Posted on 12/07/2004 4:49:31 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
The House voted Tuesday to overhaul a national intelligence network that failed to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks, combining under one official control of 15 spy agencies, intensifying aviation and border security and allowing more wiretaps of suspected terrorists.
"We have come a long way toward taking steps that will ensure that we do not see another September 11th," said House Rules chairman David Dreier, R-Calif. Now "we have in place a structure that will ensure that we have the intelligence capability to deal with conflicts on the ground wherever they exist."
The House voted 336-75 to send the Senate legislation to create a new national intelligence director, establish a counterterrorism center, set priorities for intelligence gathering and tighten U.S. borders. The measure would implement the biggest change to U.S. intelligence gathering and analysis since the creation of the CIA after World War II to deal with the newly emerging Cold War.
The new structure should help the nation's 15 intelligence agencies work together to protect the country from attacks like the ones that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, lawmakers said.
"I have always said that good people need better tools. Here come the tools to help good people succeed," said Rep. Jane Harman of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
The GOP-controlled Senate plans to pass the bill Wednesday and send it to President Bush for his signature.
The ideal ticket IMHO is Sanford/Tancredo. Mark Sanford is a popular governor and could snag the nomination. THey are two very different guys but I like that. Both are fiscally and socially conservative. During Mark's time in the House he was moderate on immigration from what I hear, but with Tancredo as a foreign policy and border advisor (kinda like Cheney to Bush) we have a winner. Tancredo is too unknown to head up the ticket (plus the GOP wouldn't allow it-it'll be hard enough to get Sanford on), but would make a good dark-horse Veep selection.
Can they? (Rejected for guns, pilots criticize test)
Yes AuntB, I'm in total agreement on that.
When you realize the fellow travelers that are pushing illegal immigration, it's reason enough in and of itself to give a reasoned conservative pause for reflection. It has been very very sad for me to watch people I have a lot of respect for, side with some of the worst types in this nation, on this issue.
MALDEF? LA RAZA? Other strident socialist advocacy groups? A.N.S.W.E.R.? A.N.S.W.E.R.'s fellow travelers including south American and Philipene (sp?) terrorist groups?
How people can take a complete pass on this issue, ignore completely the forces driving illegal immigration, then call themselves a conservative is beyond me.
Excellent comments from my perspective. Thanks. The issues you mention are very real and a major threat. None the less, those issues are ignored completely by those in leadership positions.
I can't wait the hear the excuse, "We didn't realize shoulder mounted missiles were a threat." ala the "We didn't think airliners would be used as flying bombs."
We have a bunch of Warner Brothers' cartoon characters in Washington.
If these people were judged by their actions, it would be "B n a B n a B, that's all folks."
Bump that! I wasn't on line during the 9/ll attack. I would venture, and I will check, that many so opposed to immigration control now, especially illegals, were screaming madly about how these killers got a pass to do this to us by INS, the state dept. and their driveby visa program, etc.
"Personally, I'm in favor of using National Guard divisions to seal our borders, with a 500m wide no-mans-land covered with mine-wire obstacles and covered by both direct and indirect fires.z'
Sounds good.
I've even thought, with the brilliant engineers in this country, surely they can devise a kind of underground "electric fence" running the length of the border to keep illegals out---something similar to those invisible "fences" dog owners use in their yards to keep their pets from crossing over.
I know it would take a lot of manpower to install this, but if each border state took responsibility for the work (not the funding of it), maybe it could be done section(state) by section. Also it would provide some jobs for American citizens.
Any engineers out there think this is feasible?
Some of us were pretty vocal against the free reign foreign nationals had, but the pro-illegal and anti-border control crowd followed the lead of A.N.S.W.E.R. and got very quiet for a period of time. It didn't take them long to come back out from under their rocks though.
The bill was supposedly based on the findings and recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, in itself something of a farce. However, one of the key recommendations was for a national ban on drivers licenses for illegal aliens. It was originally included in the bill, then excised at the behest of Senator Lieberman.
I agree with you that the bill is nothing but a bureaucratic crock, but IMO that has nothing to do with the debate over border provisions.
On a personal note, I am looking forward to your homecoming, praying for a safe return and request that you please post a vanity as soon as you touch American soil again. Okay?
If the socialists in the House are for it, it's a piece of junk.
I'm sorry Bush is AWOL on protecting our borders ... someone needs to give him a wakeup call.
it did have some good but it was overwhelimingly a bad bill."
It's not so much that it's a bad bill, but it could have been SO MUCH BETTER, if the GOP stood up for the House version and left it at that.
It is really pathetic that they felt they needed to rush to pass this INSTEAD OF PASSING A BETTER BILL NEXT YEAR.
your right, i called it a bad bill because, like you said it was rushed through congress, which is never a good thing. listening to the recomendations of the 9/11 commission scaires me since they were implimented with little little or no changes. also since the democrats are overwhemingly supporting this bill can only mean troubble for us in the future. ill get back to you as soon as i finish reading the whole bill.
"Will get back to you as soon as i finish reading the whole bill."
God Bless you, if you actually *read* the bill, that is more than most of those in Congress who VOTED for it did!!!
COOL!
I sent a note to my Rep, Smith (TX), opposing it, and he voted NO.
I think the anti-illegal-immigration caucus voted no by and large. The bad news is that it is no more that 67 principled members of Congress.
Joe Barton is my Rep and he voted NO. Rush said if illegals don't have to prove they are here legally then why should we? I am sick of playing by the rules only to get screwed.
In TEXAS you used to have to show proof of insurance to renew your drivers license, now you don't. THAT SUCKS and allows more illegals to get their license to drive on our roads and kill people.
This is what the Family Steering Committee of an advocacy group led by families of 9/11 victims had to say about these provisions:
The other controversial provision that calls for imposing driver's license rules against illegal aliens was not endorsed by the 9/11 Commission. Their investigation revealed all of the hijackers were admitted “legally” into the US , through INS. Nor would driver's license restrictions help prevent terrorist attacks perpetrated by "in status" foreign visitors, naturalized citizens or by cells of American-born terrorists.Considering that an estimated 3 million illegal aliens and 500 million foreign visitors enter the US every year, clearly, the focus must be on intelligence that can identify terrorists who attempt to blend in with either throng. We cannot stop terrorists solely through second-tier methods such as driver's license reform. Sadly there are some who advocate letting the bill 'die' if the narrow issue of driver's licenses for illegals is not included. This shortsighted view has contributed to mischief in Washington .
The 9/11 Commission Report cites the best opportunities to disrupt the 9/11 plot involved Zacarias Moussaoui and the failure to track and watchlist two of the hijackers who attended a planning meeting in Kuala Lumpur. These missed opportunities are the purview of the FBI and CIA. There is simply no comparison between the effect of closing immigration loopholes and the impact in preventing terrorist attacks by creating an effective intelligence network.
YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHUTCHA WA-A-ANT...
By Michelle Malkin · December 08, 2004 03:08 PM
But if you try sometimes
You might find
You get
A teeny, teeny-tiny bit of
What you need...
I'm trying to put on a happy face. Really.
Meanwhile, Human Events has a copy of President Bush's to Intel Bill Conferees promising to take up border security reform measures...later.
Bush=Lucy.
House GOP mavericks=Charlie Brown.
Real immigration reform=football.
Argh.
www.michellemalkin.com
'I keep thinking about this whole border/security/illegal scenario. Why has this President and others before him ignored this issue? It's not about votes IMHO. We keep hitting a brick wall on this immigration issue. No one wants to enforce the laws on the books. What's going on?????? Conspiracy??? '
I remember answering this four years ago about this time, right after that election. They've all just been following the NWO script handed them. Tin-foil hat, some cried, as they reached for more chains with which to bind themselves.
The New World Order Map
http://www.penncrier.com/penncrier/pcnwompt.html
'About The New World Order Map:
This map was discovered by Helen Somers in a window in Philadelphia during World War II. It was completed in October 1941, before Pearl Harbor....'
'Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean islands will be incorporated into the United States of America.'
Regionalism: The Implementation of the New World Order
http://www.penncrier.com/penncrier/pcnwoimp.html
"If totalitarianism wins this conflict, the world will be ruled by tyrants, and individuals will be slaves. If democracy wins, the nations of the earth will be united in a commonwealth of free peoples, and individuals, wherever found, will be the sovereign units of the new world order." -- The Declaration of the Federation of the World, produced by the Congress on World Federation, adopted by the Legislatures of North Carolina (1941), New Jersey (1942), Pennsylvania (1943), and possibly other states.
http://www.penncrier.com/penncrier/pcnwoqut.html
http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Hab/Hab002.html#5
But God is still in His holy temple.
Habakkuk 2:20
Who knows? Because there just doesn't seem to be any progress in stopping it, I wonder if, maybe, in the end, they are just doing the Lord's bidding? [You know, final fulfillment of this: http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Rev/11/15.html ]. It gives me comfort to think of Gollum as he falls into hell with the ring.
http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Psa/Psa037.html#9
"This is what the Family Steering Committee of an advocacy group led by families of 9/11 victims had to say about these provisions: "
And here's what the other group (bigger) of 9ll families had to say:
My next guest says that immigration reforms are a critical part of intelligence reform. Peter Gadiel is the president of 9/11 Families for a Secure America. His son, James, was killed in the World Trade Center on September 11th. Peter Gadiel believes that if our national immigration laws had been fully enforced before September 11th, his son and many others would still be alive today. Good to have you with us.
PETER GADIEL, 9/11 FAMILIES FOR A SECURE AMERICA: Thank you for having me.
DOBBS: The statement, Congressman Sensenbrenner pointing out, 19 hijackers held 63 valid driver's licenses. What is your reaction when you hear that Jim Sensenbrenner was the primary person to stand up and say, as a matter of first line of defense, we've got to be able to stop giving valid driver's licenses to people who are here illegally.
GADIEL: People like Senator Collins and Lieberman and Roberts and Congressman Harman have been piling on him and criticizing him. But for the people of my group, 9/11 Families for a Secure America, he's a hero. He's able to take this absurd, false, phony criticism and fight back and make the point that driver's licenses are first and last line of defense.
DOBBS: It is a remarkable period. Do you understand -- you've been talking with these congressmen, these senators. I have not been able to get from any one of them who is opposed to banning these driver's licenses a solid, intelligent national security answer as to why they would be against it.
GADIEL: Well, if you go into Senator Lieberman's office, you'll hear the issue is complex. It's not complex. And for our members, the message we want to get across to the people of Connecticut, the people of California, Jane Harman's district and others, is that if you are in favor of the Collins/Lieberman/McCain bill, the Senate bill, then you are in favor of giving licenses to terrorists, it's that simple. Because if you support the Senate bill, then what you want to give is make licenses available to illegal aliens, an illegal alien is a person who's never been identified properly. And so any illegal alien can be a terrorist. We don't know who they are.
DOBBS: And Congressman Sensenbrenner also pointed out that the president agreed, as a matter of horse trading on this issue, to toughen the laws that would allow authorities to detain and deport terrorists.
GADIEL: Right.
DOBBS: And that was not agreed to by the Senate conferees.
GADIEL: The Senate conferees would not budge an inch from their original position. They're saying that the House didn't compromise. But, in fact, the House compromised a great deal to the point where, at the end, the only thing in terms of border security or driver's license reform was the driver's license provision. All the other border security measures had been bargained away by the House because of the refusal of the Senate, Collins, Lieberman, McCain, the rest of the crowd, Rockefeller, to compromise even an inch. And there's no interpretation available for their position other than that they want to keep the borders open because they want cheap labor in this country, and the people provide massive campaign contributions are continuing to fund their campaigns.
DOBBS: You said it that straightforward.
GADIEL: Straightforward. Senator Roberts, over one-third of $1 million of campaign dollars, from agribusiness alone in the last few years. Agribusiness, a major user of cheap, illegal labor. Senator Roberts, you don't want closed borders? We do. We consider our children's lives and the future of this country much more important than your contributions from agribusiness.
DOBBS: Congressman Duncan Hunter, Chairman of the House Armed Forces Committee, saying this legislation should not pass because it takes away too much power from the Department of Defense intelligence. Do you agree with him on that?
GADIEL: I can't comment on the intelligence side. I mean, I've been working on border security and such things. And for me to say anything about the intelligence dispute would be talking through my hat.
DOBBS: Your position, the position of your group, the 9/11 Families for a Secure America, is that driver's licenses, we have to stop issuing them to illegal aliens, and that we have to have border security.
GADIEL: Border security. More people on the border, more internal enforcement, ban the use of matricular cards.
DOBBS: It sounds so straightforward, so simple, so primary, that if one cannot defend their borders, what defense is there?
GADIEL: Well, talk to Senator Rockefeller, he'll tell you the issue is complex. I'm sorry. I mean, General Franks said during the Iraq war that any nation that wants to can control its borders. The people in Congress do not want to control our borders. That's where the problem lies.
DOBBS: What should people who agree with you do?
GADIEL: Well, Election Day has passed. One of the worst members of the entire congress on this issue is senator McCain. He authored a provision in the Senate bill, that essentially invites states to go on giving licenses to terrorists, and he's just been elected by 70 percent of the vote. On the other hand, those very same people supported the PAN initiative which was a ...
DOBBS: Proposition 200.
GADIEL: Proposition 200, right. You know, vote them out of office. Get rid of Senator Rockefeller, get rid of Senator Lieberman. Vote for people who will support the borders and not just talk right about the issue, and then vote wrong, like Senator Lieberman. They always talk about how they want to control the borders, but when it comes to a vote, they won't do it.
www.cnn.com/lou/transcripts
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