AL QAEDA IN AMERICA

People called me a pessimist back in 2004 when I said that Al Qaeda would be just as much a threat in 2008 as it was in 2001. Yesterday proved the optimists wrong.

As the New York Times reported, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell admitted that not only is Al Qaeda still recruiting, but that their efforts are steadily improving. They continue to train operatives to attack the United States, and many of their new operatives appear to be coming from the Western Hemisphere. Furthermore, many of these new jihadists seem to be from the United States.

While McConnell and others tried to ease the mind of the American public by saying that there is little evidence to suggest that they have infiltrated the motherland, this is in blatant contradiction to remarks made by President Bush during his State of the Union Address. During the earlier portion of his speech he admitted that terrorists are taking advantage of our broken borders, specifically that which divides the US and Mexico.

Due to the reaction of 9-11, terrorists have had to shift gears. Flying planes into buildings isn't on their current agenda. According to intelligence estimates, they are focusing on cyberterrorism, polluting our water supply, and possibly mounting attacks on other means of travel such as metro systems or railroads.

What our politicians need to take serious is what they have already recognized: the threat is on the motherland. If or when they do choose to attack us, it will be on our soil. This means that they must first be here. This will require our political leaders to begin taking matters such as our borders, work visas, and immigration very serious. It also forces them to be more scrupulous about what is coming in through our port system. Revising our agreement with Mexico to allow vast amounts of semi-trucks into our country is also a worthy consideration. Lastly, they may wish to take a closer look at the truckloads of refuse coming to our country (specifically Michigan) from Canada.

Each and every one of these must be taken very serious if we hope to stop a terrorist attack on our country. Unless our politicians begin taking steps towards stopping terrorists from entering our country, whether it's through immigration, visas, broken borders, imports, or trucking, they will be putting this nation at great risk. Worse yet, they will be derelict in their responsibility to confront the threat that they readily admit already looms over the American people.