September 23,
2002
Empty Words to an
Empty Chamber
By Raoul Lowery
Contreras
The capture of the “20th hijacker”
Ramzi Binalshibh in Pakistan on September
11th belies the most ignorant congressman
in the House of Representatives, the
Constitution-trashing Colorado Republican
Tom Tancredo.
48-hours before Ramzi Binalshibh was
captured, Tancredo stood before C-Span
cameras at the House Special Orders
non-session decrying the lack of American
troops on the Mexican border who could,
if they were assigned there, stop illegal
entrants from Mexico and other countries
from entering the United States. Tancredo
claims that among the illegals from Mexico
are potential terrorists. He also claims
that had troops been on the border,
September 11th might not have happened.
His proof? His (and, coincidently,
Geraldo Rivera’s) proof is the fact
that Iraqi Christians have come across
the border into San Diego from Tijuana,
Mexico, and asked for political asylum.
In other words, all Arabs look alike and
as Arabs were theSeptember 11th
hijackers, all Arabs are September
11th-like terrorists and murderers.
Tancredo actually thinks this way.
Just like Tancredo can’t
differentiate between good Arabs and bad
Arabs, he has difficulty in properly
assessing who is coming into the country
from Mexico, legally or illegally.
For example, in his C-Span speech, to an
empty House chamber, Tancredo stated that
of the 1500 illegals crossing “every
night” through an Arizona Indian
reservation, a 1000 of them are smuggling
illegal drugs. How does he know
this? He doesn’t quote
official arrest statistics, or inside
intelligence, any concrete evidence, or
even any personal interviews. He just
says so.
There are, he says, “terrorist cells”
in Canada and Mexico and that those
people can sneak into the country anytime
to spread terror in the USA. While it is
common knowledge in the intelligence
community that there are “terrorist
cells” in Canada, a result of
extremely loose immigration and asylum
policies, there is absolutely no evidence
that there are “terrorist cells”
in Mexico of Al Qaeda or Hizbollah, Al
Fatah, or any other Arab/Muslim terrorist
group. Tancredo says they exist and we
are to believe him because he says so.
Relying on unproven statements, Tancredo
wants to change American law and have our
soldiers assigned to the border. The
law prohibits the use of the American
military forces to enforce civilian laws.
Immigration laws are civilian laws, and
always have been.
The
law resulted from the occupation of the
South after the Civil War. The good part
was that occupation troops were sent home
and prohibited from “occupying”
America any longer. The bad part
was that in that troop-less vacuum
fanatical white supremacist terrorized
and murdered Southern blacks for a
century.
Tancredo now wants to assign American
troops to the Mexican border to stop
illegal immigrants and workers from
crossing without permission. He
advocates this because, as he stated,
two-thirds of these Mexican illegals are
involved in drug smuggling, and “large
numbers” of Arab illegals are
crossing the border and they may be
potential terrorists. Neither statement
is true, or even provable.
Tancredo: “What will we tell the
sons and daughters of people killed by
terrorists recruited and trained by
illegal aliens?”
What planet is this man from? What kind
of happy tobacco has he been smoking? As
fifteen of the nineteen September 11th
killers were from Saudi Arabia and
entered the United States legally through
American airports, not illegally from Mexico,
why look to Mexico?
The arrest of Ramzi Binalshibh in Pakistan
destroys Tancredo’s silly
proposition. Binalshibh failed a number
of times to secure a visa to enter the USA
to “study” in flight school so
he could presumably fly a hijacked
airliner into the World Trade Center.
He failed. Did he then use Tanredo’s
theory to sneak into the country to
direct September 11th? No. Sneaking
into the country is not in the terrorist
lexicon. He apparently stayed in Germany
where he was legal.
The arrest of five U.S. citizens of
Yemeni backgrounds living in upstate New
York, including natural born citizens, is
more flesh and blood proof that Tancredo
is off base.
At the very moment that American troops
are thinly stretched in Afghanistan, the Philippines,
Pakistan, Kuwait, the former Soviet Muslim
Republicsand soon, into Iraq, Tancredo
wants to needlessly squander American
power along the border.
He attacks President Bush for not sending
troops to the border for “political
and cultural reasons,” i.e. (code
for) Bush doesn’t want to offend the
very Mexican Americans Tancredo disdains.
He completely ignores American history
and law that rejects military policing of
civilians. President Bush and Mexican
Americans are right, Tancredo is wrong.
Our troops are masterfully equipped and
trained to fight armies and terrorists,
not work-seeking Mexicans who would
gladly pay two or three hundred dollars
for a congressionally authorized work
permit.
_______________
Contreras' book, THE
NEW AMERICAN MAJORITY, HISPANICS,
REPUBLICANS & GEORGE W. BUSH is
available at www.barnesandnoble.com,
www.amazon.com
and www.iuniverse.com
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