Quick quiz, Americans. How many 9-11 terrorists entered North America through Canada?
If you said zero then you know more than your Homeland Security Secretary did earlier this week.
On Monday, in an interview with a Canadian television journalist, Janet Napolitano elaborated on her recent claim that the Canadian and Mexican borders should be treated equally. Though she admitted that Canada doesn't export anything like the same level of drugs, or illegal immigrants, "to the extent that terrorists have come into our country or suspected or known terrorists have entered our country across a border, it's been across the Canadian border."
When asked if she was talking about 9-11 terrorists she replied "not just those but others as well."
This resulted in something of a diplomatic squabble since it is well known, in Canada at least, that every single terrorist involved in 9-11 entered North America through the U.S.
Facts are facts, and later that day Napolitano's people issued a statement claiming that she had misunderstood the question and was really talking about the one and only convicted terrorist to have ever entered the U.S. through Canada, Ahmed Ressam, a.k.a the would-be "millennium bomber."
And true enough, Ressam entered the U.S. in 1999 with a forged French passport. At which point he was immediately apprehened. The Mounties, who had been following his activities for two years, discovered suspicious materials in his Vancouver hotel room, and quickly tipped off U.S. authorities.
What about all the "others", the justification for millions of dollars to be spent on increased security, and who are more of a priority than easy traffic with America's largest trading partner?
According to Napolitano these are "suspected extremists" who are known to the U.S. government, but not to the public. (Though at least four of these "suspected extremists" are known to the Canadian public as innocent Canadian citizens who were deported by the U.S. to middle eastern countries to be tortured by proxy.)
Lacking any actual terrorists she could name, save one, Napolitano fell back on the second favorite U.S Homeland Security myth: tougher borders are needed because, "the fact of the matter is that Canada allows people into its country that we do not allow into ours."
Canada's immigration minister, Jason Kinney immediately challenged that as "absolutely wrong. Ever since 9-11, and before 9-11, Canada has co-operated with the United States on issues of continental security, including as it relates to immigration."
And try telling Canadian immigrants that it's easier to get into Canada than the U.S.
Says one Toronto Member of Parliament: "I have a heavily immigrant riding, and I do visas all day every day, and one of the most difficult things I have to explain to my constituents is why is it that the United States granted a multiple-entry visa to the relatives but Canada won't."
One last quiz. Since becoming Secretary of Homeland Security three months ago, how many times has Napolitano been to Canada's dangerous, porous border?
If you guessed zero, you're right again!
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Comments
I think the bloom was off the rose for me when Tom Ridge went on TV and told us to cover our windows with plastic and duct tape. Oye.
But I seriously didn't know that about the 9/11 terrorists. Yeah, I'm one who thought they all came in through Canada or something. God, I hate being so misinformed like that! Thanks for this post.
WOOF
What is this woman doing holding this position without understanding the facts most basic to her being able to do her job correctly? My God. The ignorance is stunning. It is one thing to lie and continually deceive the American voters, but it is quite another when the gal at the top doesn't know squat. Did no one brief her when she took this job?
Won't they ever put someone into these positions who takes the time to learn the FACTS?
And that jacket just has to go...along with her.
They need to take the Mouth with them.
Excellent post! Yes, I tend to be more frightened by what happens south of said border.
I just wish your dollar would tank so it would allow for cheap skiing in Quebec next year. I miss going to Mt. Ste. Anne.
Very good post.
(Unhappily, she's not alone. Hillary Clinton once famously said the same thing, if I remember correctly, as junior senator from New York and immediately blamed Ontario Hydro for causing the massive 2003 blackout).
GWool, our dollar tanked in September. We're back to being "Mexicans in sweaters" again.
CCC, I nothing about the Larry the Loon. Nothing I tell you. Nothing. No please don't extradite me to Hollywood and put me in a room with Kiefer Sutherland! No I won't go. I have rights!!!!!
Tom, Jlee. Ha! Nice try.
Brian B. I don't know what her strategy is right now, beyond trying to look really, really hard ass in what appears to be a mix of pink and orange.
JK Brady. Agreed. God forbid your job might entail saying something diplomatic and actually reassuring to Americans like we're working really hard with Canada making sure that our intelligence and immigration policies are alligned. Instead of now that I've been on the job 90 days I can tell you Canada is letting scary people into our country all the time that you don't know about.
About jacket. Maybe we should cut her some slack. It's hard to mix bulletproof with fashion.
Steve, I am so happy you've returned safely. I've spent a lot of time at the Osler, and it's crawling with terrorists who haven't figured out that the Cuban embassy across the street was sold and made into condos a few years ago.
Gwool. I wish our dollar would tank too. I used to love getting an extra thirty percent on my freelance cheques from the states. Now it's just like working for any other struggling domestic media empire. Ah well those were the days.
B1. Great minds think alike. Yeah I was all set to go to bed last night and then I saw this on the news. And they say never go to bed angry. And I figured that I would only feel better by hearing from a lot of smart Americans who know better. And I do.
Shae, Stellaa. I know, I know. I just hate it when women politicians especially do this "I have to be as hard ass as any ignorant republican HSS." And truth is, if she did the right thing, she probably would be accused of being soft on terrorists. It's a double bind, in houndstooth clothing.
But you, Juliet, are smart (especially for a northern neighbor) to hedge your bets with some real dineros. That Josh Reddick's start has been something, eh?
WOOF
But I'm just an evil Canadian. According to Janet, I probably hid terrorists in my basement, right alongside my cases of Molson Canadian and the freezer full of back bacon.
(And I won't hold back about that jacket. My parents had a couch in that same pattern. Back in 1970. Cat, your comment was hilarious!)
Rated, eh.
I feel for you, Canada, as a psychic cousin of yours. I'm sorry your proud nation and its' people are subjected to the stupidity of my people.
Nice post. Please don't judge us by our politicians, who in the past several years, have worked hard to corner the market on stupidity.
First Gretzky, now this tightening up the border plan. Give it up, Janet. Hockey is not going to happen in Phoenix. Just send Gretzky back, and we'll let the whole incident pass.
Yes. The handful of Soviet Canuckistanis here on OS are very fortunate to have encountered the kind of informed and intelligent people that inhabit the place. I've not encountered it anywhere else on the 'Net.
Rated!
It seems to me that there is a fear of being labelled racist if they talk about beefing up the Mexican border if they don't also take identical steps at the Canadian border. That's just my theory - does this seem accurate to Americans?
As Rex Murphy said, this is the policy where "if a lightbulb goes out in the kitchen, replace the one in the garage too."
And donOntario, I missed seeing the Rex Murphy commentary on this (he always looks like a crazed madman to me), but he had an excellent point re: the real concern should be her appalling ignorance of the greatest domestic security event in modern history. Excellent point.
As to my American friends here, if you truly cared about your northern neighbours, you would not dare suggest exporting your domestic terrorists such as cheney, rumsfeld, rove, and coulter. In fact, I don't think we should even give them visas!
So here are my theories. I hate to say this, but this is a typical case of a woman in a powerful position giving in to the pressure to act and sound even tougher than her male counterpart. She thinks that she can act tough on Canadians without any consequences because, believe me, if she's this ignorant about our immigration policies, then she's at least this ignorant about our economic importance to the U.S. She was given this job because as governor of Arizona, she was probably more conversant that most about problems with the most difficult border. She's barely even thought about Canada until now. Her underlings have given her all kinds of trumped up "watch lists" that have, sadly, been compiled with the help of the RCMP. And she's read them with no skepticism. Remember, Maher Arar (one of the four Canadians who the U.S. deported to Syria) is STILL on an American terrorist watch list. So I can imagine what those watch lists are like.
Great post, Juliet.
Canada has now officially rolled its eyes in disbelief.
Could you please help me?
First, some premises (please tell me where I falter): Canada has its own strong incentives to screen those entering its territory. The Air India downing for one thing left a bitter taste, and that was many years ago. And then there's Canada's acceptance of what, 3-4 times as many immigrants per capita as the U.S. accepts?
Other premises: Canada's incentives to screen out undesirables seem to be holding the RCMP's and the SQ's attention quite well. As in the U.S., some plots have been stopped mid-course. The RCMP/SQ/CSIS are doing their jobs, and readily cooperating with the U.S., as they've done since Sept 11 (if still a little trigger-happy with the tasers ... ahem).
More premises: The only land border Canada has is with the U.S., unless you count St. Pierre and Miquelon, which, as Americans know, are teeming with French collaborators ready to surrender to anyone who asks them to.
But they're just tiny islands. They could be Shock-&-Awed some morning before the croissants are even out of the ovens.
Canada has nothing like the cross-border chaos the U.S. has to deal with. The U.S. has a very porous southern border and huge impoverished populations below it all the way to Tierra del Fuego. Millions and millions of flaming Che-style knockoff radicals, all of whom want to head north to get their manos on iPods and Hummers and insipid cable TV fare.
Moreover, the standards of living in Canada and the U.S. are virtually the same. In fact, Canada's life expectancy is longer than the American, mainly because Canadian border patrols have let in almost no poisonous snakes.
Some argue that Canada, which has yet to have a bank bailout, is more financially solid. Economists, who are always wrong, insist that Canada has the strongest banking system of the G7. It had no sub-prime mortgage crisis, they say. Job prospects aren't good in either country, but Canada's are somewhat better.
So sane Canadians would rather be in Canada. Except maybe in February, when they can go to Cuba for a song and never have to eat even once in an Olive Garden.
In other words, the U.S. has no osmotic immigration pressure from the north as it has in the south. Right?
Another premise: I recall seeing somewhere that Canada took something like 9,800 Mexican immigrants last year, and they were almost all legal. That's because — I'm guessing here — it's tougher for Mexicans to get to and into Canada. They find the walk to Canada more tedious than just wading across the Rio Grande. Canada is nippier, too, and some Mexicans don't have jackets.
Compare that influx to the case of the U.S., which is receiving something like (if memory serves) 120,000 legal and illegal Mexicans per MONTH.
OK, enough groundwork. HERE'S THE PART I DON'T UNDERSTAND:
Why does Homeland Security maintain that border crossings into the U.S. are CANADA's problem?
Canada doesn't stop people when they're leaving Canada in order to interrogate them to determine their fitness to cross into the U.S. (The U.S. doesn't do that in the opposite direction either.)
So why is the issue even raised? If it's not the responsibility of the U.S. to control entry into the U.S., whose would it be?
Why don't Canadians just say No?
Second, shouldn't Canada be raising hell with the U.S. about their lax control of Mexican immigration, which eventually will put pressure on Canada's border? Shouldn't Canada be threatening to build a wall and do cavity searches on all Americans?
Or is the actual approach to the issue in the U.S. a little less ... deliberate? We know that each time there's a new U.S. Administration, all the people jockeying for jobs in the cabinet play a game akin to musical chairs. The Secretary of State gets to sit down first, then the Secretary of War ("Defense," you say? puhleeeze...) ... and so on.
Am I off base to conclude that the person left standing is, by default, the least suitable for a cabinet post, perhaps because of chronic personality disorders or paranoid psychoses or early toilet-training trauma?
And that that's the person who gets to head up Homeland Security?
Please help me out here, Juliet. I MUST be overlooking something. I fear my reasoning errs, yet it feels so seamlessly logical, and U.S. behavior seems so ... un-Christian....
It's a good sign that amnesty has been ruled out in your country for illegals, but having such an ongoing backlog gives me pause. (Can't help obsessing about BOTH borders now, Juliet.)
http://www.immigration.ca/news-jan07-push.asp
http://www.thestar.com/article/114069