Is anyone surprised by the news that illegal aliens were cleaning DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff’s home? (link)

Not if you are a long-time reader who remembers my reporting from five years ago on Kelvin Rodriguez.

Illegal aliens in the front yards of America’s top officials? Par for the open-borders course.

President Bush pushed for the $1.3 billion Merida Initiative to help our “friends” in Mexico fight crime and secure their southern border while our fences go unfinished. He sided with Mexico . Barack Obama and John McCain continue to suck up to MALDEF and the open-borders lobby–with scheduled appearances coming up this summer at the Latino National Congress and La Raza/The Race conferences. McCain refuses to disassociate himself from his Hispanic outreach advisor Juan Hernandez, a former Mexican cabinet official and radical “Mexico first” ethnic nationalist. DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff rode the shamnesty bandwagon, assailing opponents as bigots and putting the price of lettuce over national security.

Now, read this:

U.S. officials say they are outraged that a judge in Mexico has released a man suspected of killing a Yuma border agent this year by ramming a Humvee into the agent’s all-terrain vehicle.

The release of 22-year-old Jesus Navarro Montes comes as U.S. Border Patrol agents grapple with an increase in vehicle-ramming attacks along the Mexican border in recent years.

Since Oct. 1, the Border Patrol in Arizona has logged 24 truck assaults on agents or their barricades along the border. The number hit a record 44 the previous year, which was before work crews built dozens of miles of vehicle barriers along the Arizona-Sonora line.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement says its agents also have seen a steady increase in vehicle attacks in recent months, although ICE does not keep statistics.

Navarro’s release last week, which since has come to U.S. officials’ attention, drew outrage from the Border Patrol and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Here is Chertoff’s statement on the DHS site:

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010

We are shocked and appalled to learn that Jesus Navarro Montes was recently released by a Mexican Judge. Navarro Montes is a suspect in the murder of Border Patrol Agent Luis Aguilar. Agent Aguilar was killed in a heinous act of violence on January 19 in the Yuma Sector, while attempting to stop two vehicles that illegally entered the country and were absconding into Mexico.

We are working with a determined Mexican Government, and our Department of Justice, to seek swift justice for the Aguilar murder. We have also assured Agent Aguilar’s family that every resource is being called upon in the relentless pursuit of justice.

Agent Aguilar’s murder represents a tragic example of border violence. We are placing our highest priority on combating and ending the increase in violence, and the American public stands with the men and women of the Border Patrol as they carry out their heroic service.

Mexican officials are pointing fingers at DHS for not issuing an arrest warrant or extradition request. I wouldn’t doubt someone at DHS screwed up, but is this how “friends” act?

No.

This is how a government that has been allowed to walk all over the sovereignty of another acts.

The current administration and its open-borders enablers in both political parties are reaping what they have sown. A bloody shame.

Comedy gold. Where are the black, brown, red, and yellow faces? Where are the gyno-bureaucrats? And why don’t we have more undocumented DHS employees?!?! (Okay, kidding about that last one. But really, it won’t be long.)

The Washington Times has the report (hat tip – reader Anton):

Two congressmen today said the Department of Homeland Security needs more diversity to be effective, and scolded Secretary Michael Chertoff for not bringing any black or female staffers to his appearance before the House Judiciary Committee.

In what appeared to be a sort of diversity sting operation, Rep. Robert C. Scott lead off his questions to Mr. Chertoff by demanding the secretary’s staff stand up to be scrutinized. Minutes later, during his own questions, Rep. Melvin Watt said the point was to prove that none of the 10 staffers who stood met his definition of diverse.

“You brought 10 staff people with you, all white males. I know this hearing is not about diversity of the staff, but I hope you’ve got more diversity in your staff than you’ve reflected here in the people you’ve brought with you,” Mr. Watt, North Carolina Democrat, told the secretary.

The hearing was called to examine the administration’s record on border security and immigration, but Mr. Watt said diversity mattered for law enforcement. Both Mr. Watt and Mr. Scott are black.

Mr. Chertoff responded that Mr. Watt shouldn’t judge his staff based purely on appearance.

Yes, the very same liberals who scream when law enforcement wants to profile people to protect national security are leaning on Chertoff to do what? Engage in racial and gender profiling so Chertoff can surround himself with a rainbow of sycophants.

Put your beverages down before reading the WashTimes’ concluding paragraphs:

Mr. Chertoff responded that Mr. Watt shouldn’t judge his staff based purely on appearance.

“I wouldn’t assume that the ethnic background of everybody behind me is self-evident,” he said.

But Mr. Watt took that as a challenge, telling him, “I think I know an African American when I see one.” He asked any of the staffers was black or a woman stand up, then demanding the record reflect “that nobody stood up to volunteer in either one of those categories.”

“If we’re going to do law enforcement in this country, we need to understand that there’s an element of diversity in our country that I don’t see represented here,” Mr. Watt said.

Pardon me, though, for not fully sympathizing with Chertoff.

Live by open-borders, jihadi-apologist, grievance-monger pandering, die by open-borders, jihadi-apologist, grievance-monger pandering.

Now, the pictures of the party–like the one above–have been released. And they underscore and illustrate my points vividly.

Myers, whose Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency runs the nation’s 32,000-bed immigration detention system, was on a three-judge panel that gave a “most original costume” award to the worker at an ICE charity event Oct. 31. Myers subsequently apologized, saying the costume could leave “a negative impression” of ICE’s respect for people whom it detains and explained that she learned only the next day that the man was wearing makeup.

Myers’s Senate confirmation was delayed until December partly as a result of the controversy, and she told lawmakers who inquired last fall that she had immediately instructed aides to order that the digital photographs of the worker be deleted. The images aired on CNN yesterday, however, after the cable television network obtained 113 official photographs of the party, including recovered versions of all the deleted ones, through a Freedom of Information Act request.

“At a minimum, she was being disingenuous,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a member of the Senate homeland security committee. McCaskill had objected to Myers’s nomination over her handling of the matter and over ICE’s slow release of data about criminal enforcement against companies that hire illegal immigrants. “You would not think the committee would have to resort to a FOIA request from the media to get these photographs,” she said.

A spokesman for Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii), another committee member, added in a statement: “The perception of racial insensitivity is a serious threat to the credibility of ICE. These pictures raise serious concerns about whether ICE purposely withheld the pictures requested by Congress and whether Ms. Myers’ account of the incident was completely forthcoming.”

…In a Nov. 8 letter replying to questions by McCaskill, Myers said that she was “shocked and horrified” to learn that the employee was wearing makeup but that within minutes of leaving the party she instructed her chief of staff to direct ICE’s events photographer “to delete all photos of the employee.”

“Although I didn’t know that the employee had disguised his race, I believed I had made an error in judgment in recognizing an escaped prisoner,” Myers wrote.

It’s not the “racism” that’s so offensive.

It’s the utter stupidity.

The head of ICE, one of the top domestic homeland security officials in the country, couldn’t tell that the dweeb in a dreadlock wig standing next to her was wearing makeup.

Criminey.

If Bozo the Clown were standing next to her, would she know the red nose wasn’t real–or would she need posterior-covering staffers to help her realize that, too?

Compounding the stupidity are all the whiny, sanctimonious senators who now claim they were “misled.”

Myers was unfit for the job at the start and little had changed when the Senate voted to confirm her in December on an unrecorded voice vote.

Stupid is as stupid does.

Yeah, we’re “backsliding” all right, Chertoff.

From weak border controls to the risk of chemical bombs, the United States could be backsliding on national security since the Sept. 11 attacks, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff said on Wednesday.

“A couple of years after 9/11 it would not have seemed conceivable that a ‘business as usual’ mentality could creep back into our public mind-set. It has begun to return,” Chertoff told a forum at Harvard University.

“I’m concerned that we are beginning to backslide,” he said, citing several areas where the United States has faced trouble while seeking to get tougher on security after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“Beginning to backslide?”

“Business as usual?”

Chertoff, meet a full-length mirror.

Update 1:30pm Eastern Kerik pleads not guilty.

Here’s the PDF of the indictment.

Update 12:04pm Eastern. Kerik facing a cumulative 142 years in jail.

Rudy Giuliani in the wake of the indictment news: “I am not running as the perfect candidate.”

“Sad day,” prosecutors say.

Update 11:30am Eastern. McCain piles on: “McCain Says Kerik Reflects on Giuliani.” The problem is that this criticism of Giuliani’s bad judgement on vital homeland security and war on terror matters comes from Mr. “F*** You!” Shamnesty himself. Pot and kettle.

Update 9:14am Eastern. Kerik surrenders to authorities: “The U.S. attorney’s office said it would hold an 11:30 a.m. EST news conference with FBI and Internal Revenue Service officials in White Plains “to announce an indictment of a former public official.”

NYDN: Rudy Giuliani won’t say if he’d pardon Kerik as President.

***

We are all fallen, imperfect beings. The news of the federal indictment of Bernie Kerik is a sad moment, a cautionary tale, and an object lesson.

Sad, because Kerik rose from the child of a prostitute to “America’s cop”–and this nation loves such tales of success.

Cautionary, because it speaks to the fallibility of anointed heroes and the temptations of power.

An object lesson, because it highlights the flaws and vulnerabilities of GOP front-runner Rudy Giuliani’s on the issues of corruption and immigration enforcement.

Here’s what I wrote back in December 2004 when Kerik was forced to withdraw from consideration as DHS chief because of his illegal alien nanny problem and his lack of candor about the debacle:

I find it annoying that Bernard Kerik is getting praised in some quarters for “coming clean” and “accepting responsibility” for his “mistake.” From all accounts, including Kerik’s own, President Bush’s aides asked him upfront about the nanny question several times during the vetting process and he did not come clean.

Kerik didn’t just make some minor clerical error. He misled the White House. So, stop making him a martyr.

It’s also interesting that some political observers on both the left and right are pooh-poohing the illegal alien nanny issue. I heard Geraldo Rivera ask Rudy Giuliani during a press conference yesterday why Kerik was in trouble over a “de minimis” issue. A number of other commentators on the Sunday shows echoed that sentiment. And John Podhoretz says Rudy Giuliani, who pushed the Kerik nomination, won’t suffer any blowback.

I disagree. I think the fiasco substantially damages Rudy Giuliani’s reputation as a homeland security leader (and 2008 presidential nominee)–not only because of his sloppy vetting of Kerik, but also because Giuliani’s own laxity on immigration (more here on his open-borders record ) will be difficult to ignore as a result of the Kerik taint.

A few other thoughts on Bernard Kerik’s withdrawal :

First, it puts an end to feminist complaints that only women nominees are penalized for having “nanny problems.”

Second, it keeps a white-hot spotlight on many of the issues raised by maverick House Republicans during the “intel reform”/border security debate, including the push for secure documentation, improved employer verification of Social Security numbers, and strengthening of penalties for immigration-related fraud.

Third, it puts a much-needed focus on the need to enforce federal employer sanctions. Why is it that the only employers who ever seem to suffer consequences for hiring illegal immigrants are Cabinet nominees?! In 2002, the federal government fined only 13 employers nationwide for hiring illegal immigrants. Enforcement of employer sanctions has been a nationwide joke for the last two decades.

And fourth, unfortunately, it virtually kills the prospects of getting someone with real homeland security enforcement experience to head DHS.

Since that post nearly three years ago, there has been little change on the homeland security and immigration enforcement front. Giuliani still refuses to acknowledge his aggressive, proactive protection of New York’s sanctuary policies.

Hillary Clinton’s botched illegal alien license answer gave the GOP some breathing room. But when the Dem-on-Dem “pile-on” dies down, we are still left with a leading GOP presidential candidate who positions himself as War on Terror strong horse–but who exercised extraordinarily weak judgement in recommending his corrupted ally for the nation’s top homeland security post, continued to rationalize it, and fails to see his own culpability in perpetuating open-borders chaos in NYC.

Three years ago, the conventional wisdom from many parts of the NYC-DC punditocracy was that Giuliani’s Kerik problem wouldn’t matter in the ’08 presidential election.

It does.

The grass-roots conservative base is sick and tired of cronyism and open-borders arrogance–two traits that dominate the Bush White House, two traits on naked display in the intertwined fates of Rudy Giuliani and Bernie Kerik, two traits that dangerously undermine public confidence and public safety.

If Republicans are going to decide that Giuliani is the best standard-bearer for the party, they better do so with eyes wide open and absolute candor. He is–at best–only marginally better than Hillary Clinton on immigration and border security. He was a bad judge of character at a key moment in the Department of Homeland Security’s history. And despite his lip service and cable TV-friendly talking points, he remains obstinately committed to non-enforcement of immigration laws when push comes to shove.

Caveat emptor.

From Potfry at The Nose on Your Face…

And from DelosWorld:

Satirist Scott Ott has a sneak peek at FEMA’s fabricated folly to come: Next, FEMA Plans to Stage “Natural” Disasters. Wouldn’t put it past them.

Update 8:07pm Eastern 10/28. Another FEMA photoshop submission from Common Sense Journal…

Update 9:43am 10/28: Rob at Peenie Wallie sends some more new FEMA logos. Heh:

Update: Mike Chertoff works himself up into a strong lather over the FEMA FUBAR:

The homeland security chief on Saturday tore into his own employees for staging a phony news conference at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I’ve seen since I’ve been in government,” Michael Chertoff said.

“I have made unambiguously clear, in Anglo-Saxon prose, that it is not to ever happen again and there will be appropriate disciplinary action taken against those people who exhibited what I regard as extraordinarily poor judgment,” he added.

Asked specifically if he planned to fire anyone at FEMA, which is part of his department, Chertoff declined to say, citing personnel rules.

“There will be appropriate discipline,” he told reporters at a news conference with New York’s governor where they announced an agreement on a driver’s license plan.

Yes, Chertoff has the nerve to call FEMA dumb while he was striking a DHS deal with New York to allow illegal aliens to get driver’s licenses.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More: FEMA official grovels.

Update: Reader Ron R. sends his FEMA logo Photoshop. I like:

***

What does FEMA stand for?

Fake Emergency Media Actors.

Fraudulent Emergency Mismanagement Asshats.

Flabbergastingly Exposed Mendacious Artifice.

Send me your suggestions or leave comments below.

And if you’re better at Photoshop than me, send me your FEMA logo redesigns.

Allah has the video of the nation’s stupidest bureaucracy faking a news conference.

Watch it!

More:

The U.S. government’s main disaster-response agency apologized on Friday for having its employees pose as reporters in a hastily called news conference on California’s wildfires that no news organizations attended.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, still struggling to restore its image after the bungled handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, issued the apology after The Washington Post published details of the Tuesday briefing.

“We can and must do better, and apologize for this error in judgment,” FEMA deputy administrator Harvey Johnson, who conducted the briefing, said in a statement. “Our intent was to provide useful information and be responsive to the many questions we have received.”

No actual reporter attended the news conference in person, agency spokesman Aaron Walker said.

A spokeswoman for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who has authority over FEMA, called the incident “inexcusable and offensive to the secretary.”

“We have made it clear that stunts such as this will not be tolerated or repeated,” spokeswoman Laura Keehner said. She said the department was looking at the possibility of reprimanding those responsible.

Unbelievable.

No, entirely believable. The spirit of Michael Brown lives on. Remember?

Xinhua Online:

***
Update 11pm Eastern 8/27 : The Democrat probes will continue.

Update 11:52am Eastern. Bush is lauding Gonzales for his “integrity, decency, and principle.” “Trusted adviser and close friend…After months of unfair treatment that has created harmful distraction at the Justice Dept, Gonzales decided to [resign]…It’s sad that…his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons…”

Paul Clement will be serving as acting AG “until a nominee has been confirmed by the Senate…one of the finest lawyers in America…”

Update 11:05am Eastern. Here’s the Gonzales vid. President Bush expected to comment separately at 11:50am.

Paul Mirengoff at Power Line: “I’ve never been a fan of Gonzales, but I can’t help feeling sorry for him. The ‘scandal’ that led to his demise — the firing of the U.S. attorneys — appears to involve no wrongdoing on his part. Moreover, the underlying decisions and process appear to have been the product of the White House, not Gonzales. His defense of the decisions was hardly stellar, but if I’m correct, he was handicapped by the fact that they were not really his decisions. Gonzales’s only real offense seems to have been mediocrity. But mediocrity in an Attorney General is nothing new (think Janet Reno), and any blame for this occurrence properly attaches to the White House. Often the biggest favor a president can do for a friend is to not appoint him or her to very high office.”

***Press conference scheduled for 10:30am***

Update 10:33am Eastern. Yesterday I met with Pres. Bush to inform him of my decision to conclude my government service…effective as of Sept. 17, 2007…I have lived the American Dream…even my worst days were better than the best days of my father…thank you and God bless America…

Reporters shouting “Why are you leaving?”

Democrats rejoice. This one is just too rich:

“I strongly urge President Bush to nominate a new attorney general who will respect our laws and restore the integrity of the office.” — Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.”

Brit Hume: “He was a man almost without fans in Washington…he was, simply, a crony.”

***

August 27, 2007 @ 08:20

The rumors were swirling over the weekend. Now, the New York Times reports:

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned. A senior administration official said he would announce the decision later this morning in Washington.

Mr. Gonzales, who had rebuffed calls for his resignation, submitted his to President Bush by telephone on Friday, the official said. His decision was not immediately announced, the official added, until after the president invited him and his wife to lunch at his ranch near here.

Mr. Bush has not yet chosen a replacement but will not leave the position open long, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the Attorney General’s resignation had not yet been made public.

Mr. Bush had repeatedly stood by Mr. Gonzales, an old friend and colleague from Texas, even as he faced increasing scrutiny for his leadership of the Justice Department, including his role in the dismissals of nine United States attorneys late last year and questions about whether he testified truthfully about the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs.

“We’re watching a political exercise,” Mr. Bush said at a news conference this month, dismissing accusations that the Attorney General had stonewalled or misled a congressional inquiry. “I mean, this is a man who has testified, he’s sent thousands of papers up there. There’s no proof of wrong.”

Mr. Gonzales’s resignation is the latest in a series of high-level departures that has reshaped the end of Mr. Bush’s second term. Karl Rove, another of Mr. Bush’s close circle of aides from Texas, stepped down two weeks ago.

The official said that the decision was Mr. Gonzales’s and that the president accepted it grudgingly.

Back in May, I said I wouldn’t be shedding tears and my poll showed that neither would most of you:

For what it’s worth, I can’t say I’ll miss him. And neither will a majority of you. Remember the little online poll I put up about Gonzales before I took my short family vacation last week? Here are the results:

If the administration learned anything at all from the shamnesty debacle, DHS secretary Michael Chertoff would not be the reported leading candidate to replace Gonzales. Looks like they’ve learned nothing. If Chertoff replaces Gonzales, Allah wonders, who replaces Chertoff? Hey: Why not just go full-on open borders and put Mel Martinez in charge! Or how about…a head of lettuce?

If they want the best qualified, most experienced AG candidate who is serious about enforcing all of our laws, including our immigration laws, and who is best equipped to serve in a time of war, the choice would be obvious: John Ashcroft.

Not going to happen, though.

Solicitor General Paul Clement is also on the rumored short list as a temporary replacement.

I agree with Kathryn Lopez: Andy McCarthy would make a great AG. Another nomination from the comments section that I’d second: Kris Kobach.
Yes, we can dream.

CNN says Chertoff nomination is “likely.”

***

Meanwhile, idiocy continues at the Justice Department. Via the WashTimes:

The Justice Department is co-sponsoring a convention held by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) — an unindicted co-conspirator in an ongoing federal terrorist funding case — a move that is raising concerns among the Justice’s rank and file.

Justice lawyers have objected to the affiliation with ISNA, fearing it will undermine the case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in Dallas.

“There is outrage among lawyers that the Department of Justice is funding a group named as a co-conspirator in a terrorist financing case,” said a Justice lawyer who spoke to The Washington Times on the condition of anonymity.

According to an e-mail from Susana Lorenzo-Giguere, acting deputy chief of the Voting Rights Division, the sponsorship will involve sending government lawyers to man a booth for the Labor Day weekend event in Illinois.

“This is an important outreach opportunity, and a chance to reach a community that is at once very much discriminated against, and very wary of the national government and its willingness to protect them,” Mrs. Lorenzo-Giguere said in an e-mail obtained by The Washington Times.

“It would be a great step forward to break through those barriers. And Chicago is lovely this time of year,” Mrs. Lorenzo-Giguere said.

***

Here’s a small example of the duties that have fallen by the wayside thanks to Gonzales’s incompetence and bungling of “Attorneygate.” Last month, Gonzales promised Sen. Jeff Sessions he would look into the deportation of criminal aliens last month. Think it’ll be a priority?

SESSIONS: Mr. Attorney General, with regard to some of the immigration questions that we’re facing, there’s so many matters that are within the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice. The effectiveness of our immigration enforcement policies depend on good policies within the Department of Justice.

And I was recently reminded of a serious problem we have with regard to aliens who have been convicted of crimes in the United States. Mr. Harley Lappin, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, recently told us and this committee within the last year, I believe, that 27 percent of the federal prison population is foreign-born.

We have laws that I think authorize the removal from our country of persons who are convicted of crimes immediately upon the completion of their sentence, as I recall the statutes.

I would note the article by Michelle Malkin (ph) quoting some of the examples we’ve had here, where Mr. Adhahn was convicted of — relating to his involvement in the kidnapping and murder of 12-year- old Zina Linnik in Tacoma, Washington, on July 4th.

SESSIONS: He had been convicted, apparently, of incest in 1990 and had sexually assaulted his 16-year-old relative, got that pleaded down to second-degree rape.

Two years later, he was convicted of intimidation with a dangerous weapon, and the law calls for — says that anyone convicted of a weapons offense is deportable. But he wasn’t deported, and that’s how, apparently, this murder occurred.

Another instance was Mwenda Murithi, arrested 27 times without deportation before being arrested in the shooting death of a 13-year- old innocent bystander, Schanna Gayden, last month in Illinois.

So I guess I’m asking you about this whole policy, whether or not you have taken a lead to see that it’s carried out. Do you believe it should be systematically and regularly carried out? And if there are any statutory weaknesses, do you have any suggestions about how they should be improved?

GONZALES: I think it should be carried out.

I am aware that probably the level of cooperation that exists between the department and DHS on this issue is not as good as it should be, Senator.

What I would like to do is have the opportunity — maybe have a conversation with Secretary Chertoff — to see whether or not we can do something to improve the situation.

Legislation may not be necessary, but, obviously, it may turn out to be the case that we may need to have some help from Congress.

SESSIONS: As I understand, the Department of Homeland Security I.G. estimated last year that half of the 650,000 foreign-born inmates in prisons and jails won’t be removed because they say that, quote, “Does not have the resources to identify, detain and remove them.”

Is that true?

GONZALES: I’ve heard that as a possible complaint or challenge. That very well may be the case.

Again, what I’d like to do is have the opportunity to sit down with Secretary Chertoff. I have not spoken with the secretary about this particular issue. I would be happy to do so.

And if there is something that would be helpful from the Congress, I’d like to have the opportunity to talk to you about.

SESSIONS: Well, I hope that you would, because I think that’s a major issue here. People are concerned when we pass laws in Congress and then our law enforcement officials don’t enforce them and don’t execute them and leaving criminals in the United States in large numbers.

Now, I understand there are a number of prisons that do not participate in the institutional removal program. Do you think it would be beneficial to expand this program to all federal prisons?

GONZALES: I can see very good arguments why that would make sense. And I plan on speaking with Harley Lappin, the director, and see what the status is and the challenges that exist with respect to implementing in all the prisons.

Police had boarded the plane in New York and removed a passenger of Middle Eastern descent after the flight crew had spotted the same man on an employee bus earlier, CNN television reported.

The passenger did not appear to have the correct identification showing he was an employee, CNN said.

The pilot told passengers there was a lack of fuel and he would land the London-bound plane at JFK airport in New York.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in an interview that he had been informed by the airline that the passenger was an employee after all.

“I have gotten a report that the individual in question was, in fact, an employee who was traveling in a private capacity,” Chertoff told CNN.

The crew member aboard Flight 136 questioned a passenger whom the employee had seen bypassing security by traveling on an employee-only bus from the parking lot to the LAX airport, according to spokeswoman Sonja Whitemon. Following that conversation, the decision to divert the plane was made. It landed at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport about 2:30 a.m. ET.

CNN quotes Chertoff praising the flight crew:

…the good news here is that you have somebody who’s alert on the crew and they take appropriate steps at that point to deal with what might be a potentially dangerous situation,” he added. “That’s exactly what we are asking people to do: If you see something, say something.”

Just one problem here, Chertie. Remember your speech the other day at the NAACP convention? You know, the one where you lectured about how we need to “respect the civil rights of Muslim Americans?” Well, when citizen John Does pratice “see something, say something,” it’s an automatic invitation to a CAIR lawsuit by the civil liberties absolutists.

Chertie has chosen to lie in bed with the very people who make a living intimidating and suing vigilant Americans who take homeland security seriously. Head full of lettuce, I tell ya…

***

Speaking of CAIR, Joel Mowbray shines light on the group’s duplicitous ways in the WashTimes today.

Update 7/11 8:24am: Martha Zoller asks, “Whose side is Chertoff on?”

Headline: “Respect Muslim American rights, Chertoff tells NAACP convention” (he spoke after visiting jihad-sympathizing Imam Husham al-Husainy’s mosque in Dearborn)

***
Uh-oh. Department of Homeland InSecurity chief Michael Chertoff has a rumble in his tummy. He told the Chicago Tribune editorial board today that he had a “gut feeling” about a new period of increased risk of a terrorist attack. He reportedly based his assessment on earlier patterns of terrorists in Europe and intelligence he would not disclose–and told the paper that “Summertime seems to be appealing to them…We worry that they are rebuilding their activities.”

Maybe if he hadn’t spent so much time, energy, and capital lobbying for the open borders agenda of Big Business and Big Agribusiness, I’d put more faith in Chertoff’s concerns–and in his ability to do anything about them. ABC News reports that the White House has convened an “urgent” meeting for Thursday to deal with the “new threat” (you know, same as the old national security threats that got ignored during the shamnesty debacle):

Top intelligence and law enforcement officials have been told to assemble in the Situation Room to report on:

–what steps can be taken to minimize or counter the threat,

–and what steps are being taken to harden security for government buildings and personnel.

Hey! How about that $4.4 billion emergency border security funding package the White House dangled to try and buy off shamnesty votes? How about that, Secretary Chertoff?

***

I’m not the only hardened cynic. Kathryn Lopez writes: “After the Immigration Debate, Excuse Me for Not Trusting This Man’s Gut.”

Ideas have consequences. The consequence of Chertoff and the White House’s full-throttled push for shamnesty? Severely damaged and diminished credibility at a critical point in the war on terror overseas…and at home.

***
Thanks to Darth Dilbert for the Photoshop.

The head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, is planning to visit a Shi’ite mosque in Dearborn on Tuesday. Chertoff is to be at the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center, department spokeswoman Veronica Valdes said. The mosque has a largely Iraqi-American congregation.

He will meet with the center’s imam, Husham Al-Husainy, and other religious leaders during a private meeting.

Husham Al-Husainy. Does the name ring a bell? If so, you’ve been paying attention to Debbie Schlussel’s reporting. Too bad Michael Chertoff hasn’t been doing the same. Schlussel writes today:

As you’ll recall, I’ve written a lot about Al-Husainy over the years. I mentioned him two years ago in the Wall Street Journal. More recently, I wrote about Al-Husainy, last year, when I went undercover to a closed Hezbollah rally, and I wrote extensively about him at the beginning of the year after Saddam Hussain’s hanging, and later, when Al-Husainy delivered the invocation at the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting, including in the New York Post (Sean Hannity blatantly ripped off my work on Al-Husainy).

Since Al-Husainy has been an open supporter of Hezbollah and anti-Semitic hate, it’s an outrage that Chertoff would go to Dearbornistan to kiss his ass.

But it’s especially an outrage since agents in Chertoff’s own department are well-versed on Al-Husainy, who has made several recent trips to Iran (his son went, but traveled separately), and who is believed to be sending millions of dollars overseas–perhaps to terrorists–in violation of the Patriot Act. It is well-known that Al-Husainy–who is a supporter of the Jaish Al-Mahdi (the Mahdi Army terrorist group) and its leader Moqtada Al-Sadr–is an agent of the Ahmadinejad government in Iran. (He also advised Iranian-backed candidates for Iraqi Prime Minister and Parliament.) And he has publicly engaged in all kinds of conspiracy theories against America, Israel, and Jews, er . . . “Zionists.”

One other thing on Al-Husainy: Last summer, he coordinated the trips of Nturei Kartah Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss and other rabbis to come repeatedly to Detroit for Hezbollah rallies, at one of which, Al-Husainy remarked, “We make a great time, don’t we?” of the Rabbis. They later appeared at an Iranian Holocaust Denial Conference hosted by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Since no-one believes that these trips have been self-financed by the fringe, self-hating rabbis, it is believed that Al-Husainy is the conduit for Iranian funding for the rabbis.

Al-Husainy was last seen giving an invocation for the DNC winter meeting. Video flashback here.

Maybe Chertoff’s “awesome” pal Teddy Kennedy gave the imam a referral.

***
Actions have consequences. One of the negative consequences of the Department of Homeland Security’s push for shamnesty is its shrinking credibility. From the dog-and-pony show raids before shamnesty hit the Senate floor to the smearing of opponents during the legislative debate to the inaction of “emergency” border security appropriations after the bill’s defeat, DHS and its chief Michael Chertoff have abandoned principled enforcement of immigration laws for cynical, open-borders politicking.

We won’t forget the frenetic smear campaign that Chertoff waged against principled opponents of the Bush-Kennedy immigration disaster. We won’t forget that while global jihad marched on, Secretary Chertoff was more worried about the availability of cheap lettuce pickers than about terrorist operatives slipping past our air, land, and sea borders.

Now, in the wake of last week’s two attempted terrorist car bombings in London and Glasgow, Chertoff is all over the airwaves reassuring us that he’s got everything under control in the U.S. He appeared on weekend talk shows to encourage the American people to “be vigilant and report any suspicious activities to authorities.”

Uh-huh. This from the public official who maligned vigilant immigration enforcement proponents as ignorant bigots who want to execute illegal aliens. This from the public official who has dismissed strict enforcement of our immigration laws as infeasible. This from the public official who lavished praise on security-undermining Teddy Kennedy as “awesome.”

In a last-ditch effort to save shamnesty, the White House dangled a $4.4 billion emergency border security buyout tied to the deal. Why isn’t Chertoff asking for that money now?

The heroic opponents of the Bush-Kennedy bill in the Senate hammered away at the crisis of confidence the American people have in the ability of the feds to secure our borders. There’s no better illustration of that the fatally diminished credibility of the Department of Homeland Insecurity in these dangerous times.

Be vigilant? Oh yes we will be—with no thanks to Michael Chertoff. He can pay lip service to national security all he wants now. But we know where his priorities really are:

***
NRO to White House: Get real.

The White House thinks we’re stupid. DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff thinks we suffer from short-term memory loss. Check out the transcript of Chertoff’s remarks yesterday at a breakfast with the Christian Science Monitor:

Question: Do you think the comments in the blogosphere or on talk radio make it more difficult for members to come to the center on this issue because those comments emphasize, you know, either the left’s support in the form of Ted Kennedy for the bill or I guess the right in the form of the Bush Administration?

Secretary Chertoff: I mean, I understand it’s personally difficult—must be personally difficult sometimes for people to hear discussion on the radio or on television or on blogs which is intemperate, where people are called names. That’s where I do think we step over the line if someone says that you’re a sellout or a traitor if you support the bill. Or sometimes—I mean, I don’t spend a lot of time in the blogosphere but sometimes I see blogs. And, you know, when people write blogs, some of them are well reasoned. But some of them have a lot of capital letters and exclamation points and a lot of language that you tend to hear in an Army barracks and a lot of cursing and attacking of other people’s motives. I don’t think that that’s particularly helpful.

But, you know, I think you make a decision that if you’re going to get into public life, you’re going to do the right thing. And if people are angry and don’t like it, so be it.

Mr. Cook:Dan.

Secretary Chertoff: Can I—let me just say one other thing.

I lived for a long time in an environment where I was prosecuting people, organized crime. So these are people who are bad people who will do pretty much whatever they can to stay out of jail. So I figure if I survived that, you know, I’m not going to worry about people calling me names.

The guy has chutzpah. Here’s a reminder of what poor, aggrieved victim Chertoff said last month about immigration enforcement proponents (video):

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: You know, Wolf, first, I understand there’s some people who expect anything other than capital punishment is an amnesty. The reality is the proposal here requires people who came in illegally who want to stay to pay a penalty. Like a fine. That’s a punishment. That’s not an amnesty.

And here’s a reminder of what he told Newsweek about opponents of the shamnesty bill:

I understand that some people think it’s not tough enough. Maybe they want people thrown in jail for 10 years or they want people executed.

What was that about attacking of other people’s motives, Secretary Chertoff?

Perhaps he should stop talking to the MSM and CLEAR THE DAMN BACKLOGS FIRST!!!!.

Oh, dear. Pardon my capital letters, exclamation points, and Army barracks language. Didn’t mean to frighten you. But you know how we Loud Folks are.

He says, “Get real.” We say: Get a clue.

***
Related: Hugh Hewitt’s interview with Chertoff earlier this week.

If Chertoff makes the Sunday rounds, will someone please ask him about his smearing of immigration enforcement proponents and expressed contempt for grass-roots conservatives. Please?

This is Manuel Flores. He is an illegal alien fugitive from the law. He is accused of raping and sodomizing his girlfriend’s nine-year-old daughter.

Nine-year-old daughter.

Manuel Flores is free, reportedly headed back to Mexico, because federal immigration officials screwed up, according to a local Denver report. I linked to this story earlier today, but it deserves greater exposure. And it deserves the attention of DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, who has been too busy demonizing immigration enforcement proponents to make sure his behemoth bureaucracy is doing its damned job:

Law enforcement agencies say they followed policies and procedures, but an illegal alien, accused of sexually assaulting a nine year-old Denver girl, was still able to post a bond and flee the country.

The man, who called himself Manuel Flores, was arrested February 15 and accused of raping and sodomizing his girlfriend’s daughter. According to police documents, he was not able to provide a Social Security number or driver’s license. When he was booked into the Denver Jail, he told Officers he was born in Moralos, Mexico.

A Sheriff’s Department spokesman says they alerted federal immigration officials that Flores might be an illegal alien, but ICE apparently did not put an immigration hold on him.

A private bounty hunter tracked Flores down. But no one’s lifting a finger to bring him back here to face charges:

Bounty hunter James Ness discovered Flores real name and tracked him to his hometown in Mexico. Ness says he provided the information to prosecutors, but there is no move to bring the suspect back to the United States. Ness says he thinks this case fell through the cracks, but he adds, “But the crack is huge. A lot of people fall into that crack.”

ICE and the Judge did not respond to Fox31 calls. The Denver Sheriff’s Department says they report roughly 20 suspected illegal aliens under arrest to ICE each day. But the federal agency typically puts holds on only two or three.

Yet another case of the federal immigration bureaucracy following “standard procedure,” eh, Secretary Chertoff?

Perhaps the DHS Secretary should spend less time on TV trashing immigration enforcement proponents–and a little more time investigating how his agency endangers innocent lives.

Who screwed up? How did this happen? What is Chertoff going to do to bring Flores back and ensure that justice is done?

Ask him:

DHS Citizen Line
Operator Number: 202-282-8000
Comment Line: 202-282-8495

Hello? Is anybody there?