Each year, tens of thousands of illegal immigrants pour across our border with Mexico. Warnings have been issued that Middle Eastern types can easily mingle with Mexican would-be laborers, and find their way into US cities.
In 2000, there were almost six million of the big "containers," from container ships which entered US ports, from Seattle to San Francisco; from Long Beach to San Diego; from New Orleans to Mobile; from Wilmington to Baltimore, and from Boston to Chicago. Those containers, seen as they roll along America’s railways to their ultimate destinations, are sealed by those who load them in ports all over the world. Ports like Karachi, Hong Kong, Djakarta, Surabaja, Singapore, Calcutta, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Kiel, Shanghai, and dozens of others. Note that Karachi, Djakarta, Surabaja and Calcutta are Islamic cities.
In the year 2000, over 210,000 commercial ships entered US ports; most of them carrying foreign flags. Because of their cheaper licensing fees, Liberia and Panama are the two states which "register" thousands of ships, though ownership may be from anywhere.
Inside those containers, which are about the same size and configuration of the cargo containers pulled by "18-wheelers" all over America roads and highways, are the commodities Americans purchase from all over the world. Leather gloves from Malaysia; golf clubs and balls, cameras and VCRs from Japan; belts and shoes from China; clothing and fabrics from Hong Kong — automobiles, TV sets and radios from Korea — the list is virtually endless.
And, sometimes contained in hollowed out sections of 2 x 4 studs for home building, or perhaps inside the stuffing in the back seat of an automobile, come tons of drugs.
But drugs may not be the only substances criminals and terrorists are interested in secreting inside those millions of containers.
Once these thousands of ships enter US waters, and make their way into the ports, they are moving among thousands of coastal vessels, pleasure craft, cruise ships, and other vessels. How can any law enforcement agency search them all?
How secure are America’s ports?
How difficult would it be for terrorists to plant chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons inside such containers, and have them shipped to their ultimate destination — say, Houston, Texas, or Chicago, Illinois, where they could be detonated? Not very.
The truth is that our Coast Guard is vastly overloaded, undermanned, and under equipped. The same holds true for our Immigration and Naturalization Service, or the INS. Our borders are like vast sieves through which pour a never-ending stream of illegal immigrants and contraband. Shortly before the attacks of September 11th, Mexico’s president Vincent Fox was in Washington, presenting a proposal he wanted to see in place prior to the end of this year, making it even easier for Mexican nationals to enter the US.
At the moment, he need not worry, for thousands of his citizens invade our southwest every year, and many of them are not caught. It is well known that Mexican police and border guards have been paid off by smugglers; that such corruption has reached to the highest levels inside the Mexican government in the past. Our borders are anything but secure.
What about security at our ports?
Sadly, it is very thin, very lax, and in some places virtually non-existent. Security is left largely to the various shipping companies and port authorities, who hire minimum-wage local security firms. By no means are all those millions of sealed containers — many of which come into our country from Islamic nations — thoroughly searched by security personnel and dogs. Usually, they are sealed at their point of origin, where the goods are loaded inside, and not opened until they arrive at their destination. Very nice, if you are a group of determined Shiites in Karachi — especially if you work for one of Bin Laden’s dozens of organizations, which includes transportation and communication firms.
In today’s high tech world, it is very possible for a determined terrorist organization, especially one which receives sponsorship and protection from a rogue state, to place a weapon of mass destruction inside such a cargo container, equip it with a Global Positioning Satellite (they can be held in one’s hand), so that it can be tracked by the terrorists until it has arrived at the intended target site, such as a loading dock in a large city, and then detonated by remote control.
Do not think the Federal government and the Coast Guard are not aware of such possibilities. But, on the other hand, the government and the various agencies which are there for the protection of our citizens had received ample warning, weeks in advance of September 11th, that "something big" was about to happen. The Sabbath before the attacks, I said to our Tyler congregation that an Arabic newspaper had leaked that "something big" as about to happen, and added that "it will make what happened to the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City look like a walk in the park."
The trouble is, millions of Americans are so paranoid about any interference with their "personal freedoms" that screams of outrage are heard the moment common-sense security measures are proposed.
Take the example of a contingent of Syrian would-be pilots who arrived in Fort Worth recently to enroll in one of the flight schools at a local airport. Because there are apparently no flight schools worth their salt in Syria, or in practically any other Arab country, for that matter, these people come here to become pilots. Any law against that? No. But THERE SHOULD BE, if America were serious about protecting its citizens!
There should be put in place legislation which PROHIBITS any Islamic country from sending its young men into the Unites States to enroll in our flight schools! Sound harsh? So did the screams of thousands of innocent victims sound harsh. It takes harshness to deal with terrorists; stern measures, and iron will.
President Bush has created a new Cabinet-level office, the "Homeland Security" office. Presumably, it will coordinate all the various law enforcement agencies, including the INS and the Coast Guard, to meet the threats of America’s open borders and open ports. But if the debates over "personal freedoms" raging on the dozens of talk shows are any indication, Americans may not yet be willing to give up any of their conveniences in order to prevent even more devastating attacks upon us. As a person who grew up during World War II, I well remember gasoline rationing; sugar rationing; scrap metal drives; turning in your used toothpaste tubes; and the armed guards patrolling our ports and coasts. I well remember the US Navy blimps slowly flying along Oregon’s beaches, and, though it is loudly decried today, the emergency rounding up of Japanese and Germans by the FBI. But of course, that was wartime.
And this is........?
