U.S. must hold back the terrorism tide

By JAMES P. PINKERTON
SPECIAL TO NEWSDAY
So three of the men arrested for allegedly plotting to massacre American soldiers in New Jersey were here illegally. Here's a dumb question: Why are there any people here in this country illegally?
It's possible to argue back and forth about the economic and social impact of illegal immigration into the United States. But surely there can be no argument about the undesirability of terrorism.
And, since we have just been reminded yet again that illegal aliens can be terrorists, we should ask a further question: Do we really have to wait for an A-bomb to go off in a U.S. city before we get curious as to who is in our midst?
Now, of course, some might say we should target only certain groups, such as Arabs and Muslims -- the Fort Dix Six are all Muslim -- for special surveillance. But that would be profiling, and we can't have that!
We just don't know
Moreover, as CBS News reported Tuesday, four of the six accused terrorists are from the former Yugoslavia, a European country. So here's a better idea: Let's simply recognize that the most dangerous elements in our society, by definition, are those who are illegal and unknown. Those unknown illegal immigrants might be honest and hard-working busboys. But they also could be mass murderers: The point is we don't know.
Coincidentally, on Tuesday night's broadcast, CBS went from news about catching terrorists before they strike to news about tracking floods before they rise. According to correspondent Nancy Cordes, the National Weather Service, reacting to the big floods of 1993 that killed dozens, has established a high-tech early-warning system.
And it seems to be working: Federal meteorologist Dennis Feltgen displayed computer projections, illustrated by color-coded maps, identifying floods along the banks of the Missouri River.
In other words, Uncle Sam seems to be doing pretty well at monitoring water levels -- better than he is at monitoring possible terrorist cells.
Tough on homeland security
Note to presidential candidates in both parties: There are votes, lots of them, to be gained by the candidate who presents himself or herself as being tough on homeland security. From securing our borders to ascertaining the legal status of everyone who abides within our borders, the American voters will reward the White House hopeful who offers them what they want: safety. (And if the next president were actually to deliver on that promise, that would be a great argument for re-election.) But, in the meantime, we might pause to consider further the ethno-religious origins of these six accused terrorists. As noted, four of them are Albanian Muslims from the former Yugoslavia. That country has now been broken into seven countries, plus the semi-country of Kosovo. Americans will remember Kosovo as the place we tried to help; back in 1999, President Clinton used military force to stop the Serbs from slaughtering and oppressing the locals, who mostly were Albanian Muslims.
Americans were told, at the time, that our actions were earning us gratitude from Muslims around the world. Well, maybe yes, maybe no. But we sure don't seem to have earned much gratitude from the Albanians and Muslims who allegedly plotted to kill Americans at Fort Dix.
Now the question of still more Muslims coming to America from radicalizing war zones is coming up again as Iraq continues to boil. The United States has officially admitted 68 Iraqis for resettlement in the last seven months, but thousands more are in the legal pipeline. And what about the illegal pipeline?
Tragically, millions of Iraqis have been displaced from their homeland. Where do many of them wish to end up -- legally or illegally? Will some come here, wanting to carry on jihad of some kind? Might some be agents of, say, Iran?
The point is, if we don't know who's here -- and what ideas and equipment they might have brought with them -- we can't begin to defend ourselves.
Pinkerton is a columnist for Newsday. Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service.