Fighting for real homeland security: families of World Trade Center terror victims are working to end a major threat to U.S. security--the open borders crisis that allowed the 9-11 terrorists into America.

   All of the 9-11 murderers had visas issued
   to them by officials of the State
   Department. Most, if not all, of those
   visas were granted in clear violation
   of ... regulations and federal law.
   --Peter Gadiel

Peter Gadiel describes himself as a lifelong Republican, but he is doing battle with the GOP's top standard-bearers. He believes that President George W. Bush and many of the Republican leaders in Congress have sold out the American people on one of the most important issues of our day: protecting our borders against penetration by terrorists.

"It is incredible that after the tragic deaths of nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001, the politicians are still refusing to enforce our immigration laws," he told THE NEW AMERICAN. "There is no excuse for this. The hijackers who killed my son and all the other victims on September 11 were able to carry out that terrible crime because our elected and appointed officials have refused to protect the American people by refusing to enforce our immigration laws. At least 15 of the 19 hijackers should never have been issued visas to the U.S. and wouldn't have been given visas if U.S. consular officials had followed the law. And the terrorist hijackers would not have been able to remain here in violation of their visas, plotting and moving about freely and unmonitored, except that our political leaders had fostered such permissive policies and attitudes toward enforcement of our laws."

The Bush administration's push to legalize millions of illegal aliens and to increase the number of work visas and immigration quotas is mind-boggling, says Mr. Gadiel. "Our INS and Border Patrol have been overwhelmed for years, and now they want to drop this on them? It is ludicrous even to talk about homeland security and at the same time propose legalizing millions of people who haven't even been identified yet. As a Republican, I expected liberal Democrats like Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Al Gore to promote the radical, open borders agenda, but it's Republicans now --President Bush, Senators Richard Lugar, Orrin Hatch and Sam Brownback, and Representative Chris Cannon--who are doing the most damage and pushing the most outrageous proposals."

Man With a Mission

Peter Gadiel's 23-year-old son James died in the World Trade Center, where he worked as an assistant trader at Cantor Fitzgerald. "Jamie was a terrific human being," says his father. "He was a gentleman and a gentle man."

His son's murder galvanized Peter, who is a board member and spokesman for 9-11 Families for a Secure America. He has spoken out in the press, lobbied in Washington, D.C., and traveled throughout the country urging people to organize in their congressional districts to put pressure on their U.S. senators and representatives to enact responsible immigration legislation.

Television and radio ads featuring Peter Gadiel have been broadcast in a number of states to alert the public to the terrible danger posed by our continuing immigration crisis. In the ads, Peter reminds his fellow citizens of an alarming truth about the September 11 attacks: "Our immigration system couldn't tell a terrorist from a tourist, and it still cannot."

Most Americans probably believe that since Congress and President Bush have created the Department of Homeland Security and poured tens of billions of dollars into the war on terrorism, the gaping holes that allowed the September 11 terrorists into the U.S. have been plugged. Mr. Gadiel told THE NEW AMERICAN that that is wishful thinking. Our tourist and student visa programs, he says, are still in shambles. He points out that there is no serious commitment to screen applicants, and no serious follow-up to ensure that visa holders are doing what they are supposed to be doing, including exiting the country by the appointed time. "For years, many aliens have obtained student visas with no intention of attending school," Gadiel notes. "Once they obtained entry to the U.S., they just disappeared into our population. Rarely were they checked on or pursued. That is still largely the case. The current student tracking system is dangerously flawed."

Gadiel cites a recent study by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) that examined the immigration histories of 48 terrorists involved in seven conspiracies by Islamic extremists to murder Americans. The CIS included in its study only those who had committed crimes inside the U.S., beginning with the January 25, 1993 murder of two CIA employees outside Langley headquarters, followed by the first World Trade Center attack, the plots on New York City landmarks and on the NYC subway system, the embassy bombings, the millennium plot on LAX, and, lastly, the September 11, 2001 attacks.

"The CIS study showed that 36 of the 48 terrorists entered the U.S. on visas issued by the State Department, and of these several entered the U.S. multiple times," Gadiel says. Knowing this, the State Department had more than enough basis to recognize the weaknesses in its visa-granting procedures. However, instead of tightening procedures, says Gadiel, the State Department made its Visa Express program even more lenient, reducing the percentage of applicants who were actually interviewed before receiving a visa.

Gadiel points out that on June 10, 2002 --nine months after the 9-11 attacks--the Bush administration's Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage wrote that a belief that "an applicant may pose a threat to national security is insufficient [grounds] for a consular officer to deny a visa."

Gadiel and other members of the 9-11 Families for a Secure America see the permissive attitude expressed by Armitage as pervasive within the Bush-Powell State Department. In his prepared testimony for the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission) in January, Mr. Gadiel pointed to the cases of Mary Ryan, Diane Andruch and Maura Harty as prime examples of the Bush administration's outrageous policies.

As the State Department's chief of consular affairs from 1993 to 2002, Mary Ryan accelerated the Visa Express program that enabled the 9-11 terrorists to obtain their visas. "After 9-11," testified Gadiel, "Diane Andruch (Ryan's deputy) reported that the program had been discontinued, but investigation proved the expedited processing still continued. And, incomprehensibly, despite public anger over her activities, the State Department awarded Mary Ryan a $15,000 bonus for her 'outstanding performance' for the period April 16, 2001 to April 15, 2002."

Mr. Gadiel further noted in his testimony: One of the most damning examples of failure within the government can be attributed to Maura Harty. It was to her that the 9-11 terrorists' visa applications came for review ....

[N]early all the terrorists' visa applications were obviously defective on their face. For example, that of Abdulaziz Alomari (one of the hijackers of the plane which hit my son's building) did not fill in the space requiring him to name the school he was claiming to attend; he did not fill in fields requiring him to name his sex of his nationality. Many of the hijackers did not provide the U.S. address where they would be living. As is required. One listed his destination city as "no." One claimed his occupation was "teater."

Evidently, no one in the Bush administration considered Ms. Harty's failures to be serious. When Mary Ryan left her position, Sec. Powell and President Bush promoted Ms. Harty to fill that vacancy. The Senate docilely confirmed her in lame duck session.

Americans Waking Up

Peter Gadiel emphasizes that, as important as it is to correct the State Department's laxity on issuing visas, it is still just one part of a much larger problem. Even without visas, terrorists can easily slip through our porous borders. "Massive illegal immigration directly contributed to the 9-11 terrorists' ability to carry out their conspiracy," says Gadiel. The terrorists relied on the massive population of illegals as an "ocean in which to hide in plain sight." The sheer size of the illegal population meant that the hijackers, after entering the U.S., were able to reside here and plan their attacks without significant risk of detection. "When there are ten million illegal aliens, when there are whole communities of illegals in residence and in motion, twenty more are not noticeable--until they murder 3,000 people," he commented.

If there were not so many millions of illegal immigrants, the resources of the INS would not have been spread so thinly prior to 9-11. This provided concealment, anonymity and widespread tolerance for lawbreaking. The millions of illegals who arrived before the terrorists had created the pathways and methods the terrorists used to function freely in American society. Illegal aliens and their advocates have succeeded in making many of the benefits and rights of citizens and legal residents available to illegals.

Since the 9-11 tragedy that claimed his son, Peter Gadiel has traveled to many states to combat the efforts by the open borders lobby to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens. He reminds his audiences that, "15 of the 19 hijackers had a combined total of 63 separate driver's licenses, issued by Virginia, Florida and New Jersey. Obtaining them was among the first things the terrorists did on arrival in the U.S. With those licenses they could then open bank accounts, transfer funds, obtain credit cards, rent apartments, rent cars and hotel rooms. Finally, these U.S.-issued driver's licenses were the 'valid ID' that the terrorists used to board the planes they used to attack us."

In his testimony to the 9-11 Commission, Mr. Gadiel stated:

   It is unconscionable that after 9-11,
   any state would even consider issuing
   "valid" ID to illegal aliens whose true
   identity has never been verified by
   competent authority, and thus any one
   of whom can be a terrorist or criminal.
   Several states still engage in this
   practice. And in 2003 New Mexico
   and Maryland actually passed laws
   enabling illegals to obtain licenses. At
   this moment, the Kansas legislature is
   considering a bill that would grant
   driver's licenses to people who are, as
   the bill states, "unlawfully" in the
   country.

Mr. Gadiel is gratified by the positive reaction he has received, and he is encouraged by the high-voltage shock and outrage expressed by a large segment of the American public to President Bush's proposals for amnesty and increased immigration. "Poll after poll have been showing consistently that the American people overwhelmingly oppose--by 70 percent or more--these efforts to further erode our border security and expand our immigration," he told THE NEW AMERICAN. "It's the politicians--Democrat and Republican --who are beholden to other special interests, who are pushing this. The militant groups pushing for completely open borders receive enormous funding from major corporations and big foundations."

In his testimony to the 9-11 Commission, Gadiel specifically named two of the main culprits that have funded much of this radical agenda:

   Ideologically inspired foundations
   such as the Ford and Rockefeller
   Foundations, among others, provided
   the seed money for the creation of La
   Raza and other groups, whose sole
   function is to open America's borders
   to unlimited immigration. Given this,
   should the tax-exempt status of these
   foundations continue?

Gadiel is undaunted by the odds. "Their side has the money, the media and well-oiled organizations," he told THE NEW AMERICAN. "But we have the grass roots, the American public on our side--if we can awaken them to the urgency of the situation and activate them in time."

One of the many people whom Peter has awakened and activated is Bruce De Cell, a retired NYPD officer. Mr. De Cell's 28-year-old son-in-law, Mark Petrocelli, was killed in the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center. "Mark worked at the Commodities Exchange, and he was excited that morning because he was being promoted to broker," Mr. De Cell told THE NEW AMERICAN. "That's why he was there at the World Trade Center when the planes hit, instead of at the Commodities Exchange."

Like most Americans, Bruce De Cell knew we had an immigration problem but didn't have a clue as to how deadly serious it was, and is. "I was a police officer, okay, so I had seen our problems with illegal aliens going back many years, to the 1970s and '80s," he says. He recounted that on more than a few occasions he had come across alien-smuggling operations in New York City and reported them to the INS. Often, he found, the federal authorities were disinterested and did not respond to his tips. "I was disappointed; I knew they were overwhelmed, but this was completely irresponsible. So, I was generally aware of the growing problem, but then Peter [Gadiel] started showing me the true size of the picture and how completely outrageous the stripping away of our security has been. I was dumbfounded. I couldn't believe that I had been so asleep to this whole destructive process for so many years and that the illegal alien lobby has become so entrenched and powerful."

"What I have found so incredible and disgusting," says Mr. De Cell, "is the pandering of politicians to these people who have broken and are breaking our laws, especially in light of the supposed concern for homeland security. New Jersey Governor McGreevey, for instance, has been very active in supporting the militant illegal aliens; in fact, he hosted a big celebration for their so-called Freedom Ride and is promising them all kinds of benefits. The last time I was in Washington, D.C., I asked a senator: 'How can Gov. McGreevey --or any elected official who's taken an oath to uphold our laws and the Constitution--do that? Shouldn't he be arrested for violating the law and encouraging others to violate the law?' The senator got uncomfortable and moved away without answering my question. But we're going to continue to confront these politicians with these questions, and we're going to make them even more uncomfortable."

Mr. De Cell continued: "We're going to remind them that the blood of the victims of 9-11 is already on their hands, if they did nothing to address our immigration crisis before the 2001 attacks. And we're going to say over and over that the blood of any future terrorist victims is on their hands, if they refuse to fix what is obviously broken. We are not anti-immigration or anti-immigrant, we are simply saying that America must do what every country does, and that means having controlled, sensible immigration and putting in place the mechanisms and resolve necessary to filter out the bad guys. And we intend to hold the politicians accountable for that."

Peter Gadiel Speaks Out

The following is excerpted from Peter Gadiel's January 2004 testimony to the seventh public hearing of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States:

Massive failures within our government contributed to the tragic deaths of nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001. Much of this is attributable to non-enforcement of immigration law.

Failure to enforce immigration law aided the terrorists first, by a permissive policy of admission for Saudi citizens and secondly, by allowing those who entered the United States, legally or illegally, to remain here unmonitored and unchallenged. All were free to function with little fear of interference from immigration agents or law enforcement officers.

Failure to enforce immigration law was not a matter of simple negligence, and not a matter of accident. These policies of non-enforcement were instituted by elected and appointed officials in federal, state and local government for political gain at the behest of private interests motivated by ideology, or by desire for political power of financial profit....

If other U.S. officials had not encouraged the illegal immigration of over 10 million aliens to the U.S. and permitted these illegal aliens to reside here, there would not have been a massive population living outside the law which gave the terrorists the ability to hide in plain sight while they planned, rehearsed, financed and carried out their mass murder. This nationwide acceptance of massive lawlessness permitted the terrorists to freely function in society.

Illegal entry to the U.S. was, and still is, an easy enterprise. All of the 9-11 murderers had visas issued to them by officials of the State Department. Most, if not all, of those visas were granted in clear violation of the letter and spirit of the Department's own regulations and federal law. However, the State Department has provided visas to terrorists for many years prior to 9-11 and thus had fair warning that its procedures were deficient....

Even without visas, the terrorists could easily have entered the United States through the Mexican border or through the Canadian border and our seaports. The federal government's utter failure to control illegal immigration is widely known. Why is it that our government has permitted these conditions to arise and to continue? The United States government has, in essence, been withdrawing protection from its borders since the 1970s....

Amnesties, favored or granted by Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and both Presidents Bush, as well as many in Congress, increase illegal immigration by sending the clear message to would-be illegals around the world that if they manage to sneak into the U.S., they can lay low and eventually there will be another amnesty. Among those granted amnesty in 1986 was Ramzi Yousef, the chief conspirator in the 1993 truck bomb attack on the World Trade Center. Despite this, President Bush and congressional members of both parties are pressing for yet another amnesty. Despite promises that this time those applying for amnesty will be carefully screened to weed out terrorists, who realistically can have faith in such a promise?