The recent arrest of David Headley for his involvement in the Mumbai Massacre and 5 American college students in Pakistan for hoping to initiate terrorist activity represent a clear and present danger even in America. Specifically, while these individuals had overseas targets, clearly a new group of terrorists can focus their activities in the United States. The World Trade Center destruction amply supports my concerns.
Unfortunately, identifying individuals capable of massive killings in advance of their actions is extremely difficult. The Virginia Tech mass killings of innocent college students by a deranged fellow student who happens to originate from South Korea reflects the clear and present danger to our citizens given the widespread possession of arms.
Another danger is the increasingly violent conflict between drug gangs in Mexico and the police. Moreover, the Mexican government claims that some 90% of the arms of the drug gangs are purchased from American sources. Certainly, given the porous nature of our border with Mexico, the possibility of increasing violence is probable. Already, there are concerns about kidnappings in America by Mexican gangs.
Lastly, the existence of some 22 million illegal aliens should raise serious concerns. I have never been satisfied as to how so many people could have resided in this country before we began publicizing their numbers. Moreover, we do not know how they got access to the United States or their demographics.
In essence, the potential for massive killings at many soft targets within our country should raise major responses. Specifically, what types of additional security should we introduce? Needless to say, we must expect considerable alterations our heretofore freedoms if we are going to mitigate the problems. We should contemplate a dramatic increase in using whatever technology is available for surveillance including national identity cards. To what extent we can allow verbal instigations either through the internet or at mosques remains a major question mark. The point is that we now have clear evidence that a potential fifth column composed of one deranged individual or a group can strike at any moment at any place whether it is in Oklahoma City, New York City or West Virginia. If we just wait until another attack, it will take years to get our technology in place to deter further terrorism. Therefore, we need to take immediate steps.
