Why in the world would we allow a foreign national the privilege of driving a school bus carrying our children?

On March 18, 2006, the FBI released a statement to the media, after informing state and local officials, advising:

* Extremists are driving school buses;

* There is no need to fear an attack and we can rest assured of our safety; and

* There are no indications the extremists who drive the school buses are involved in a terrorist plot against our homeland.

Let’s examine this “advisory.”

The first point to be made is that if you go to the FBI or Homeland Security websites, you will not find any news of this important advisory. If it exists somewhere on these websites, it is buried deep. It appears no where on the home page, no where on the advisory page, and no where on the press page of their respective sites. Apparently, it was enough to send it to the Associated Press which distributed it to the other media outlets.

To the substance. Here is the heart of the story as reported by most outlets:

WASHINGTON — The FBI has issued an "informational bulletin" to state and local officials saying to watch out for people tied to extremist groups trying to earn licenses to drive school buses.

The Associated Press reports that members of the unnamed extremist groups have succeeded in gaining the drivers licenses, but a Department of Homeland Security official told FOX News that "at this time there is no evidence that any of these individuals have got these jobs, or got hold of school buses."

"There is no plot. There is no threat. And parents and children can feel perfectly safe," FBI spokesman Richard Kolko told FOXNews.com.

The Department of Homeland Security official said the bulletin was sent to state and local law enforcement officials, and "some school districts have reported an increased number of foreign nationals seeking school bus driver positions and a number of other unusual events."

The official said that, out of an abundance of caution, the FBI shared the information.

An unnamed counterterrorism official told The Associated Press that the bulletin — sent Friday to state and local law enforcement agencies — did not say how often foreign extremists attempted to get licenses or drive school buses, and did not specify where this might have happened.

The bulletin noted "recent suspicious activity" by foreigners who either drive school buses or are licensed to drive them, the official told The Associated Press.

Foreigners under recent investigation include "some with ties to extremist groups" who have been able to "purchase buses and acquire licenses," the bulletin says.

The first obvious point is the absolute failure, manifestly pathetic failure, to identify the “extremist groups” even by category. Are these Marxists? African-American radicals hearkening back to the Black Panthers? The tiny but fierce Jewish Underground linked to radical Jews trying to blow up the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem? Anarchists?

So what is the purpose of this “advisory?”

"I hate to characterize this as a warning," Kolko said, calling it an "informational bulletin." He said this was part of routine information sent to local law enforcement agencies that they should use only as background information while doing their normal duties.

"This is just an awareness issue for local law enforcement.. . . It just makes them smarter," he said. [Emphasis added.]

How exactly is this going to make local law enforcement or the public “smarter?” Are the people at the FBI and Homeland Security such imbeciles? Whom are we supposed to be looking out for? Jews in prayer shawls? Blacks with tattoos? Radical feminists or animal rights activists? Or, maybe, just maybe, young Arab, Persian or South Asian men?

And, if the FBI did not want to be accused of “racial” profiling, why could it not just tell us that these foreign nationals belong to Islamic terror groups? Why would our homeland security officials play hide-and-seek with critical evidence that will help the public and local law enforcement prevent future terror attacks? Can it possibly be that PC sensitivities are more important than saving American lives?

And, of course, the damning part of all of this is that if you go through all of the various press announcements stemming from this “advisory,” you will not find one reference to Islam and Muslims. Why? Because all the mainstream media did was republish the same Associated Press story. Not one MSM outlet that we could find bothered to try and get the news behind the PC news on this story. Not one.

The second point to be made here is that while the FBI refuses to tell us who these “extremists” are, they do tell us that these extremists have acquired the necessary and specialized licensing to drive school buses. So, what do you think these “extremists” want to do with such licenses? Take up transporting young Muslim children to and from the Islamic day schools in the US?

And, of course, the FBI and the Homeland Security advisory neglected to mention something else. And, needless to say, the MSM didn’t bother to run a check to connect the dots either. But, guess what? Someone in Iraq, IN IRAQ!, was interested to know how US school districts would respond to a crisis. Imagine that. Do you recall the Beslan massacre in Russia?

So that we understand what it is the FBI wants us to think about to be “smarter,” let’s review the facts. Known extremists, probably Muslims (and this includes Arabs, North Africans, Persians or “South Asians” from Pakistan or Afghanistan), have sought out specialized licenses to drive school buses. Aside from the fact that the FBI does not tell us that these “extremists” are Muslims, government officials charged with our security and safety also don’t tell us if they know all of the identities of these extremists and if their whereabouts are known. They also fail to even mention the connection with the computer disk in Iraq as if there could never be a connection in the same way as there could not have been a connection between Arab men signing up to learn to fly commercial jets and a known heightened terrorist alert prior to 9-11 relating to an airline hijacking.

Before 9-11 this negligence might have gotten by. But post 9-11, this can only be labeled what it is: criminal recklessness.

We as Americans demand to know which “extremists” are here in the US trying to acquire access to this country’s most precious assets – our children. We demand it and we demand it now!

But more than this, we as Americans can do more. Now is not a time for panic or fear. Now is a time for action. First things. America must enact the SANE Immigration Proposal.

Short of that but at the very least, we can and must protect our children by removing anyone who is not in America legally. When they are stopped in our streets, seen or known to be working at certain locations, or when they protest in our streets we should demand that the immigration officials or local law enforcement agencies arrest them “on the spot” and either put them in jail or send them back to their home countries. Controlling the illegal immigration problem is the absolute minimum we must insist upon to return America to Americans.

In addition, we can further protect our children by mandating that only U.S. citizens with extensive background checks be allowed to drive and own the school buses on which our children ride. In the AP story, the FBI “advisory” memo is quoted as follows: “Most attempts by foreign nationals in the United States to acquire school bus licenses to drive them are legitimate."

How could this be? Why in the world would we allow a foreign national the privilege of driving a school bus carrying our children? Do we not understand it was and continues to be these “foreign nationals” who seek our death and destruction? Is it not enough to keep tabs on our own citizens?

Government officials of course will say these strategies are excessive. Ask any American who has a child on a school bus if the above measures are excessive. The only ones who will say what I suggest is too aggressive are either naïve or leftists who either do not have children or their children attend private schools (and travel by carefully screened drivers, private limousines, or personal SUVs). But even if you could find some otherwise responsible parent who would not object to Muslim foreign nationals driving their children to school, we who understand the war must not allow this kind of PC blindness or American self-hatred to put our children at risk. It is simply unthinkable.

The final point, although it need not be made explicit, is the FBI’s contention that, “[t]here are no indications the extremists who drive the school buses are involved in a terrorist plot against our homeland.” This one deserves the Bill O’Reilly award for most ridiculous statement of the day.  Any foreign national the FBI has identified as an extremist is a danger to our children. A fortiori any Muslim so identified. All Islamic “extremists” want to kill Americans (men, women, and children). They have repeatedly stated as an organization they want to destroy America.  Osama Bin Laden, other al Qaeda members, and many Islamic terrorist groups continue to tell America they want to destroy us, and the best way to get at the heart of Americans is through their children.

How is it fathomable that the FBI could simply expect us to ignore this reality? Do they suppose we are really so stupid or gullible?

I receive inquiries from local law enforcement officials regularly asking for training and advice because the federal agencies have simply dropped the ball. After 9-11 and after Katrina, we need no more evidence of our government’s abject failure to protect us.