The Status of Security in Our Homeland

You have to go back to World War II to find the origins of pilots using their fighter planes as weapons of warfare and killing themselves as a result of it.  Japanese Kamikaze pilots caused many serious casualties, but almost all were against their enemy combatants, usually the personnel of the U.S. Navy and fellow American soldiers embarked on their ships.  And these pilots were acting under the orders of their head of state, the Emperor.

Today, there is a new coterie of suicidal pilots. Unlike the Kamikaze pilots, these new pilots are actively seeking their own death while murdering innocent people.  Yes, their suicidal methods always seek the killing of the innocent.  And they claim that they are exercising their obligations to their unassailable god, Allah.

. . . Islamists devoutly believe, based on a well-founded interpretation of Islamic doctrine, that they have been commanded by Allah to kill, convert, or subdue all who do not adhere to sharia – because they regard Allah as their only master (‘There is no God but Allah’). (emphasis added)

Our government has determined, in its wisdom, that an effective defense against this type of terrorism is the use of the criminal justice system.  Any would-be bomber, who fails to kill himself while trying to kill innocent Americans, is now granted the same right to a trial in a Federal court that is afforded to every American citizen under the U.S. Constitution.  But since these terrorists desire death, what sort of deterrent is this?  We now have Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 attack on the U.S., awaiting his 9/11 “show trial” in New York, where Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, an Al Qaeda member and key participant in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya, was recentlyconvicted on only 1 of 280 counts of conspiracy and murder against him in the first civilian trial of a Guantanamo Bay detainee.  Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani avoided conviction on the other 279 counts in large part to a pre-trial ruling of a Federal judge that prevented the use of vital evidence obtained by the U.S. as a result of harsh interrogation techniques.

Well, actually to hedge their bet against their feeble posture on airborne terrorism, the U.S. government has implemented draconian measures against any U.S. citizen who chooses to fly on a commercial airliner.  Our government has made the presumption that millions of American citizens, exercising their Constitutional right to travel on civilian aircraft, are potential terrorists.  As a result of the U.S. Government’s decision, these unfortunate victims will have their Article IV rights against unreasonable search and seizure infringed upon in one of two ways.

First, pornographic profiling of U.S. citizens by means of forcing them to go through full-body scanners which show their complete nakedness and can be recorded and distributed to the media or anyone around the world.  This clear and unprecedented violation of Americans’ right to privacy exposes Americans to possible uncontrolled circulation of their nude images and to increasing risks of cancer from the scanners’ radiation.

Second, TSA agents are infringing on Americans’ rights against unreasonable search and seizure by quasi-sexually assaulting their genitalia if they dare to choose to fly on a commercial airplane.  These victims have no control over where or what TSA agents inspect.  Can you imagine the outrage if the Guantanamo Bay detainees were subjected to the same treatment?

Will you, as an American flying on a commercial plane, take any comfort knowing that our government is doing this to you so that they can avoid profiling potential Islamic terrorists?  What would an expert on psychological warfare have to say about all this?

…Give a bureaucrat a big stick and a big budget, allow said bureaucrat to trade in the limitless currency of human anxiety, and the masses will soon be intimidated by the Department of Fear.

Lavrenti Beria, Stalin’s notorious secret police chief, once said, ‘Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime.’  The T.S.A. seems to operate on the basis of an adapted maxim: ‘Show me the security check and I’ll find you the excuse.’

But could there be another more insane method of defending the American homeland especially when would-be non-suicidal terrorists have other options to kill innocent Americans than hijacking and flying commercial airplanes into buildings?  Terrorists who are intent on killing Americans can use dirty radiation bombs to inflict horrific casualties on the unsuspecting and innocent.  The potential avenue for bringing a dirty bomb into the United States is a large, mostly unguarded swath of land in the American Southwest.

Referring to calculations I made for the years 2007 to 2008 from Department of Homeland Security statistics, there were 178,000 illegal immigrants who were not apprehended during that period.  This is a staggering 2,739 completely unidentified people a day who have slipped over our porous border with Mexico.  All it takes is one of these 178,000 illegal immigrants to be a terrorist to wreck havoc on this nation.  And isn’t it ironic that it is easier to cross into the United States over our Southwest Border with Mexico than it is to get through an airport with its full-body scanners and overly-aggressive hands of TSA agents?

Instead of building a fence, enforcing our borders and protecting Americans from real threats to our safety, the U.S. government has unleashed government employees on U.S. citizens who are exercising their constitutional right of freedom of movement, by flying.  The U.S. government has also chosen to sue Arizona after it dared to start enforcing federal immigration laws against the backdropof increased violence and lawlessness on its border with Mexico.

About 3,500 acres of southern Arizona along the Mexican border is closed to U.S. citizens due to increased violence in the region.

The closed off area stretches 80 miles along the border and includes part of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge.  It was closed in October 2006 ‘due to human safety concerns,’ the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday in response to news reports on the closure… .

Federal agents told Fox News that the border area is ‘out of control’ and that ‘[e]very night we’re getting beaten like a piñata at a birthday party by drug, alien smugglers … .’  With Mexican drug cartel members on American soil, federal border agents have said that the border is ‘more dangerous for them than ever now.’

What is the wisdom in the U.S. Government’s actions?  Who are they working for?  Who are they working against?  Are they just stupid and incompetent or arrogant and hostile?  Perhaps their vision is that the homeland will only be secure when American citizens have lost all their constitutional rights and terrorists are free to do what they please to Americans.