Biden administration would order U.S. to lower its shields.

On December 16, 2020 the Justice Department issued a press release about the arrest of alleged terrorist, Cholo Abdi Abdullah, who was conspiring with other terrorists from an al Qaeda-affiliated terror organization to carry out a 9/11-style terror attack inside the United States.  This substantiates a point I have made on numerous occasions, where the threats posed to America and Americans by foreign radical Islamic Terrorist organizations are concerned, the “All Clear” has most certainly not been sounded.

However apparently Joe Biden and Kamal Harris never got or, more likely, never read the memo.

Biden and Harris have both enthusiastically promised (threatened) to all but end immigration law enforcement and remove the restrictions that prohibit the entry of aliens from countries that sponsor terrorism and whose backgrounds cannot be effectively vetted.

While the media refers to the countries on the list of those countries as being “Muslim majority countries” implying that the so-call “travel ban” which is actually an entry restriction, was created to target Muslims, in reality, has nothing to do with religion but national security.  The  countries on that very limited list have a direct nexus to terrorism and for a variety of reasons, our officials are unable to effectively vet the citizens of those countries.

In point of fact, the three most populous Muslim-majority countries are Indonesia, Pakistan and India.  Yet those countries do not appear on that list.

For Americans to be happy that Biden would eliminate that entry restriction makes as much sense as a flock of chickens celebrating that Colonel Sanders has announced a new recipe for fried chicken!

Shortly after Biden announced he would nominate Alejandro Mayorkas to be Secretary of DHS (Department of Homeland Security) I wrote an article about who Mayorkas would be a terrible choice.  My article, Biden’s DHS: Department of Homeland Surrender included information that when Mayorkas was the Director of USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) for Obama, was the architect of DACA and had been investigated by the OIG (Office of Inspector General) for acting improperly, approving applications for visas that should not have been approved and for pressuring employees of USCIS to “Get to yes”- in other words approve just about every application for various immigration benefits including applications for political asylum, work visas, resident alien status and U.S. citizenship- or else!  This not only undermined employee morale but undermined national security by creating opportunities for immigration fraud.

It has recently been reported that if Biden is sworn in as President that he may nominate Andrew Cuomo to be the Attorney General.  Cuomo has referred to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Agents as “thugs” and as the governor of New York State, provides illegal aliens with driver’s licenses and refuses to share DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) information to the Border Patrol, ICE and the inspection personnel of CBP (Customs and Border Protection) who stand watch on our nation’s borders and conduct the inspection of people and vehicles seeking entry into the United States.

Roughly one year ago I addressed Cuomo’s gift to ISIS, the drug cartels, and human traffickers in my article, New York State Blocks ICE and Border Patrol Access to DMV Database.

I urge you to read that article to understand just how dangerous Cuomo’s policy is- not just for the hapless residents of New York State, but to all who live within the United States.

The 9/11 Commission, to which I provided testimony, identified multiple failures of the immigration system as having contributed significantly to the ability of a number of terrorists, including the 19 who participated in the deadly terror attacks of September 11, 2001 to enter the United States and embed themselves (hiding in plain sight) as they went about their deadly preparations.

Immigration fraud came under particular scrutiny by the 9/11 Commission as a key vulnerability frequently exploited by terrorists.

President Trump’s immigration policies have been, in part, driven by the nexus between border security and effective immigration law enforcement to enhance U.S. national security to protect our nation from the Damoclean threat of terrorism.

Nevertheless the leaders of the radicalized Democrat Party have criticized the Trump administration at every turn and have expanded “Sanctuary” policies that undermine immigration law enforcement and Biden has promised to undo all that President Trump did to protect our nation and our citizens.

Today, as we contemplate how dangerous a Biden administration would be for national security and public safety, we will focus on the December 16, 2020 Department of Justice news release,

Kenyan National Indicted for Conspiring to Hijack Aircraft on Behalf of the Al Qaeda-Affiliated Terrorist Organization Al Shabaab.

The chilling subtitle of that DOJ press release provides a bit more information about this terror plot: Cholo Abdi Abdullah Obtained Pilot Training and Researched How to Hijack Aircraft in Order to Conduct a 9/11-Style Attack at the Direction of al Shabaab.

The DOJ press release begins with the following paragraph:

The Department of Justice announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Cholo Abdi Abdullah with six counts of terrorism-related offenses arising from his activities as an operative of the foreign terrorist organization al Shabaab, including conspiring to hijack aircraft in order to conduct a 9/11-style attack in the United States.  Abdullah was arrested in July 2019 in the Philippines on local charges, and was subsequently transferred on Dec. 15, 2020 in connection with his deportation from the Philippines to the custody of U.S. law enforcement for prosecution on the charges in the indictment

The press release also includes this excerpt:

“Nearly 20 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, there are those who remain determined to conduct terror attacks against United States citizens. Abdullah, we allege, is one of them,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. “He obtained a pilot’s license overseas, learning how to hijack an aircraft for the purpose of causing a mass-casualty incident within our borders. Fortunately, the exceptional work by the men and women assigned to the many agencies that comprise the FBI’s New York JTTF have, once again, disrupted a threat to our communities.”

It must be noted that ICE contributes the second largest contingent of federal agents to the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) because virtually all foreign nationals who engage in terrorism violate multiple sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act and as such, ICE agents are uniquely qualified to provide vital assistance to these investigations.

A review of the indictment underscores just how important immigration law enforcement is and how any efforts to undermine the enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws undermines national security.

Item 17 on page 7 of the indictment states:

While CHOLO ABDI ABDULLAH, the defendant, was obtaining flight training at the Flight School, he conducted research into the means and methods fo hijack a commercial airliner to conduct an attack, including, among other things, security on commercial airliners and how to breach a cockpit door from the outside, information about the tallest building in a major U.S. city, and information about how to obtain a U.S. visa.

Item 20 on page 8 states, in part:

It was a part and an object of the conspiracy that CHOLO ABDI ABDULLAH, the defendant, and others known and unknown, would and did knowingly provide al Shabaab with material support and resources, including, among other things, property, explosives, personnel, services, training, false documentation and identification, communications equipment, weapons, transportation, and expert advice and assistance, knowing that al Shabaab was a designated FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organization) (as defined Title 18, United States Code, Section 2339B(g)(6), that al Shabaab engages and has engaged in terrorist activity as defined in section 212(a)(3)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act…

The first paragraph of the preface of the official report, 9/11 and  Terrorist Travel provides the summation for my commentary today:

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.

©Michael Cutler. All rights reserved.