What Would Jose Do?

On August 4, 2001, a Saudi national, Mohamed al-Qahtani, arriving on a flight which originated in the United Arab Emirates, was referred for secondary inspection upon landing at the Orlando International Airport. He was referred to the screening because he had not correctly filled out a mandatory customs form, due to a purported inability to speak English. The Immigration and Naturalization Services inspector with whom al-Qahtani then came into contact admitted that a search of al-Qahtani's luggage turned up nothing suspicious. Likewise, a check of the relevant watch-list data bases turned up no evidence of wrong doing. The inspector, Jose Melendez-Perez, a 26 year honorable, combat veteran of the US Army also agreed that the suspect's answers to his questions were not, in and of themselves, enough to deny him entry to the US. However, after an exhaustive interview Melendez-Perez denied al-Qahtani entry, against the advice of co-workers, and escorted him to a Dubai-bound plane. As al-Qahtani stepped into the waiting plane, he paused, turned to Melendez-Perez and, in perfect English, said, "I'll be back."

Mohamed al-Qahtani is indeed back. Well, not quite. He is currently a guest of the US government at Guantanamo Bay. You see al-Qahtani was captured in Afghanistan, while fighting US ground forces. Under interrogation he has admitted that he was to be the 20th hijacker on September 11th. A review of the cell phone records of 9/11 hijacker Mohammad Atta seems to bear this out as he was at the Orlando Airport at the exact time al-Qahtani was being interviewed by Jose Melendez-Perez. In fact, before al-Qahtani decided to stop answering questions he told Mr Melendez-Perez that someone was there to pick him up, but refused to answer who. We now know that Jose's instincts were correct and that his actions undoubtedly saved numerous lives. The valiant, heroic passengers of United Flight 93 might not have been able to thwart the hijacker's plans if their plane, like the other three, had had 5 terrorists aboard.

We now know for a fact that the passengers of Flight 93 caused the plane to crash before it reached its intended target. Whether that target was the Capitol or the White House is still unknown, but tapes played during the sentencing stage of Zacarias Moussaoui's trial forever put to bed any doubt that the ordinary, everyday passengers of Flight 93 fought back against their hijackers. Tapes played to a packed courtroom proved that, even knowing the odds against them, they banded together, men and women from disparate backgrounds, and fought in the finest traditions of the American citizen soldier. They repeatedly rammed a drink cart against the locked cockpit door. At least one hijacker was dispatched to his date with Allah by Americans who, warned of the earlier 9/11 attacks via cell phone conversations, refused to go like sheep to the slaughter. They had to know that they had scant chance of surviving the confrontation. And yet, armed with pots of boiling water, a beverage cart and accumulated odds and ends they attacked their hijackers and fought, literally, to the death.

Zacarias Moussaoui originally asserted that he was to be the 20th hijacker on 9/11. Since then he has declared that he and "shoe-bomber" Richard Reed were to be the hijackers in another 9/11-like attack. What he was honestly here for, we will probably never know. What we do know is that after he was captured the FBI found phone numbers for 11 of the 19 hijackers in his possession. We also know that while taking fight training in Minnesota he expressed no desire to learn how to land. He has, in open court, pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and admitted being an Al-Qaeda member, with prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. It is worth noting that he has since recanted the statement regarding prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks.

By now you are, no doubt, wondering why I have combined the events of August 4, 2001, and April 13, 2006. The answer is simple: instead of being given a forum to smirk at the family members of 9/11 victims, Moussaoui should have been denied entry to begin with by an observant INS inspector. We need more men such as Jose Melendez-Perez guarding our points of entry. Had Jose been present when Moussaoui attempted to enter the US I have no doubt he would have been turned away. I have met Jose, twice. He is an unassuming man who, when greeted by a 600 person standing ovation at a luncheon given in his honor, said simply, "I wish my father was here to see this." Jose exhibited common sense and, due to heroic efforts of other patriots, part of a larger plan was altered. We now should exhibit common sense as a nation and alter the future plans of these miscreants who would cut our throats. Any person suspected of ties to the Islamic insurgents should be immediately sent to Guantanamo Bay. Likewise, anyone captured on the field of battle should be remanded to the custody of the military there, or some other such place. There they should stand trial before a military tribunal and, if convicted, summarily executed. No more should we treat the threat from Islamic fascists as if it were a matter to be solved by the FBI and the federal courts. War means fighting and fighting means killing, to paraphrase one of our greatest Civil War generals. You would think that a lesson so dearly learned then, would resonate now. I can only hope that the verdict of death is awarded Moussaoui, even though the appeal process will undoubtedly continue to play out in our living rooms. Instead of seeing terrorists on multiple segments of the nightly news we should see them for who, and what, they are, and send them to the afterlife they so desperately desire.