On July 29, 2019, the Justice Department issued a
press release that announced that President Trump had signed into law, H.R. 1327, “The Never Forget the Heroes: James Zadroga, Ray Pfeifer, and Luis Alvarez Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) (VCF Permanent Authorization Act).”
Clearly the 9/11 victims who have died, are suffering, and are dying and their families must be compensated for their sacrifices.
But while the rallying cry of “Never Forget” for the victims the 9/11 terror attacks demands we not forget the victims or their families, we must also never forget how our nation was vulnerable to those savage attacks in the first place.
The “all clear” most certainly has not sounded. Furthermore in the years since the attacks of September 11, 2001, more deadly terror attacks have been carried out on U.S. soil by international terrorists.
The best place to begin our quest to make certain that our nation does its best to prevent future terror attacks is to review the 9/11 Commission Report and the companion report, The 9/11 Commission Staff Report on Terrorist Travel.
The 9/11 Commission was convened to discover how international terrorists were able to enter the U.S. and carry out deadly attacks, the same way that airplane crashes are painstakingly investigated to prevent future disasters.
Every candidate for the U.S. Presidency should be asked, pointedly, if they have read those two reports, in their entirety.
While much has been made about the military backing up the beleaguered and overwhelmed Border Patrol, in reality, the Border Patrol and ICE agents back up the military. The prime mission of all five branches of our military is to keep America’s enemies as far from our shores as possible. Up close, however, that vital mission falls to the Border Patrol and ICE.
The preface of The 9/11 Commission Staff Report on Terrorist Travel began with this paragraph:
"It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists cannot plan and carry out attacks in the United States if they are unable to enter the country. Yet prior to September 11, while there were efforts to enhance border security, no agency of the U.S. government thought of border security as a tool in the counterterrorism arsenal. Indeed, even after 19 hijackers demonstrated the relative ease of obtaining a U.S. visa and gaining admission into the United States, border security still is not considered a cornerstone of national security policy. We believe, for reasons we discuss in the following pages, that it must be made one."
Page 61 contained this passage:
"Exploring the Link between Human Smugglers and Terrorists"
"In July 2001, the CIA warned of a possible link between human smugglers and terrorist groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that since 1999 human smugglers have facilitated the travel of terrorists associated with more than a dozen extremist groups. With their global reach and connections to fraudulent document vendors and corrupt government officials, human smugglers clearly have the 'credentials' necessary to aid terrorist travel."
This paragraph is found on page 98 under the title “Immigration Benefits:”
“Terrorists in the 1990s, as well as the September 11 hijackers, needed to find a way to stay in or embed themselves in the United States if their operational plans were to come to fruition. As already discussed, this could be accomplished legally by marrying an American citizen, achieving temporary worker status, or applying for asylum after entering. In many cases, the act of filing for an immigration benefit sufficed to permit the alien to remain in the country until the petition was adjudicated. Terrorists were free to conduct surveillance, coordinate operations, obtain and receive funding, go to school and learn English, make contacts in the United States, acquire necessary materials, and execute an attack.”
Consequently, all candidates for the Presidency or other high office must explain how their strategies for dealing with the immigration crisis are consistent with the warnings and findings and recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.
Duplicitous candidates who call for dismantling ICE, decriminalizing immigration law violations, or providing lawful status to unknown millions of illegal aliens who evaded the inspections process by running our borders flies in the face of the findings and recommendations of the 9/11 Commission must be challenged.
Candidates who refuse to accept that America’s borders and immigration laws are our first and last lines of defense must be rejected by all American voters — our survival is “on the line.”
Rational people would never board airliners if they saw fellow passengers evade the TSA inspection, yet today we are forced to live among millions of illegal aliens who evaded a similar screening process conducted at ports of entry.
Michael Cutler is a retired Senior Special Agent of the former INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) whose career spanned some 30 years. He has testified before well over a dozen congressional hearings in the House and Senate, provided testimony to the 9/11 Commission, and testified before state legislative hearings around the United States. He also testifies at trials where immigration is at issue and participates in public speaking engagements across the U.S. He hosts his Blog Talk Radio show, "The Michael Cutler Hour" on Friday evenings on USA Talk Radio. His personal website is MichaelCutler.net. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.