DHS: Canada Gets Equal Treatment with Mexico

This essay below, about the feckless Homeland Security Secretary our President has inflicted upon us underlines the video, dated April 2009, that Col. Myers sent.

He’s still “in the sandbox”, as he calls it; you can see him in the first part of the video.

You would think that after several years now of chasing down leads on our home-grown terrorist camps like Jamaat-ul Fuqra, I’d be inured to this information by now. But I’m not, because every day we get another piece of information that shows the depth and breadth of the problem we’re dealing with.


NOTE: The video embed from Google does not seem to work, nor do the others in the series.Go here to see it:

The Broken Door 108

[If anyone can look at the script and tell me where the tag on the embed is missing, I'll put the video up here. Meanwhile, it's worth your time to view it]


In this video we learn that the JuF camps are being used to train “weekend warriors” - i.e., people who come in from the surrounding cities for training. For the camp near us, that means the would-be junior jihadists come from Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. It’s a four hour commute and a few days’ weapons’ training, then back to the city to blend in with the rest of the population.


From World Buzz:

DHS MOTTO: “IF IT AINT BROKEN, BE SURE TO BREAK IT,” I.E., US/CANADA BORDER RELATIONS

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano whose foot in mouth proclivity reflects the continuing chaotic nature, politics and strategy on illegals on the U.S.-Mexico border nevertheless has a new dictum: what’s right for the southern border is right for the northern border. Never mind that the U.S.-Canada border has been the miracle of a 4,000-mile model of peace and stability and cooperation for more than 100 years. Furthermore, rather than basing her concern on the nature of an acknowledged threat of some terrorist organizations operating among Canada’s huge post-World War II immigrant communities, the former governor of Arizona has made it an issue of Mexican sensibilities for equal treatment. [my emphasis - D]

Canadian officials say the whole issue of threats from their country is overblown. The discussion turned nasty when Napolitano publicly suggested terrorists were regularly crossing the northern border.

- - - - - - - - -

So what, if what is happening is precisely because there is greater efficiency and less problems on the Canadian border? Washington is going full blast at security measures and new restrictions there with redoubled urgency. Starting June 1, the U.S. will require anyone crossing from Canada to present a valid passport or a secure travel ID card. Before February 2008, the northern border was so open that an oral declaration of citizenship was sufficient to enter the United States. [my emphasis - D ]

The Baron found that out the hard way when he traveled to Canada on business. Forgetting the rules had changed, he didn’t think to bring his passport. There was no trouble getting into Toronto at the airport. However, on his return several days later US Immigration gave him a real hassle when he tried to re-enter. He called me and I had to supply his passport information before the Americans would let him through. I had images of him having to live at the airport if they didn’t take my word for it.

Here’s some first class bureaucratic thinking for you:

“One of the things that I think we need to be sensitive to is the very real feeling among southern border states and in Mexico that if things are being done on the Mexican border, they should also be done on the Canadian border,” Napolitano said at a March Washington conference. U.S. officials warn that, at least in theory, a terrorist attack is more likely to emerge from Canada than Mexico.

Yeah, we need to be “sensitive” all right. This is pure malarkey. Exactly which southern border states are harboring these “feelings” about treating the Canadian border equally? Name one governor, madam, who is “sensitive” about this? The only thing the southern border states want from you is an adequate response to their horrible problems with drug crossovers, kidnappings, crimes, and the general squalor produced by our abysmal failure to provide adequate protection to the citizens in those states.

It’s inevitable, of course, that the new restrictions will interfere with the staggering volume of bilateral trade -- the equivalent of $1.5 billion a day -- as well about 300,000 people crossing every day.

In fact, since 9/11, the always close cooperation between the two countries’ customs and immigration officials have been intensified through the Cross Border Crime Forum and local law enforcement personnel through joint Integrated Border Enforcement Teams [IBETs]. Commercial drivers crossing the border have volunteered to undergo background security checks for the 70 percent of Canada-U.S. trade transported by truck under the bilateral Free and Secure Trade [FAST] program. Many companies participate in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism [C-TPAT].

You won’t believe what Napalitano had the nerve to say on CBC last month:

“to the extent that terrorists have come into our country . . . it’s been across the Canadian border.” Asked whether she was talking about the Sept. 11 perpetrators, she replied, “Not just those, but others as well.”

So how many terrorists have been caught coming in from the northern border since September 11?

One. Ahmed Ressam, the guy convicted of plotting to blow up the Los Angeles Airport. That was 1999. When she was asked about her preposterous claims later, she said there were other cases that hadn’t been made public for “security reasons”.

Hogwash. If DHS managed to apprehend anyone it would have a field day with press coverage 24/7, just as they had in 1999, with Ressam, the “millennium bomber”.

You won’t believe what they’re doing up North (while they arrest and imprison our American border guards at the Mexico line, or fine and harass any ranchers who try to stop these illegals). This is positively insane and highly insulting to Canada:

On Beaver Island State Park north of Buffalo 80-foot towers are being constructed for new surveillance equipment. On Grand Island a dozen large screens show live video of railroad and highway bridges, river gorges and other possible entry points. Unmanned Predator B aircraft started operating Feb. 16 at the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota. The Border Patrol unit based in Swanton, Vt., is adding camouflaged ground sensors that detect motion, heat and metal as small as a wristwatch. Video cameras are being set up at 16 sites along the St. Clair River in Michigan and the Upper Niagara in New York.

So how come the southwestern states don’t rate this kind of treatment? Are we afraid of offending the Mexican government?

The World Buzz essays asks:

It is little wonder that Canada is looking for a stronger trade relationship with the E.U. as the U.S. hints at growing protectionism and puts increased pressure on the border?

Canada needs to register a formal complaint through its embassy in Washington. I hope our Canadian readers will urge Ottawa to do just that.