WASHINGTON — David Frum rightly skewered Republicans for saying the Obama administration isn’t doing enough to stop the flow of illegal immigrants, drugs and guns into the country while proposing a $600 million haircut for Customs and Border Control in the 2012 budget.
But you have to wonder whether today’s A.P. exclusive touting CBP for helping stop “more than 350 people suspected of ties to al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups from boarding U.S.-bound commercial flights since the end of 2009” is an agency scare story to head off the budget cuts.
“The tighter security rules — imposed after the attempted bombing of an airliner on Christmas 2009 — reveal a security threat that persisted for more than seven years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,” the A.P. reported.
No doubt CBP, and other U.S. intelligence agencies have snared a number of suspected terrorists trying to get into this country: al-Qaeda and like-minded operatives wouldn’t be doing their job if they weren’t trying to get in, while our guys wouldn’t be doing theirs if they didn’t catch them.
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