AMNESTY FOR ALL

By Michelle Malkin

I don't know how many times I've pointed out that amnesty for illegal aliens = amnesty for their employers. The Washington Times spells it out today in "Senate bill protects employers of illegal aliens from penalties"--and the Orwellian open-borders double-speakers huff and buff and try to bluff:

Among those who will be cleared of past crimes under the Senate's proposed immigration-reform bill would be the businesses that have employed the estimated 10 million illegal aliens eligible for citizenship and that provided the very "magnet" that drew them here in the first place.

Buried in the more than 600 pages of legislation is a section titled "Employer Protections," which states: "Employers of aliens applying for adjustment of status under this section shall not be subject to civil and criminal tax liability relating directly to the employment of such alien."

Supporters of the legislation insist that such provisions do not amount to "amnesty."

"The legislation we are considering today is not amnesty," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said last week. "That is a pejorative term, really a smear term used to denigrate the efforts at comprehensive immigration reform. This is not amnesty because amnesty means a pardon of those who have broken the law."

Mr. Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, and others argue that the bill is not amnesty for illegal aliens because they will have to pay $2,000 in fines before they gain citizenship.

The law does not, however, provide for such fines against employers who have broken the law by hiring the illegals.

It is left to Sen. Robert Byrd--yes, Bobby Byrd--to talk straight:

Sen. Robert C. Byrd, West Virginia Democrat, vehemently opposes "this effort to waive the rules for lawbreakers and to legalize the unlawful actions of undocumented workers and the businesses that illegally employ them."

Amnesties, he said, "are the dark underbelly of our immigration process."

How stupid of the Republican elite to put themselves on the opposite side and give the likes of Byrd such an opening. Message to Arlen Specter: What part of amnesty don't you understand?

One GOP Senator with his head screwed on straight is Jeff Sessions. Can we have 100 of him, please?

***

Related:

David Orland observes: Amnesty, alas, is the least of it.

Allah tracks Vicente Fox's U.S. victory tour.

LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS

That’s the title of Salena Zito’s latest column. Consider it must reading. Here’s some of Salena’s best zingers:

When is it OK to sacrifice national security for personal gain or political one-upmanship? For the common-sense-challenged, the answer is: “Never.” In the years since Sept. 11, an odd assembly of Capitol Hill-types, their staffers and disgruntled federal employees from myriad intelligence agencies have played the “gotcha game” with the White House’s methods of protecting the citizenry.

The types of things that reporters are getting away with, at least thus far, wouldn’t have been tolerated during WWII. Giving the enemy information that will hurt our national security is unconscienable, of course. The Agenda Media, which has generally hated President Bush from Day One, appears to think there’s two exceptions to that rule: (a) if it’s something that’ll get them an award or (b) if it’ll hurt the Bush Administration. Of course, the likelihood of (a) happening is greatly enhanced if it involves (b).

Enabled by the media (which, by the way, have Ph.D.s in “gotcha”), they have become desensitized to the reasons some things must remain secret. They’re making secret-revealing an extreme sport.

Awhile back, a CNN reporter said that they considered themselves a reporter first and American second. It’s obvious that this contributes to this gotcha game. The bad part is that this ‘gotcha game’ puts American lives at risk.

Let’s not put all of this on the reporters’ shoulders, either. Blame must also be affixed to the editors and publishers, too, for letting this information find its way to print. While it’s true that alot of things that are classified that don’t need to be, it’s obvious that the NSA’s Terrorist Surveillance Program that the NY Times ‘broke’ and the CIA’s black sites story that the Washington Post’s Dana Priest won a Pulitzer for aren’t in the category of needlessly classified.

The CIA story, in particular, put our allies at risk of terrorist attacks. Didn’t Ms. Priest think that that should be the most important consideration? Doesn’t she care that these countries likely won’t help us again?

Have we as a nation forgotten the basics of the art of war? Are we so misguided as to believe that the ACLU will protect us better than the NSA in this era of terrorism? Intel techniques, which never should be made available for public consumption, provide an essential means for preventing new attacks on Americans’ lives. That’s “prevent attacks on Americans’ lives,” not “intrude on Americans’ lives.”

Ms. Zito, like alot of Americans, takes this type of mindset personally. And why shouldn’t she? This type of journalism is putting real people at risk. That fact seems lost on the Eric Lichtblaus, James Risens and Dana Priests of the world. They don’t care because their concern is about the story and the awards. Add in Risen’s book deal and it’s predictable what he’s most likely to care about. Don’t think it coincidence that the NSA story broke a week before Risen’s book was released. Let’s hope that Risen and his reporting compatriots noticed that the book isn’t selling very well.

Some people, in their lust to be dethroners of all things Bush, seem to forget why intel leaks from any government entity hold the potential for harm. Our enemies do learn things from leaks. Thanks to that little thing called the Internet, stories about the NSA can be read in some cave in Afghanistan.

These reporters don’t care if the things they report hurt national security, especially if they think the leaks will hurt President Bush. Let’s hope that the Justice Department cracks down on the reporters that put our nation at risk. If they get court-approved wiretaps to catch the villains, all the better. The irony would be delicious.

The fact is that the Bush Administration’s ratings would probably rise if they took down the reporters that put American lives at risk.

SOMETHING DOESN'T SEEM RIGHT

By Michelle Malkin

...with the story of the two lying Saudi men who boarded a school bus in Florida. And it is not racist to say so.

Just joy riders?

From Tampa Bay 10:

Two men from Saudi Arabia were arrested today after they boarded a public school bus taking students to Wharton High School, the sheriff's office reported.

Mana Saleh Almanajam, 23, and Shaker Mohsen Alsidran, 20, both of Tampa, were charged with trespassing on school grounds as unlawful riders on a school bus.

Deputies say the two boarded the bus at a regular bus stop at Fletcher Avenue and 42nd street. Deputies said the bus driver and the students saw them and became concerned by their presence. The driver notified her supervisors who, in turn, called authorities.

A sheriff's deputy met then at Wharton High school and charged with them with trespassing.

The two men "initially told deputies they were from Morocco, but later admitted to being from Saudi Arabia," the sheriff's office said. "They told authorities they are enrolled at the English Language Institute at the University of South Florida. The defendants gave several versions of the reason they took a school bus to a high school, among those being they wanted to enroll in easier English language classes."

Investigators say the two arrived in the United States about six months ago and are required to be enrolled at the English Language Institute.

A sheriff's spokesman say they are registered students at the university.

Local, state and federal agents searched the residences of the two men and found nothing of concern.

Both men were taken to the Orient Road Jail.

We have plenty of reason to be concerned about young Saudi men on student visas purportedly studying English.

We have plenty of reason to be concerned about possible terrorism operatives in south Florida.

And we have plenty of reason to be concerned about terror attacks on schoolchildren and buses.

Almanajam and Alsidran lied to Florida sheriff's officials. What else have they lied about? The State Department, JTTF, and DHS better be taking a close look at their student visa applications.

More details:

"Both defendants gave several versions of the reason they took a school bus to a high school," said Hillsborough County sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway.

"They said they wanted to go to Wharton to look around, and then they said they wanted to go there to have some fun, and then they said they wanted to enroll in the English classes there," Callaway said.

"We're not sure if this was a situation of them just being new to this country, or if they were confused or what it was," Callaway said. "We were unsure as to exactly what the final reason was, but it did cause great concern for the students on the bus and for us. One of the guys was wearing shorts with a black trench coat."

While on the bus, the men laughed and spoke in Arabic, Callaway said.

Ahmed Bedier, Tampa director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the men likely meant no harm and that because "they were from Saudi Arabia, that escalated the situation."

He blamed the incident on cultural differences.

"They didn't differentiate between a school bus and public transportation," he said.

Hmm.

Asking questions: Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch, American Future, more at Memeorandum.

***

I would ask why our Saudi student admittance policies seem to be as lax as ever, but I already know the answer.

"The Saudis are our friends."

Over in Arizona, another known hotspot for al Qaeda trainees, the doors are being thrown open to Saudi students at President Bush's behest:

The UA will enroll about 100 new Saudi Arabian students this summer, which could signal the reverse of a post-Sept. 11 trend of having fewer international students in the United States, especially those from the Middle East. The students are part of a new large-scale scholarship program by the Saudi government, which will send about 6,000 students to American universities this year after just 1,442 Saudi students had visas to study in the United States in 2004.

About 80 of the students are already at the UA, enrolled in English-immersion classes before they start their academic programs in the fall. More are expected by the start of next semester as they secure visas...

...The program grew out of an agreement in April by President Bush and then-Crown Prince Abdullah, with the more open policy part of larger efforts at improving relations between the two nations.

From the 9/11 report:

By the summer of 2000, three of the four Hamburg cell members had arrived on the East Coast of the United States and had begun pilot training. In early 2001, a fourth future hijacker pilot, Hani Hanjour, journeyed to Arizona with another operative, Nawaf al Hazmi, and conducted his refresher pilot training there. A number of al Qaeda operatives had spent time in Arizona during the 1980s and early 1990s.

More:

There are 59 references to Arizona in the 9/11 Commission Report. But it tells only a fragment of the story when it comes to terrorists in the Grand Canyon State. A joint FBI-CIA analysis titled Arizona: Long Range Nexus for Islamic Extremists remains classified. Its existence was revealed for the first time when the 9/11 Commission released its final report this summer. But the long-standing link between Islamic terrorists and the Arizona desert has been in the public record for years–and it’s centered dead on Tucson, and in particular, the Islamic Center of Tucson (ICT).

What are we doing?

***

In case you missed it, go read Nina Shea's piece in the WaPo on Saudi hate textbooks in the kingdom's public schools.

Cori Dauber weighs in.

FRENCH PARLIAMENT MAKES US SENATE LOOK WEAK ON IMMIGRATION REFORM

This just might be a first: the French are cracking down on unbridled immigration while the American government is showing weakness in dealing with an out-of-control illegal immigration problem.

The French parliament is backing an immigration bill that is designed to make it more difficult for unskilled workers to settle in France, especially illegal aliens. The French bill offers residence documents to highly qualified immigrants from outside the European Union, while reducing the number of the uneducated and unskilled allowed to settle in France.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who drafted the bill, told the BBC that the new law will bring France into line with other countries, but as with the left in the US, critics say the French bill is racist.

Sarkozy, who is himself the son of a Hungarian immigrant, has since praised the contribution of skilled migrants to France but insists those who entered illegally must be sent back to their own countries.

During a visit to West Africa, Minister Sarkozy faced intense protests and rallies by those who oppose the immigration law. Ahead of his arrival in Mani — the homeland of many immigrants living in France — hundreds staged a march against the legislation in the capital, Bamako, according to the French press.

The proposed law will also require immigrants from outside the European Union to sign a binding agreement to learn French and to respect the principles of the French Republic. In addition the law makes it more difficult for immigrant workers to bring their families over to join them and will not recognize “anchor” babies as is done in the US.

Some of the provisions of the French immigration bill are:

* Only the qualified get “skills and talents” residency permits

* Foreigners only allowed in to work, not live off benefits such as welfare

* Foreign spouses to wait longer for residence cards

* Migrants must agree to learn French

* Migrants must sign ‘contract’ respecting the French way of life

* Scraps the current law on workers getting citizenship after 10 years

Failure to comply with these provisions will be grounds for deportation, according to the bill.

Deputies in the French National Assembly approved the bill by 367 votes to 164 on Wednesday. It must also be passed by the Senate, which will start debating it in June, but it’s believed there will be little trouble getting the bill passed.

Minister Sarkozy has argued that riots by youths in immigrant suburbs across France last November showed the system of immigration and integration was failing. He says France, like a number of other Western countries, must choose the immigrants it needs.

“It’s selective immigration,” he said.

During the debate the interior minister has faced sharp criticism from the opposition from some centrists and most leftists. But Nicolas Sarkozy said France needed immigrants who will bring new skills

Socialist MP Serge Blisko said the bill amounted to “the organized pillaging of brains,” according to the Associated Press.

The controversial vote came while Sarkozy traveled to West Africa for a two-day trip in order to discuss immigration issues. Most immigrants living in France come from its former African colonies. The French were sharply rebuked by several nations in the region, including President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal.

The council of Christian Churches wrote to the government expressing its concern as did several left-wing organizations.

Marielou Jampolski, of the French antiracism organization SOS Racisme, said her group was completely opposed to the bill. “We think that it tries to kill every liberty and every right of the French immigrants, and I think it’s very dangerous for the country,” she told the BBC.

“Fortunately for the French people, who overwhelmingly support the new immigration legislation, their leaders are remaining tough on the issue, unlike their American counterparts who fold like cheap cameras,” says political analyst Mike Baker.

Baker also questioned why the US news media are not covering the French immigration story since the US is dealing with the same problem — immigration.

“I suspect the American press wants us to believe we’re alone in our attempts to get tough on illegal immigration,” he said.

Read more by this author on our site here. (Scroll down)

Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he’s a staff writer for the New Media Alliance. He’s former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed “Crack City” by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations. He’s also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He’s a news writer for TheConservativeVoice.Com. He’s also a columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he’s syndicated by AXcessNews.Com. He’s appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc.

Be sure to check out our extensive immigration coverage.

AN INCIDENT AT GITMO

BREAKING: An Incident At Gitmo (Video)

By Greg Tinti on May 19, 2006 at 11:46 AM

Click to Download (.wmv)

Here's a clip of FOX News' Bret Baier explaining what went down. It was first reported as an uprising, but, as it turns out, it was more of skirmish. Breitbart/AP coverage:

Prisoners wielding improvised weapons clashed with guards trying to stop a detainee from committing suicide at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the military said Friday.

The fight occurred Thursday in a medium-security section of the camp as guards were responding to the fourth attempted suicide that day at the detention center on the U.S. Navy base, said Cmdr. Robert Durand.

Detainees used fans, light fixtures and other improvised weapons to attack the guards as they entered a communal living area to stop a prisoner who was trying to hang himself, Durand said.

Earlier in the day, three detainees in another part of the prison attempted suicide by swallowing prescription medicine they had been hoarding.

The detainees who took part in the clash with guards were moved to higher-security sections.

Those who attempted suicide received medical treatment, the military said. Their names were not released.

Michelle Malkin has more here.

UPDATE: FOX News is reporting that the prisoner who was trying to hang himself was not trying to commit suicide and instead was trying to trick the guards into entering the cell. As soon as the guards entered, they were attacked by the other detainees with their improvised weapons. The outcome: 6 detainees injured. 0 guards injured. Detainees still detainees.

BUSH AT THE BORDER

Bush At The Border (Video)

By Greg Tinti on May 18, 2006 at 06:25 PM

Click to Download (.wmv)

Here's a short clip of President Bush at the border with FOX News' Carl Cameron. Nothing new besides the President noting that Mexican government has "a duty to enforce [it's] side of the border." As Jerry Seinfeld would say, "Good luck with all that."

Meanwhile, Allah has an update at Hot Air on what's going on the immigration front in the Senate today.

UPDATE: Allah provides this photo...

...which sadly reminds me of this photo: