IT RIGHT NEXT YEAR"
"One lady in Virginia identified 12 Al Qaeda guys by chatting with them on the internet."
I saw that lady interviewed. I sure wish I'd started studying Arabic 3 years ago!
At least two provisions in the House bill that were dropped by House-Senate conferees specifically addressed that concern....[One] provision would have barred states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. As House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner noted, the 19 September 11 hijackers had 63 different driver's licenses, which allowed them total access to American society.... Provisions that expedited removing illegal immigrants, increased interior enforcement of our immigration laws and restricted the excessive judicial review of the deportation of criminal immigrants were also gutted.
President Bush doesn't want the bill to include the 9/11 Commission's recommendations on passports and drivers licenses because he doesn't want to inconvenience illegal aliens or give a political victory to those who oppose illegals.
If life were more difficult for illegals, we might find that they didn't amount to the insoluble crisis he needs in order to advance his legalization proposal as the only viable alternative to doing nothing, which is effectively what he's done on this matter for the past four years.
The only thing that will open their eyes is another 9/11-style attack. Short of that, they will fight to their political deaths to support illegal immigration.
If the next terrorist attacks are carried out by aliens who entered on Bush's watch; he should be impeached and convicted.
I've just been over at the AARP discussion boards. www.aarp.org
(Okay, okay, I'm over 50!)
Those folks are very unhappy about amnesty, SS for illegals, all of it. They're even more unhappy after I told them AARP contributes to MALDEF, the premier legal/advocacy group for illegals.
Taken from pages 15 and 16 of MALDEF's annual report
[MALDEF's] vision is of an America where being Latino is no longer an obstacle to full participation in society. We imagine an America where all people, including Latinos, enjoy the same rights and protections under the law; where Latino voices are fully heard and represented in the political process; where all people work together to maintain high levels of justice and fairness throughout the American system. Thank you to all of you who have supported MALDEF throughout this year
BRONZE PARTNERS: $1,000 ú $9,999
AARP
http://ccir.net/REFERENCE/MALDEF-2002-2003.html
And that is just pne of several reasons why I won't sign up with AARP. AARP can go pound dirt as for as I'm concerned.
Yikes. I guess this means that I'm also over 50. Oh well.....
Editorial by Elton Gallegly (R-Ca.).......
One Congress critter I respect. Him and Tancredo. Too many of the others are self aggrandizing jerks thinking only of getting re-elected and catering to ethnic pressure groups.
"I THINK THERE ARE ENOUGH QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS BILL THAT WE OUGHT TO COME BACK AND DO IT RIGHT NEXT YEAR"
Maybe some of these senators are starting to see the light. Considering Bond just got re-elected, this could be a good sign.
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