Daily Grind

I can’t blame the New York Times for reporting on Judicial Watch’s FOIA request about how much help the FBI gave Saudi royals in the US to escape after September 11. The implication is always that perhaps these people ought to have been interviewed and detained to see if they played any role in the terrorist attack. Truth is, if they knew something, the US was already aware at that point. And that’s why this conjures up one’s imagination.

It begins to smell like the FBI and other agencies suspected a terrorist attack was coming, but felt it was more important to show no outward signs so that they could catch the potential plotters in the act.

Notice this isn’t really that sexy. Not as sexy as George Bush senior sharing his security briefings with the Saudi royals. However, if the US really did know that Al Qaeda was eagerly planning an attack the better question is how did they find out? Given the innumerable sources of intelligence, I hope Judicial Watch (or Chuck Schumer) barks up that tree too.


Back in 2003 I pointed out that the Minuteman Project of Chris Simcox was little more than a matter of demographics. In other words, nearly every county along the US-Mexico border is mostly Latino. The two exceptions are San Diego County in California and Cochise County in Arizona. Now guess of those two where Chris Simcox lives. It’s true that increased border patrols around San Diego have pushed the flow of migrants more towards Phoenix. The Minutemen are not imaging things when they see more and more smugglers, bandits, and regular-old border jumpers headed north seemingly unabated. But now…apparently…Bush has decided to beef up patrols in Arizona too. After all, it not only pleases the Sensenbrenner Faction but Mexico’s President Vicente Fox. And that’s leading some conservatives, I am sure, to convince themselves this will mollify divisions not increase them.

Don’t be so sure.

These sort of patrols won’t nearly be as effective as promised. And the frustration surrounding that is going to ratchet up (again) animosities.