The nation's border czar yesterday said it is "not realistic" to think that law-enforcement authorities can arrest or deport the millions of illegal aliens now in the United States and does not think the American public has the "will ... to uproot" those aliens.

Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson also said taxpayers "might be afraid" to learn how much it would take in manpower and resources to control the nation's borders and described as "probably accurate" a statement that no law-enforcement officials are looking for the vast majority of the 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens thought to be in the country.

[...]

Mr. Hutchinson, who said he did not know how many illegal aliens entered the country annually, said the goal of his department is to gain operational control of the border, which includes monitoring the ports of entry and the land areas between and responding in an effective manner.

"It doesn't mean we build an Israel-type of fence. I don't think we're going to do that. I don't think you want to have a strategy of a Border Patrol agent every 50 yards," he said. "There's a lot of compassion out there. You don't send out a paddy wagon to round them up."

Most Americans adamantly oppose increasing the amount of legal immigration to the United States and legalizing those immigrants here illegally. On no other foreign-policy issue do average Americans disagree more with government and business leaders and other "elites" than on immigration.

[...]

Mr. Hutchinson said President Bush's proposal for a temporary guest-worker program, outlined in January, was an attempt by the administration to address immigration enforcement and to "bring 8 million aliens out of the shadow and give them legal status."

The Bush plan, which has not been offered as legislation, would allow illegal aliens in the country to remain if they have jobs and apply as guest workers. The aliens could stay for an undetermined number of renewable three-year periods, after which they could seek permanent legal status.

The proposal has been met with criticism from law-enforcement authorities and has been challenged by both Republicans and Democrats. Some have called the plan an amnesty program that invites aliens in this country illegally to gain perpetual legal status. Others said it was unpractical and could become a scheme to identify illegal aliens and deport them.

Last month, Mr. Hutchinson outlined a number of incentives to encourage aliens to support the plan, including provisions freeing them from arrest and deportation, giving them access to tax-deferred savings accounts and Social Security credits and allowing them unrestricted travel to and from their home countries.

There are, of course, thousands of cameras watching -- it seems -- everywhere. The city's plan is to route the live images provided by those cameras on the public way into a unified network piped into the 911 Center.

"That includes every city department. That includes the Chicago public schools, the CTA, city colleges. That includes the park district, any other sister agencies that have cameras out there," said Mayor Daley.

There are well over 2,000 cameras that the city and its sister agencies -- like the school system -- monitor everyday. The city is adding another 250 cameras to potential high risk areas, most of them downtown.

For instance, if there is a crime on a CTA platform-- most of which are or will be equipped with surveillance cameras, a call to 911 will activate a video link-up.

"When the system determines there's a camera in the vicinity of the 911 call, it will automatically beam back an image to the call-taker of the origin of where it occurred," said Ron Huberman, Emergency Mgt. and Com. Dir.

The 911 dispatcher will have -- in many cases -- the ability to remotely control cameras at the scene of a crime miles away. The system is also equipped with software that can alert the 911 Center to changes in traffic flow, or the presence of people where they're not supposed to be.

"If this is a water filtration plant or a field in O'Hare where no one should be walking, it will issue an alert that someone is walking," said Huberman.

All those images will be monitored in a room that is under construction as the 911 Operations Center. In 18-months it will look more like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise with a wall of 200 constantly changing images. How the software is tweaked will determine which pictures pop up, which the city says will greatly enhance emergency response.

CBS NEWS executives have launched an internal investigation into whether its premiere news program 60 MINUTES aired fabricated documents relating to Bush's National Guard service, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

"The reputation and integrity of the entire news division is at stake, if we are in error, it will be corrected," a top CBS source explained late Thursday.

The source, who asked not to be named, described CBSNEWS anchor and 60 MINUTES correspondent Dan Rather as being privately "shell-shocked" by the increasingly likelihood that the documents in question were fraudulent.

Officially, the Secret Service does not concern itself with unarmed, peaceful demonstrators who pose no danger to the commander in chief. But that policy was inoperative here Thursday when seven AIDS activists who heckled President Bush during a campaign appearance were shoved and pulled from the room -- some by their hair, one by her bra straps -- and then arrested for disorderly conduct and detained for an hour.

After Bush campaign bouncers handled the evictions, Secret Service agents, accompanied by Bush's personal aide, supervised the arrests and detention of the activists and blocked the news media from access to the hecklers.

The Bush campaign has made unprecedented efforts to control access to its events. Sometimes, people are required to sign oaths of support before attending events with Bush or Vice President Cheney. At times, buses of demonstrators are diverted by police to idle in parking lots while supporters are waved in. And the Secret Service has played an unusual role; one agent cooperated with a plan by the Bush campaign last month to prevent former senator Max Cleland (Ga.), a Kerry ally, from handing a letter to the agent outside Bush's Texas ranch.

[...]

One uniformed Secret Service agent complained to a colleague that "the press is having a field day" with the disruption -- and the agents quickly clamped down. Journalists were told that if they sought to approach the demonstrators, they would not be allowed to return to the event site -- even though their colleagues were free to come and go. An agent, who did not give his name, told one journalist who was blocked from returning to the speech that this was punishment for approaching the demonstrators and that there was a "different set of rules" for reporters who did not seek out the activists.

9-11 Commission Report Implementation Act of 2004

a bipartisan group of Senators Tuesday introduced legislation to implement recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission in July. The 280-page omnibus legislation covers subjects ranging from intelligence reform, border and transportation security, information sharing and outreach to the Muslim world.

Also attending the announcement to show their support for the legislation were 9-11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton.

Senators introducing the legislation include Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., and Governmental Affairs Committee Ranking Member Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.? co-authors of the legislation introduced in December 2001 that created the 9-11 Commission ? Senator Arlen Specter, R-Pa., a senior member of the Judiciary and Appropriations Committees and former Chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence; and Senator Evan Bayh, D-Ind., a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Armed Services Committee.

Representatives Chris Shays, R-Conn., and Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, who will be introducing companion legislation in the House of Representatives, attended as well. And Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Senators Hilary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., signed on as original co-sponsors.
[...]
Among other things, the bill would:

? Create a strong National Intelligence Director with real budget authority and a National Counterterrorism Center to pull together intelligence activities;
? Establish a far-reaching information sharing network to promote sharing of intelligence and homeland security information throughout government, including with state and local agencies;
? Develop an integrated screening system using a network of screening points at U.S. borders, in the transportation system and other critical infrastructure that need to be protected against terrorist attack.
? Increase aid to Afghanistan, renewed support for Pakistan

official 9-11 Commission Bill Six Page Summary

Integrated Screening System: Requires the Department of Homeland Security to develop and implement an integrated screening system, encompassing a network of screening points that includes the nation's border security system, transportation system, and critical infrastructure. The Secretary may promulgate standards for screening procedures to implement the system to the extent that the Secretary has existing authority to do so, and requires the Secretary to notify Congress if additional authority is needed to implement the plan.

Biometric Entry and Exit Data System: Requires DHS to develop a plan to accelerate the implementation of an automated biometric entry and exit data system required by existing authorities (named US-Visit by the current Administration) and to implement a single, consolidated program designed to expedite the travel of previously screened and known travelers across the borders of the United States.

Travel Documents: Generally requires biometric passports, or other identification deemed to be equally secure, for all travel into the United States. Identification Standards: Requires DHS to establish minimum standards for birth certificates, drivers= licenses, and personal identification cards; documents not conforming to those standards could not be accepted by federal agencies for official purposes. Requires the Commissioner of Social Security to take actions to enhance the
security of social security cards. The provisions are designed to decrease fraud associated with such documents so that terrorists are unable to hide their identity in order to avoid detection and are hindered in obtaining identification that can facilitate activities in the United States.

Days before the third anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center, federal agencies have yet to make a coordinated and comprehensive effort to study the health effects of the debris that filled the air in the weeks after the attack, according to a draft copy of a government study to be presented to Congress today. The study also shows that there is still no federal treatment program for those suffering from related problems.

As a result, the ability to ever fully answer even the most basic questions about the health impact of that day on the public may have been seriously compromised.

While there has been a growing consensus since the attack that thousands of people may have grown ill because of the toxic mix of dust, debris, smoke and chemicals that were released when the towers collapsed, there is still no definitive answer to what exactly was in the dust or to how many people suffered because of their exposure.

Moreover, there is no system in place that adequately tracks people's health with physical examinations, provides treatment and can make authoritative determinations about the impact.

According to a continuing study by the Government Accountability Office, the various monitoring programs set up to address health concerns related to the trade center disaster "vary in their methods for identifying those who may require treatment," and "none of those programs are funded to provide treatment."

A copy of the study was provided to The New York Times by a government official who believes that the federal government has not done enough.

The issue of the air quality in and around the area of the World Trade Center has been the subject of intense debate since the first days after the attack, when the Environmental Protection Agency declared that it was safe.

Did the World Trade Center towers undergo a deliberate power-down on the weekend prior to the 9-11 terrorist attacks? According to Scott Forbes, a senior database administrator for Fiduciary Trust, Inc., a high-net investment bank which was later acquired by Franklin Templeton, this is precisely what took place.

The U.S. government secretly detained Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law for four months in 1995, after the INS announced he had already been deported to Jordan, according to documents obtained by INTELWIRE using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Speaking in Iowa yesterday, Vice President Cheney took fear mongering to a new level when he indicated that the United States risked suffering another terrorist attack if voters make "the wrong choice" in November. "It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on November 2nd, we make the right choice," Cheney said, "because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again. We'll be hit in a way that will be devastating." In January, 2002, President Bush assured Americans he had "no ambition whatsoever to use [national security] as a political issue."

Washington politicians are once again seriously considering imposing a national identification card - and it may well become law before the end of the 108th Congress. The much-hailed 9/11 Commission report released in July recommends a federal identification card and, worse, a "larger network of screening points" inside the United States. Does this mean we are to have "screening points" inside our country where American citizens will be required to "show their papers" to government officials? It certainly sounds that way!

As I have written recently, the 9/11 Commission is nothing more than ex-government officials and lobbyists advising current government officials that we need more government for America to be safe. Yet it was that same government that failed so miserably on September 11, 2001.

Congress has embraced the 9/11 Commission report uncritically since its release in July. Now Congress is rushing to write each 9/11 Commission recommendation into law before the November election. In the same way Congress rushed to pass the PATRIOT Act after the September 11 attacks to be seen "doing something," it looks like Congress is about to make the same mistake again of rushing to pass liberty-destroying legislation without stopping to consider the consequences. Because it is so controversial, we may see legislation mandating a national identification card with biometric identifiers hidden in bills implementing 9/11 Commission recommendations. We have seen this technique used in the past on controversial measures.
[...]

- Not a single Chechen has been found among the dead gunmen who took children hostage in Beslan last week, Sergei Ivanov, Russia's defence minister, told the Guardian yesterday. "About half of the 32 terrorists have been identified and we have not yet discovered anyone from Chechnya," he said.

"The people who sent the terrorists to commit that utterly heinous crime harbored a hope to set on our peoples to fight with one another and unleash a bloody feud in Northern Caucasus...

...They still believe that Russia poses a threat to them as a nuclear power. That is why this threat must be eliminated, and terrorism is just another instrument in implementing their designs."

- Influential persons around Vladimir Putin believe that the attack in Bieslan could be the on the hands of the Americans. Putin treats as one of working versions -an analyst close to the Kremlin has said.

The CIA's Counterterrorist Center has spent more than $15 million in the past three years funding studies, reports and conferences produced by former Democratic administration officials and other critics of the Bush administration.

The latest effort was a $300,000 grant by the CIA to the Atlantic Council for a study co-authored by Richard A. Clarke, the former counterterrorism official who wrote a best seller accusing the Bush administration of failing in the war on terrorism...

"The products of the [center] have a consistent theme: They criticize the Bush administration and provide ammunition for the Kerry campaign," said one U.S. official who has read the resulting reports and studies.

This official said the academic outreach is the Counterterrorist Center's way of "buying off" criticism of the CIA and the intelligence community by providing hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts and conferences.
[...]
CIA's funding of counterterrorism studies and conferences through the center, known as the CTC, raises questions about whether the agency is violating its charter by getting involved in activities that influence U.S. policy.

The funding also raised questions among administration and congressional officials involved in intelligence activities about whether the CIA selectively funds counterterrorism studies and conferences at liberal or Democratic-oriented research organizations.
[...]
Other recent funding activities by the CTC program... include:

A grant of $250,000 to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, known as CSIS, headed by former Clinton administration Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre...

$200,000 for a conference paper produced by Steven Simon, a former Clinton administration National Security Council staff member, now with the RAND Corp. Mr. Simon's paper was about how to restructure the U.S. government for the war on terrorism and was to be included as a chapter of a book. Mr. Simon was a deputy to Mr. Clarke.

A grant of $100,000 for Bruce Hoffman, vice president for external affairs and public spokesman for RAND and a frequent columnist and guest on National Public Radio commenting on terrorism issues. Mr. Hoffman was granted high-level security clearances at the CIA as part of his consultancy...

Funding for conferences on the failure of U.S. public diplomacy at the Brookings Institution and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
[...]
The CTC academic outreach program until recently was headed by CIA analyst Bonnie Mitchell, who had access to a budget estimated by U.S. officials at about $5 million per year in the past three years.

A CIA spokesman said Miss Mitchell was unavailable for comment.

The spokesman initially suggested that Miss Mitchell was an undercover agent, but changed that characterization when told that Miss Mitchell identified herself publicly.
[...]
The CIA funding skirts rules that prohibit the agency from engaging in domestic-intelligence activities.

One intelligence official said the agency also could be subtly influencing policy by allowing favored research organizations to provide input to intelligence analysts.

A late-night tip led U.S. Border Patrol agents to five rooms at the Matador Motor Inn, where human smugglers had abandoned 22 men from China.

Although the Chinese nationals were economic migrants, their discovery Aug. 16 in downtown McAllen left many with an uneasy feeling. If a large group of men seeking work could be moved across the Rio Grande undetected, why not a squad of terrorists?

[...]

T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents 6,500 agents, said the government needs to bring additional personnel, equipment and training on line to secure the vast border region. The union official claimed no agents have been hired since March, and next year's budget cuts $19 million from the agency and moves $75 million from operations to technology.

''It's only a matter of time before we are attacked again because, incredibly, nothing has changed. We are doing business on the border as usual," said Bonner, a Border Patrol agent who is stationed near San Diego, Calif.

Agency officials denied the budget was reduced, and said 50 agents are in training at the agency's academy.

[...]

Last week, Democratic U.S. Reps. Solomon Ortiz of Corpus Christi and Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston toured the 838-bed immigration detention camp near Port Isabel.

Because of a lack of space in that and other detention centers, immigration officials have released thousands of non-Mexican migrants ? 23,222 of the 57,633 detained this year ? on their own recognizance after obtaining a promise to appear before an immigration judge.

More than 70 percent fail to show up for their court dates, agency officials have confirmed.

Ortiz, who fears terrorists can mingle with economic migrants, has demanded the government halt these releases but he acknowledged it will add ''billions " to the detention budget. He said the camp contained undocumented migrants from Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, India, Panama and Sri Lanka.