Teddy Kennedy sabotages national security: Why did he do it?

Gerard Jackson
BrookesNews.Com
Saturday 1 Feb. 2003

Teddy Kennedy, Massachusetts' notorious Senator, successfully sabotaged the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System. He did this by the simple device of attaching an amendment to a giant spending bill. This tactic effectively killed the registration system that had already caught three "known terrorists" and several hundred criminals. Thanks to Kennedy immigrants from countries known to harbour or sympathise with terrorists no longer have to register with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. This can only mean, considering the past success of the program, that more terrorists and criminals will be able to enter the US undetected.

Kennedy was not alone in his opposition to this anti-terrorist program. Senator Russ Feingold and Representative John Conyers of Michigan also opposed it, despite the fact that the program would help prevent another 9-11 by allowing the presence of these foreigners to be monitored. Notwithstanding the protestations of these gentlemen, the program was designed to protect Americans from terrorism and certainly not to harass foreign visitors.

By destroying this program and preventing a government agency from keeping track of foreigners on American territory these three Democrats have undermined national security and put the lives of Americans at risk. Why did they do it? Kennedy has been unable to provide a coherent defense of his reprehensible action. Conyers and Feingold have been just as forthcoming. Surely there must be something that links the actions of these three? A common thread that provides a clue to their reckless behavior.

As far back as 1979 Conyers addressed the US Peace Council, a Soviet front organisation, and attacked America as "the main threat to world peace." He also supported the attempted Marxist-Leninist Sandinistas, Maurice Bishop, Marxist dictator of Grenada, and the World Peace Council, another Soviet Front. In fact, Representative Conyers was so fond of Soviet fronts he even taught at the Washington-based IPS which cooperated with the KGB during the Cold War.

Kennedy is also linked to the IPS. Shortly after Orlando Letelier, a Soviet agent, was assassinated in Washington in 1976 by Pinochet's intelligence agency FBI agents attempted to enter Letelier's home. It was Kennedy's aid, Mark Schneider, who stopped them. Kennedy has never explained why his aid was helping a KGB agent's friends 'clean up'.

It was on Schneider's advice, meaning the IPS, that Kennedy introduced a successful amendment in the Senate to cut off economic aid to Chile. He had also voted earlier to cut off aid to South Vietnam, another IPS initiative. In 1978 Kennedy sent WOLA (Washington Office on Latin America) a letter expressing thanks for the help it had given him. WOLA was an IPS spin-off and Soviet front. Given these facts it is little wonder that Kennedy took on IPS economist David Smith as an economics adviser. This action in itself probably explains, at least in part, why his economic suggestions are usually so bad.

Russ Feingold is linked to the IPS through the organizations he uses to bash republicans, one of which is the Community Rights Counsel. Although it is true that a great many other Democrats use these IPS fronts as sources this fact only serves to demonstrate how extensive the malevolent influence of the IPS is. What we find is that three non-too bright Democrats have voted against a successful anti-terrorist program that the IPS, itself a supporter of terrorist groups, opposes.

Draw your own conclusions.

Gerard Jackson is Brookesnews' economics editor