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Limits

U.S. opening itself up to terrorists

Even as the courts persist in admonishing President Donald Trump’s administration for attempts to restrict people from selected countries from coming to the United States, it becomes clearer some sort of limits are essential to our security.

On Thursday, a federal appeals court in Washington upheld a lower court ruling against the administration’s revised travel ban. It was aimed at temporarily suspending new visas for travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

In its written opinion, the appeals court judges opined that the travel ban “speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination.”

Concern about such character flaws may well be behind the open-borders laws common in many European countries.

Even Great Britain, where concern about terrorism seems higher than in countries such as France and Germany, has relatively lax limits on travel.

Even as the U.S. appeals court was releasing its condemnation of harsh restrictions, English investigators were uncovering troubling details about the suicide bomber who massacred 22 people at a Manchester concert hall a few days ago.

The killer was Salman Abedi, a 23-year-old British citizen of Libyan descent. A network of conspirators appears to have aided him in his murderous plot.

Investigators have learned Abedi did quite a bit of traveling during the past couple of years. Just four days before the attack, he was in Germany, having gone there from Turkey. Where he was prior to that remains unknown — though it should be noted Turkey would be an excellent jumping-off point for a visit to Syria or some other hotbed of extremism.

It also is known that, apparently in 2015, Abedi was in Syria, receiving paramilitary training.

Abedi’s travels should have raised red flags, at least in England and Germany. Apparently, no one noticed the murderer in training, however.

Should the travel ban case reach the Supreme Court, it is entirely possible Trump will lose another round. But it is becoming increasingly clear that without some limits on travel to the United States, we Americans are leaving ourselves wide open for terrorist attacks

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