Response to ‘Two Detained Admit Aiding NYC Bomber’

I have attached a link to a news report that appeared in the Washington Times and other newspapers on Saturday, May 22nd. I have also provided you with the first few sentences of that news report, that should give our leaders “cause for pause” but I fear that with the exception of a few true leaders in Washington, the administration and members of both houses of Congress will simply choose to ignore yet an additional example of how our immigration and visa policies compromise national security and leave our nation and our citizens vulnerable to those who would attack our nation and kill as many civilians as possible.

As anyone who as ever watched a detective movie or read a book about police work knows, it is not unusual for a criminal to seek to gain employment in a facility he (she) plans to rob. This is often referred to as “casing the joint!”

When an employee of a company commits a crime against the company he works for the term generally employed to describe such a crime is an “inside job.”

I can also tell you that as a federal agent I often conducted surveillance of locations prior to the execution of a search warrant to determine possible entry points and make note of the comings and goings of individuals who were being investigated.

When our nation permits foreign nationals (aliens) to enter our country the potential exists that some of them may be affiliated with criminal or terrorist organizations and seek to search for locations that may be vulnerable to their malevolent intentions. They may also seek to enter the United States to commit crimes in support of their criminal or terrorist organizations and/or set up a network of cohorts in our country who will participate in a criminal enterprise or terrorist attack.

In the military elite soldiers are often infiltrated behind enemy lines to serve as “recon” soldiers. Their job is to engage in reconnaissance to scope out the enemy’s assets, troop, strength, etc., looking for vulnerabilities and thereby enabling the commanders to devise effective strategies- often before an attack is launched.

The news report I have focused on in this commentary concerns six Pakistani nationals who were detained in Pakistan as being potential accomplices of Faisal Shahzad; the so-called, “Times Square Bomber.”

The article described a couple of the suspects and what is disturbing is the following sentence from that article:

The other suspect, identified only by his first name Shahid, is alleged to have helped arrange money for Shahzad. He has an MBA from the U.S. and apparently knew Shahzad from his time there.

This individual apparently managed to hide in plain sight in the United States by earning an MBA in the United States. I have used the term “apparently” because this individual has yet to be formally charged, let alone convicted of a crime. The article also did not discuss when he may have decided to take actions against the United States. That being said, think about the possibility- a foreign student is admitted into the United States to study for a Masters degree in Business Administration- as “Western” a goal as any you might imagine with the potential that the training he received in the course of his studies may well have facilitated his being able to enable him to generate and move funds to assist in a terrorist attack that was committed in the United States- in the heart of the City of New York!

Also worth considering was the fact that a co-owner of a supposedly “upscale” catering firm operating in Pakistan that purportedly catered events for various foreign embassies and major corporations wanted to plant a bomb at a gathering they catered. Furthermore, once again an alleged co-conspirator was identified as having been educated in the United States. Consider these two sentences from the article:

Among those detained in Pakistan is Salman Ashraf Khan, the co-owner of the upscale Hanif Rajput Catering Service. Two other suspects “wanted him to help bomb a big gathering of foreigners” whose event his company was catering, the Pakistani intelligence officer said.

Khan’s father said Saturday he was baffled by the accusations because his son is a successful businessman who lived happily as a student in the U.S. for four years. The younger Khan studied hotel management in Florida and computer science in Houston, returning to Pakistan in 2001 to take over the family business. I have, on occasion made the point that it has been said, “An effective spy (or terrorist) is someone who would not attract the attention of a waiter or waitress in a ‘greasy spoon’ diner.” I would add that an effective spy or terrorist might well be that waiter or waitress working at that greasy spoon diner.

Finally the news report detailed how money was moved in the United States by hawalas or unofficial money transfer services that have been used in the Middle East going back to the days of the Roman Empire. These organizations do not generally keep records of money transfers and thus serve as the ideal means of moving money without enabling law enforcement agencies to track the money.

The bottom line is that expanding the number of countries that participate in the Visa Waiver Program at a time when the Visa Waiver Program should be terminated, and failures to place a proper emphasis on screening aliens seeking visas to attend schools, secure “temporary” work authorization under the aegis of the H-1B Visa category and similar categories- and the failures to monitor foreign students in the United States make it relatively simple for many aliens from countries all over the world including so-called “Special Interest” countries (countries identified as being intrinsically involved with terrorism) to enter our country and hide in plain sight.

In a recent news report published in the Arizona Republic officials of ICE claimed that there were 272 investigators for the entire United States of America seeking to locate and apprehend aliens who overstayed their authorized period of admission into the United States or otherwise violated the terms of their admission into our country. It is worth important to remember that it has been estimated that at least 40% of the illegal aliens who are present in the United States did not run our nation’s borders but were admitted via the inspections process and then became deportable when they violated the terms of admission. This means that 272 investigators are attempting to locate and arrest a minimum of 5 million illegal aliens with still more illegal aliens being added to the list of those who should be removed from our nation, daily!

I was interviewed for the news report I noted above. You can find that news article at:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/05/10/20100510illegal-immigrants-overstay.html#ixzz0ndkoS9wZ

This threat is further exacerbated by a lack of resources and leadership at USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) the agency that is a part of the DHS that adjudicates applications for a wide array of immigration benefits ranging from authorizing aliens to change nonimmigrant status, to conferring resident alien status upon aliens and naturalizing aliens and providing them with United States citizenship.

These myriad failures of our government amount to nothing less than nonfeasance, misfeasance and malfeasance on a galactic scale that have brought our nation and our citizens to the point where we are now- in the midst of a full blown immigration crisis that threatens national security and impacts every challenge that confronts our nation today. Meanwhile our nation’s “leaders” are attempting to sell “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” as the cure for the crisis. Comprehensive Immigration Reform would hardly be “comprehensive” other than leaving virtually no illegal alien behind! The lack of capabilities and resolve to address the many failings of the agencies to effectively enforce and administer the immigration laws of our nation that we are witnessing now would create utter chaos and would provide criminals and terrorists with an unprecedented opportunity to enter our country and embed themselves here!

We the People can add to the consternation of these politicians who are failing to live up to their oaths of office by contacting them and making it abundantly clear that election day is coming and they should think of election day as their personal “Day of Reckoning!”

Our government must live up to its obligation of protecting its own citizens and, indeed, all who are present in our country from the criminals and terrorists who would threaten our lives and the survival of our nation and our way of life. In the end, the government is actually those who are elected to act as our “leaders.” Those who fail to truly lead and look out for those they are supposed to represent, need to be sent packing this coming Election Day!

If our country is to survive and if our children and their children are to get their share of the “American Dream” the citizens of this nation must take their citizenship seriously!

We the People must be the best citizens we can be, citizens who are worthy of the gallantry demonstrated by our valiant men and women in the military, law enforcement and firefighters, who routinely go in harm’s way in defense of this nation and our citizens.

My goal in writing this and other commentaries is to point out our nations many failings *before* more victims pay the ultimate price for the incompetence and ineptitude of our government.

The first step in problem-solving is to first identify the problems and vulnerabilities and then devise strategies to overcome them.

Any politician who refuses to work to secure our borders and create an immigration system that has integrity is either corrupt or too dumb to keep his (her) job. Any politician, irrespective of party affiliation who favors Comprehensive Immigration Reform and the outrageous betrayal that this would represent given the national security implications that this program would have, should be shown the door at the next election!

If you find yourself to be in agreement with this commentary, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same. We need to create a “Bucket Brigade of Truth!”

Later this year, each and every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection. Later this year more than one third of the members of the United States Senate will have to face their constituents. They need to be reminded that they work for us, We the People!

However, the practice of good citizenship does not end in the voting booth, it only begins there.

The large scale apathy demonstrated by citizens of this nation has emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups. There is much that we cannot do but there is one thing that We the People absolutely must do- we must stop sitting on the sidelines!

The collective failure of We the People to get involved in make our concerns known to our politicians have nearly made the concerns of the great majority of the citizens of this nation all but irrelevant to the politicians. I implore you to get involved!

If this situation concerns you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional “Representative. This is not only your right- it is your obligation!

All I ask is that you make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are!

We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance.

This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue!

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You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!

Democracy is not a spectator sport!

Lead, follow or get out of the way!

Two detained admit aiding NYC bomber by Asif Shahzad and Kathy Gannon. ASSOCIATED PRESS

Michael Cutler, a former Senior INS Investigator, an expert witness in more than a dozen Congressional Hearings is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and an advisor to the ‘911 Families for a Secure America.’ He writes about the nexus between immigration and national security.