On Oct. 18, 2010, Gary Doer, the Canadian Ambassador to the United States, wrote to Sharron Angle, the Republican candidate for the US Senate in the State of Nevada. Angle is currently in a tight race with Democratic majority leader Harry Reid.
Doer wrote to Angle to rebut the erroneous information she imparted that the 19 9/11 hijackers entered the US by crossing the border with Canada. The ambassador told Angle that both the 9/11 Commission Report and a later report on Canada-US relations confirmed that none of the hijackers came to the United States from Canada. All 19 entered the US from other countries with validly issued American visas.
Doer pointed out that in 2009, 1.3 million Canadians visited Nevada and the value of Canada-Nevada trade that year was $1.3 billion.
Angle Made Statement While Addressing High School Students
What prompted the Canadian Ambassador to send the letter were statements made on Oct. 16, 2001 while Angle was speaking to Hispanic students at Rancho High School in Las Vegas. Her campaign is running commercials against illegal immigration and one of the students asked her why all of the illegal immigrants portrayed in her campaign videos were Latinos.
Angle’s answer, quoted in the Las Vegas Sun, was as follows:
“I think that you’re misinterpreting those commercials. I’m not sure that those are Latinos in the commercial. What it is, is a fence and there are people coming across that fence. What we know is that our northern border is where the terrorists came through. That’s the most porous border we have. We cannot allow terrorists; we cannot allow anyone to come across our border if we don’t know why they’re coming. So we have to secure all of our borders and that’s what that was about, is border security. Not just our southern border, but our coastal border and our northern border.”
Angle Not Alone in Thinking 9/11 Terrorists Came from Canada
According to the Washington Post, the myth that the hijackers entered the US from Canada began days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. What began as reports that investigators “believed” the men came from Canada and that they were “investigating” whether entry was made by boat from Canada, suddenly became established facts.
On Sept. 12, 2001, the Washington Post reported that two men had crossed into the US from Canada at a small border crossing in Maine. This was repeated two days later in the New York Post.
Comments made such as the one by the Christian Science Monitor on Sept. 19, 2001; that Canada was a haven for terrorists, helped keep the misinformation going.
The myth that the hijackers came from Canada continued long after the names of the hijackers were discovered and their method of entry into the United States became known.
Homeland Security Secretary Made Similar Comments
Even Janet Napolitano, US Secretary of Homeland Security, said that the 9/11 hijackers came from Canada. In April 2009, while trying to illustrate problems with the northern border as well as the southern one, Napolitano said that to the extent that terrorists or suspected terrorists have entered into the United States, it has been through the border with Canada.
As reported by Fox News, when the Secretary was asked whether she was referring to the 9/11 terrorists, she replied, “not just those but others as well.”
Both Angle and Napolitano said what they said in an attempt to show that the border with Canada poses just as many dangers to the US as the border with Mexico does. It is unlikely this urban myth will die anytime soon.
Letter from Ambassador Doer, Oct. 18, 2010
Arthur Weinreb - Weinreb is an author, associate editor and columnist with Canada Free Press and the Canadian Affairs Feature Writer for Suite 101.
Join the Conversation