RUTHFULLY YOURS

Huge sums of money are spent by our government and the governments of other countries to enable meteorologists to more accurately predict the weather.

For decades the United States has orbited fleets of ever more sophisticated weather satellites that circle the globe, taking measurements and tracking storms from orbit, while super-computers on the ground create models to predict when hurricanes or tornados may form and then predict the areas that will likely be endangered.

Courageous storm-hunters on the ground, who seek to observe and measure tornados “up close and in person,” drive heavily armored vehicles with a wide array of instruments in efforts to get a front-row view and develop a better understanding of how tornados form and better predict their destructive paths.

Heroic pilots and their crews of intrepid meteorologists fly into the hearts of violent hurricanes for similar purposes.

However, the purpose of all of these efforts is not simply garner information as a matter of academic curiosity, but to make certain that those who may be at risk are warned about the risks they face. Once the likely track of dangerous storms are established, those who live within the path of the storms are warned to take appropriate action.

Such action may require residents of low-lying areas or those areas along threatened coastlines to evacuate their homes and head for higher ground. It may require that homeowners and store-keepers board up windows and doors and remove anything from their property that could become a dangerous flying projectile.

Those in the path of such monstrous storms might be advised to stock up on food, water, batteries and other supplies to help them ride out the storm.

Those in the path of tornados are alerted to head for their storm cellars to maximize their likelihood of surviving the onslaught of winds and destruction.

Storms of course, are not the only threat we face, especially in this turbulent and volatile era. Increasingly terrorists have gone on bloody rampages around the world and here, within the borders of our nation.

Huge sums of money and Herculean efforts are being expended by various elements of our military and intelligence and law enforcement agencies to develop effective intelligence about the activities of these terrorist organizations that, not unlike major storms, are on the move around the world. The intelligence reports that these agencies produce forecast threats America and Americans face- not from natural events but from threats posed by America’s adversaries.

How screwed up is our vetting policy for admitting refugees? In April, the administration cut the refugee vetting process that would ordinarily take 18 to 24 months down to 3 months. They won’t pore over social media sites used by refugees to ferret out radicals.

Now we learn from the agency in charge of bringing refugees to the U.S. that no effort is made to discover radical ideological leanings of the potential newcomers.

Lifezette:

The United States runs the names of potential refugees through terrorism and law enforcement databases and conducts health screenings but makes no effort to learn whether they harbor extremist views, an administration official acknowledged Wednesday.

Simon Henshaw, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, made the admission during testimony at a Senate hearing on President Obama’s Syrian refugee program.

Republicans on the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest have expressed concerns that Obama’s decision to admit more than 10,000 Syrian refugees over the past 12 months and his plan to increase that number in the coming 12 months is reckless in light of the threat posed by Islamic extremism.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Alabama Republican who chairs the subcommittee, grilled Henshaw about the procedures for screening refugee applicants. “Do you make any inquiry about practices that we reject in the United States, like female genital mutilation?” he asked. “Do you say, ‘Do you believe in that and when you come to the United States will you comply with the laws of the United States on that kind of question?’”

Henshaw said U.S. officials explain American law and customs but do not inquire about refugees’ political beliefs.

“On all questions, we make it clear to refugees that we’re a nation of laws and that they need to comply with our laws,” he said.

Sessions pointed to a Justice Department report indicating that the United States last year experienced 27 “honor killings,” a practice that wins widespread approval in some Muslim-dominated countries that practice Sharia Law.