A Clear And Present Danger

The Washington Times reports that a top al Qaeda lieutenant has met with leaders of a Salvadoran criminal gang with roots in Mexico and the United States in an effort by the terrorist network to seek help infiltrating the U.S.-Mexico border:

Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a key al Qaeda cell leader for whom the U.S. government has offered a $5 million reward, was spotted in July in Honduras meeting with leaders of El Salvador's notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang, which immigration officials said has smuggled hundreds of Central and South Americans -- mostly gang members -- into the United States.

[. . .]

El Shukrijumah, born in Saudi Arabia but thought to be a Yemen national, was spotted in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in July, having crossed the border illegally from Nicaragua after a stay in Panama. U.S. authorities said al Qaeda operatives have been in Tegucigalpa planning attacks against British, Spanish and U.S. embassies.

El Shukrijumah sounds like a first rate evil doer. According to the Washington Times, authorities said El Shukrijumah was in Canada last year looking for nuclear material for a so-called "dirty bomb."
He is also a former southern Florida resident and pilot thought to have helped plan the September 11 attacks.

Tell me again why we can't control the nation's borders. The alternative is not acceptable. We must control who and what crosses the border.

Comments

[John S Bolton]

Openness to terrorism, even on the scale of knocking down one 100-storey building after another, is not a virtue. It is not a sign of good practice of any kind. A few truck bombs could swing the election, if it was widely known to be the result of cutting slack for the Mexican. Mexico squirms in powerlessness; its corruption defeats its every attempt at image upgrading. Indulgence from our side only exacerbates their addictions, and leaves the government set up for disaster.