Tom Mountain lays the blame at Barney Frank's doorstep.

Writing in the Newton Tab, right in the tip of Barney Frank's district, Tom Mountain, citing Gerard Posner, says the Congressman's hyperliberal immigration policies are one reason the U.S. government's hands were tied pre 9/11.

Here's what Posner writes according to Tom Mountain.

"Congressman Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who was a strong advocate of protecting civil liberties, led a successful effort to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act so that membership in a terrorist group was no longer sufficient to deny a visa.

"Under Frank's amendment, which seems unthinkable post 9/11, a visa could only be denied if the government could prove that the applicant had committed an act of terrorism. Rendered toothless by the Frank amendment, the Reagan administration had virtually no way to block entry visas even when there was information linking the individuals to terrorist groups."

We await a response for the ever glib Barney Frank.