Government language police: “Jihadist” is out

Muslims might be offended by ‘Islamo-fascism”

The Bush administration has launched a new front in the war on terrorism, this time targeting language. Among the guidelines included in the memo:

“Never use the terms ‘jihadist’ or ‘mujahedeen’ in conversation to describe the terrorists. … Calling our enemies ‘jihadis’ and their movement a global ‘jihad’ unintentionally legitimizes their actions.”

“Use the terms ‘violent extremist’ or ‘terrorist.’ Both are widely understood terms that define our enemies appropriately and simultaneously deny them any level of legitimacy.”

On the other hand, avoid ill-defined and offensive terminology: “We are communicating with, not confronting, our audiences. Don’t insult or confuse them with pejorative terms such as ‘Islamo-fascism,’ which are considered offensive by many Muslims.”

“Regarding ‘jihad,’ even if it is accurate to reference the term, it may not be strategic because it glamorizes terrorism, imbues terrorists with religious authority they do not have and damages relations with Muslims around the world,” the report says.

Jihad Watch covers the revised lexicon.

Virtual fence is a virtual flop

Open borders advocate Bush has no commitment to enforcement

The virtual fence was to be a technological advancement that would provide an alternative to “divisive” walls and federal agents policing the Arizona-Mexico border.

Initially, we were told there were delays in getting the high-tech virtual border fence operational. Then there were additional postponements and a few rescheduling glitches, but not to worry, it would be completed and operational “soon.”

When “soon” arrived last December, we found the fence was flawed. So flawed, in fact, that the towers, computer software, radar, satellite links and cameras were malfunctioning and didn’t meet Boeing’s contract requirements for detecting border intrusions. Some of its $20 million dollar technology would have to be replaced by this summer.

Now the entire high dollar project is being scrapped due to the clumsy incompetence of the Bush administration’s Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, the contractors and the failed system itself.

Meanwhile, the flood of illegal aliens, both Mexican and others, using that country as a launch pad to gain access to the U.S., continues the invasion unabated.

In a previous post, Seeing Red AZ posed the elephant-in-the-room question, asking who impoverished Mexicans will aid in invading our borders if the price is right? The United States remains vulnerable to the threat of international terrorist organizations with the ability to exploit the poverty, lawlessness, economic instability and governmental corruption south of our border.

As long ago as 2004, TIME magazine reported border agents have encountered not only a wide variety of invaders from Latin America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Brazil, Nicaragua and Venezuela) but also intruders from Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Russia, Korea, China as well as Egypt, Iran and Iraq

And while American citizens sit and wait for the next shoe to drop, we foot the bill for self-placating misadventures as George W. Bush makes concessions to forward his dream of a North American Union and a borderless continent.

Watch this CNN video with Lou Dobbs for an idea of what lies ahead.

 

 

Mexican drug cartels recruiting soldiers as hired guns

U.S. vulnerable to exploitable mercenaries

 ”Join the ranks of the Gulf Cartel,” reads a recruitment banner. “We offer benefits, life insurance, a house for your family and children. Stop living in the slums and riding the bus. A new car or truck, your choice.”

Such banners and signs are appearing in various Mexican states urging members of Mexico’s national military to join the Zetas, the hit squad of the Gulf Cartel.

Last week, federal agents detained the Reynosa police commissioner Juan José Muñiz, for questioning because of evidence he was protecting the Zetas, the Mexican Justice Department said.

Read the daily’s complete article here.

In the border town of Juárez, information about who is fighting whom on the streets is hard to come by. The International Herald Tribune has reported that the local police chief professes that he knows nothing about the conflict, despite having been an officer there for 30 years. He acknowledges that the 1,600-member police force is riddled with corrupt officers, a consequence, he says, of low pay and the lack of a career path that leads them to seek other sources of money.

The elephant-in-the-room question becomes who else will impoverished Mexicans aid if the price is right? The United States remains vulnerable to the threat of international terrorist organizations. Their ability to exploit the poverty, lawlessness, economic instability and governmental corruption south of our border places us in an untenable situation.

As long ago as 2004, TIME magazine reported border agents have encountered not only a wide variety of invaders from Latin Americans (Guatemala, El Salvador, Brazil, Nicaragua and Venezuela) but also intruders from Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Russia and China as well as Egypt, Iran and Iraq

The presidential candidates must stop side-stepping this critical issue. Empty promises and inaction cannot continue as America stares squarely in the face of impending peril.

Marking the five year anniversary of Iraq war

Arizona needs a troop surge, too

Addressing an audience of Pentagon officials, soldiers and diplomats, he said: “The battle in Iraq is noble, it is necessary, and it is just. And, with your courage, the battle in Iraq will end in victory.”

President Bush effectively linked the Iraq war to the global battle against the al Qaida terrorists, invoking the success of last year’s troop surge, which he credited with turning the situation in Iraq around. “Iraq has become the place where Arabs joined with Americans to drive al Qaida out“, he said. “War critics can no longer credibly argue that we are losing in Iraq, so now they argue the war costs too much.”

Although this site has often taken the president to task for his limp border policies which place the United States in harm’s way in a post-9/11 world, we support his vigilance on the global front—and urge the same commitment to national security to protect American citizens here at home.

Arizona has become the gateway for the influx of illegals into the United States. The dollar costs alone, passed on to taxpaying Arizona citizens, are skyrocketing. Four years ago, they were estimated at $1.3 billion annually.

Former Presidential candidate, Congressman Duncan Hunter (R - CA) writing for Human Events, states the threat clearly: Consider that in 2005 alone, 155,000 foreign citizens from countries other than Mexico were apprehended attempting to cross our border with Mexico. These individuals came from countries all around the world, several of which have an adversarial relationship with the United States. If it is accurate to assume that an estimated 4 out of every 10 crossing attempts are successful, as some reports suggest, then we can infer that at least 62,000 individuals from countries like China, Iran and Syria, made it into the United States.

Arizona needs a troop surge, too.

Bush says border solution includes swinging door

‘Temporary worker program’ to let people cross boundary needed

 WorldNetDaily’s White House correspondent, Les Kinsolving, covers the recent press conference on border security:  

The solution to security issues on the U.S. border with Mexico will need to include some sort of swinging door so that workers can come and go as they want, according to the White House press secretary.

Read the complete article here.

Bush endorsement: Fatal blow to McCampaign?

 

ABC News reports that President George W. Bush will endorse GOP presidential candidate John McCain tomorrow (Wednesday) at the White House.

Bush and McCain, formerly bitter rivals in the 2000 presidential campaign will have lunch together and then make a joint statement at 1:00 pm ET

The two men are now in concert on issues ranging from granting amnesty to millions in our country illegally to the Iraq war.

….and we’ve got a bridge to sell you

 

 Homeland Insecurity Secretary Chertoff has more assurances, fewer actions

A 28-mile “virtual fence” that will use radars and surveillance cameras to try to catch people entering the country illegally has gotten final government approval.

NewsMax reports that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is scheduled to announce approval of the fence, built by the Boeing Co. and using technology the Bush administration plans to extend to other areas of the Arizona border, as well as sections of Texas. These projects could get under way as early as this summer, officials said.

California Congressman and former GOP presidential candidate, Duncan Hunter, has long been an advocate of securing our southern border with actual fencing, which worked so well in his southern California district. Read his reasoned points regarding the vulnerability of the United States here.

Illegal immigration is no longer an issue solely reserved for border states and communities. In the post-9/11 world, illegal immigration is a national security issue. And one of the easiest ways for terrorists to enter the United States is through our nation’s southern border. We must anticipate that the same smugglers who carry humans and contraband across the border would not hesitate, especially for the right price, to help terrorists find their way into the United States.

Consider that in 2005 alone, more than 155,000 foreign citizens from countries other than Mexico were apprehended attempting to cross our southern land border. Many of these individuals originated from countries of national security concern, including Syria, Iran, Lebanon and Yemen, and probably represent only a fraction of those who successfully entered our country without the knowledge of border security officials or the consent of our government.

In an article printed in the San Francisco Chronicle, Hunter recently wrote: Although the authority of the secretary of Homeland Security to build a fence along the border has not been rescinded, it has been made clear that most of the new fence will be single-layered and extend no more than 370 miles. During the past year, for instance, only 77 miles of fencing has been built, of which five miles is double-layered. This lack of progress is disconcerting, particularly when considering that the Department of Homeland Security has received more than $2 billion for border infrastructure.

It is for these reasons that I introduced the Reinstate the Secure Fence Act in the House of Representatives. My legislation restores the most substantive elements of the Secure Fence Act, requiring 700 miles of fencing be constructed within six months of the bill’s enactment.

Selective Bush appearances deemed best for McCain

No side-by-side shots

John McCain’s campaign advisers will ask the White House to deploy President Bush for major Republican fund-raising, but they do not want the president to appear too often at his side, according to top aides.

But even as the consensus was that McCain needed to “stand in the sun” on his own, as one adviser put it, without the large shadow cast by President Bush, left unsaid was the difficult calculus the McCain campaign faces: Using George Bush enough to try to make the tough sell of McCain to conservatives but not so much that he will drive away the independents and some moderate Democrats that McCain is counting on in November

The New York Times covers the conundrum faced by McCain.

Virtual fence “looks good” to Homeland Insecurity Chief Chertoff

 

That old Valentine’s Day promise resurfaces: “Trust me, honey”

Homeland Insecurity Secretary Michael Chertoff visited last week and declared that a high-tech “virtual fence” along the Arizona /Mexico border near Sasabe “looks good.”

The problem-plagued 28-mile system of cameras and sensors, proposed to relay live data to border agents, had been beset by technical malfunctions since contractor Boeing Corp. began work. The glitches postponed the fence’s planned introduction last June.

Chertoff told the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday that the government has conditionally accepted the $20 million job and that his team is conducting final reviews of the work. The committee has a hearing set for Feb. 27 on the project’s status.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D. Miss) said he is skeptical that the virtual fence actually works the way it is supposed to.

Thompson, who chairs the House committee that oversees the department, said in a statement, “A poorly structured contract that prevented the line Border Patrol agents from pointing out obvious flaws, combined with over-reliance on contractors, has resulted in a system that has been described as providing at best ‘marginal’ functionality.”

Predictably, Homeland Security officials did not say when the fence will be in use.

Betrayal at the border

 

Bush wants to secure borders—Mexico’s not ours

President Bush is actually pushing a massive foreign-aid package to Mexico to help them secure their southern border against the flow of illegal aliens from Central America. The $1.4 billion stimulus/national security package is an affront to American citizens, dealing with the blatant invasion of foreign nationals on our own soil.

Read Michelle Malkin’s stunning report which contains a Rush Limbaugh audio and check out the provisions of The Merida Initiative .

Mexico is “very protective of its sovereignty” says Shannon O’Neil, Council on Foreign Relation’s Mexico expert. Yet, we are called racists or worse if we value our own sovereignty and rule of law.

President Felipe Calderon, like his processors, knows all too well that the remittances sent back to Mexico by illegal laborers residing in the United States, have become a reliable buttress of the Mexican economy, second only to petroleum as the nation’s top revenue producer.

No wonder the rankings of President Bush and congress are at historic lows. 

And our choices in November are equally appalling. Republicans have the Architect of Amnesty, John McCain, heading our ticket. He now says, he wants to secure the borders first. Translate that to: Prior to reintroducing his so-called Comprehensive Immigration Reform and ‘guest’ worker programs which caused such an uproar that congressionl phone and fax lines were shut down last year by fruiously protesting Americans.