May 25, 2007
Hewitt Dices up Chertoff
Partial transcript of their recent interview. "HH" is Hugh Hewitt. "MC" is Homeland Security Head Michael Chertoff:
HH: ...[Y]ou mentioned the background scrub [for the Z visa]. Who’s going to do that, the millions of background checks and the millions of interviews?Fingerprints plus a name search. That's it. In other words, the people applying for the Z visa (i.e., permanent amnesty) will be given roughly the same scrutiny as a vacationer gets when he comes into the U.S. for a week. They will be processed through a system akin to the system that already ushered the 19 hijackers into this country and who knows how many other sleepers we don't know about yet. Beautiful. [MORE BELOW]MC: ...[W]e’ll be able to run fingerprints for anybody who applies for a visa against latent fingerprints that we pick up in battlefields and safe houses all around the world. So that’s going to give us, and that’s just the fingerprint check. That’s an automated process. ...What we’re going to be doing is running fingerprints and names against various databases, which is a process we currently use, for example, in screening people who get visas to come into the country for all kinds of purposes...
HH: Now the law does not make a distinction, does it, Mr. Secretary, between Mexican and Central American immigrants on the one hand, and immigrants of interest from countries with jihadist networks, does it?Translation : "Yes, those terrorists are probably going to be legitimated under this process."MC: That’s correct. I mean, the law will apply to people who are here in the country, whatever their ethnic background or origin.
HH: And so, if there are, I’m going back to my original set of questions, if there are good cover jihadis, terrorists, sympathizers in the country illegally that you don’t pick up through your watch lists or your fingerprints, because they’re good, they’re going to be legitimized under this process, correct?
MC: Well, I think, Hugh, I guess I have to come back to this point. If there’s somebody who’s got a good enough cover to beat the system with respect to Z visas, they’re also going to have had a good enough cover to come in through our visa waiver program with Western Europe, or to beat the visa system with respect to Asia. I mean, in some ways what you’re asking me is, is there a foolproof method to keep a terrorist out? And the answer to that is quite obviously no.
Chertoff's argument is complete and utter bullshit. If you didn't see through Chertoff's doublespeak, his argument boils down to this:
There are already other known weaknesses and vulnerabilities in our customs system. Could adding one more vulnerability really do that much harm?Yes, it could.
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