By Art Moore
He recalled that when he arrived in America Jan. 2, 2007, he "walked into the airport like anyone else on a tourist visa."
When he went to the Homeland Security office seven months later, he said, he knocked on the door and told them, "Hey, guys, I am the son of Sheik Hassan Yousef, my father is involved in a terrorist organization, and I would like political asylum in your country."
He said the officials were shocked.
"I wanted them to see that they have huge gaps in their security and their understanding of terrorism and make changes before it's too late," Yousef explained.
Yousef said that when DHS demanded evidence of his claims, he presented a draft of his book "Son of Hamas."
"They told Homeland Security that I am not a threat and advised them to drop the case. But Homeland Security shut its eyes and stopped up its ears and told the FBI, 'You have nothing to do with this. It is our job,'" Yousef said.
The agency's performance, he asserted, "should worry the American people."
"If Homeland Security cannot understand a simple story like mine, how can they be trusted with bigger issues?" he asked. "They seem to know only how to blindly follow rules and procedures. But to work intelligence, you have to be very creative. You have to accept exceptions. You need to be able to think beyond facts and circumstances.
"Homeland Security has absolutely no idea of the dangers that lie ahead," he said.
"They don't have nuclear bombs, so they send a suicide bomber here, another one there. And over the years, they severely damaged the economy and gave Israel a bad reputation all over the world," Yousef said.
Having been raised on the inside of this kind of environment, from both sides, he said he is only asking Homeland Security "to be humble and listen, so they can learn."
From WND
When he went to the Homeland Security office seven months later, he said, he knocked on the door and told them, "Hey, guys, I am the son of Sheik Hassan Yousef, my father is involved in a terrorist organization, and I would like political asylum in your country."
He said the officials were shocked.
"I wanted them to see that they have huge gaps in their security and their understanding of terrorism and make changes before it's too late," Yousef explained.
Yousef said that when DHS demanded evidence of his claims, he presented a draft of his book "Son of Hamas."
"Surely this would make everything perfectly clear," he thought. "They would discover that I was an intelligence agent, not a terrorist. That I tracked down terrorists and put them in prison. That I was an asset, not a threat."
But Homeland Security, according to Yousef, doesn't "get it."
He said the FBI, in contrast, "has a much better understanding of terrorism and recognizes me as a valuable asset."
The agency's performance, he asserted, "should worry the American people."
"If Homeland Security cannot understand a simple story like mine, how can they be trusted with bigger issues?" he asked. "They seem to know only how to blindly follow rules and procedures. But to work intelligence, you have to be very creative. You have to accept exceptions. You need to be able to think beyond facts and circumstances.
"Homeland Security has absolutely no idea of the dangers that lie ahead," he said.
He warned the U.S. is not prepared as al-Qaida adapts its strategy to lessons learned from terrorist groups like Hamas.
"For nearly 30 years, I watched from the inside as Hamas dug its claws deeper and deeper into Israel. They started awkwardly, clumsily, but they got good at it. And al-Qaida is becoming more like Hamas," he said.
The strategy of Hamas, Yousef explained, has always been to destroy Israel through a "slow bleeding war."
While al-Qaida began with massive attacks like 9/11, Osama bin Laden "understands how effective the Hamas strategy will be on American soil," he said.
The U.S. has experienced nothing like Israel has endured, said Yousef, and the country is not ready.
"Try to imagine attacks by suicide bombers and car bombers, attacks on schools, in shopping malls, in the gridlock of rush-hour traffic, week after week, month after month, year after year, here and there, in big cities and rural towns," he said.
"No one feels safe anywhere. There seems to be no reason behind the attacks, no pattern. Everyone is a target."
"Exposing terrorist secrets and warning the world in my first book cost me everything," he said. "I am a traitor to my people, disowned by my family, a man without a country. And now the country I came to for sanctuary is turning its back."
