[Lion's Cub]

Someone else posted that the feds are about to allow people from upwards of 29 nations to enter our nation without visas

Not "about to allow", but currently allows...US mulls visa-waiver for 29 countries
According to the State Department web site, the 29 participating countries are: Andorra, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Uruguay.

[Economist_MA]

These are tourist visa and do not allow the holder to be gainfully employed. Also, the terrorists cannot have had these unless they had passports from one of the participating countries, which I do not know. Simply coming out of (say) Switzerland when entering the US isn't enough to qualify, you would need a Swiss passport.