PRESTOPUNDIT -- "It's a team sport, baby!"

OPEN BORDERS NIGHTMARE --

Chechen terrorists have entered America via the U.S.'s unsecured border with Mexico says an undisclosed foreign intelligence service trusted by U.S. officials. Bill Gertz reports for the WaTimes:

U.S. security officials are investigating a recent intelligence report that a group of 25 Chechen terrorists illegally entered the United States from Mexico in July .. Members of the group, said to be wearing backpacks, secretly traveled to northern Mexico and crossed into a mountainous part of Arizona that is difficult for U.S. border security agents to monitor ..

U.S. security officials have been concerned in recent months that al Qaeda or other terrorists are planning to enter the United States from Mexico. Intelligence officials said a suspected al Qaeda leader who has been in the United States was spotted recently in Mexico. Officials believe Adnan Shukrijumah, whom the FBI wants for questioning, met with alien smugglers in Mexico and Honduras and was seeking ways to bring al Qaeda members into the United States. Shukrijumah was seen in August in the Sonora province of northern Mexico, officials said. Since October 2003, authorities have arrested five Arabs attempting to cross illegally into the United States from Mexico.

A DEMOCRAT AUTHORED

bill to restore the draft was defeated 402-2. Even the bill's author voted against the plan. If your congressmen are either Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa. or Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif. you might consider voting for their opponents.

GREYHAWK --

"The Eyes of the Undefeated":

here's what I noticed in the DFAC today: young faces. Young determined faces. Not much older .. than the crowd at a high school lunch room. You can tell without asking what these guys think. They look you in the eye. And if you can stand to look back you'll see into the eyes of the undefeated. There is no quit here, no early out, no cut and run. These are young men with an ugly job, America's finest sent to do our worst and best, and they make me feel old and inspired all at the same time.

"OUR WORLD CHANGED."

Pacifist Mark Hatfield endorsed Bush -- and the war on terror.

NOT VISITED INSTAPUNDIT

yet today? Well, this one is a must read. I agree with this completely: "This is behavior that is absolutely unacceptable coming from a Presidential campaign in wartime, and it's not an isolated incident but part of a pattern of such behavior. Joe Lockhart should apologize for these remarks, and Kerry should fire him."

The Clinton spin lie machine looks particularly ugly when unleached during a terror war.

"THREE YEARS ON.

We still haven't learned the lessons of 9/11." -- MARK HELPRIN. Quotable:

We have abstained from mounting an effective civil defense. Only a fraction of a fraction of our wealth would be required to control the borders of and entry to our sovereign territory, and not that much more to discover, produce, and stockpile effective immunizations, antidotes, and treatments in regard to biological and chemical warfare. Thirty years ago the entire country had been immunized against smallpox. Now, no one is, and the attempt to cover a minuscule part of the population failed miserably and was abandoned. Not only does this state of affairs leave us vulnerable to a smallpox epidemic, it stimulates the terrorists to bring one about. So with civil aviation, which, despite the wreckage and tragedy of September 11, is protected in an inefficient, irresponsible, and desultory fashion.

"THREE YEARS ON. We still don�t get it." -- MARK STEYN. Quotable:

Between 1970 and 2000, the developed world declined from just under 30 per cent of the world�s population to just over 20 per cent, and the population of Muslim nations increased from about 15 per cent to 20 per cent .. Two years ago I said that the terrorists blew apart the �polite fictions� of the September 10 world. A lot of people have devoted a lot of energy to trying to reconstruct them. But it can�t be done. The old world has gone ..

JUST DON'T

call them terrorists. (via Pirate's Blog)

MICHELLE MALKIN --

"In the Name of Allah."

THE RUSSIANS

have broadcast horrific images videotaped as Islamic terrorists wired the doomed school gym in Beslan with high explosives. Imagine if you could watch video of the Nazis placing chemicals in the gas chambers. This is a lot like that.

READ ITEMS #12 AND #13

of the Kamran Shaikh affadavit and be afraid.

UPDATE: Be very afraid.

BIN LADEN

would have been shot in the head yesterday if the U.S. government had unleashed the power of a $1 BILLION BOUNTY. Here's a suggestion: President Bush talks less about the power of freedom, incentives and the market -- and USES them more.

NORM MINETA.

"THE WRONG MAN AT THE WRONG TIME IN THE WRONG PLACE."

My thoughts exactly.

INSTEAD OF $144 BILLION

on corporate welfare, farm subsidies, NEA grants, the DOE, Congressional pork, etc., we could be doing this.

JOHN LEHMAN SOUNDS OFF

on the terror war before National Review's editorial board. Among other things, Lehman ripped hard into Bush's Sec. of Transportation: "We're spending nine-tenths of the money we have on people who have 99/100ths of one percent of the likelihood of being terrorists, because we want to be politically correct. It's crazy."

In four years George Bush has sought to court and please Ted Kennedy, steel workers, Mexican foreign nationals, The NY Times, Tom Daschle, Vicente Fox, Saudi Arabia, Dan Rather, and American Islamic fundamentalists, among others. I can't think of one thing George Bush has done to seek my vote as a limited government / secure the borders Republican.

If he wants my vote, I say he has to do at least as much for me as he's been willing to do for Ted Kennedy, steel workers and illegal aliens. So here it is: fire Norm Mineta. Do it and you've got my vote. It's as easy as that.

Patterico has related thoughts here. UPDATE: ParaPundit suggests I raise the price of my vote. Quotable: "No offense intended but I think you are willing to sell your vote too cheaply. Granted, when the choice is between John Kerry and George W. Bush your vote is not able to buy all that much. Still, I think the Republican base gains a long term advantage in dealing with the politicians who purport to believe in our values if we make it clear to them that we will not sell our votes to them cheaply. Better that we expect them to really perform or go down to defeat. Bush has been too big a disaster at this point. The Republican Party's unprincipled pols need to learn a harsh lesson."

THE "SYRIAN WAYNE NEWTON"

-- his latest release? A little ditty praising terrorist murderers.

Michelle Malkin has found a link to the song.

THE LIES OF MICHAEL MOORE

are having a deep impact on troop morale in the Middle East. Citizen Smash has the report and a reaction.

And I'd bet this won't help either.

TERROR IN AMERICA --

brought to you by the U.S. State Dept. Quotable:

In an epic-sized 567-page report, the 9/11 Commission glossed over one of the most important aspects of the attack: all 19 of the hijackers entered the United States on legal visas, even though at least 15 of them didn�t qualify to do so under the law. And the panel mostly shrugged off the U.S. policy that Saudis were granted easier access to visas than any other Arab country .. The Saudi visa policy was the natural result of the �courtesy culture,� an effort spearheaded by the former head of Consular Affairs, Mary Ryan, which started with her appointment in 1993. The goal was simple: make �customer� service and satisfaction the top priority in visa policy .. What the commission should have explained is that the errors and blank fields would have been serious enough for all of the applicants to be refused, if the applicants had come from any other nation. A telling example is the U.S. destinations listed on the applications. This is hardly a trivial tidbit, as it is supposed to be used to determine if the travel plans are legitimate. The hijackers listed such specific locations as �California,� �New York,� �Hotel D.C.,� and simply, �Hotel�. Practices have gotten somewhat better in Saudi Arabia since 9/11. The most egregious program, Visa Express, which allowed Saudis to apply for visas at travel agents, was shut down in July 2002. Mary Ryan was pink-slipped on the same day, though her replacement was Maura Harty, her prot�g� and clone, who has done little to effect meaningful change."

Massive, bloody failure -- it rarely costs you anything in the "protect your fellow hack" culture of Washington, D.C.

SHOULD WE BE SURPRISED

that a panel of hacks and lawyers gave us a deeply flawed yet unimaginative commission report? These folks come from the very culture and community which is the problem. Why not have a panel thick with scientists, security entrepreneurs, Marines officers, novelists, technology developers, etc. -- i.e folks who can think outside the failed D.C./P.C. box. The commission report got one thing right -- there has been a failure of imagination. A massive one.

America is a diverse country -- this division of knowledge and the power to use it gives us enormous strength. Let's use it. A shame that the hacks and the lawyers in the Washington crowd don't get it.

WE AREN'T SAFE.

And the 9/11 commission isn't helping.

SANDY BERGER.

"By his own words, he's guilty of acts that any other American would go to jail for."

It's Mark Steyn and there is more here.

MICHELLE MALKIN

does a good debunking of Virginia Postrel's assertion that America is not vulnerable through it's Mexican border. In classic Malkin -- "I only have the facts" -- style we get bullet point run-down on what we already know about al Qaeda activity on our Southern flank. Quotable: Malkin asks "What's the Spanish word for 'Terrorist'?"

MORE EVIDENCE

showing that Bill Clinton and Sandy Berge chose to let bin Laden excape when offered his head on a platter by Sudan.

LOUIS FREEH

-- don't blame me, blame the American people behind that tree.

Let's see. Was there the political will in the Clinton Administration to fight and destroy bin Laden? If you don't have leadership or political will at the top, how are the busy people of the country to know that anything worth taking seriously is on the agenda?

9/11 REPORT.

Who's lying -- Condi or Sandy, Bush or Clinton? And the verdict is ..

"THE BIGGEST PUZZLE

about the 9/11 commission's report is why Thomas Kean, the panel's chairman, said at the start of his press conference this morning that the U.S. government's failure to stop the attack on the World Trade Center was, "above all, a failure of imagination." It was a strange comment because the actual report�a superb, if somewhat dry, piece of work�says nothing of the sort. The failure was not one of imagination but rather of incentives. It turns out that many individuals, panels, and agencies had predicted an attack uncannily similar to what happened on Sept. 11, 2001. The problem was that nobody in a position of power felt compelled to do anything about it."

-- Fred Kaplan.

MORE SANDY BERGER

LIES.

CLARK'S "CASH-FOR-LIES" PERFORMANCE

poisoned the 9/11 hearings charges commission member John Lehman.

AIR MARSHALLS TO ANNIE JACOBSEN

of "Terror in the Skies" fame -- get a grip.

UPDATE: The 14 Syrian musicians got past American security personel with expired Visas -- i.e. they were in the country illegally. But they weren't alone, they were here along with 2.3 million other illegal aliens who enter the country with now expired Visas. The 9/11 Commission says we aren't safe. No s**t.

UPDATE II: Michelle Malkin Posted by Greg Ransom / Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack