"Al-Qaida recruiting Central American gang members?"

From the AP:

It's a U.S. Homeland Security Department nightmare, and Honduras' most outspoken Cabinet member says it's happening: Al-Qaida operatives recruiting Central American gang members... to carry out regional attacks and slip terrorists into the United States...

[...some are skeptical...]

...A spokesman for Mexico's National Immigration Institute said officials have caught "a significant number" of people from the Middle East trying to sneak into the United States from Mexico, although he refused to release exact numbers. One smuggler was arrested recently for allegedly moving Iranians and Iraqis into the United States.

There has been at least one confirmed report of a suspected terrorist in Central America. U.S. and Panamanian officials say Saudi native and alleged al-Qaida leader Adnan G. El Shukrijumah stayed in Panama for 10 days in April 2001, five months before the Sept. 11 attacks.

There also are fears El Salvador could be hit by terrorists for supporting the U.S.-led mission in Iraq.

Recent reports of possible terror activity in the region have been more questionable.

In May, here in Tegucigalpa, the hilly Honduran capital, two witnesses said they saw El Shukrijumah at an Internet cafe downtown, sparking rumors he was recruiting gang members.

U.S. officials have been scouring the globe for the 29-year-old Shukrijumah, and have offered up to $5 million for his capture. But a senior U.S. official in Central America, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no evidence he was ever here.

Alvarez, a former private security consultant educated at Texas A&M, acknowledges he sometimes releases information that isn't confirmed, saying the reports keep Honduras' population alert to potential threats...

The last bit does indeed tend to cast a bit of doubt on his assertions.

However, one might then wonder why the DHS and L.A. County both have compiled lengthy and secret reports on just this happening...

Immigration_terror · Wed, 10/27/2004 - 20:26 · · Importance: 1