Reviews Mixed on Latest Homeland Security Moves
by Chad Groening and Bill Fancher
January 9, 2004
(AgapePress) - A pro-family activist is praising the Department of Homeland Security for causing the cancellation of several international flights because of a suspected terrorist plot. Gary Bauer says a recent news report has vindicated the decision. But a conservative analyst says the nation's "porous" borders still leave America open to terrorist attacks.The Sunday Times of London reported this week that U.S. intelligence had uncovered a plot by Al Qaida to once again hijack several passenger jets and crash them into high-impact targets. This time, however, the flights were all international flights, operated by British Airways, Air France, and AeroMexico.
Gary Bauer of the Campaign for Working Families says under the circumstances, U.S. officials made the right call.
"The system is working," he says. "Of course, if we have another terrorist strike, the critics will be the first in line in saying that the Bush Administration did not do enough. I think this has been a very prudent approach to take, even though it's obviously ruffled feathers in a couple of countries. We need to do whatever we can to avoid another 9-11 that would perhaps send the nation into a recession or worse."
Bauer says it is unfortunate that when fighting against terrorism, the U.S. has to be right every time -- and the enemy only has to be right once.
"But I think we have to assume that somewhere along the line, particularly as our enemy grows more desperate, that we probably will be hit again -- and it's going to be a real test of American character and our ability to bounce back," he says.
According to the conservative spokesman, any inconvenience suffered by foreign airlines and passengers in the recent cancellations pale in comparison to the devastation such an attack would have caused.
As for critics of the Bush Administration's call for new fingerprint requirements at U.S. airports and air marshals on board inbound international flights, Bauer recommends that they remind themselves that the United States is facing "a dedicated jihadist enemy who is working every hour on ways to kill tens of thousands of innocent American civilians and bring our country to its knees."
Porous Borders
But not everyone thinks the latest efforts by the U.S. to catch terrorists are going to work. Retired Army Colonel Bob Maginnis is one of many who have doubts about the new Homeland Security measures at air and sea ports. Those measures, he says, still leave America vulnerable.
"Terrorists are going to come in here through hook or crook," Maginnis says. "In many cases, they'll come in through the most porous place in our border -- and it won't be through an airline where we're going to now take a picture and fingerprint them.
"It will through the ports that are easy to get into or through a porous border with Mexico or Canada, where many entrances are unguarded," he says. "It's a good effort, but it's not going to accomplish as much as I think we'd like."
According to Maginnis, many of the "jihadists" who enter the country are not on any FBI or CIA files. "Unless the countries that are sending them share criminal records or records of local terrorists with us, we'll have nothing to compare it with -- and therefore we'll know after the fact," he says.
People from more than two dozen countries are exempted from the new record-keeping procedure. Critics claim terrorists will be using those countries as launching points very soon.
