The major political parties again have failed us. They have thrown up two presidential candidates unfit for the office.
The Democrats have given us Sen. B. Hussein Obama. In saner times, every fact of this man's political life would by itself be sufficient to render him unfit for any responsible position. "Mentored" by Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis who was chosen for this role by Obama's white grandfather, as an adult Obama chose to remain closely tied to radical leftists, such as unrepentant Communist bomber William Ayers (Question many are asking: "What do Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden have in common? Answer: They both have friends who bombed the Pentagon."). For twenty years Obama attended the church of mad dog, anti-white racist Jeremiah Wright and cultivated the support of the equally racist Louis Farrakhan. By Obama's own admission, his work experience prior to running for office was as a "community organizer" for extremist left wing groups such as ACORN, to which as a public official he steered taxpayer funds.
By the evidence of his life, Obama is a man of the radical left. Thus to entrust this man with the secrets that a President of the United States must know is to endanger the country's future.
But even if Obama were no further to the left than the socialists who make up the Democratic Party, he is unfit because he is the product of Chicago's Daley machine, which is corrupt in all the traditional ways, including bribery, siphoning of public funds, kickbacks, cronyism, and of course the fixing of elections (the 1960 Illinois presidential race). Obama's sleazy dealings with Tony Rezko show that he has learned well the lessons that Daley had to teach.
B. Hussein Obama is the ultimate in unfit candidates, a unique blend of the crooked and the communist. What less could America want in a president?
Well…there's John McCain, the Republican who claims America can rely on him to ensure national security. This is a lie. McCain's record shows that he willingly increased America's vulnerability to future 9/11s because he placed a higher priority on protecting illegal aliens. And to gain this perceived political advantage, he actually used the September 11 terrorist attacks as cover.
The 9/11 Commissioners found that nearly all the September 11 mass murderers had authentic, US-issued drivers licenses that enabled the terrorists to rent hotel rooms, cars and apartments, open bank accounts to transfer funds and obtain everything else they needed to plan, rehearse and carry out their attacks. And on the morning of the attacks, the Commission found, the hijackers used their US licenses, not their foreign passports, in order to breeze by security and board the planes they used to kill 3000 innocent people (including my son). In short, these authentic US drivers' licenses were essential tools for the terrorists.
The Commission emphasized that identity documents are as important to terrorists as money or weapons. It stated:
"Recommendation: Secure identification should begin in the United States. The federal government should set standards for the issuance of birth certificates and sources of identification, such as driver's licenses."
Government must "meet its own obligations to the American people to prevent the entry of terrorists" by "disrupting terrorist travel" by properly identifying all individuals entering and leaving the United States.
McCain, like most of his fellow politicians, chose to exploit 9/11 for his benefit. He called for enactment of "all forty-one" of the Commission's recommendations. In 2004, he introduced S.2774 which he described as "an effort to fortify the nation's homeland and national security . . . to implement recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission."
But McCain was lying about the true intent and effect of his bill. (The relevant language of S.2774, later amended into S.2845), can be found here,)
To carry out this deception, McCain included lots of language that created the illusion of creating strict federal guidelines. Example: "No federal agency may accept for any official purpose, a drivers' license" that did not meet certain minimum standards that were to be set by the Secretary of Homeland Security under the terms of the legislation.
McCain strengthened the illusion by throwing in verbiage such as requiring: "security standards to ensure that driver's licenses and identification cards are—(i) resistant to tampering, alteration, or counterfeiting; and (ii) capable of accommodating a digital photograph or other unique identifier; and…"etc.[Section 890B]
But McCain undermined the alleged intent of his legislation by allowing the DHS Secretary to determine when it would be "practicable" for the states to comply. This meant that the Secretary, after being lobbied by the US Chamber of Commerce, LaRaza, the ACLU, the rest of the Treason Lobby, and no doubt McCain himself, could have decided that the year 2050 was the earliest "practicable" date for states to implement whatever regulations he decided to issue.,
To ensure a significant delay, McCain included language that made the earliest possible effective date for those regulations eight years after enactment of the bill. Under the terms of the bill, if it were signed into law in December 2004, the Secretary would have had to issue regulations by December 2005 and states could not be subject to these regulations until December 2007.
In addition, licenses issued up to that date under the old regulations to illegal aliens (and any terrorists and violent felons among them) would remain valid until the expiration date of the license. That meant that any illegal aliens (and terrorists etc.) who got their licenses in December 2007 would still have in their possession "valid IDs" issued by state government until December 2012.
Unless of course the Secretary had decided that it wasn't "practicable" to deny Muslim terrorists licenses for another few decades.
Betraying America's security to this extent was not sufficient for McCain. He also included language that actually denied the Secretary of Homeland Security any power to establish regulations that would stop states from issuing licenses to terrorists: "[The Secretary] may not directly or indirectly infringe on a State's power to set eligibility criteria for obtaining a driver's license or identification card from that State".
And, just in case the point didn't get across in that paragraph, McCain repeated it in the next section, to make dead certain that states could go on forever issuing licenses to illegal aliens (and therefore the unknown terrorists among them): "[The Secretary] ((C) may not require a State to comply with any such regulation that conflicts with or otherwise interferes with the full enforcement of such eligibility criteria by the State."
The effect of McCain's "9/11 Commission Report Implementation Act of 2004" was to embed for the first time in U.S. law the principle that states are entitled to grant drivers' licenses and other valid identity documents to illegal aliens (and terrorists etc.)
Prior to this time federal law did not address the issue. So it was a matter of debate whether states could legally issue licenses and other ID to illegal aliens (and terrorists etc.)
Thus, when members of 9/11 Families for a Secure America and other opponents of issuing licenses to illegals (and terrorists etc.) lobbied state legislatures to end the practice, we argued that it undermined enforcement of federal immigration law. In response the ACLU, Catholic Church and the rest of the illegal alien/terrorist lobby claimed that because federal law was silent on the matter states were free to give ID to illegals (and terrorists etc.) if they wished.
McCain's so-called "9/11 Commission bill" would have settled the matter. . . in favor of allowing states to issue licenses to illegals (and terrorists etc.).
On the floor of the Senate. McCain misled America about the intent of his bill, saying:
"This amendment addresses the terrorist travel and screening sections of the 9/11 Commission report. Contained in this amendment are the recommendations found on pages 383-390 of the 9/11 Commission report."
"Much remains to be done to target terrorist travel, combine our multiple screening systems and ensure that identification documents used to enter this country or to be used as feeder documents are trustworthy."
"Better technology and training to detect terrorist travel documents are the most important immediate steps to reduce America's vulnerability to clandestine entry. . . "
"By restricting terrorist access to travel documents, we increase the difficulty to travel into the United States. Our legislation aims to address this pressing issue…"
"Lastly, this amendment would implement 9/11 Commission's recommendation that the Federal Government set standards for the issuance of birth certificates, driver's licenses, and other sources of identification. "
"Our amendment would require birth certificates and driver's licenses to meet new minimum Federal standards in order to be accepted by a Federal agency for any official purpose. Minimum standards would be established for proof and verification of identity by the applicant, and to make the documents themselves more resistant to counterfeiting and tampering. The amendment also would require minimum standards for the processing of applications to address a widely recognized and growing problem of fraud within the offices that issue licenses and birth certificates, including the Arizona Department of Transportation's Motor Vehicle Division."[Senate Debate on the National Intelligence Reform Act (09/30/04)]
McCain lied in his remarks on the floor. He evidenced his understanding of the importance of denying travel documents to terrorists. He claimed that his legislation will implement the 9/11 Commission's recommendations on licenses and that his bill established "minimum standards". But by allowing issuance to illegal aliens—people whose true identities are unknown—he was rendering meaningless the entire legislation, and making a mockery of the Commission's recommendations.
McCain intended to fool Americans into thinking that they would be protected by his bill, when in fact he was guaranteeing access for illegals (and therefore terrorists etc.) to the very documents that made possible the 9/11 attacks.
S 2774 was passed, over the objections of nearly all House Republicans and signed into law by Pres. Bush on December 17, 2004. However, in 2005, House Republicans, led by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner managed to pass the REAL ID Act (over the strong opposition of Sen. McCain) as part of an emergency appropriation for US troops fighting in Iraq. Thus was America saved from Sen. McCain's duplicity.
Truly, American voters face a Hobson's choice in voting for president in 2008. The Democratic candidate, B. Hussein Obama, product of and puppet for crooks, lifelong buddy of Communist bombers and racists. The Republican candidate a guy who pretends to be guardian of national security while selling it out for treasonous political gain.
The political system has failed us.
Peter Gadiel (email him) is president of 9/11 Families for a Secure America. His son, 9/11 World Trade Center victim James Gadiel (North Tower, 103rd floor), was 23 at the time of his murder.
