Napolitano riles Canada, overlooks Arizona ties to hijackers

A Border Patrol agent stationed near Sweet Grass Montana conducts a search of an abandoned house just over the US/Canadian border. [photo by Gerald L. Nino, US CBP]Department of Homeland Defense secretary Janet Napolitano has done it again, but this time instead of angering “rightwing extremists,” she’s angered an entire country. Canadians posted angry messages at newspaper and blog forums responding to articles like ‘The border for dummies’ in the National Post. A reader named Chris in Tally asked, “Does anyone else find it weird that we slap our allies and embrace our enemies?? “

North-of-the-border angst was fueled by statements Napolitano made during a March 25th speech at the Brookings Institution, a left-leaning think tank. Napolitano tried to clarify her statements during a media interview on Monday with Neil Macdonald on 'The National,' aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Centre. It all went downhill from there.

In her Brookings speech, the DHS chief described the casual state at the Canadian border: “[T]he relationship between the United States and Canada has been so close for so long that in many parts of that border it’s as if there weren’t a border at all.” She said that after she talked about problems on the Mexican-US border.

Then she threw in some politics, alluding to the “very real feeling among the southern border states and on Mexico, that if things are being done on the Mexican border, they should also be done on the Canadian border. That they shouldn’t, in other words, we shouldn’t go light on one and heavy on the other.”

So with Canadians already miffed about increasing security at a border with issues that pale in comparison to Mexico, and with Canadian industries upset about possible trade implications, Napolitano waded deeper into muck. Here’s one exchange with Macdonald reported by The National Post:

JN: Secondly, yes, Canada is not Mexico, it doesn't have a drug war going on, it didn't have 6,000 homicides that were drug-related last year. Nonetheless, to the extent that terrorists have come into our country or suspected or known terrorists have entered our country across a border, it's been across the Canadian border. There are real issues there.

NM: Are you talking about the 9/11 perpetrators?

JN: Not just those but others as well.

Here’s the double irony. While Napolitano was serving as a US attorney for the state of Arizona, a 9/11 hijacker was right under her nose and so were members of al Qaeda. Pomp media completely overlooked this—no surprise there since most pomp media have forgotten September 11, 2001.

The 9/11 Commission Report (2004) said, “The fact that Hani Hanjour spent so much time in Arizona may be significant. A number of important al Qaeda figures attended the University of Arizona in Tucson, or lived in Tucson in the 1980s and early 1990s.” [pg. 226] Hanjour did flight training at Arizona Aviation.

Statists always give the idea southern border issues are related to poor, migrant workers. But the fact is the southern border is a conduit for anyone wanting to slip into the US. That ‘anyone’ can be a terrorist or just a plain exploiter who knows the US will provide medical care, federal assistance and income tax refunds even if you’re not an American citizen because apparently social security numbers are easy to come by.

The blog Seeing Red AZ said, “Napolitano, a consistent open border advocate when it comes to the one Arizona shares with Mexico, is clearly out of her league in providing Homeland Security in these perilous times.”

A National Post reader named NeoConVet summed up the Canada disaster: “Well we have been successful in insulting our Canadian friends and making nice to our enemies such as bowing to an Arab King, hugging and high-fiving a S.American thug and a Central American Leftist. “

So add Canada to the disgruntled list, along with “rightwing extremists” who focus on issues like undocumented foreigners and a bloated federal government. Some of the administration’s press peeps should tell Napolitano when a Homeland Security chief speaks, the world is listening and they might not like what you’re saying. Especially if what you’re saying makes no sense.

Napolitano riles Canada, overlooks Arizona ties to hijackers by Kay B. Day