When I visited college campuses across the country on my last book tour, there would always be some smarty-pants liberal in the audience sputtering that I wouldn’t support “racial profiling” (actually, it’s threat profiling taking into account nationality/race/ethnicity/religion) if President Bush started profiling people from the Philippines.

When I pointed out that I didn’t think Bush was doing nearly enough to scrutinize young, single, male Filipino Muslims entering the U.S. through the front door, the smarty-pants students would slink back their seats. Oh, well. Unable to play the hypocrisy card, they could always take comfort in attacking me as a “race traitor.”

Was reminded of those exchanges when I saw this story today about the Philippines becoming the “new Afghanistan:”

The United States has expressed concern about militant training activity on Mindanao in the southern Philippines, warning the rebellion-torn southern region could become the “next Afghanistan.”

Joseph Mussomeli, the number-two official of the US embassy in Manila, urged its Southeast Asian ally to do more to stem the flow of Islamic militant recruits into Mindanao, which he alleged was becoming “the new ‘Mecca’ for terrorism.”
These groups train in bomb-making in Mindanao and have actually conducted bombing campaigns in the country, he added.

“Personally, I’m worried that we’re not worried enough. I think the real danger here, and the danger that has been here since the mid-90s, is that we’re not focused enough on the threat here,” Charge d’affaires Mussomeli said in an interview with Australia’s SBS television.

Once trained, many of these militants will no doubt attempt to enter the U.S. the same way the 9/11 hijackers did–on short-term business, visitor, or student visas. Joel Mowbray reported on the deadly failures of State Department consular officials to enforce existing visa rules that guard against potential visa overstayers–and that essentially profile temporary travelers most likely to be terrorists. If the regulations–known as 214(b)– had been properly followed, not a single one of the 9/11 hijackers would have been allowed into the U.S.

More than ever, those rules need to be enforced strictly–and especially so in “friendly” countries such as Saudi Arabia and the Philippines, lest diplomacy be the death of us again.

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Related:

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Abu Sayyaf leader: dead or alive?
Filipino police uncover 1995 leads to Sept. 11 plot

Update: A full transcript of Mussomeli’s interview is here. (Hat tip: reader Joe)

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