ANOTHER BORDER CRISIS – AT 10:32 A.M. ET:  Our southern border is constantly in the news, usually because it is the crossing point for most illegal immigrants.  But there are others who might cross that border, and they aren't coming to improve their lives.  From the Washington Post: 

About 100 people have joined the Islamic State militant group from countries in the Caribbean and South America, and existing human smuggling networks are in place that could allow them to infiltrate the United States if they return, said a top U.S. general on Thursday.

Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, chief of U.S. Southern Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the networks are “so efficient that if a terrorist or almost anyone wants to get into our country, they just pay the fare.”

“No one checks their passports,” the general said. “No one, you know, they don’t go through metal detectors. No one cares why they’re coming. They just ride this network.“

More than 15,000 foreign fighters have poured into the Middle East to join the Islamic State, traveling primarily to Syria. Kelly, who oversees U.S. military operations in Central and South America and the Caribbean, acknowledged that the number of fighters coming from his region is small, but said that the countries involved don’t have the ability to monitor those returning well.

“I would suspect … that while they’re in Syria they’ll get good at killing and they’ll pick up some real job skills in terms of explosives and beheadings and things like that,” Kelly said. “Everyone is concerned, of course, if they come home because if they go over radicalized, one can expect that they’ll come back at least that radicalized, but with really good job skills.”

COMMENT:  A small number of infiltrators can do devastating damage.  Recall that only 19 hijackers produced the 9-11 attacks. 

Also, weapons of mass destruction, broken down into components, can be smuggled across our border as well.  We should not judge the enemy only by his numbers, but by his capability, and by the weapons he's given. 

March 13, 2015