← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Howard Campbell, Jr.
Thread ID: 17481 | Posts: 18 | Started: 2005-03-23
2005-03-23 21:14 | User Profile
Posted on Wed, Mar. 23, 2005 [url]http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/11207985.htm[/url]
Terror fears grow over U.S. borders
BUSH TO MEET NEIGHBORING NATIONS' LEADERS OVER DIVERGENT GOALS
By James C. McKinley Jr.
New York Times
MEXICALI, Mexico - When U.S. customs officials discovered the latest tunnel under the border last month, they were stunned. Complete with concrete floor and an intercom system, the passage ran nearly 200 yards from a house on one side of a rusty metal fence, under two streets and an apartment complex, to emerge in an unassuming tract home in California.
Though more elaborate, the tunnel is not unlike the 15 others found during the 1990s, built by drug cartels. But everything in the world after Sept. 11, 2001, has taken on a different hue. U.S. officials fear that the tunnels could be used just as easily to smuggle terrorists and explosives as cocaine or illegal immigrants.
That confluence of worries forms the backdrop for a meeting today in Texas between President Bush, Mexico's President Vicente Fox and Canada's Prime Minister Paul Martin. But where issues converge, the interests of the United States and its neighbors may not.
Different goals
For Bush and the Republican-led Congress he must work with, security is on top of the agenda. For Mexico, it is immigration changes that would open the border to a freer flow of migrant workers. For liberal Canada, it is the imperative of foreign and domestic policies that increasingly diverge from Washington's conservative consensus.
Senior Bush administration officials said Tuesday that the three leaders were not expected to announce any concrete agreements after the one-day meeting at Baylor University in Waco, which will be followed by a lunch at the Bush ranch in Crawford.
Instead, the three men will announce a new framework and timetable for resolving a host of sticky trade and security issues, among them letting more workers cross borders legally for jobs and improving cooperation against terrorists.
A year ago, Bush proposed greatly expanding a guest-worker program for Mexican laborers. But to Fox's great dismay, the idea has faded. In the past two weeks, U.S. diplomats have made it clear that Congress is unlikely to act unless Mexico does more to tighten up the border and reduce the crime on its side.
``What Mexico needs to understand is that migration is viewed largely as a security issue in the United States, and they appear to think that that is not as important as we do,'' said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who has taken a lead in the debate on expanding a guest-worker program.
Border cities
Perhaps nowhere is the inexorable nature of the northward migration of Mexicans -- and the vulnerability of the United States to infiltration, whether by migrants or by terrorists -- more apparent than in Mexicali and in its sister California city, Calexico.
Investigators say they doubt that the builders of the elaborate tunnel would have spent an estimated $1 million just to smuggle migrant workers headed for jobs picking grapes or working at convenience stores. It is more likely, they said, that the tunnel was built to smuggle lucrative drugs like cocaine and heroin, but another line of investigation is that its builders might have intended to sell passage to terrorists or other criminals.
Meanwhile, the alarms have been sounding in Washington about the post-Sept. 11 dangers of a porous, 2,000-mile-long border. James Loy, the deputy secretary of homeland security, said last month that intelligence reports showed that Al-Qaida terrorists are likely to try to enter the country from Mexico, across whose border at least 300,000 people flow every year virtually undetected and with impunity.
Porter Goss, the director of central intelligence, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week that the United States is vulnerable to terrorists infiltrating through ``its back patio.''
But for Fox, a tighter border that keeps Mexicans from desperately needed jobs in the United States is not necessarily in his interest. Last week, in a sharp divergence from Washington, he publicly decried a measure passed in the House of Representatives that would mandate the completion of a long-stalled security wall between Tijuana and San Diego.
Far from being completed, he said, the wall should be knocked down. No country that is proud of itself should construct walls,'' he told reporters in Mexico City on March 15.No one can isolate oneself these days with a wall.''
He and other proponents of immigration reform and the guest-worker program argue that higher walls and tighter controls will do more harm than good, by forcing more migrants to take illegal routes, and thus making it easier for terrorists to cross illegally as well.
A high cost for the Plutocracy's cheap mestizo labor, Senor Boosh...
2005-03-23 21:37 | User Profile
Howard, [QUOTE]Instead, the three men will announce a new framework and timetable for resolving a host of sticky trade and security issues, among them letting more workers cross borders legally for jobs...[/QUOTE] See? Bush has his priorities straight. [I]Wall Street first...[/I] [QUOTE]...and improving cooperation against terrorists.[/QUOTE] and maybe they will discuss this, but I doubt it.
Maybe it's better if Bush doesn't discuss immigration. He has already shown us that he can't stand up to the demands of Fox and Sharon.
2005-03-23 22:03 | User Profile
Sert, I'm convinced that Junior envies Mexico's Third World kleptocracy--a Middle Class cuts into the Plutocracy's profit margin.
Islamic Terrorists could hardly do more damage to the American Republic than these parasites have already done...
2005-03-23 22:34 | User Profile
Sert, I'm convinced that Junior envies Mexico's Third World kleptocracy--a Middle Class cuts into the Plutocracy's profit margin.
Naturally. I think plutocrats must cringe every time they see middle-class White families living in a house, thinking of all the extra profit they could be making "wasted" through maintaining a first-world standard of living for the population, when the Mexicans seem perfectly happy crammed in 15 to an efficiency apartment. The day the plutocrats' gated communities go up in flames draws nearer, methinks.
Islamic Terrorists could hardly do more damage to the American Republic than these parasites have already done...
Agreed, HC. I stand in jaw-dropping beweilderment of the average FReeper who thinks Bush simply "doesn't understand" the damage his border policy (or lack thereof) is doing to the nation. I had thought it would be obvious to even the most mind-numbed dolt by now that the open-borders policy and the subsequent destruction of the middle class is deliberate, though I guess I underestimated the depth of Bush-worship and denial of reality on FR, not that that's very hard to do.
Al-Qaida terrorists are likely to try to enter the country from Mexico...
at some unspecified point in the future. Sure, they only just now thought of it, so we'd better "do something" so it doesn't happen. Puhleeze. Has anyone seen the number of OTMs caught by the Border Partol annually among the darn few they actually apprehend?
2005-03-23 22:44 | User Profile
[QUOTE=MadScienceType]Naturally. I think plutocrats must cringe every time they see middle-class White families living in a house, thinking of all the extra profit they could be making "wasted" through maintaining a first-world standard of living for the population, when the Mexicans seem perfectly happy crammed in 15 to an efficiency apartment. The day the plutocrats' gated communities go up in flames draws nearer, methinks.
Agreed, HC. I stand in jaw-dropping beweilderment of the average FReeper who thinks Bush simply "doesn't understand" the damage his border policy (or lack thereof) is doing to the nation. I had thought it would be obvious to even the most mind-numbed dolt by now that the open-borders policy and the subsequent destruction of the middle class is deliberate, though I guess I underestimated the depth of Bush-worship and denial of reality on FR, not that that's very hard to do.
at some unspecified point in the future. Sure, they only just now thought of it, so we'd better "do something" so it doesn't happen. Puhleeze. Has anyone seen the number of OTMs caught by the Border Partol annually among the darn few they actually apprehend?[/QUOTE]
Inexplicably deranged, it is.
The same FReakers who helped foment a Constitutional crisis over the Lewinsky fellatio now bovinely consign their grandkids to a squalid existence in New Brazil...
2005-03-23 23:22 | User Profile
Howard,
Lou Dobbs reported that Bush called groups like the Minute Men "Vigilantes". I think you are right. Despite his accent and style Bush really has the values of some Beacon Hill snotnose. Bush doesn't give a rat's ass about America save its use for furthering his own ambitions and those he serves. That son of a bitch is a traitor in my opinion who deserves to be impeached and convicted.
2005-03-24 02:18 | User Profile
Yes, Bush made it clear he didn't like vigilantiism. Someone should have told him there wouldn't be a need for American citizens to put their lives on the line if his administration did what the govt. is mandated to do in our Constitution, protect our country and its citizens. He arrogantly pressed on for the guest-worker program but it looks like Repubs may break ranks and not support it. I prefer to wait and see. They've caved too many times before.
People who think of the invasion from Mexico as being just a terrorism issue are wrong. If this was pre-9-11 we should still find it to be a threat to the best interest of our country. For one thing, assimilation isn't anywhere on their "to do" list so that presents all kinds of problems for those of us who are proud to call ourselves Americans, for another they bring diseases with them that we stamped out decades ago, for another they're uneducated, unskilled workers who wind up costing us more money than we can count by overrunning our schools and taking SSI monies, then there's the anchor baby who when it gets dropped is automatically a citizen entitling it and its family to all kinds of benefits that we keep paying for, and for another they send most of their money back to their country of origin and don't spend it here. One last contribution, the increase in criminality as they populate various cities and towns and with it their radical political groups who seriously want to annex parts of the soutwest to Mexico and are agitating for it every day.
Vincente the Fox has it right. The dark skinned, uneducated, criminal or unskilled worker is a problem in his society. He has no work for them and Mexican society is very striated with the white Mexicans with Spanish roots sitting on top of the hill. Class distinctions are part of the culture south of the border. So our prez allows them to come in and thinks that layers of govt. bureaucracy which will administer the guest-worker program, will prevent abuse.
So it's not just about terrorism. Not by a long shot.
2005-03-24 12:37 | User Profile
[url=http://www.americanpatrol.com/BUSH/AXIS-OF-WEASELS/FOX-TROLL-050323/PressConfWaco050323.html#mmp][QUOTE] "I'm against vigilantes," Bush said. "That's why you got a border patrol, and they ought to be in charge of enforcing the border."[/QUOTE][/url] Beautiful. Even making allowances for Bush's poor public speaking ability, the man not only comes across as stupid as hell, but as a whiner as well. There is no "they" about it. Bush is the chief executive and that makes it a case of him enforcing the immigration laws. Yep, he really is a "conservative and Republican" in the foulest sense of the modern meaning.
Bush sucks.
2005-03-24 17:49 | User Profile
You know? I am against the illegals coming into the US but let me ask you this, if you were to find a $100,00 dollar bill on the ground would you pick it up or leave it in place?
If all those illegals are comming across out border like a tidal wave I don't blame them but do blame the US government for not doing something about it.
By the way, Putin is going to the state of Israel......I wonder why?
2005-03-24 17:58 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Ponce]You know? I am against the illegals coming into the US but let me ask you this, if you were to find a $100,00 dollar bill on the ground would you pick it up or leave it in place?
I would pick it up and do my best to find the person it belongs to and give it back to them. To keep it would be theft.
If all those illegals are comming across out border like a tidal wave I don't blame them but do blame the US government for not doing something about it.
There's plenty of blame to go around, but the illegals who knowingly break our immigration law are lawbreakers, plain and simple. They should be rounded-up and deported back to Mexico at the very least. They are criminals, no two ways about it.
2005-03-24 18:20 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Texas Dissident]I would pick it up and do my best to find the person it belongs to and give it back to them. To keep it would be theft.
There's plenty of blame to go around, but the illegals who knowingly break our immigration law are lawbreakers, plain and simple. They should be rounded-up and deported back to Mexico at the very least. They are criminals, no two ways about it.[/QUOTE]
Tex? you say "The illegals who knowingly break our immigration law", well buddy you are now making the same mistake that the "white" man is doing, in order to fight the enemy you must think like they do and not like you are used to do.......like the Chinese general wrote "A war is won or lost before it is even fought" and in this case we allready lost it in more ways than one.
About the $100.00 dollar bill? I would hate to knock in every door in LA in order to find the owner.
2005-03-24 19:55 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Ponce]Tex? you say "The illegals who knowingly break our immigration law", well buddy you are now making the same mistake that the "white" man is doing, in order to fight the enemy you must think like they do and not like you are used to do.......like the Chinese general wrote "A war is won or lost before it is even fought" and in this case we allready lost it in more ways than one.[/QUOTE]
That makes absolutely no sense to me, Ponce.
2005-03-25 15:19 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Ponce]You know? I am against the illegals coming into the US but let me ask you this, if you were to find a $100,00 dollar bill on the ground would you pick it up or leave it in place?
If all those illegals are comming across out border like a tidal wave I don't blame them but do blame the US government for not doing something about it.
By the way, Putin is going to the state of Israel......I wonder why?[/QUOTE]
[B]Your analogy doesn't hold up. If I decided to pick up the money and not return it, I wouldn't be breaking the law. It would be about me and my values. The Mexicans and the rest of the Third World coming across that border knowingly are breaking a nation's laws and continue to break them as they file for all kinds of welfare benefits, as they drive without licenses and insurance, as they live in illegal housing, as they defraud the govt. by not paying taxes, etc. [/B]
2005-03-25 16:43 | User Profile
Tex? it makes no sense to you because you are thinking like a white man, I am lucky to be Cuban or at least part Cuban therefore I don't have tunnel vision, before you know what is going on or try to solve the problem you must understand what the problem is.
Dakota? If you find the money in the middle of the street of NY who are you going to return it to? If it is a money bag with the name of the owner then yes, but a paper bill ? About the Mexicans, do you dress extra nice for a date? get a extra close shave or use some kind of nice smelling lotion? You do your best to get a piece of tail and the Mexicans are doing the best they can to put food on their table......the man asks and the woman says yes or no, the illegals come across and the US government can either stop them or not.
I am also against illegal emmigration but I can see why they are doing it. If 75% of the Cuban people could come to the US, as refugees not illegals, or go to another country they would do it. I have been there and know what is going on.
2005-03-25 16:53 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Ponce]
If 75% of the Cuban people could come to the US, as refugees not illegals, or go to another country they would do it. I have been there and know what is going on.[/QUOTE]
It would seem that 75% of the Cuban people instead of becoming refugees would want to overthrow the Castro regime, of course at this point Miami is just a district of greater Cuba, so it is not really a case of them being refugees at all.
2005-03-25 23:52 | User Profile
Bardamu, when I left Cuba for the last time I left behind a BB gun and the government even took that away from my dad, but of course having no weapons is no excuse or I would be going around yelling Oi Vey like the Jews, the problem is that the Cuban people themselves make a God out of Castro and now they are trap in catch 21.
I am very thankfull that I am 1/2 American and that I am able to send money to Cuba in order to help my family, as a matter of fact with half of what I am sending to Cuba I am helping five Palestinian families.
2005-03-26 01:00 | User Profile
Ponce writes: Dakota? If you find the money in the middle of the street of NY who are you going to return it to? If it is a money bag with the name of the owner then yes, but a paper bill ? About the Mexicans, do you dress extra nice for a date? get a extra close shave or use some kind of nice smelling lotion? You do your best to get a piece of tail and the Mexicans are doing the best they can to put food on their table......the man asks and the woman says yes or no, the illegals come across and the US government can either stop them or not.
I am also against illegal emmigration but I can see why they are doing it...[/Quote]
True enough. If the laws are made to be easily broken, then we and not them are more at fault. Matters in the southwest have reached critical mass so there's only one solution, and it's not capturing them and sending them back because as we all know, there's a revolving door firmly implanted in that policy. They wind up coming back again and again. It's a farce. We need to shoot to kill. First a warning shot, then shoot to maim, then to kill. If that doesn't stop them, shoot the women as well. Betcha the crossings will evaporate in no time. But of course that's a pipedream. Won't ever happen. Bush is determined to get them across even if he has to carry them over on his back. He's a disgrace, a sellout. I still don't know where he's coming from.
2005-03-27 01:28 | User Profile
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