Site Search:
 
Speak Korean Now!
Teach English Abroad and Get Paid to see the World!
Korean Job Discussion Forums Forum Index Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

U.S. senator apologizes for claiming 9/11 attackers came...

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Korean Job Discussion Forums Forum Index -> Current Events Forum
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Octavius Hite



Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Location: Househunting, looking for a new bunker from which to convert the world to homosexuality.

PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 7:26 pm    Post subject: U.S. senator apologizes for claiming 9/11 attackers came... Reply with quote

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/12/21/border-senator-051221.html

Quote:
A Montana senator says he "misspoke" when he erroneously claimed that the people who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks entered the United States from Canada.

Sen. Conrad Burns sent a letter on Tuesday to Canada's ambassador to the United States, apologizing for his comments at a news conference a day earlier.

"I misspoke on this matter," Burns, a Republican, writes in the letter to Ambassador Frank McKenna.

"And I ignored my notes indicating my sincere belief that securing the border is vitally important to not only the United States but Canada as well."

But he insisted his mistake shouldn't deflect focus from his main concern, saying security problems "clearly exist on the border."

Burns cites the case of Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer, who had planned to bomb a New York subway and was arrested in 1997 on his third illegal entry into the United States from Canada.

He also noted that Ahmed Ressam, who plotted to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport during the Millennium celebrations, was arrested at the B.C.-Washington border on his way south in 1999.

"These incidents are disturbing and should not be ignored," Burns wrote.

"We still have much work ahead of us. ... The threat of terrorists crossing from the United States to Canada is just as real and those who wish to do harm should not be able to cross a porous border to carry out an attack in either country."

McKenna demanded a retraction from Burns on Monday, after he told reporters at a news conference on border security: "We've got to remember that the people who first hit us in 9/11 entered this country through Canada."

McKenna said he felt he had to speak up because the remarks were "patently false" and could seriously mislead Americans over the events that preceded the 2001 attacks.

Even though investigators have determined that not one of the attackers entered the United States from Canada or Mexico, the mistaken belief has persisted among some Americans.

McKenna has tried aggressively to challenge the myth, which raises hackles in Ottawa.

In the spring, another prominent Republican – former House speaker Newt Gingrich – apologized to Canada after telling a television network that "far more of the 9/11 terrorists came across from Canada than from Mexico."

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a border security bill on Dec. 16, which includes an initiative to study building a security wall along the Canada-U.S. border.

Canadian officials said the issue had never been raised by U.S. officials during regular joint meetings on border security.

They said Canada had no interest in a wall.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Ya-ta Boy



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994

PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 7:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm sure I read somewhere that a couple of the hijackers had been traced to a motel room rented by the office of the mayor of Toronto.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Wangja



Joined: 17 May 2004
Location: Seoul, Yongsan

PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 8:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ya-ta Boy wrote:
I'm sure I read somewhere that a couple of the hijackers had been traced to a motel room rented by the office of the mayor of Toronto.


Nice to see you on such good form today YTB. Laughing
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
canuckistan
Mod Team
Mod Team


Joined: 17 Jun 2003
Location: Training future GS competitors.....

PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 9:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
"I misspoke on this matter," Burns, a Republican, writes in the letter to Ambassador Frank McKenna.

"And I ignored my notes indicating my sincere belief that securing the border is vitally important to not only the United States but Canada as well."

But he insisted his mistake shouldn't deflect focus from his main concern, saying security problems "clearly exist on the border."


In my estimation the Mexican "border" makes the Canadian border look like Alcatraz.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
khyber



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Compunction Junction

PostPosted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

i don't understand why they use examples of people getting CAUGHT at the border to support border tightenning.
If people are getting caught, you should congradulate the border guards for doing a good job. Keep looking into things but why use examples of success to help the hand of change? Seems counter productive.

also, i'd note that if I were at terrorist, i'd also go through mexico...makes complete, utter and just ridiculous amounts of sense.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Ya-ta Boy



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994

PostPosted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 4:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
makes complete, utter and just ridiculous amounts of sense.


Having been to neither place, is it really easier to cross the border from, say the desert of Sonora than the fields of Manitoba?

I don't see why we don't dig a trench from the North Atlantic to the North Pacific and let Canada be an island. Judging from the tone of the posters on this forum, they'd be happier to be an island.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
laogaiguk



Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Location: somewhere in Korea

PostPosted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 4:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ya-ta Boy wrote:
Quote:
makes complete, utter and just ridiculous amounts of sense.


Having been to neither place, is it really easier to cross the border from, say the desert of Sonora than the fields of Manitoba?

I don't see why we don't dig a trench from the North Atlantic to the North Pacific and let Canada be an island. Judging from the tone of the posters on this forum, they'd be happier to be an island.

Yes, again Canadians all hate America and now that the trench idea has been thrown out by an American, we can discuss it without being attacked. You have no idea how long Canadians have been thinking of doing that. Just the employment it would create! I am sure Quebec would like to make a few detours around it's borders too.
Trench, good idea. I heard there was another country that has been thinking of building a big wall (they beat us to trying to geographically isolate ourselves, and it isn't Isreal) to box themselves in.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Ya-ta Boy



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994

PostPosted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hmmmm....there is either something wrong in the way I'm expressing myself tonight or in the way you are reading me. My focus was on the first paragraph, not the second. I honestly don't see where you get 'all' out of what I have said in the totality of my posts.

Some of my best friends are Canadian. If you can convince them to take a bath before Saturday night, they make perfectly presentable house guests.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
laogaiguk



Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Location: somewhere in Korea

PostPosted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 1:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ya-ta Boy wrote:
Hmmmm....there is either something wrong in the way I'm expressing myself tonight or in the way you are reading me. My focus was on the first paragraph, not the second. I honestly don't see where you get 'all' out of what I have said in the totality of my posts.

Some of my best friends are Canadian. If you can convince them to take a bath before Saturday night, they make perfectly presentable house guests.


I guess I was maybe just having a bad night. I was really, really tired.

Then again..., maybe America is somehow controlling my thoughts with it's anti-terror satellite and causing me to bad mouth them so then Canadians will look bad in the eyes of the American public and Bush can then attack Canada before he leaves office Very Happy
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Hollywoodaction



Joined: 02 Jul 2004

PostPosted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 5:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ya-ta Boy wrote:
Some of my best friends are Canadian. If you can convince them to take a bath before Saturday night, they make perfectly presentable house guests.



I spoke to them (we Canadians all know each other). They said they might reconsider taking a bath if you stopped chewing tobacco and picking your nose in public... And it really creeps them out when you pull out your photo albums and point out which of your cousins are good kissers (you call them 'honey') and which are not.


Last edited by Hollywoodaction on Sun Dec 25, 2005 7:49 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Ya-ta Boy



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994

PostPosted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 7:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you aren't supposed to call your kissing cousins 'honey' then what are you supposed to call them? Especially if they make Daisy Mae look flat-chested. Cousin Janey Lou was fishing off Chippewa Creek bridge once. Some poor out of towner saw her and drove his pickup off the bridge. Fell 45 feet to his death. Cousin Janey Lou never quite forgave herself. I do my best to comfort her.

On a similar note: One Saturday night I pulled in to some burg along the north shore of Lake Huron for some gas. Went in the little cafe for a sandwich and Coke. There were 6 or 7 people there. Ma was trying to round up the kids for the weekly bath. I swear there were no branches on that family tree. When I saw pappy push Mabel off his lap and pull out his banjo I ran for my car and got the heck out of Sturgeon Bay, or whatever the name was.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Moldy Rutabaga



Joined: 01 Jul 2003
Location: Ansan, Korea

PostPosted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 4:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Sen. Conrad Burns sent a letter on Tuesday to Canada's ambassador to the United States, apologizing for his comments at a news conference a day earlier.

He did apologize. Good on him. Maybe MP Carolyn Parrish could apologize for calling Americans morons and bastards now. We're waiting.

Ken:>
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
VanIslander



Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!

PostPosted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 5:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ya-ta Boy wrote:
I'm sure I read somewhere that a couple of the hijackers had been traced to a motel room rented by the office of the mayor of Toronto.

Yeah, but the mayor was in Hawaii at the time, silly! BC. premier Gordon Campbell was there too, though out of the room, on a beer run. Albertan premier Ralph Klein criticized them both for not goin' to White Ave instead, to support the Canadian economy, though he complimented them for kicking out Svend Robinson.

Canadian politics. Yikes!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
The Man known as The Man



Joined: 29 Mar 2003
Location: 3 cheers for Ted Haggard oh yeah!

PostPosted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 2:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

canuckistan wrote:
Quote:
"I misspoke on this matter," Burns, a Republican, writes in the letter to Ambassador Frank McKenna.

"And I ignored my notes indicating my sincere belief that securing the border is vitally important to not only the United States but Canada as well."

But he insisted his mistake shouldn't deflect focus from his main concern, saying security problems "clearly exist on the border."


In my estimation the Mexican "border" makes the Canadian border look like Alcatraz.


Just imagine a great wall, c.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Korean Job Discussion Forums Forum Index -> Current Events Forum All times are GMT - 8 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling.
Contact Dave's ESL Cafe
Copyright © 2018 Dave Sperling. All Rights Reserved.

Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group

TEFL International Supports Dave's ESL Cafe
TEFL Courses, TESOL Course, English Teaching Jobs - TEFL International