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Canada Asks: How Did United States Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano Get Her Job?
Secretary Janet Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security
Well, Napolitano is a former Democrat Governor of Arizona and a Democrat Party political hack. But, Canadians have a point in asking the question.In an interview broadcast Monday on the CBC, Ms. Napolitano attempted to justify her call for stricter border security on the premise that “suspected or known terrorists” have entered the U. S. across the Canadian border, including the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack.
All the 9/11 terrorists, of course, entered the United States directly from overseas. The notion that some arrived via Canada is a myth that briefly popped up in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and was then quickly debunked.
Informed of her error, Ms. Napolitano blustered: “I can’t talk to that. I can talk about the future. And here’s the future. The future is we have borders.”
Just what does that mean, exactly?
Just a few weeks ago, Ms. Napolitano equated Canada’s border to Mexico’s, suggesting they deserved the same treatment. Mexico is engulfed in a drug war that left more than 5,000 dead last year, and which is spawning a spillover kidnapping epidemic in Arizona. So many Mexicans enter the United States illegally that a multi-billion-dollar barrier has been built from Texas to California to keep them out.
In Canada, on the other hand, the main problem is congestion resulting from cross-border trade. Not quite the same thing, is it?
What an embarassment.
President Barack Obama should ask for Napolitano’s resignation.
Technorati Tags: Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security, Canada
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Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano Blames Canada for 9/11 Hijackers?
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, right, and Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., speak on their way to a news conference after touring the Los Angeles port complex at the Port of Los Angeles Coast Guard Station on Monday, April 13, 2009, in Los Angeles
Well, first it was the release of the DHS report on right wing extremists and now it is a FLAP with Canada over 9/11 for Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.Ottawa was rushing to defend its border security on Tuesday amid a diplomatic scuffle with the U.S., which erupted after Washington’s homeland security chief suggested that the 9-11 terrorists entered the U.S. through Canada.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made the comments during a media interview earlier this week, much to the chagrin of Canadians on both sides of the border.
In recent years, Ottawa has invested a great deal of effort into dispelling perceptions among Americans that Canada’s border is an easy entry point for terrorists planning attacks on U.S. soil.
“Unfortunately, misconceptions arise on something as fundamental as where the 9-11 terrorists came from,” said Michael Wilson, Canada’s ambassador in Washington.
“As the 9-11 commission reported in 2004, all of the 9-11 terrorists arrived in the United States from outside North America. They flew to major U.S. airports. They entered the U.S. with documents issued by the United States government and no 9-11 terrorists came from Canada.”
Clearly, Napolitano is incapable of doing the job. Now, she insults Canada for no apparent reason. But, tries to backtrack:
Later, Napolitano’s staff attempted to tamp down the controversy by blaming the comments on a simple misunderstanding, said Wilson, who was the keynote speaker at the Border Trade Alliance meeting in Washington Tuesday.
“Her comment from her people is that she misunderstood,” Wilson said, adding that he was planning a personal meeting with Napolitano in the near future.
The furor began when Napolitano was asked to clarify statements she had made about equal treatment for the Mexican and Canadian borders, despite the fact that a flood of illegal immigrants and a massive drug war are two serious issues on the southern border.
“Yes, Canada is not Mexico, it doesn’t have a drug war going on, it didn’t have 6,000 homicides that were drug-related last year,” she said.
“Nonetheless, to the extent that terrorists have come into our country or suspected or known terrorists have entered our country across a border, it’s been across the Canadian border. There are real issues there.”
When asked if she was referring to the 9-11 terrorists, Napolitano added: “Not just those but others as well.”
However, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan downplayed the comments and said that Napolitano is well aware that Canada was not the source of the 9-11 terrorists.
“We spoke about it back in March, and we were sharing a chuckle at the fact that the urban myth does circulate,” he told CTV’s Power Play.
“Ms. Napolitano understood quite clearly, then and now, that none of the September 11 terrorists came through Canada, as the 9-11 Commission found.”
Secretary Napolitano should apologize and then resign.
Previous:
Video: One Question Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on MSNBC Avoids Right Wing Extremism Report Flap
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano APOLOGIZES To Veterans Over DHS Report
Technorati Tags: Janet Napolitano, Canada, Homeland Security
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Did the Canadian Health Care System KILL Natasha Richardson?
The late Natasha Richardson
Michelle has a good piece up but there is no consensus on the matter.Flap knows one thing – no more vacations in Canada for the foreseeable future.
Technorati Tags: Natasha Richardson, Canada, Health Care
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Canada Watch: Liberal Party Chooses Stephane Dion as Leader
Stephane Dion delivers his speech after winning the Liberal leadership Saturday, Dec. 2, 2006 in Montreal,Canada.
Canada’s official opposition Liberals on Saturday unexpectedly chose former Environment Minister Stephane Dion as their new leader despite political shortcomings that could hinder his chances in an election expected next year.
Dion, in fourth place after the first round of voting, beat former Harvard academic Michael Ignatieff on the fourth and final ballot at a Montreal leadership convention. Dion won by 2,521 votes to 2,084.
The Liberals have dominated Canadian politics for the past century but lost power to the Conservatives in a January election. The Conservatives have a minority government that looks set to fall in 2007, sparking a new election.
Leftie Socialism and Anti-American = Canada’s Liberal Party. It doesn’t look like this guy has the standing to beat Stephen Harper in the Fall of 2007.
Captain Ed agrees with the Left movement of the Liberal Party and adds that his lack of fluency in English among other deficiencies may spell trouble for the Liberal electoral prospects.
Stephane Dion is congratulated by Jean Chretien, Bill Graham, Paul Martin and John Turner, left to right following his speech after winning the Liberal leadership Saturday, Dec. 2, 2006 in Montreal.
Dion won in part by stressing the need to do more for the environment, a topic of increasing importance to Canadians.
But he has two potential strikes against him. First, he speaks English with a heavy French accent, which could make it hard to win over voters in what is a predominantly Anglophone country.
Second, he is unpopular in his home province of Quebec, which accounts for a quarter of the seats in the federal Parliament.
French-speaking separatists strongly dislike him for his efforts to prevent them from holding a successful referendum on whether Quebec should break away from the rest of Canada.
An Ipsos-Reid opinion poll published on Friday said if Dion won the leadership, the Liberals would win 27 percent support if an election were held now, compared with 35 percent for the Conservatives.
Flap wants to know why former Liberal Prime Ministers Paul Martin and Jean Chretien aren’t in jail?
Stay tuned…….
Technorati Tags: Canada, LiberalParty, StephaneDion, PalMartin, JeanChretien
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Islam Watch: Canadian Jewel Heist Features Thieves in Burqas
Abdul Rasheed Khalid, owner of Zaibi Jewellers, in Brampton, poses with empty display cases. He was bound and hit several times during a robbery last Friday, the latest in a series of GTA jewellery store heists.
Toronto Star: Jewel heists target Asians
One recent robbery included a male thief disguised in a head-to-toe burqa
Abdul Rasheed Khalid was alone in his Brampton jewellery store filling the display cases with yellow gold rings and necklaces when two people, one wearing a head-to-toe black burqa, appeared outside his locked door.
“Salamu alaikum,” the 58-year-old store owner said after pushing the entry buzzer, believing them to be a Muslim couple. There was no reply, and seconds later the pair — both males — forced him at gunpoint to the back office where he was bound with duct tape and hit several times. Then his store was cleaned out.”Keep quiet, keep quiet, close your eyes,” they said, while emptying the red velvet trays into duffel bags carried by an accomplice. Khalid caught a glimpse of the crooks. He thinks they were Pakistani or Indian.
Now, we have demonstrated why the Dutch have attempted to outlaw the public wearing of the Burqa.
And the disaffected South Asian Youth gangs who have allegedly perpetrated these crimes?
Well, they know how to cover-up the Muslim Way………
Will Canada now pass an anti-Burqa law?
Not a chance……
Canada prides itself on its multi-culturalism and this might be offensive – even as they are robbed BLIND.
Stay tuned…..
Muslim women wearing veils out doing their shopping in Blackburn, England Friday Oct. 6, 2006. Britain’s former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw’s preference that devout Muslim women visiting his office remove their veils ignited a heated debate Friday about cultural isolation and tolerance in Britain. Straw is the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Blackburn.
Linked with Stop the ACLU.Â
Previous:
Islam Watch: Dutch Muslims Say Proposed Burqa Ban a Violation of Freedom of Religion
Islam Watch: Dutch Government Supports BAN on Burqa
Jack Straw MP Watch: Rushdie – “Veils – A Way to Take Power From Womenâ€
Jack Straw MP Watch: Veiled Threat?
Technorati Tags: Burqa, Canada, Holland, Dutch, Islam
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Global War on Terror: United States to Require Passports for Nearly All Air Travelers on January 23, 2007
Travelers wait to check baggage Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006, at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco.
AP: U.S. to require passports for nearly all
Nearly all air travelers entering the U.S. will be required to show passports beginning Jan. 23, including returning Americans and people from Canada and other nations in the Western Hemisphere.
The date was disclosed Tuesday by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in an interview with The Associated Press. The Homeland Security Department plans to announce the change on Wednesday.
Until now, the department had not set a specific date for instituting the passport requirement for air travelers, though the start had been expected to be around the beginning of the year. Setting the date on Jan. 23 pushes the start past the holiday season.
The requirement marks a change for Americans, Canadians, Bermudians and some Mexicans.
Currently, U.S. citizens returning from other countries in the hemisphere are not required to present passports but must show other proof of citizenship such as driver’s licenses or birth certificates.
About time. Applying and obtaining an American Passport is not overly burdensome. Requiring a passport for ALL foreign travelers post 9/11 is ESSENTIAL.
Visitors from most countries in the hemisphere are required to show passports. However, people from Canada, Bermuda — and those from Mexico who enter the U.S. frequently and have special border-crossing cards — have been allowed to use other forms of identification, including driver’s licenses.
“Right now, there are 8,000 different state and local entities in the U.S. issuing birth certificates and driver’s licenses,” Chertoff said. Having to distinguish phony from real in so many different documents “puts an enormous burden on our Customs and Border inspectors,” he said.
In a few cases, other documents still may be used for air entry into the U.S. by some frequent travelers between the U.S. and Canada, members of the American military on official business and some U.S. merchant mariners.
Under a separate program, Homeland Security plans to require all travelers, including Americans, entering the U.S. by land or sea to show a passport or an alternative security identification card starting as early as January 2008.
The Homeland Security Department estimates that about one in four Americans has a passport.
The SOONER, the BETTER for ALL foreign travelers in the United States to be required to have a Passport and a biometric one at that.
Stay tuned……..
Technorati Tags: HomelandSecurity, Passport, AmericanPassport, MichaelChertoff, Canada, Bermuda, Mexico
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Mark Steyn Watch: Canada’s Indigo Books NOT Boycotting “America Alone”
National Post: Indigo is not ‘boycotting’ Steyn
Re: Steyn’s Book Can’t Be Found In Canada, Nov. 3.
Charges that Indigo is “boycotting” Mark Steyn’s book, America Alone, are ludicrous. Mr. Steyn’s book was for sale at Indigo’s channels in September of this year and it promptly sold out. Indeed we should have purchased more initially but the moment we realized the error, we immediately placed a reorder for several thousand more books. As of this moment, we, as well as most other book retailers in Canada, are still awaiting new copies from the publisher, which we are told will arrive in mid-November.
It is regrettable that Mr. Steyn doesn’t acknowledge that he wrote his Maclean’s piece even though his Canadian sales representative had fully informed him of his book’s reorder status with Indigo. We find it also curious that he chose to unfairly attack Indigo, while most other book retailers in the country are also sold out.
While one has to admire Mr. Steyn’s self-promoting efforts, there is a fine line between publicity and defamation. To make an accusation of “boycott” is a serious allegation and one should not be able to make it just to create buzz and sell more books.
Sorya Ingrid Gaulin, vice-president, public relations, Indigo Books & Music Inc., Toronto.
Well, that is good to hear. The new printing of Steyn’s book will have Flap’s photo credit on the back flap.
The reader can purchase the book here.
And lookie lookie Steyn’s book is doing well on Canada’s Amazon list. The list is here.
Previous:
Mark Steyn Watch: America Alone To Be SMUGGLED Into Canada
Mark Steyn Watch: America Alone Makes New York Times Bestseller List
Mark Steyn Watch: America Alone – A FLAP Surprise
Technorati Tags: MarkSteyn,AmericaAlone, IndigoBooks
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Mark Steyn Watch: America Alone To Be SMUGGLED Into Canada
National Post: Steyn’s book can’t be found in Canada
A Canadian author’s book about the need to defend Western civilization against Islam’s demographic juggernaut — and the United States’ vital role in that effort — has become a best-seller in the United States, but remains all but impossible to buy at stores in this country.
Conservative columnist Mark Steyn’s book America Alone has shot up best-seller lists: It stands at 13th on The New York Times list and 23rd on Amazon.com.
But Canada’s largest book seller, Indigo Books and Music Inc., does not have the book in stock at its Chapters outlets or its other book-selling subsidiaries.
Mr. Steyn has charged that Indigo and its chief executive officer, Heather Reisman, underestimated demand for his book as a means of “boycotting” it.
His publisher made several attempts to persuade Indigo that its first order of several hundred books was inadequate, he said.
Mr. Steyn wrote in Maclean’s, “If Heather Reisman carries on boycotting me, I should be able to retire to Tahiti within the year.”
Flap supposes the literary elite in Canada prefers not to read what Steyn has written which is the hard truth. So, what better way to censure than to misorder the books and claim it is the American publisher’s fault.
Now, Flap has a vested interest in this distribution of books because at future reprintings I get my name for a photo credit on the back flap (little pat on the back).
Canadian readers (who cannot order their books online and must visit a book retailer) should do what Mark suggests:
“My advice to Canadian readers is drive over to the Buffalo Barnes & Noble and smuggle it back in, cunningly hidden under the Algerian terrorist in the back seat.”
Another example of the failed social democracy of Canada……a waiting line for books.
The reader can purchase the book here.
And it is number two on Amazon’s Canada Best Sellers List.
Previous:
Mark Steyn Watch: America Alone Makes New York Times Bestseller List
Mark Steyn Watch: America Alone – A FLAP Surprise
Technorati Tags: MarkSteyn
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Canada Watch: Travelers Entering the United States from Canada Win a Reprieve
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (2nd R) and Public Safety Minster Stockwell Day (L) arrive at the Canadian and U.S. border crossing in Cloverdale, west of Vancouver, British Columbia August 31, 2006. Harper announced on Thursday that Canadian border guards will be armed like their U.S. counterparts beginning in September of 2007.
Reuters: U.S. Congress poised to delay border check program
Travelers entering the United States from Canada will win a reprieve from a post-September 11 border security program requiring passports or other high-tech IDs, under a bill set to pass Congress this week.
Congressional negotiators have embraced a delay of up to 17 months for the program, which was supposed to have been fully activated by December 31, 2007.
The language has been attached to a fiscal 2007 domestic security funding bill the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate plan to approve before going on a recess ahead of November mid-term elections.
Following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Congress strengthened border security, including checks on some of the millions of people who travel by land into the country.
With only 15 months before the new program was to have started, Bush administration officials recently told Congress of difficulties readying identity cards and equipment to read those cards at border stations.
The Bush Administration yet again demonstrates its lack of resolve for border security.
And why couldn’t the United States government implement this program on time?
Americans are less SAFE……
Technorati Tags: Canada, BorderCheck, border_security
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Canada Watch: Lakehead University Mocks President Bush
Reuters: Canadian school knocked for mocking Yale grad Bush
Posters and a Web site mocking President Bush have put the spotlight on a small Ontario university that thought a bold and edgy recruiting campaign was just the ticket to attract potential students.
The Web site, http://www.yaleshmale.com, has a black and white picture of Bush, with the caption: “Graduating from an Ivy League university doesn’t necessarily mean you’re smart.”
Bush graduated from Yale in 1968.
A link takes viewers to a site for Lakehead University, in rugged Thunder Bay, Ontario, some 1,375 km (850 miles) northwest of Toronto.
“It was literally a tongue-in-cheek way of getting attention,” Frederick Gilbert, president and vice-chancellor of Lakehead University, said on Monday.
“The young people picked it up that way,” he added. “I must say that older generations, well even some of our students, have looked at it as not appropriate.”
Marketing Bush Derangement Syndrome, eh?
Lakehead University seems substantial enough without the denigration of another school or individual.
How do you spell NO CLASS?
Technorati Tags: LakeheadUniversity, Canada