they let them get away.....


As Sen. Kyl has said: 9/11 could have been prevented "if State Department
personnel had merely followed the law and not granted non- immigrant visas to
15 of the 19 hijackers in Saudi Arabia."
If other US officials had not encouraged the illegal immigration of over 10
million aliens to the US and permitted these illegal aliens to reside here
there would not have been a massive population living outside the law which
gave the terrorists the ability to hide in plain site while they planned,
rehearsed, financed and carried out their mass murder. This nationwide
acceptance of massive lawlessness permitted the terrorists to freely
function in our society.
Illegal entry to the US was, and still is, an easy enterprise. All of the
9/11 murderers had visas issued to them by officials of the State
Department. Most, if not all, those visas were granted in clear violation of
the letter and spirit of the Department's own regulations and federal law.
However, the State Department has provided visas to terrorists for many
years prior to 9/11 and thus had fair warning that its procedures were
deficient.
For example, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) examined the
immigration histories of terrorists involved in seven conspiracies by
Islamic extremists to murder Americans. CIS included in its study only
those who had committed crimes inside the US, beginning with the Jan 25,
1993 murder of two CIA employees outside Langley headquarters, followed by
the 1st WTC attack, the plots on NYC landmarks and on the NYC subway system,
the embassy bombings, the Millennium Plot on LAX and lastly, the horrific
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tragedy of September 11th, 2001.
Because CIS limited its study only to seven plots either uncovered,
attempted or carried out, and therefore did not attempt to uncover
"sleepers", the total number of terrorists studied was merely forty-eight.
Thirty-six of the forty -eight entered the US with visas issued by the State
Department, and of these several entered the US multiple times.
Given the knowledge that young Arab males to whom it had given visas had
been convicted of terrorist acts committed at least as early as the 1993 WTC
attack, the State Department had more than enough basis to recognize the
weaknesses in its visa granting procedures. However, instead of tightening
procedures State continued its reckless course of action. Mary Ryan, the
Department's chief of Consular Affairs from 1993 to 2002, blindly continued
the Visa Express program for Saudi Arabia which allowed anyone, including
non-Saudis, to apply for visas at privately operated travel agencies. And
during her tenure, Ms. Ryan was responsible for a reduction of the
percentage of applicants interviewed by cons ular officials from "most" to
"about one- fifth."
Clearly, Ms Ryan was reflecting an attitude that pervaded State Department
officials at the highest levels: On June 10, 2002 Deputy Secretary of State
Richard Armitage wrote that believing that "an applicant may pose a threat
to national security is insufficient [grounds] for a consular officer to
deny a visa." But the trail of guilt does not stop at Mr. Armitage, for it
was Sen. Ted Kennedy who was responsible fo r adding language to the 1996
immigration reform act which stipulated that "mere membership" in a
terrorist organization is insufficient basis for denying a visa to an applicant.
Whatever the roles of Messrs. Armitage and Kennedy in allowing terrorists
entry to the US, Ms. Ryan was clearly committed to Visa Express and allowing
virtually anyone to enter the US. After 9/11, Diane Andruch (Ryan's deputy)
reported that the program had been discontinued, but investigation proved
the expedited processing still continued. And incomprehensibly, despite
public anger over her activities, the State Department awarded Mary Ryan a
$15,000 bonus for her "outstanding performa nce" for the period April 16,
2001 to April 15, 2002. It was as if the State Department was affirming its
approval for incompetence.
One of the most damning examples of failures within the government can be
attributed to Maura Harty. It was to her that the 9/11 terrorists' visa
applications came for review.
According to analysis done by Joel Mowbray, nearly all the terrorists' visa
applications were obviously defective on the ir face. For example, that of
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Abdulaziz Alomari (one of the hijackers of the plane which hit my son's
building) did not fill in the space requiring him to name the school he was
claiming to attend; he did not fill in fields requiring him to name his sex
or his nationa lity. Many of the hijackers did not provide the US address
where they would be living, as is required. One listed his destination city
as "no." One claimed his occupation was "teater."
Evidently, no one in the Bush Administration considered Ms. Harty's failures
to be serious. When Mary Ryan left her position, Sec. Powell and President
Bush promoted Ms. Harty to fill that vacancy. The Senate docilely confirmed
her in lame duck session.
Rampant incompetence within the State Department is established by the
record. Is this attributable to the frequency with which its officials
accept fees from the Saudi government after retirement? Could the promise of
future employment with a Saudi-controlled entity affect the performance of
US officia ls while they are still ostensibly working on behalf of the
citizens of this country?
The list of such officials who later took Saudi money includes, according to
Joel Mowbray: Fred Dutton, ***'t. Sec. for Congressional affairs; a
successor in that position, Linwood Holton; Peter Madigan, Deputy ***'t.
Sec. for Legislative Affairs; also, Ambassadors Walter Cutler, Charles
Freeman, Frank Carlucci, Hermann Eilts, Wyche Fowler, Ned Walker, David
Mack, William Eagleton, Michael Sterner, and David Ransom have received
Saudi money through employment at 'think tanks' largely funded by the Saudi
government or individuals.
Clearly, other American interests profited by the collapse of safeguards in
the visa granting process. The travel industry has long depended for much of
its profits on foreign tourists. America's education industry also has
profited from tuition paid by aliens. Factions within the education industry
lobbied against systems for tracking of foreign students and a
comprehensive and effective pilot system, know as CIPRIS, was dismantled
prior to 9/11. The current student tracking system in place, SEVIS, is
dangerously flawed. The result is that aliens with no intention of attending
classes have, and will continue to, obtain entry to the US and then
disappeared into our population.
Even without visas, the terrorists could easily have entered the United
States through the Mexican border or through the Canadian border and our
seaports. The federal government's utter failure to control illegal
immigration is widely known. Why is it that our government has permitted
these conditions to arise and to continue?