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ANTI-TERROR TO-DO LIST
By MICHELLE MALKIN
August 4, 2004
THE new terror alerts in New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., are jolt ing reminders that while Congress is on summer vacation, the Islamofascists don't do recess. While the Bush administration has done much to prevent another attack on the homeland, there is still plenty more to do.
Tracking trucks and tankers: Remember the 44-foot gasoline tanker that disappeared from a south Jersey parking lot this spring? It's still missing. We have no centralized database to monitor incidents of stolen rigs. And, despite ample past experience with terror by truck, there is still no federal tracking system for large trucks carrying hazardous material cargos. Each day, more than 2,000 shipments of hazardous materials enter and leave New York City.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has called repeatedly for increased truck and tanker security over the past three years, including mandated tracking technology such as GPS locators. For large trucks hauling explosive or hazardous cargos, he has proposed requiring drivers to file of advance plans laying out their intended route.
Despite my disagreements with Schumer on just about everything else, he has been ahead of the pack on this neglected aspect of transportation security. He deserves legislative support from Republicans.
Profiling hazmat drivers: It's not just the vehicles that need more scrutiny. It's the drivers, too. A few weeks after the 9/11 attacks, authorities broke up a vast fraud ring of Middle Easterners who illegally obtained trucking licenses allowing them to transport hazardous materials. In May, the NYPD received warning that terrorists were acquiring commercial driver's licenses in order to use tanker trucks in bomb attacks. The Department of Homeland Security now reports that 29 individuals with possible ties to al Qaeda have been caught with hazmat licenses in their possession.
Monitoring ammonium nitrate sales: Homeland Security officials told us this weekend that the newly discovered plans by al Qaeda to use car or truck bombs are "chilling" and "alarming." But these murderous designs are not new.
Border security now: Officials deny a connection between the new terror alerts and the recent arrest of illegal-alien border-crosser Farima Goolam Mohamed Ahmed, a possible al Qaeda terror suspect who had entered Texas through the Rio Grande river and was headed to New York by plane when Border Patrol officers arrested her.
Whatever the case, the nexus between immigration and national security couldn't be clearer. There is now a bipartisan clamor in Texas over untold numbers of illegal aliens including other suspected terrorists from the Middle East who have crossed the Mexican border unmolested. According to Texas Rep. Solomon Ortiz, thousands have been apprehended and released because of lack of detention space.
Nevertheless, John Kerry was as quiet as a drowned hamster on the issue during last week's convention. And GOP strategists, chasing Hispanic votes, have ignored grass-roots activists calling for stricter immigration enforcement and border controls. The continued silence of the elites is deadly.
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