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Media Ignore State Department's 'Criminal Negligence' on 9/11 Wes Vernon, NewsMax.comWASHINGTON – The mainstream media have greeted proof that the State Department illegally allowed at least 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 terrorists into the United States with a thundering silence. In fact, one source told NewsMax.com that at least two establishment media outlets have refused to even look at documented evidence that the State Department broke the law in allowing the terrorists into the country. Had the laws been followed, charged the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), 9/11 could well have been avoided and about 3,000 lives saved. When asked for comment on the reported refusal of some media companies even to view documentation that backs up the charge, Steven A. Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, refused to discuss it on or off the record. "I have to get along with these folks,” he told NewsMax. However, as a general matter, Camarota did tell us he found it "troubling” that "the mainstream media has not been willing to focus enough attention on” criticism of the lax immigration practices of the State Department. Major print and broadcast media have reported criticisms of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the CIA and the FBI, "when in fact it was the State Department that allowed all 19 hijackers into the country. Clearly that is an enormous failure, and it just hasn’t been examined in the same way,” he said. 'Criminal Negligence' Citing the 15 hijackers' visa applications in question, Nikolai Wenzel, a former U.S. Foreign Service officer and one of six experts who examined the documents, said State’s issuance of the visas amounted to "criminal negligence.” At a CIS-sponsored news conference Thursday, NewsMax asked Wenzel to stipulate if criminal penalties were in order for the State Department officials responsible for allowing the terrorist entry into the U.S. and whether jail penalties could be sought. He replied that enforcement of the visa laws was in fact a major problem at State, but that what criminal remedy is available is best analyzed by legal authorities. Joel Mowbray, the investigative reporter who first publicized the violations in National Review magazine, suggested that the families of the 9/11 victims might want to take legal action against the State Department. That would be civil action. What about criminal charges? Mowbray also deferred to the lawyers on that one. Examples cited in Mowbray’s report included the following:
Aloman did not even fill out the spaces naming his nationality and sex. Apparently he was aware that not much was required to gain entry into the U.S. After arriving in this country, Aloman contacted his friend Mohamed Atta, and within three months he helped crash a commercial jet into the World Trade Center. The news conference focused on a report by the General Accounting Office, the congressional watchdog agency, which concluded, among other things, that "the State Department gave overseas consular sections substantial discretion in determining the level of scrutiny applied to visa applications” and that "as a result, according to State Department officials, consular sections worldwide adopted practices that reduced the amount of time for reviewing visa applications.” The result in many cases was slipshod guesswork where terrorists were given the benefit of the doubt and illegally allowed into the United States. Camarota cited the suicide note left by Atta, the leader of the Sept. 11 attacks and believed to have piloted the first plane that slammed into the World Trade Center: "Oh, God – you who open all doors, please open all doors for me. Open all venues for me. Open all avenues for me.” 'Importance of a Lax Immigration System'
Added the Center for Immigation Studies research director, "It appears that Mr. Atta himself recognized the importance of a lax and open immigration system that we have vis-à-vis his ability to take part in the September 11th attacks.” The panelists at the CIS briefing made clear that many in the U.S. government "do not seem to realize the fundamental problems in our immigration system.” So why would the establishment media ignore this huge scandal? Camarota tells NewsMax he believes that "people who cover the State Department don’t know much about immigration or visa issuance, so they’re not going to be looking into that. The immigration system is poorly understood by Americans and by most reporters. Many people don’t even realize that it’s the State Department that issues all visas. The INS never issues a visa.” Then is that the whole explanation? Not really. "There does seem to be some reluctance to criticize the State Department, and I don’t know why,” Camarota despaired. A case in point: Few media other than the conservative Washington Times, and in turn NewsMax, made much of the sickening fact that the State Department rewarded, at taxpayer expense, the incompetent Clintonistas who let in the 9/11 terrorists. The State Department for decades has been a bastion of the so-called Washington permanent establishment. Often conservative administrations are frustrated in their efforts to improve it. When NewsMax recently sought to interview a State Department appointee on another matter, a news contact warned us to be careful not to get the appointed person in trouble because "Bush appointees over there are carefully watched,” and the appointee’s phone might be tapped.
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