On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, has America forgotten the lessons from that attack?
The hijackers’ absurdly inadequate visa applications were nonetheless approved by the State Department because, as the head of the issuing office was wont to say, “People gotta get their visas!” A gate agent issued Mohammed Atta a boarding pass despite the terrorist’s suspicious behavior because he didn’t want to appear prejudiced.
Today, similar good intentions have led non-profit groups to push the United States to take in more Afghans, arguing that we should stand by our erstwhile allies.
But since former President Joe Biden’s 2021 disastrous withdrawal, we’ve taken in more than 200,000 poorly vetted Afghans. Some of them were indeed genuine allies of the United States, just as many in the visa lines in Saudi Arabia in 2001 were harmless travelers.
But which ones?