Steve Bates, the Yellow Doggerel Democrat, is spittin’ mad at Homeland Security’s new U.S. Visitor and Immigration Status Indication Technology (aka US VISIT). (God, I love these acronyms. I feel like we’re living in a Nick Fury comic book.)
I was struck by this claim, from the AP report:
Hutchinson said such a system could have caught hijackers Mohammed Atta, who had overstayed his visa on a previous occasion, and Hani Hanjour, when he failed to show up at school as required by his student visa.
The assumption seems to be that terrorists are static; they create plans in isolation from anti-terrorist measures and carry them out. In contrast, I imagine real terrorist tactics are responsive to security measures – especially well-known, public security measures like this one.
Had US VISIT been in place in 2001, it probably would have stopped Mohammed Atta and Hani Hanjour – but only in the limited sense that whoever coordinated the operation would have known to send two different suicidal assholes instead, instead of sending those particular two assholes. I just don’t see that as a great accomplishment, somehow..
Also, what about the other 17? Two is better than none, but it seems like the remaining 17 could have done almost as much damage.