With Osama Bin Laden threatening in a videotaped interview that the United States shall never feel secure from terrorist attack, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca) is demanding an overhaul of America's foreign student visa program.

The senator, noting that some of the suspected Sept. 11 terrorists had been in the United States under the student visa program but had not actually enrolled in classes, described the foreign student visa program as "one of the most unregulated and exploited visa categories"

Feinstein is proposing an appropriation of $32.3 million for a system to keep track electronically of foreign students. She also wants the Immigration and Naturalization Service to have the opportunity to screen foreign students before the U.S. State Department issues them visas.

Schools would be required to report quarterly on foreign students' academic status under another provision of Feinstein's proposed legislation.

The senator said she decided to seek the legislation after learning that Hani Hanjour, believed to have been the pilot of the hijacked American Airlines flight that crashed into the Pentagon, had enrolled at a college in Oakland, but never showed up.   She said she also was concerned whether Hanjour and two other suspected hijackers on that flight-Khalid al-Midhar and Nawak Alhamzi -- ever attended community college here in San Diego.

Initially, Feinstein had proposed an even stronger measure to regulate the flow of foreign students into this country.  She had proposed "a temporary 6-month moratorium on the student visa program to give the INS time to remedy the many problems in the system." 

However, faced with strong opposition from universities and colleges across the country, Feinstein later agreed to shelve the moratorium. 

Marty Block, president of the San Diego Community College Board, told HERITAGE he had been officially requested by authorities to make no comment concerning whether the suspected hijackers had attended community college classes. As for Feinstein's proposal, Block said he believed having foreign students on campuses not only benefits the foreigners but also American students who are exposed to new ideas and cultures.  However, he added, the need for national security is a more important consideration. 

Overall, approximately 245,000 foreign students per year enter the United States to pursue courses of study. Feinstein said that 3,370 foreign students from "nations on the United States terrorism watch list" had been granted visas by the State Department between 1999 and 2000.   

Among those nations is Syria, which won election last week to the United Nations Security Council-drawing an angry response from Israel and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, but silence from the United States mission to the United Nations.

Mortimer B. Zuckerman, chairman of the group which includes 51 Jewish national Jewish organizations, and Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman, joined in a statement calling Syria's inclusion in the Security Council "a mockery of Article 23 of the U.N. Charter which says that non-permanent members of the Security Council are to be elected based on their contributions to peace and security.

"Syria not only provides safe haven for and supports many terrorist organizations in Damascus, they directly aid and abet Hezbollah terrorism and the violations of the international border (between Israel and Lebanon), and is a leader of the rejectionist camp that has stymied peace efforts in the region."

They called placing Syria on the Security Council tantamount to "putting the fox in the chicken coop."

Besides Syria, the 15-member Security Council includes five permanent members-- the United States, United Kingdom, China, France and the Russian Federation -- and nine other non-permanent members: Bulgaria, Cameroon, Colombia, Guinea, Ireland, Mauritius, Mexico, Norway and Singapore.

For Israel, the U.N. decision to seat Syria on the Security Council was another diplomatic setback as the United States continues to attempt to cobble together an alliance among Muslim countries to fight Osama Bin Laden and his Taliban hosts in Afghanistan.  On Oct. 4, an emotional Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon-responding to the suspicious crash of a Russian-flag Sibir Airlines flight between Israel and Russia-warned the United States and other western countries not to sacrifice Israel's interests in an attempt to appease the Arabs.   

"I call on the Wesern democracies, and primarily the leader of the free world, the United States: do not repeat the dreadful mistake of 1938, when enlightened European democracies decided to sacrifice Czecheslovakia for a 'convenient temporary solution.'  Do not try to appease the Arabs at our expense-this is unacceptable to us.  Isael will not be Czecheslovakia.  Isael will fight terrorism."

President Bush, through White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, angrily called the analogy "unacceptable" and declared that Israel should know it has no better friend than the United States. The rebuked Sharon later expressed his regrets, though he could take satisfaction in the fact that when the U.S. State Department subsequently published its list of foreign terrorist organizations, it included Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. 

The Sibir Airlines crash, which killed 78 persons including the crew and all-Israeli group of passengers, was initially thought to have been downed by terrorists, but later the United States said it believed it was shot down mistakenly by Ukrainian ground forces conducting missile exercises in the area.

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With American and British forces bombing Taliban camps and military bases in Afghanistan, San Diegans paid considerable attention to reports detailing which U.S. Navy ships participated in the attack.  As the American military response commenced on Sunday, the San Diego-based destroyer John Paul Jones fired Tomahawk missiles at Taliban targets.   Other locally based ships in the vicinity of the war theatre included the cruisers Antietam and Princeton, and the amphibious vessels Comstock, Dubuque and Peleliu.

HERITAGE reporter Joel Moskowitz went with his wife Arlene to Balboa Park on the Sunday commencing the bombardment of Afghanistan.  In the area of the park featuring international cottages, performances sponsored by the House of Germany had been featured.  But in addition to songs of that country, the chorus had the audience sign several stanzas of the "Star Spangled Banner," recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and then sing Irving Berlin's "God Bless America."  

"No specific mention of the attack on Afghanistan was made but the message was a clear expression of patriotism," Moskowitz said.  "In the House of Israel, a radio was tuned to the news and many stopped by to hear the current events."

From Israel itself, HERITAGE reporter Muriel Goldhammer, a former longtime resident of San Diego, messaged that she found herself "depressed and obsessed" with the war news. "I find myself remembering the Gulf War when inordinate pressure was placed on Israel to make itself invisible while an Arab coalition was being formed, when the United States refused to share information with Israel, when President George Bush (father of the current president) immediately after the first Scud attack on Israel was asked by a reporter if he had talked to Prime Minister (Yitzhak) Shamir and turned his back without answering and walked away."

Goldhammer also messaged that "on a practical note, my daughter Cindy took my gas mask along with her family's to be checked to determine if all the paraphernalia is in working order.  It is.  I've never opened the package. 'Should I now and learn how to use it?' I asked.  'No need,' she replied.  'Keep the box closed until there is an alert.'"

Chabad Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort, who contributes a column on Torah to HERITAGE, said the timing of the U.S. and British bombing of Afghanistan was of "great significance in our Jewish Calendar" because it coincided with Hashanah Rabbah.  "It is on Hashanah Rabbah that we Jews believe the final judgment of Yom Kippur is finally sealed into the Book of Life," he wrote.

 "We have an interesting custom on this day. There are a long series of prayers that we recite, which talk about the Almighty's attribute of justice. We mention how the enemies of Israel will be destroyed by the greatest Ally one could hope for. We beseech our Father in Heaven for mercy on ourselves, and ask that He bless the world with life-giving water.

"At the end of this series of prayers, we take five bundled willow twigs and smack them on the ground several times," Eilfort continued.  "We learn in Kabbalah that we do this to 'sweeten the harshness of judgment.'  What does this mean?  It means that sometimes to bring true mercy into the world, it must follow an act of force."