Aliens among us.

Here's a something from a Michael Ledeen report that's almost three years old but is still as fresh as the morning dew:

In March, 2005, Mahmoud Youssef Kourani, pleaded guilty to "providing material support to Hezbollah." Hezbollah (rhymes with "Ebola") is a terrorist organization that's owned and operated by Iran, in case you didn't know.

Other important facts about Mr. Kourani:

• he received training in weaponry, spy craft and counterintelligence in Lebanon;
• he received training in weaponry, spy craft and counterintelligence in Iran;
• he was "a member, fighter, recruiter and fund-raiser for Hezbollah";
• his brother is Hezbollah's chief of military security in southern Lebanon;
• this brother "oversaw" his activities;
• he pleaded guilty to harboring an illegal immigrant; and
• at the time of his indictment for providing support to Hezbollah he was awaiting deportation.

At the time of his indictment for supporting a terrorist organization, this bastard was a resident of

Dearborn, Michigan.

The question of the hour is none other than, "How did this spectacularly inappropriate candidate for admission to the U.S. ever get in to our country?"

Whatever immigration law is – and in the past we had no difficulty excluding communists and others with aberrant thinking – a person with these family connections, no matter how remote, should be summarily excluded or stripped of citizenship and deported. (Persons intending to emigrate to the U.S. could win a few extra points by cooperating -- beforehand -- with American intelligence to locate and identify their radical kinsmen.)

Residence and citizenship are precious rights, though you wouldn’t know it from what McCain or any of the other lightweights running for president have said. (Grudging, tepid acknowledgment to satisfy patriots count for nothing.)

A mere family connection with jihadis should raise impossibly high barriers that can be overcome only by a waiver from the Secretary of Homeland Security.

It's time for the lawyers in the Congress to come up with a legislative provision that embodies this precept that ought to be our lode star when it comes to dealing with Muslims in our midst:

Better safe than sorry.

It's clear enough to me, but McCain and the others will need remedial instruction.

The American Conspirators Liberation Union will need life support at the suggestion that a foreigner -- any foreigner -- has fewer rights than a full-blown citizen. The optimum ACLU position is that U.S. citizens have no more rights in the U.S. than citizens of Waziristan.

"Why Is Bush All Hat And No Cattle In Iran?" By Michael Ledeen, 5/6/05.