FBI Director Vindicates Visa Waiver Criticisms By CT Blog Experts

By Andrew Cochran

Today, in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, FBI Director Robert Mueller gave official credence to the warnings voiced here by Michael Cutler and Bill West of the Visa Waiver Program. While discussing the threat of Mumbai-like attacks in the U.S., Director Mueller told the crowd, "Today, we still face threats from al Qaeda. But we must also focus on less well-known terrorist groups, as well as homegrown terrorists. And we must consider extremists from visa-waiver countries, who are merely an e-ticket away from the United States."

I should give Director Mueller credit; today isn't not the first time he's warned that the Visa Waiver Program is a giant security hole - it's actually the second. Last August, at the 5th Annual Border Security Conference in El Paso, he said, "It is sobering to realize that a terrorist in a visa-waiver country may be just a plane ticket away from the United States—or that a violent gang member may cross the border from Mexico and end up in Michigan. Yet this is today’s reality."

Yes, it is. But it's been a reality to us on this site, especially to our two former senior federal agents who worked customs and immigration cases, for four years. In fact, four years ago yesterday, Michael posted this when discussing homegrown terrorist Ahmed Omar Abu Ali: "It is safe to assume that there are other individuals living in other countries who are similarly related to Al Qaeda but who acquired citizenship in countries that participate in the Visa Waiver program, either by being born in those countries or by having been naturalized. There are 27 such countries plus Canada. This is why, given the on-going "War on terror" the Visa Waiver program needs to be terminated to provide our officials better opportunities to more effectively screen aliens who seek admission into the United States." You can read all of Michael's posts and Bill's posts on this topic.

Now if Director Mueller would only go further by admitting that the only "good" Visa Waiver Program is a "dead" Visa Waiver Program.

By the way, here are more comments by Michael on immigration fraud, sent in response to the news of the arrest in California of another homegrown terrorist suspect:

"The 9-11 Commission and the various oversight agencies, including the GAO and the various Inspectors General, have all made it clear that laxness in enforcing the immigration laws provided one opportunity after another to enable the terrorists and criminals to enter our country and embed themselves within communities across our nation. Yet our government still refuses to secure the systems that exist in name only, that are supposed to prevent the entry of the bad guys.

Meanwhile, the open borders advocates are now salivating at the prospect of ramming Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) down our throats regardless of how it may enable many more terrorists and criminals to easily game the immigration bureaucracy to enter our country and embed themselves in communities from coast to coast and border to border.

Every politician who advocates for amnesty (Comprehensive Immigration Reform) must be made to answer one basic question:

How will you deal with the lack of integrity to the processes conducted by USCIS now without having an avalanche of many millions of applications being dumped on their desks?

How will you ever know the real identities, nationalities, criminal histories, affiliations or intentions of aliens who have no reliable means of identifying themselves?

How can you be certain of the length of time an illegal alien has resided in the United States if they have used multiple false identities to work, pay bills or move about our country?

These questions are no different from a pre-flight inspection that a pilot performs to determine the air-worthiness of his aircraft before he heads down the runway! No responsible pilot would even think of flying an airplane that had not been thoroughly inspected before taking off!"