Diane Alden
Thursday, April 3, 2003

There are times I am not sure where the real enemies of freedom or the United States actually reside.

The fact is our problems are not limited to al-Qaeda, Saddam, Syria, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the PLO and Yasser Arafat, and Libya. Nor do those problems stem totally from the billions of dollars given by the Saudis to numerous hate campaigns conducted against the U.S., Israel and any true democratic, Christian or Jewish society.

The Saudi funding of fanatical zealots from every crackpot, backward banana republic on the planet should indicate that there might be a slight problem with claims of friendship with the U.S..

Along with the Iranian ayatollahs, Sudanese and Somalian Muslim warlords, and the Far East Muslim ninja warriors such as Abu Sayyef, it would seem that the U.S. is buffeted from all sides. Much of the buffeting is due to her lack of understanding and failure of will, but President Bush is addressing that in Iraq.

Americans must also take into account the feckless, hypocritical, leftist anti-war movement, a foolish and ignorant mainstream press corps, and Hollywood stars whose opinions have all the depth and breadth and smell of a can of spoiled sardines.

Mix in universities and a Columbia University professor professing his desire that American troops might be subjected to a million incidents like what happened in Mogadishu, Somalia. Remember Mogadishu, when the bodies of dead American soldiers were dragged through the streets to shouts of joy from gun-wielding bystanders?

Nor should we forget the schoolteachers in Maine and elsewhere who have made it more difficult for the children of American military personnel. Could we ignore the Vermont teenagers who threw rocks at a female member of the National Guard?

Also, who could forget our "friends" France, Mexico, Germany, Belgium, Turkey, Russia and China. Thanks, guys.

Then, of course, there are some Democrats who seem more interested in their political futures than in America's future. The fifth column is alive and well and living in the U.S.A., and a bunch of them have membership in the DNC.

But what hurts most are the homegrown members of the America-last bunch. They include congressional, state and local Democrats and cheap-labor Republicans, along with ideological libertarian surrealists, and religious groups with no responsibility for the safety and security of the U.S. and its citizens and allies.

Add the open-borders crowd that includes far too many Republicans, trial lawyers, the Mexican-American La Raza Organization, CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) and groups like it. Never forget the stance of most university systems and the U.S. State Department.

We not only must conduct a war in Iraq, we have one at home as well, as America is pummeled from within and without.

U.S. Visa System – Weapon of Mass Destruction

After reviewing the visa status of the group involved with alleged Islamic Jihadist Professor Sami Al-Arian, we can point to the failure of the visa system and the blind policies and suicidal multicultural impulses of our elite. Al-Arian, formerly a professor at the University of South Florida, and his buddies in Islamic Jihad should clue us in to what is wrong with America's immigration and visa system.

The U.S. visa system administered by the State Department is a time bomb that has already gone off once and will do so again. In the 121-page federal indictment of the eight alleged Islamic Jihadists rounded up so far, the majority of these jihadists came to the U.S. either on student visas or H-1B "work" visas.

Out of the visa grab bag, H-1Bs are given to those who have some "critical" work skill. As revealed in other articles (see, for instance, "H-1B: Bombing the Middle Class"), there is no shortage of Americans who have critical skills.

Understandably the corporate culture is trying to get around the IRS, OSHA, Social Security, high taxes, thousands of pages of federal, state and local regulations, ADA, Family Leave Act, sexual harassment lawsuits, diversity and sensitivity training, Jesse Jackson's shakedowns, sue-happy lawyers, unions, and decent American salaries and benefits. The corporate world, with the help of the government, fabricated a labor shortage that does not exist.

In one sense, who can blame them, considering the tax and regulatory burden under which they must conduct business. On the other hand, corporate loyalty to the United States and its Constitution as well as its poor and middle class stops at their bottom line.

If a critical skill involves flying aircraft into American buildings or fomenting hatred toward America and acting on that hatred, I suppose in some quarters that is a critical skill. In addition, we can point to one of the culprits, the U.S. State Department, as it takes a disconnected, almost un-American approach to the visa system.

Meanwhile, our Congress fiddles while America burns, and the Democrats at the national and state level seem bent on doing their level best to foil any attempt at getting control of our borders or restructuring out-of-control immigration lest it anger one of their voting blocs.

Republicans are hardly any better than the Democrats in regard to immigration reform. With the exception of legislators like Tom Tancredo, Jim Sensenbrenner, Ron Paul and a few others, Republicans either pander to ethnic groups or give corporate America what it wants by providing tons of cheap labor.

In fact, before and after Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration lobbied against the implementation of a visa tracking system for foreign visitors. Homeland security means zip without such reform. Suffice to say that a visa tracking system might have offered some protection against the 3,000 homicides committed by the likes of Mohamed Atta, Hani Hanjour and 17 other Islamo-fascists who held American visas.

Former Democrat, New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, is totally wrong in his analysis that 9/11 was caused by lax airport security. No, Mike, the instrument most used as a weapon of mass destruction on 9/11 is our failure to control visas and immigration. It is a system that allowed criminals and terrorists into the U.S. courtesy of our State Department and lax U.S. immigration and visa laws.

Lay 9/11 also at the feet of various administrations, excluding the current one, which failed to take the war against the United States to its terrorist home. Of course, that is the hate-filled breeding ground of the state sponsors of Arab militarism and Islamist fanaticism in the Middle East.

The Blaming Game

If you think things have changed much since 9/11, you would be wrong. We are still not adequately addressing the failures of American immigration and the absolute insanity of the current U.S. visa system. Nor do we have control of our borders. In fact, there is no doubt in my mind that terrorists are still entering the U.S. legally under the current visa system and illegally through porous borders.

Everyone blames the INS for the failures on our borders and of immigration policy in general. Rather, the finger should point to the U.S. Department of State and those in Congress and various administrations since 1965 who have chosen to ignore the obvious.

Many in State should have been booted after 9/11. Instead, some of them have been promoted or simply reassigned. For instance, bureaucrats like Mary Harty and Mary Ryan failed abysmally to facilitate the return of kidnapped American children from the oppressive Wahabbi regime of Saudi Arabia. Nor did these striped-skirt Foggy Bottom types reform the visa system after 9/11.

For decades State Department bureaucrats have been best buds with Saudi and other Third World despots. They appear more concerned about the sensitivities of foreign governments and the status quo. It would seem they would rather leave Americans to swing in the wind than actually help them. In that regard, there are the well-publicized cases, like that of Pat Roush, whose daughters were kidnapped by their Saudi father. Also State Department lawyer Thomas Johnson, whose daughter remains illegally in Sweden, kidnapped by her mother. According to National Review columnist Joel Mowbray, "Johnson, a lawyer for State, wrote a lengthy article for New York University on why State is not abiding by the Hague Convention, which includes the civil aspects of international child-abduction cases."

The whys in this equation have to do with bureaucratic and institutional Byzantine relationships that the State Department has developed over the years. Follow power, status and money, inertia, bureaucratic malaise, the good old boy system, as State often puts the wishes of foreign governments above those of American citizens. In the process it is endangering the security of the United States while implementing their own policies rather than those of elected officials.

The old boy State Department, the various entrenched department heads and lower-level managers, conduct a sort of institutional network which can impede reform. This attitude dies hard and will stand in the way of any future immigration or foreign policy reform.

Forget this bunch, they are not and never will be agents of much-needed change. The State Department is an entity unto itself. It might as well be a foreign country whose goals and agenda differ radically from the best interests of the United States and its citizens.

In a recent article, Mowbray discusses the visa system and a newly promoted State Department bureaucrat named Mary Harty.

Mowbray states: "Harty was a controversial nominee for the top spot at Consular Affairs (CA), which oversees embassies, consulates, and visa issuance, because of the disastrous record of Mary Ryan, under whose watch all 19 of the 9/11 terrorists received legal visas, at least 15 of which would not have been issued if the law had simply been followed. Ryan's tenure was further marred by a refusal, post-9/11, to tighten visa procedures, particularly in Saudi Arabia, where Visa Express (which allowed Saudis to apply for visas at travel agencies) remained open for ten months after the terrorist attacks. It was in that context that State sold Harty as an ‘agent of change’ who would fix the mess at CA. The tactic worked: The Senate confirmed her at the end of the lame-duck session last November."

We fail when we do not acknowledge that the Saudis, directly or indirectly, are responsible for giving aid, comfort, funds, education and refuge to Islamist terrorists, hate-mongering mullahs and religious fanatics. Of all the countries in the Middle East it is one of the most oppressive.

For instance, Muslims who convert to other religions are beheaded, killed or thrown into prison. It is also against Saudi law for foreign Christians to observe their religion while in Saudi Arabia; they may not wear religious symbols or even practice their religion in their homes. About the only safe place for religious services free from raids by the Saudi religious police are in the embassies of powerful countries.

If the U.S. is to remain consistent in regard to war with Iraq and an oppressive form of militant and extreme Islam, eventually we are going to have to address the issue of the Saudis. It is Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and far too many oil-rich Arab and Muslim countries that are still funding Islamo-fascism in places like the Sudan and Somalia, the U.S., U.K., France, the Philippines, Indonesia, et al.

In the Sudan, the Islamist government under Gen. Omar al-Bashir is persecuting Christians in a persecution unparalleled since the first-century Christian church. In its attempt to Islamize the entire population, the Sudanese Muslim government has taken the lives of nearly 2,000,000 people who will not convert to Islam.

Bashir recently broke a peace treaty signed last year with the good offices of the United States and the Bush administration. Just last month it once again attacked, pillaged, raped, killed and devastated the Christian south. There is a prevalent belief that the Bush administration will do nothing while the U.S. is at war in Iraq. (www.persecution.org)

Mexico's Way

Problems with legal as well as illegal immigration, the visa system, asylum seekers and bad attitudes toward the U.S. are not limited to Islamists or the Middle East. A highly regarded Pew Foundation study indicates that "U.S. Latinos, particularly those who are foreign born, are less supportive of a military invasion of Iraq than the general U.S. population, according to a recent survey by the Pew Hispanic Center."

The Quaker organization American Friends finds that military recruiters have sought to increase Latino military enlistments without much luck. According to the U.S. military figures and the Friends, Latinos make up 6.3 percent of today's military – 7 percent of enlisted ranks, only 3 percent of officers – but 11 percent of the population of 18- to 44-year-olds.

Among young people ages 18-24, the prime recruiting market, Latinos make up 14.3 percent of the nation's youth, but only about 10 percent of new recruits.

Census Bureau projections show that Latinos are expected to make up 18 percent of 12- to 44-year-olds by the year 2020. This means that the military services would have to triple the proportion of Latinos in order to match the civilian population.

However, given the attitudes of recent Mexican immigrants, legal and illegal, along with the activist voices in the Latino and Hispanic community in the United States, that is going to be a tough sell.

A recent essay written for the Mexican-American La Raza Organization is revealing. It states:

"Today, Bush Jr, wants to start another war against the Iraqi people. I cannot think of any reason why the blood of our young men should be shed in a country that has done nothing to us. The Bush family's and their cronies' oil profits do not percolate down to anyone in our community. We owe nothing to Israel! Instead, we should wage war against the poverty that seems to perpetually afflict us here in our homeland. We should instead form an army to batter down the doors to higher education. Perhaps, instead we should declare war against all the social injustice, economic inequality and lack of real political representation here at home!" (At home being the U.S.)

Meanwhile, a La Raza editorial cartoon on the same page shows a Hispanic soldier in a U.S. military uniform protecting a stereotypical Jew carrying the Star of David. The Jewish male is pointing the Hispanic soldier in the direction of the Middle East war zone. (http://aztlan.net/grunts.htm)

As Mexican resident Allan Wall relates in his most recent column for Vdare.com:

"The Mexican media puts an anti-American spin on the presence of these soldiers of Mexican heritage. It’s commonly asserted in Mexico that the U.S. military uses minorities, including Hispanics, as cannon fodder. The governor of the Mexican State of Zacatecas recently made the astounding declaration that 70 percent of the U.S. military is black and Hispanic – with 40 percent being of Mexican origin."

Of course that is not only a lie, it is a stupid lie because it is so easily refuted. Most American forces are not recruited from any one minority or even a combination of minority groups.

As the Washington Post relates, government figures indicate that 21 percent of military personnel are black, versus 12 percent of the general population. However, the Post states, "they tend to work in areas away from the front lines, in roles such as administration, combat support, and medical and dental care."

Over 70 percent of the U.S. military are white, and mostly male.

Actually, white Anglos are disproportionately the majority in combat units on the front lines in Iraq. That is a result of the military taking to heart certain perceived myths coming out of the Vietnam War. Such totally bogus "facts" include the notion that minorities made up most of the combat troops in Vietnam.

In fact, African-Americans represented 11 percent of those who served in Vietnam and they were 11 percent of the U.S. population at the time. They represented about 13 percent of those killed. Hispanics represented about 3 percent of combat troops.

Nonetheless, the left in particular invents the lies and myths that blacks and Hispanics died in disproportionate numbers in Vietnam. Therefore, in our current military engagement in Iraq, the military keeps most minorities in support and maintenance units.

Leftist Hispanic activists are creating new myths about the war in Iraq. As AP reports "Carlos Montes (MOHN'-tes) heads a coalition called Latinos Against the War in Iraq. He says the Army and Marines pressure young Latinos in areas such as East LA to join, knowing they have few attractive options following high school."

Interesting nonsense, when you consider the vast majority in the military are middle class white males, who hold most of the front-line combat positions, while minorities are assigned to skilled jobs in the rear.

Meanwhile, Mexican resident and critic of Mexican policy Allan Wall tells us that the Mexican government is compiling a census of persons of Mexican ancestry who belong to the armed forces of the United States and who are stationed in the war zone. Wall relates that this census will include American citizens of Mexican ancestry, legal residents of the U.S., and those who have dual citizenship. (www.vdare.com)

The Mexican government is doing this in order to use the information as a wedge to get concessions for Mexican legals and illegals living in the U.S. By so doing, their interference in U.S. policy and their attempts to create dual loyalties in U.S. citizens of Mexican descent does nothing for the unity and cohesion of the United States or its military.

Mexican President Vicente Fox came out against American involvement in the war against Saddam. Nor would Mexico aid us at the U.N. as the U.S. sought a second U.N. resolution as an addendum to 1441 and the 17 other U.N. resolutions issued against Iraq since 1991.

Just like Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Mexico is not much of a U.S. ally; certainly it is no friend. They send their poor to us, interfere in our policies, then fail to support us when we need them most.

We owe them nothing.

(Next time: Immigration Reform, Moratorium or Status Quo)

Hear me pontificate on Phil Paleogolas’ "American Breakfast" on Friday mornings at 8:30 a.m. EST and each Wednesday on Marc Bernier’s show out of Daytona Beach at 11:06 a.m. EST. Also check out my Web site, www.aldenchronicles.com.

To comment, write alden@newsmax.com.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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