more has been heard about the need forrnwarrants. The logie is sini]3le: Would anrninternet seriee pro”ider Hke it to bernknown tiiat it had delaed or ()l:)struetedrnthe VV>1 in a quest for information thatrnmight hae ])reented more airliners fromrnbeing hijaeked, more buildings from beingrnblown up? The c|uestion is absurd:rnC’arui()re is here to sta.rnBut this is not simpb a eontliet betweenrneffeetixe |5olieing and ei il-liberlarianrnidealism, between good eo].is andrnnaie eggheads. If the I’BI or au odierrnagene has an’ reasonable suspieion thatrniutereeptiug eoninnuiieations mightrnlielp suppress terrorism, 1 w isli it sueee.ssrnin its endeavors, khe problem is that, inrnmost instanees, this is just not going tornha|5|5en, and random trawls ean een dornmore harm than good. BasiealU, toornmueh informahon ean cnerwhelm a sstem,rneen if the indiidnal pieees of iulonuationrnare prieeless.rnI he prineiple ean be ilhistrated fromrnan autiterrorist or eountersubxersionrnwar, from N’ietnam to Algeria to Ulster.rnTime and again, seeurit” forees liax’rntried lo pull in lumdreds or een thousandsrnof snspeets, who are either not interrogatedrnthoroughU , or who produecrnso uuieh information that the sstem isrns\ amped. k’ar better to round up a do/eurnor so aeti ists who ean be interrogated inrndepth, widi the iniormation |3ro]5erK- anaK/rned and assimilated, khose wars, ofrncourse, are aneient hi,stor’: I lie oceurredrnin the dear, dead past, before eleetrouiernsnreillanee beeame so miraculonsK”rn”efteetiNe,” and eomputers eoiddrnI in theor) anab/e all the data. k’en so,rnsomewhere along die line, ineffieieut humanrnbeings hae to read and reaet tornwhat the eom|5nters are eolleeting. .ndrnthe’ are going lo miss a great deal.rnCarnivore, in short, might be die worstrnoi both worlds. Random snooping interferesrnmassixeb with the priae of eommunieations,rnwhile offering little ehaneernthat bad gus will be apprehended, burthermore,rnC’arni()re is a smptom ofrnAmeriea’s oerrelianee on eleetrouiernleehuologies, whieh hae largeK displaeedrntraditional human iutelligeneerntaeties —the use of s]3ies, moles, and defeetors.rnkhese methods hae worked wellrnin the ]5ast, and ]3r()|5erl applied, thcrnmight een hae averted the eatastrophernin NewAork C’ih this pa.st September.rn•^Philip Jenkinsrnay&S?KsrnAJV-INES’ IT for illegal immigrants is anrnidea whose time not onK has ]3assed but,rnlike Elizabcdian eollars and irginit^•, eanrnhardU be imagined —unless what PeterrnBrimelow ealks “inuiiigration enthusiasts”rnare more fauatieal still than thernMuslim terrorists who struck the Worldrnkracle CA^uter and the Pentagon on Septemberrn11. kAen before the strike, a majorrnnational ])oll showed 69 pereent ofrnthe ,meriean publie o]3|X)sed to amnesh;rnthe week previous to the eatastrophe.rnRush Limbangh, in a dramatie reversal,rndevoted hvo hours of his radio program tornattaeking illegal and even, hv inrplieatiou,rnlegal imiuigration. Recent reports,rnas of diis writing, have Presidents GeorgernW. l^ush and ‘icente Fox putting Hieirrnheads together to disenss how to makernthe 2,l()()-nule Mexieau-Aueriean borderrnless o]3en, not more so.rn.Almost the lirst words out of AbivorrnRudolph Cuiliaui’s month after die hvornhijacked ]Dlanes collided with the WorldrnIrade Center towers were exhortations tornNew Yorkers to refrain from comnnttingrnhate thought against “|3eo])le of otherrnfaiths ‘ and colors; before the week wasrnout, the k’Bl announced it woidd prosecuternharassment of AInslims and Middlernk.asterners in the I hiited States as a federalrnhate crime. Hav ing done its best to a.ssnrernthat minorities in America got arngood night’s sleep, the establishmentrndropped the alien issue fa.st —but not fa.strnenough. Talk-show hosts and Hicir guestsrnO CIrnhad alreadv taken up the cincshon of howrnhate-ridden alien criminals came to bernhere in die first place.rn1 he pro-immigration lobbv is naturallvrnconeerued tor Bush’s Aiexiean ainncshrnproposal and kom Daschle’s universalrnone. which it fears will come to naught,rnhideed, it will be luekv if its losses are restrictedrnto the withdrawal of aumestvrnplans. What I call the wild card (secrn'”khe I’lhrd C’om|3artmcnt.” V’;’cir,s, p.rn14) has been turned up at last, and allrnbets are off on the direction die immigrationrndebate is likcK to take from here onrnout. Overnight, immigration has beenrntransformed from an ideological luxurv, arnmoralistic indulgence, and a capitalistrnsubterfuge into a black-and-white issue ofrnnational securih—of national survival, inrnfact. Wliatcv er limited success Washington’srnretaliatorv strikes mav achieve,rnnothing is more assured than that thernPresident’s “crusade” abroad will ultimalelvrn]5rovc as futile as his grandiose attemptrnto “rid the world ofcvik” I’licre isrnone wav, and one wav onlv, to providernAmerica with a measure of securitv’, andrndiat is to secure its borders tightlv (if notrnto seal diem off completelv) and preventrnmore immigrant terrorists from comingrnin along with all the rest; idenhb.’ thosernthat are alreadv here; round them up;rnand deport dicm. If the events of Septemberrn11 have not vet made the truthrnclear, subsecpicnt and perhaps muchrnworse ones are likelv to do so. The issuernIS no loueer xeiio pliobi; 1 versus xenc :)phrnia, diversih versus homogeneih, gcnerositvrnversus selfishness, nnivcrsal nationhoodrnversus die nation-state, libertarianrneconomies versus rncreautilism, cahritornversus steak and mashed potatoes. It isrnsurvival, pure and simple; and unlessrnAmericans have totallv lost their mindsrnalong w ith their stock portfolios, diev willrnrecognize the prospect of wTat one commentatorrnhas described as “interminablernwarflire” and make die appropriate mentalrnand political adjustments.rnWhen I learned of die strikes againstrndie World d’rade CAiitcr and the Pentagon,rnmv first thought was that the perpetratorsrnmust have arrived in the UnitedrnStates on international flights just hoursrnbefore Hiev commandeered die doomedrnplanes. The trudi, of course, w as odicrwise:rnManv of them had lived severalrnvears in this countrv, vvliere diev “assimilated”rninto America so far as to enroll inrnflight school, attain valuable job skills,rnparticipate in the eonsnmer economv,rnand acc|uire a Florida or Cjalifoniia tan.rn(I’ve even heard dicse devoted Aluslimsrndeveloped a taste tor vodka tonics, butrnperhaps diat was jnst a joke in bad taste.)rnMav be we will learn that thev acc]uiredrnstock portfolios of their own —of whichrndicv divested diemselves at die appropriaternsplit-second, of course —and diat dicvrnea.sl votes in die 21)01) election. Modelrnimmigrants, in short, of the kind JackrnKemp has praised as “entrepreneurial”rnand Julian Simon called die “ultimate resource.”rnk’,xccpt for one thing: Wliile doingrnwell in America, Hiese people hatedrnits — our—guts.rnWdiat kind of countrv accepts immigrantsrnfrom countries w ith which it is, cffectivelv,rninvolved in protracted warfare?rndlie kindest word I can think of is “naive.”rnAnvone who wants to come to the UnitedrnStates (so die assumption goes) must berngood; anvone w ho wants to come herernfrom an eueuiv nation or a rival culturernmust be even better. Immigrants emigraternto .America becansc thev love usrn(hav ing watched us on ‘IV); because thevrnwant to contribute to tiie world-epochalrnNOVEMBER 2001..’7rnrnrn