Terrorism-related Immigration News Archives
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September 29, 2008
According to
this,
U.S. Customs and Border Protection chief Ralph Basham said this in a radio interview:
'If Iran has sleeper cells here, "we'd be doing something about it," ...I don't think we can sit here and give you a definition of exactly where the threat would come, what the assets are...'
As the article points out, that contradicts warnings from others:
U.S. intelligence officials have said that Iran-backed Hezbollah "retains the capability to strike in the U.S." as FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III told Congress in 2005, or that it might launch attacks on U.S. targets "if it feels its Iranian patron is threatened," as John D. Negroponte put it when he was Director of National Intelligence in 2006.
But evidence that Iran has anything more than fundraising efforts remains scant.
The Iranian sleeper agents idea got another bounce this month with the publication of The Secret War With Iran, by the respected Israeli investigative reporter Ronen Bergman, who says that Iran has deployed underground cells in New York and elsewhere.
Whether Basham is speaking honestly,
covering for George Bush, trying to give false comfort to Iran, or something else isn't known. Note that in 2006 - shortly after becoming the head of CBP -
he came out against the border fence presumably under orders from Bush.
Posted at 03:40 PM
March 30, 2008
From the first of a three part series on
this issue:
The United States has outsourced the manufacturing of its electronic passports to overseas companies — including one in Thailand that was victimized by Chinese espionage — raising concerns that cost savings are being put ahead of national security, an investigation by The Washington Times has found.
The Government Printing Office's decision to export the work has proved lucrative, allowing the agency to book more than $100 million in recent profits by charging the State Department more money for blank passports than it actually costs to make them, according to interviews with federal officials and documents obtained by The Times.
Needless to say, the GPO, the DHS, and the State Department are following the usual protocol by claiming there were no risks. They also
say they had no choice because the foreign chips were the only ones that met their standards. However:
...GPO Inspector General J. Anthony Ogden, the agency's internal watchdog, doesn't share that confidence. He warned in an internal Oct. 12 report that there are "significant deficiencies with the manufacturing of blank passports, security of components, and the internal controls for the process."
Note also that unsecured FedEx shipments were used for some of the "secure" passports (
link).
Posted at 02:22 PM
February 27, 2008
From
this:
Thousands of foreign student pilots have been able to enroll and obtain pilot licenses from U.S. flight schools, despite tough laws passed in the wake of the 9/ll attacks, according to internal government documents obtained by ABC News.
"Some of the very same conditions that allowed the 9-11 tragedy to happen in the first place are still very much in existence today," wrote one regional security official to his boss at the TSA, the Transportation Security Administration.
"Thousands of aliens, some of whom may very well pose a threat to this country, are taking flight lessons, being granted FAA certifications and are flying planes," wrote the TSA official, Richard A. Horn, in 2005, complaining that the students did not have the proper visas.
Under the new laws, American flight schools are only supposed to provide pilot training to foreign students who have been given a background check by the TSA and have a specific type of visa...
Presumably, almost all would appear to have at least arrived legally, although if they had then violated the terms of their visas they would have presumably become illegal aliens, the same situation as some of the 9/11 hijackers were involved in.
The DHS appears to be scrambling to get out some sort of official response. That should be interesting.
Posted at 07:49 PM
From this:
Two men on the "national terrorist watch list" have been turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) following a routine traffic stop... [Patagonia, Arizona Police Chief Ed Dobbertin said] that the men were of Middle Eastern descent and had been residing in Sierra Vista. ..."They were on the list because apparently they were non-U.S. citizens going to Nogales to basically bond out an individual - their associate - who was also a non-U.S. citizen that had been stopped the night before by Customs and Border Protection agents for entering the United States illegally," said Dobbertin.
Posted at 12:02 PM
February 19, 2008
From this:
Three Afghanis were arrested Wednesday at an international airport in India's Kerala state for flying with forged Mexican passports. They had just arrived there from Kuwait, where officials examined the passports identifying them as "Antonio Lopez Juan," "Javier Sanchez Alberto," and "Atonio Lopez Ernesto," and found that they didn't understand any Spanish. Maybe they were also suspicious of these inept attempts to ape Spanish names...
More at the link and here. They were supposedly trying to get to France, and despite the fact that they're obviously quite inept that doesn't mean that others won't do a better job and perhaps with the goal of making it to the U.S.
Posted at 03:25 PM
February 11, 2008
From
this:
In a major policy shift aimed at reducing a ballooning immigration backlog, the Homeland Security Department is preparing to grant permanent residency to tens of thousands of applicants before the FBI completes a required background check.
Those eligible are immigrants whose fingerprints have cleared the FBI database of criminal convictions and arrests, but whose names have not yet cleared the FBI's criminal or intelligence files after six months of waiting.
The immigrants who are granted permanent status, more commonly known as getting their green cards, will be expected eventually to clear the FBI's name check. If they don't, their legal status will be revoked and they'll be deported...
..."[Background checking is] a very complicated process," said Bill Carter, a FBI spokesman. "It involves dozens of agencies and databases and often foreign governments."
...Although the FBI clears about 70 percent of the name checks within 72 hours, the bureau struggles to keep up with more than 74,000 requests per week, roughly half arising from immigration applications.
As discussed
here, this isn't a good omen for "comprehensive immigration reform".
And, assuming 10,000,000 applicants for amnesty and the present rate of 37,000 per week (only half of their present rate of 74,000 per week are immigration related), that means it would take over five years to process all of those. And, that doesn't take into account those currently in line. If the processing capability was allocated evenly between amnesty applicants and those who are already in line, it would be over ten years before all amnesty applicants had been processed, and that would obviously have a serious impact on those currently in line. And, under the various versions of reform, the DHS had only 24 hours (perhaps 48 hours in one version) to disapprove someone, or they'd be given their "Z-visa". Note that that's less than the 72 hours mentioned above.
All of that leads me to strongly suspect that amnesty applicants would basically be shuttled through the program with minimal checking.
Raising that point and crunching the numbers would make a good line of inquiry if anyone gets to ask Hillary, Obama, or McCain a question. Bringing along a calculator and crunching the numbers as you ask the question would make a very good prop and help drive the point home to those who saw the video.
Posted at 11:37 AM
November 20, 2007
From
this:
A video made during an investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office shows a stream of Mexicans strolling through the border into the U.S. as federal Custom and Border Patrol agents sit staring at "information on computer screens."
On another of the videos recorded at eight entry points across the country, an agent was reportedly waving aliens through the lane without "looking at them, making verbal contact or inspecting travel documents."
The GAO director of homeland security and justice issues, Richard Stana, testified before Congress last week and said those weren't just isolated incidents. And, while funding is part of the reason, Stana says it goes deeper:
"Emphasis is not being placed on all missions, and there is a failure by some of its officers to recognize the threat associated with dangerous people and goods entering the country."
Posted at 09:45 AM
November 13, 2007
Based on the response to Rep. Tom Tancredo's ad about terrorism, one thing is clear: the nutroots/netroots (like Crooks and Liars, Raw Story, etc.), supposed mainstream bloggers/pundits (like Matt Yglesias), and the MSM just don't take border security that seriously. Some Democratic politicians might not go that far, and some might truly support border security, but most of them - including the top-tier Democratic candidates - simply talk a good game.
Hopefully Frank Luntz or similar is working on rhetoric that would expose this abject failure to protect the U.S. and that could be used by various candidates when it applies. In the meantime, here's my first attempt:
The Democrats just don't see terrorist infiltration of the U.S. as an important issue and would prefer to concentrate on more important things.
It needs a bit of clean-up; I use "important" twice.
Posted at 08:33 PM
November 12, 2007
Some largely unimportant lefties are up in arms (link) about the following ad from Tom Tancredo that depicts a 24-like scenario with a backpack bomb being left in a shopping mall. After a quick walk, I believe I've stumbled upon the reason why: the loud bang at the end shocks them into a sudden realization of the consequences of the loose border policies that they've supported and/or enabled.
UPDATE: Youtube has flagged the video (youtube.com/watch?v=LZBjXr5CWUI) as "inappropriate for some users" and requires you to sign in and verify that you're 18 or over before viewing it (related: see "We're all going to regret giving Youtube so many links"). Please contact them and let them know what you think: google.com/support/youtube/bin/request.py
I've switched the video to chbn.com.
As for the "interesting" comments, this post is about those on the left/Democratic side of things who've gotten the vapors over this ad. When those on the right/Republican side weigh in it will be updated. This site is well aware of the negligence of both Bush and the Democrats, and has been discussing that for several years.
UPDATE 2: Youtube has locked away one version of the ad; the version from TeamTancredo itself is still available for anyone: youtube.com/watch?v=rBK7bWh1m04
Posted at 06:49 PM
September 22, 2007
The Diversity Visa Lottery is a Teddy Kennedy-hatched plan that was designed to increase the numbers of immigrants admitted from Ireland and other European countries. Each year around 55,000 applications are chosen at random from around the world with minimal qualificatons.
Now, the Government Accountability Office (GAO)
says that nearly 10,000 people have been admitted from terror-sponsoring countries:
The report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office said the State Department's inspector general warned in 2003 that the Diversity Visa Program posed a significant risk to national security and recommended it be closed to people from countries on the U.S. list of state terrorism sponsors.
But four years later, the program remains open to people from those nations and little is known about what becomes of them once they enter the United States, the GAO said.
From 2000 to 2006, the program allowed 3,703 people from Sudan, 3,164 from Iran, 2,763 from Cuba and 162 from Syria to enter the United States and apply for permanent legal resident status, the report said. That totals 9,792 new immigrants...
They haven't found any evidence that terrorists have used the program but, obviously, that doesn't mean that they couldn't have snuck under the radar.
From
July 2002:
...this program run by the State Department increases immigration from the seven countries that the State Department has declared "state sponsors of international terrorism:" Iran (768 visas this year), Iraq (71), Syria (62), Libya (61), Cuba (529), North Korea (four) and Sudan (1,297).
It also awards permanent residency to the natives of two countries that are the prime sources of al Qaida -- the network of suspected terrorists: Saudi Arabia (38) and Egypt (1,551). Other participating countries with active Islamist terrorist elements include Algeria (834), Lebanon (62) and Yemen (45)...
Posted at 11:09 AM
September 13, 2007
I don't think I noted this when it appeared on March 30, 2006, so
here it is:
FBI Director Robert Mueller said this week that his agency busted a smuggling ring organized by the terrorist group Hezbollah that had operatives cross the Mexican border to carry out possible terrorist attacks inside the U.S...
...Mueller admitted that Hezbollah had succeeded in smuggling some of its operatives across the border, telling the House committee: "That was an organization that we dismantled and identified those persons who had been smuggled in. And they have been addressed as well."
This may or may not be the same group as that mentioned
here.
Posted at 11:35 PM
From
this:
[Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw] said Wednesday that terrorists with ties to Hezbollah, Hamas and al-Qaida have been arrested crossing the Texas border with Mexico in recent years.
...Leticia Zamarripa, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in El Paso, said Wednesday she was unaware of any border arrests of people with terrorist ties. An ICE spokeswoman in San Antonio did not return phone messages left by The Associated Press. U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Lloyd M. Easterling was unable to comment.
However, McCraw's remarks are similar to those made recently by National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, who last month told the El Paso Times that a small number of people with known links to terrorist organizations have been caught crossing the border.
McCraw identified the most notable figure captured as Farida Goolam Mahomed Ahmed, who was arrested in July 2004 at the McAllen airport...
[U.S. Customs and Border Protection first said she was a terrorism suspect, then retracted that claim]
...Michael Shelby, then the U.S. attorney in Houston, said in January 2005 that any suggestion Ahmed was involved in terrorism "is in error."
[her case was later sealed and she was deported]
...But on Wednesday, McCraw described Ahmed as having ties to an insurgent group in Pakistan and whose specialty was smuggling Afghanis and other foreign nationals across the border.
...McCraw also said that since March 2006, 347 people from what he called "terrorism-related countries" have been arrested crossing the border in Texas. The number of Iraqis captured at the border has tripled since last year, he said...
Posted at 12:18 PM
August 08, 2007
From
this:
Islamic extremists embedded in the United States - posing as Hispanic nationals - are partnering with violent Mexican drug gangs to finance terror networks in the Middle East, according to a [2005] Drug Enforcement Administration report.
...These terrorist groups, or sleeper cells, include people who speak Arabic, Spanish and Hebrew and, for the most part, arouse no suspicion in their communities.
"It is very likely that any future 'September 11th' type of terrorist event in the United States may be facilitated, wittingly or unwittingly, by drug traffickers operating on both sides of the United States-Mexico border," the DEA report says.
..."Hearings I held in Laredo [Texas] last year and this DEA report show that our southern border is a terrorist risk," [Rep. Ed Royce of California] said. "Law enforcement has warned that people from Arab countries have crossed the border and adopted Hispanic surnames. The drug cartels have highly sophisticated smuggling and money-laundering networks, which terrorists could access..."
Posted at 11:28 AM
July 17, 2007
Brian Ross of ABC News says that an "FBI intelligence report distributed by the Washington, D.C. Joint Terrorism Task Force" says that a group based in Chaparral, New Mexico is smuggling Iraqis and other Middle Easterners across the border. Few other details are provided, and things like this aren't exactly news to those who've been watching the posts in this category. The Ross article also fails to note that some of the Iraqis illegal aliens caught crossing the border are Christians, and the article also contains a last paragraph saying that until recently, "the United States has kept its doors all but shut to the estimated two million refugees fleeing the violence in Iraq".
Posted at 07:59 PM
July 03, 2007
One of the frequent claims from supporters and profiteers of illegal immigration is that illegal aliens are just here to work, and no Mexicans/Central Americans have been involved in terrorist attacks. First, that's false: two of the
9/11 hijackers were able to get Virginia driver's licenses with the assistance of an illegal alien from El Salvador.
And, one illegal alien was even willing to
help provide fake ID that he was told was for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM):
An "admitted illegal alien from Mexico" was arrested Wednesday for producing a half-dozen fake identification, Social Security and permanent residency cards and selling them to undercover police officers, the Butler County [Ohio] Sheriff's Office said Thursday.
Abel Gaston Gudino-Arenas, 33, of Middletown, was charged with six counts of forgery — a fifth-degree felony — and no operator's license — a misdemeanor — for manufacturing fake documents, according to a news release from the sheriff's office. Deputies said the man admitted to manufacturing the cards for more than three months.
Gudino-Arenas was arrested after he allegedly delivered a fake ID to undercover officers for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed of Pakistan, the self-proclaimed mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. According to the news release, officers asked Gudino-Arenas to produce the ID for Mohammed "in an attempt to see how far (he) was willing to go."
Posted at 08:39 PM
May 11, 2007
Not only were three of the "Fort Dix Six" illegal aliens, but they had multiple arrests and sanctuary policies - or lack of DHS funding combined with unwillingness to deport people - may have played a role in allowing them to remain
here. According to
this, Howie Carr says they had 54 previous arrests, although that number seems too high and might include traffic stops:
Suspect Dritan Duka has past arrests on charges of disorderly conduct and possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia. He also has six separate speeding and driving with a suspended license infractions, records show.
Shain Duka has past arrests on charges of obstruction of justice, hindering apprehension and making physical threats. He also has five separate traffic infractions. Eljvir Duka has past drug counts and at least two motor vehicle infractions.
The three brothers are accused of helping lead the plot to shoot soldiers at Fort Dix. They are being held without bail. The fact that at least three of the suspects had past run-ins with the law and are in the United States illegally was brought up on Capitol Hill Thursday.
California congressman Elton Gallegly pointed out Mohammed Atta, one of the Sept. 11 hijackers, was stopped by police for a traffic violation weeks before the attacks. Atta was also in the United States illegally, having overstayed his visa. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told the panel that many local law enforcement agencies do not check the immigration status of a driver during traffic stops.
In related news, professional ethno-booster
Linda Chavez plays
cards:
If the police had thrown the men in jail and checked their legal status, perhaps this whole plot could have been averted. I wonder whether the police would have been more diligent if the men had hailed from, say, Mexico or Guatemala, rather than Macedonia.
Posted at 11:23 AM
May 09, 2007
Per
this:
The three brothers being charged as part of the alleged Fort Dix terror plot may have been smuggled across the border, FOX News has learned.
Dritan "Anthony" or "Tony" Duka, 28; Shain Duka, 26; and Eljvir "Elvis" Duka, 23, were in the United States illegally. Federal investigators were exploring whether they were smuggled into the country or entered as stowaways.
Because the three men entered the United States without inspection, there is no legal record of their entry...
Posted at 12:34 PM
February 26, 2007
From
this:
Illegal immigrants say they were working on a military housing project outside Buckley Air Force Base within days after a major immigration raid there last year.
Immigration officials said at the time that they were protecting national security and sending a message to employers with the Sept. 20 raid, which nabbed more than 120 workers.
Most of the workers were from Mexico and were quickly deported. Others came from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Three had outstanding criminal warrants and were turned over to Aurora police.
Julio Cesar Rodriguez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, told the Rocky Mountain News he was back on the job a few days after the raid.
So was Martin Torrez, who said he saw about a dozen workers who returned to Buckley after they were deported...
The housing site is near the giant golf ball-like satellite monitoring systems on the base, which assist in global surveillance, missile warnings and homeland defense operations...
[Juan Guzman, a legal permanent resident who befriended some of the deported workers] said one worker told him he called a foreman while he was still in Mexico to see if he could get his job back.
"He was told, 'Just come back under a new identity, and we'll hire you back,' " Guzman said...
Bear in mind, of course, that the latter may or may not have happened, and there doesn't appear to be proof that any of those who had been deported were back working at the base. Of course, whether the DHS is looking for that proof is an open question.
The main contractor in this case is Hunt Building Co. Ltd. from El Paso, and, as could be expected, they have subcontractors.
The rest of the article goes into the details of labor laws, whether the contractors failed to pay their workers, etc. The second part of this series is tomorrow and is entitled... "The construction industry is addicted to illegal labor."
Posted at 01:27 PM
| Comments (1)
January 20, 2007
Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano has
released details on the January 3 encounter between
National Guard troops and an armed force from Mexico:
According to the statements, the armed group [of eight people] wore bulletproof vests and carried automatic weapons as they approached an entrance-identification site manned by the four National Guardsmen.
As they approached, the armed men "split into two groups to surround the site," said the statement from the National Guard government liaison.
Then, as the Guardsmen were putting their gear into the vehicle to leave, one of the armed men approached to within 40 feet, the National Guard report said.
The report goes on to say: "Both groups kept their weapons 'ready low' and never pointed them at each other. No shots were fired."
The account has been confirmed by the Border Patrol and the NG, and they point out that the Guardsmen were armed (but don't say whether they had bullets). They left the area and called in the BP, who tracked the group as they returned to Mexico.
Posted at 11:51 AM
| Comments (1)
January 04, 2007
Last night, a group of armed border crossers stormed a National Guard encampment between Nogales and Lukeville in Arizona. Apparently no one was hurt and the four Guardsmen retreated and called for backup rather than firing on those who'd stormed them. They don't know what the goal was, and the attackers fled back to Mexico. Video at the link.
In the past, large numbers of people have tried to cross the border at one time as a diversionary tactic, allowing smugglers to bring drugs across elsewhere. This could have been a similar situation, or it could have been an attempt to see how the NG would react, or it could have been a threat of some kind.
In any case, the response of almost all Dem leaders and most Republican leaders will be weak to non-existent.
Posted at 10:41 PM
| Comments (2)
December 29, 2006
In September, one Miguel Alfonso Salinas and three other illegal aliens were arrested by the Border Patrol in New Mexico. After investigation, they discovered that wasn't his real name and he was actually a Muslim from Egypt [see also 2004's
"Congressman: Terrorists are infiltrating the U.S. via Mexico"]. They haven't determined whether he has any links to terrorists. On the
wider issue:
...Evidence of "special-interest aliens" using the Mexican border to gain entry to the United States has been kept secret from the American public, according to federal law enforcement agents, terrorism experts and critics of U.S. foreign policy with Mexico.
In 2005, the Border Patrol apprehended approximately 1.2 million people in the U.S. illegally. Of those, 165,000 were from countries other than Mexico, and roughly 650 were, like Kamal, from special-interest countries, according to the Border Patrol.
Those interviewed by the Daily Bulletin say agencies including the FBI and CIA are not using information from Border Patrol and Drug Enforcement Administration agents to make connections between the drug trade, illegal immigration and terrorist organizations.
"For us to believe that Mexican smugglers will not assist, knowingly or unknowingly, foreign terrorists trying to enter the United States is incomprehensible," said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, who, along with other congressional representatives, has pushed for stricter border security policies.
And, FWIW, the DEA says that Asian crime groups could work with Mexican groups to import drugs into the U.S.:
...But federal agents say getting bureaucrats to understand the growing danger is difficult when most lawmakers won't even acknowledge many of the problems already happening along the U.S. border.
..."We had video and photographs [of a border incursion by the Mexican Army or groups dressed as same]," [Sheriff Arvin West of Hudspeth County] said. "We went to Congress and testified before them with the evidence in hand. And we were told by Congressman (Silvestre) Reyes (D-El Paso) that we were either lying or mistaken."
Reyes, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and U.S. and Mexican government officials tried to play down the documents and the incident in Hudspeth County. They stated publicly that the cartels were dressing like Mexican military to damage relations between the U.S. and Mexico.
Reyes, who recently was appointed chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, did not return phone calls seeking comment...
Much more at the link.
Posted at 10:33 PM
| Comments (1)
November 29, 2006
Via
this comes
this:
One of two Houston men accused of training to fight with the Taliban pleaded guilty this afternoon in federal court.
Kobie Diallo Williams, 33, a U.S. citizen who was a student at the University of Houston Downtown, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assist a terrorist group. His help included withdrawing cash from an ATM to send to the Middle East.
Another man, Adnan Babar Mirza, 29, a Pakistani national who was in the country on an expired student visa, faces similar conspiracy charges as well as three federal weapons violations. Mirza appeared today before a U.S. magistrate judge.
Mirza became illegal when his visa expired. Someone holding a student visa or in the country illegally is not allowed to have firearms...
Posted at 11:38 PM
| Comments (1)
October 12, 2006
From
Reuters:
Mexican and U.S. agents are investigating a group in Mexico that they believe is funding Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, two newspapers reported on Thursday.
Mexico started the investigation three months ago on a request from the United States, which is helping in the probe, the daily El Universal said.
The alleged cell is suspected of financing Hezbollah rather than planning attacks itself, according to the Milenio newspaper.
Milenio said the attorney general's office in Mexico has compiled a list of people and companies it believes have provided funds to support Hezbollah, but no names were given.
Lebanon's ambassador was critical.
"This is part of a fear campaign from those who believe they are fighting against terrorism," Nouhad Mahmoud told Reuters. He said he knew nothing about an investigation of a Hezbollah cell in Mexico: "We have no idea, we only saw this in the newspapers."
Posted at 12:46 PM
| Comments (1)
August 24, 2006
From
Sara Carter:
An estimated 75 percent of applicants for immigrant benefits - green cards, work visas, and a host of other documents - at a major federal processing center were not screened through the U.S. terrorism watch list over the past four years, the Daily Bulletin has learned.
The error - on nearly 3 million applications dating to 2002 - was confirmed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officers at the National Benefits Center in Lee's Summit, Mo., near Kansas City. The center is one of several facilities across the country that process foreign applications for immigrant benefits.
Numerous Department of Homeland Security e-mails - sent the day after British authorities uncovered major terror plot - noted that supervisors and adjudicators at the Missouri center were not aware that a simple touch of a computer key would have allowed them to check the names of applicants against the highest-priority terrorist list. According to the e-mails and the adjudicators themselves, up to 2.8 million applications at the center dating to 2002 did not get such checks.
Robert Cowan, director of the National Benefits Center, denied that benefits were processed incorrectly and said any failed background checks were given to supervisors for final review. Cowan added that the 75 percent figure was attributable to employees not properly marking enforcement documents, misspelling names, or leaving out names altogether...
Now, read
Chapter 3 of the 9/11 Commission Staff Report.
Posted at 12:49 PM
| Comments (1)
August 21, 2006
This is a couple weeks old, but from
this:
Almost half of the illegal aliens arriving in the U.S. from terrorist-sponsoring or "special interest" nations in the past few years have been released into the American population following their apprehension. This key finding is published in an internal audit of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) obtained by Cybercast News Service.
The so-called "catch and release" policies have allowed more than 45,000 illegal aliens from countries that are well known for their anti-American views or considered "hotbeds of Islamic fundamentalism" to be freed.
U.S. Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), in conversations with sheriffs operating along the Texas-Mexico border, learned that illegal aliens of Middle Eastern descent have been able to blend into the culture south of the U.S. border and pass themselves off as Mexicans.
"They learn Spanish and assimilate into the population," Poe said. "Coming across the Canadian border they would be more conspicuous..."
Posted at 04:03 PM
| Comments (1)
August 15, 2006
From this:
In a seven minute Full Disclosure Network Video News Blog United States Attorney Debra Yang and retired L. A. County Sheriff Sergeant Richard Valdemar discuss the problems of gang members and illegal foreign nationals working as airport baggage handlers and in high security areas of airports and who have access to the tarmacs and commercial airliners...
Posted at 10:58 PM
| Comments (1)
August 12, 2006
From
this:
A leading terrorism expert says Canada's liberal open-door immigration policy is a "death wish" for an attack on home soil.
David Harris, a former top CSIS official who's now a senior fellow with the Canadian Coalition for Democracies, believes a bloated influx of immigrants and refugees poses a serious threat to national security. He said the entry system has spun "out of control," with the country now taking in far more people than it can properly screen and integrate into society.
"That's a death wish," he said. "It's inconceivable the way that we've managed ourselves in that regard, and it's a terrible shame for the immigrant communities who have come in to make a constructive, peaceful life to find that they're frequently under siege by radicals in their midst."
Harris said the growing problem of homegrown terrorists also stems from flawed immigration policies, since Canada is building "colonies of isolation" with the extensive penetration of certain ethnic groups. That has a ghettoizing effect, fuelling isolation and imagined racial or religious supremacy, he said.
"If people come in absorbable, smaller numbers, then presumably there's a better chance they can interact and integrate charter values," Harris said...
Posted at 11:25 AM
| Comments (5)
August 09, 2006
There's no word on any terrorism connection, but a man from the Republic of Georgia is being held in the Westmoreland County Prison under orders of ICE after admitting to being an illegal alien. He and a compatriot (who wasn't held) had in their possession: $4200 in cash, 15 pre-paid cellular phones, a laptop, and GPS software. Obviously, there are both innocent and more sinister explanations for those possessions.
Posted at 08:30 PM
| Comments (0)
August 04, 2006
The Derb attended a soiree about immigration and has an interesting
roundup. I've numbered them and bolded bits:
1. Of GOP '08 serious prospects, only George Allen looks as if he understands the immigration issue. (Unless you think Newt Gingrich is a serious prospect.)
2. Quote on GWB: "He loves his servants. He's a guy with a ranch and lots of Mexican help. Vicente Fox is a guy with a ranch and lots of Mexican help. Of course they got on well."
3. Quote *from* GWB (reportedly): "I spent a lot of time with my baseball team. I understand immigration." (Sounds authentic GWB to me.)
4. Quote from a guy who's been toiling in the immigration-enforcement vineyard for a decade or so: "This administration will never do anything to stop illegal immigration, except grudgingly and half-heartedly. They just don't believe in it. If you squeeze 'em real hard, they'll make a gesture. That's it. They just don't believe in it. Their real effort, their real concentration, is always on finding ways to do nothing about immigration."
5. Grass roots immigration-enforcement groups: They are babes in the wood. The La Raza types run rings round them. They easily fall into factional squabbling. They attract kooky fringe types, and don't know how to get rid of them. The enemy has all the heavy artillery: AILA, Republican elites, pretty much the entire Democratic Party (though there were some kind words for James Webb), all the media, the universities, etc.
6. The Mexican drug cartels have staked out lookout posts on high ground up to 200 miles into U.S. territory. There are armed foreign nationals on U.S. soil, protecting their drug shipment routes. Presented with photographic evidence of this Karl Rove pooh-poohed it.
#2: The LAPL might still have 50s-era a book I saw there once called something like, "Spanish for the Texas Housewife". I should scan that in to go with that comment.
#3: I think he actually said something like that.
#4: Obviously correct.
#5: One way to counteract that is to discredit those on the other side who make themselves available. This site and others have frequently pointed out false or misleading coverage. While many reporters and sources could care less, some don't like being shown to be liars and have modified their reporting. The same goes for lower-tier thought leaders who have blogs with comment sections.
#6: If the Democratic Party ever decided to represent Americans, they could verify that issue, get the photos, and run with it all the way to sure victory. Instead, they'll ignore it and if anyone pays any attention some of their further left members will end up in effect supporting the smugglers.
Posted at 09:22 AM
| Comments (3)
July 23, 2006
Twenty five illegal aliens were arrested working at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. They were working in construction and landscaping, and this report from China's People's Daily Online has no word on what country they were from.
The Communist China newspaper also reports:
The Barksdale Air Force Base, home for the Air Force's 2nd Bomb Wing, also provides global combat capability and trains all B-52 combat crews.
Always remember: George Bush is keeping the U.S. homeland safe, and our enemies are not paying attention to any weaknesses we might have.
Posted at 11:40 PM
| Comments (2)
July 22, 2006
Les Kinsolving asked Tony Snow about border security:
"The president has made his views on border security well-known... and my question: Would the president make border security a higher priority if he were convinced it was being used as an entry point by terrorists like those who are part of Hezbollah and al-Qaida?"
Snow responded:
"Think of it this way. The president committed as much money to the borders already as the House of Representatives was planning on doing in five years. So, he was serious before – he's perfectly cognizant of the possibility there may be terrorists crossing over. We have intelligence assets deployed in the area, and so he's not going to be anymore concerned because he's already very concerned about it."
Now, let's look at the facts. Karl Rove admits that 6 million illegal aliens have entered on Bush's watch. And, not only has the Bush administration almost completely refused to enforce immigration laws in the workplace, they admit it. And, Bush has almost come right out and blackmailed the U.S., saying that he'll only enforce the borders after he gets a guest worker plan.
I guess there are different levels of being concerned. If he were really concerned, he would do what's necessary to reduce the risk. The fact is, he has not. He has clearly made the decision that keeping the cheap labor flowing is more important than the security of the U.S.
Posted at 09:25 AM
| Comments (5)
July 19, 2006
From
this:
Federal agents conducting a sweep aimed at illegal immigrants detained 58 civilian workers Tuesday as they tried to enter Fort Bragg with suspected false or fraudulently obtained identification, officials said.
Almost all of them were construction workers, officials said...
Some of the people detained were from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, ICE spokesman Marc Raimondi said...
Which leads to the obvious question: which countries were the others from? Needless to say, the article doesn't provide an answer.
Posted at 04:31 AM
| Comments (2)
July 18, 2006
From
Kris Kobach:
One important lesson our country learned on Sept. 11, 2001, is that state and local police can make the difference between an unsuccessful terrorist plot and an attack that kills nearly 3,000 people. But some in Washington, D.C., still have not absorbed this lesson.
The immigration bill (S. 2611) approved by the Senate last month strips local police officers of arrest authority that could have been used to stop the 9/11 attacks.
In the aftermath of 9/11, we learned that five of the 19 hijackers had violated federal immigration laws while they were in the United States. In other words, they were illegal aliens. Amazingly, in the months before the attack, four of those five terrorists were stopped by local police for speeding. All four could have been arrested—if the police officers had realized that they were illegal aliens...
Related:
"Visas for Terror"
The 9/11 hijackers and driver's licenses
Reading the 9/11 Commission Staff Reports: Chapter 3
"Immigration Laws Might Have Stopped Sept. 11 Plot"
Posted at 05:33 AM
| Comments (2)
June 14, 2006
From
this:
The U.S. immigration system is so broken that it can't be fixed, a former top security official at the Department of Homeland Security's Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) told NewsMax in an exclusive interview.
"Internal corruption at CIS is so pervasive that hostile foreign governments have penetrated the agency," said Michael J. Maxwell, who was forced to resign as chief of the CIS Office of Security and Investigation earlier this year...
..."Even if the adjudicators get a terrorist hit, the regulations say they must refer the case to the FBI," Maxwell said. "It doesn't say, deny them an immigration benefit. It just says, refer. That's very dangerous, because once they get the immigration benefit it becomes very hard to investigate them."
If the FBI fails for whatever reason to send over the case file on the individual who has been flagged, "then statutorily, the case officer must grant the benefit, even if there's a warning the person is a terrorist," Maxwell told NewsMax.
That means that individuals from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, whose identities could not be verified and who could be working for terrorist groups, have been granted green cards or even citizenship, Maxwell added...
...More than 7 million immigration-related "benefit" claims are adjudicated every year, which Maxwell and other critics say have led immigration officers to "rubber-stamp" green card and citizenship applications. Many CIS service centers have policies that reward immigration officers who adjudicate the highest number of cases per day, giving them additional paid leave and other benefits...
...USCIS has documented an immigration route through the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico that could be exploited by foreign intelligence services and terrorists, with the complicity of U.S. immigration officers.
"The smugglers know that only one flight per day is inspected," Maxwell said, "so they put these folks on other flights," Maxwell said. An internal CIS investigation into the operations of the San Juan immigration district, obtained by NewsMax, describes the Virgin Islands-Puerto Rico immigration pipeline in great detail...
...In sworn testimony before House International Relations subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation on April 6, 2006, Maxwell said that his office had received complaints of "USCIS employees providing material support to known terrorists or being influenced by foreign intelligence services."
One USCIS employee, "co-opted by a foreign intelligence entity," had "the ability to grant the immigration of their choosing to the person or persons of their choosing," Maxwell said in his sworn testimony.
In an unclassified meeting with senior USCIS leadership in February 2006, which he attended, Maxwell says that agency Director Emilio Gonzales "mentioned two foreign intelligence operatives who work on behalf of USCIS at an interest section abroad and who are assisting aliens into the United States as we speak..."
The
USCIS would be in charge of administering the Bush/Fox/Senate amnesty scheme.
Posted at 12:27 AM
| Comments (1)
June 09, 2006
From
this:
[A DHS] report [dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/OIG_06-33_Apr06.pdf] reveals that 45,008 aliens from countries on the U.S. list of state-sponsors of terror (SST) or from countries that protected terrorist organizations and their members (SIC) were released into the general public between 2001 and 2005, even though immigration officers couldn't confirm their identity.
Even worse, "it is not known exactly how many of these SIC and SST aliens were ultimately issued final orders of removal and actually removed, since such data is not tracked" by the Detention and Removal Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the report said.
The report estimated that 85% of those released aliens "will abscond," even if deportation orders are issued.
Do the math. That means that more than 38,000 individuals from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, whose identities could not be verified and who could be working for terrorist groups, are today roaming the streets of America.
And if they're smart – and undoubtedly, they are – they have already acquired new identities and have melted into American society.
"The release of these OTMs [Other Than Mexicans] poses particular risks," the Inspector General report said. The report cited a recent U.S. intelligence assessment indicating that "terrorist organizations… believe illegal entry into the U.S. is more advantageous than legal entry for operations reasons."
Posted at 11:38 AM
| Comments (3)
June 05, 2006
Doing a little bit of journalism, KNBC's Kelly Mack spoke to an unidentified whistleblower who works for Customs and Border Protection. Here's the full interview with video, and here are some of the quotes from the agent:
A lot of [illegal aliens] we encounter down at the fishing docks... management has given a directive to officers to stay away from those areas ... there are illegal aliens in the port driving trucks ... management turns a blind eye to this as well... We've approached management to bring those people in because they're in violation of the immigration law. Management declines. ...There's a lot of suggestions officers have made to management to do joint operations with Los Angeles Port police, to do a little more with the Coast Guard. Our management declines... They say that we don't have the resources and manpower... Their primary concern is cargo, cargo, cargo... Terrorists could come in at any time.
Posted at 10:14 PM
| Comments (1)
May 23, 2006
From
this:
The Hudspeth County Sheriff's Office intercepts 54 illegal immigrants just 90 miles east of El Paso, and among the group are two former Mexican soldiers.
The arrests were part of Operation Linebacker. Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West said it shows how local law enforcement can be another line of defense along the border.
The immigrants were caught on Highway 62/180, near the Guadalupe Mountains. That's where Hudspeth County deputies set up a checkpoint and within a matter of hours intercepted three trucks and one van loaded with illegal immigrants, totaling 54 people, including two children and six women.
The most alarming part, West said, was that two men were carrying Mexican military IDs.
"Two of the aliens that were mixed in with the crowd were either ex- or former military. One of them had been deported just two weeks ago," West said...
Posted at 02:19 AM
| Comments (0)
There are several reports listed here, including this recent one:
Watch this video of an ongoing investigation done by the news team from KGRV TV serving Harlingen-Weslaco-McAllen -Brownsville, Texas. (Video will open in your media player - it's a news segment.) It is part of an ongoing series highlighting the culmination of months of investigative research into the flow of terrorists over our borders. Fred Burton, a counter-terrorism expert of Stratfor, was interviewed on camera. He stated that now is the perfect time for terrorists to sneak across the border. Escalating violence and an unprecedented flood of illegals is distracting law enforcement and stretching it thin. Zapata County sheriff, Frederigo Gonzales Jr. says that as for WMDs, it is not a matter of "if", but "when".
There are a few quibbles with some of the points in the rest of the post; for instance, not all Arabs are Muslims and not all Muslims are Arabs. And, some of the, for instance, Iraqis caught at the border turn out to be Christians.
Posted at 01:05 AM
| Comments (2)
April 28, 2006
From this unverified entry:
In connection with a lawsuit brought by the Associated Press, the Pentagon released thousands of pages of documents transcribed during tribunal hearings for the hundreds of terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There is a lot of interesting information in those documents, including the allegations against one detainee who was caught while trying to sneak across the Mexican border.
Posted at 09:18 AM
| Comments (7)
March 22, 2006
From
this:
Federal agents arrested three Guatemalan nationals and one Colombian national who were all working illegally for AID Maintenance, a Rhode Island-based company that provides contract cleaning services to both the the Naval Undersea Warfare Center and the Naval Station in Newport R.I.
In Monday's operation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents apprehended the individuals as they reported for work at the base. The workers, who had access badges authorizing them to enter the Naval Station, were identified after agents audited the hiring records of more than 250 AID Maintenance workers. The audit found deficiencies in more than 50% of the records of the employees on the company's payroll...
Posted at 03:41 AM
| Comments (2)
February 28, 2006
One of the cherished talking points of supporters of illegal immigration is that illegal aliens who come here for economic reasons don't post a terror-related threat to the U.S. That's usually applied to Hispanic illegal aliens.
And, as the latest example shows, it's frequently used by racial advocates: someone named Marisa Trevino offers "Border control aims at wrong bad guys".
Unfortunately, that's completely wrong. While some reasons why are listed in "Exempt Spanish-speaking from Border Security, Immigration Laws?", there are - believe it or not - a few more.
All those illegal aliens help build up a smuggling infrastructure that could be used - and might already have been used - by terrorists. If there were fewer illegal aliens coming over, those who tried to do so would stick out like sore thumbs rather than being able to disappear in the crowd.
And, it's extraordinarily dangerous and foolish for a country to allow millions of people who have no allegiance to that country to settle within its borders. As pointed out before, if we're (almost) unable to completely expel those who've come here illegally, then we have in effect been invaded and settled.
It gives foreign powers political power inside our country, and one never knows if some of those illegal aliens would decide to rebel or cause similar problems. There have been immigrant riots in the U.S. and other countries. See France for an example. Could some variant of that happen here? Perhaps. What if we tried to expel millions of illegal aliens. Would they resist? Are we avoiding expeling them out of fear of what they would do? If so, then once again: we've been invaded and settled.
On a side note, the writer of the USA Today screed is identified only as a "freelance writer". However, there's someone who has the same name and looks remarkably like her working as the editor of "Ideas", the magazine of the "International Newspaper Marketing Association".
Posted at 07:00 AM
| Comments (17)
February 12, 2006
The Dugway Proving Ground in Utah is a top-secret base where the U.S. Army does research into biological and chemical weapon defense. Nine illegal aliens were caught working there recently.
"Just by saying you're working for a subcontractor, you can access one of the most highly top secret installations in the country, dealing with weapons of mass destruction," [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Adam Parks] said. "Once inside the perimeter, they had their identification and would go to work, not monitored. They didn't have an escort or anything like that."
The workers - no doubt good-hearted - were employed by Spacecon West and aren't suspected of having links to terrorists. However, in 2004 Congressman John Culberson (R-TX) reported that Al Qaeda-related terrorists - disguised as Mexicans - are crossing illegally into the U.S. FBI Director Robert Mueller has also discussed this matter. Many more possible infiltrations discussed here.
On the rare occasions when the Dems discuss our "homeland security" president failing to keep the homeland secure, they inevitably mention port security, but they intentionally avoid discussing border security. Obviously, they should change their mind and discuss this. They probably won't, since they're just as corrupt as the GOP leadership.
Posted at 06:24 AM
| Comments (3)
February 05, 2006
From
this:
A deputy sheriff warned federal lawmakers Friday that drug traffickers are helping suspected terrorists cross from Mexico into Texas.
Val Verde County chief deputy Terry Simons offered little evidence publicly of his claims before congressmen at a meeting in Houston.
The FBI couldn't immediately confirm the lawman's account.
Simons says Texas authorities have learned of newly established camps in Mexico, where so-called "narco-terrorists" are getting trained...
Rep. John Culberson reiterates his concerns discussed in
"Congressman: Terrorists are infiltrating the U.S. via Mexico" and
Senator John Cornyn also had something to say. Regarding the latter, see also
Sen. John Cornyn linked to Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed?
Posted at 04:49 AM
| Comments (2)
February 04, 2006
From
this:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., expressed concern Thursday that the southern border has become a "major gateway” for Middle Eastern terrorists in a hearing with National Intelligence Director John Negroponte and other top intelligence officials.
Feinstein noted that law enforcement officials captured 155,000 non-Mexican illegal aliens in 2005, more than three times as many as the 49,545 that were apprehended in 2003.
Negroponte told Feinstein that the intelligence community was "sensitive to” the issue she raised, but said that the Canadian border posed "a bit greater concern.”
A DHS official with the stock "we're getting better every day!" follows.
Posted at 11:47 PM
| Comments (3)
January 30, 2006
MEXICO CITY - Mexican federal agents have arrested four Iraqis trying to sneak into the United States without proper documents, the government said Monday.
Wasim Francis Schamoun and Ivan Yalda, both 23, and Refon Chlil Oraha and Thaer Salem Yelda, both 27, were found on a bus in the northern city of Navajoa after police received an anonymous tip, the attorney general's office said in a statement.
The Iraqis were in Mexico illegally, the statement said...
The AP says their last names indicate they're Christians, by which they presumably mean Chaldeans.
Posted at 11:06 PM
| Comments (0)
January 24, 2006
From
this:
Mexican soldiers and civilian smugglers had an armed standoff with nearly 30 U.S. law enforcement officials on the Rio Grande in Texas on Monday afternoon, according to Texas police and the FBI.
Mexican military Humvees were towing what appeared to be thousands of pounds of marijuana across the border into the United States, said Chief Deputy Mike Doyal, of the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department.
Mexican Army troops had several mounted machine guns on the ground more than 200 yards inside the U.S. border -- near Neely's Crossing, about 50 miles east of El Paso -- when Border Patrol agents called for backup. Hudspeth County deputies and Texas Highway patrol officers arrived shortly afterward, Doyal said.
...An FBI spokeswoman confirmed the incident happened at 2:15 p.m. Pacific Time...
Previously:
"Mexican military incursions: Chertoff downplays, excuses"
Posted at 10:50 PM
| Comments (1)
January 22, 2006
From
this:
Court documents in a Brownsville, Texas drug-smuggling case cite a wiretapped telephone conversation by one of the smugglers who said that "Osama's people" are ready to be transported across the Mexican border into the U.S.
The Brownsville Herald reported earlier this week ["Infiltration from the south feared"]:
"[Paperwork in the case] contains details of a December 2004 incident in which [one smuggler] tried to secure transportation for 20 Middle Eastern 'terrorists' waiting to enter the United States from Monterrey, Chiapas and Puebla in Mexico.
"Recorded telephone conversations authorized under the U.S. Patriot Act and a court order captured the [suspect] referring to the 20 men as 'gente de Osama.'" ["Osama's people"]
..."During a Jan. 5, 2005, telephone conversation, [the smuggling suspect] described the men as 'Iraqis,' ages 25 to 33, who were willing to pay $8,000 for transportation past Border Patrol checkpoints in South Texas and into the U.S. interior.
"[The suspect] mentioned that eight of the men were coming to Progreso, northwest of Brownsville. He said they were 'dangerous' and 'really bad people.' They carried guns and made the smuggler that was helping them 'afraid.'"
FBI officials declined to comment further on the case. But one federal law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity told the paper that the men labeled "terrorists” turned out to be illegal aliens from a "nation of concern.”
The FBI declined to say whether "Osama's people" made it across the border or if authorities had apprehended them.
See also this roundup of recent
infiltration reports:
In a December 4 incident that received scant media attention, a Bangladeshi Muslim man named Fakhrul Islam was among a group of 13 illegal aliens arrested near Brownsville, Texas, just across the border from Mexico. Border Patrol agents have said that one of the men detained along with Islam was a member of Mara Salvatrucha, a violent Salvadoran criminal gang with more than 300,000 members across Central and North America, including powerful enterprises in several major U.S. cities.
That report
apparently appeared in a newspaper called La Jornada.
Posted at 04:24 AM
| Comments (2)
December 14, 2005
From
this:
Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) today revealed figures which show that since October, 2004, 51 persons who have crossed into the U.S. illegally were arrested on suspicion of terrorism. The figures, part of a Department of Homeland Security response to a inquiry by the Congressman, document the national security risk our porous borders pose on the eve of Congress' first attempt to rewrite immigration law in nearly a decade.
Federal law enforcement coordinates its terrorism efforts through "Joint Terrorism Task Forces" (JTTFs), which include officials from the Justice and Homeland Security Departments. Since October, 2004, JTTFs have kept track of arrested terrorist suspects who are in the U.S. illegally. The JTTF document shows 51 persons were arrested who had "entered without inspection" into the U.S. from countries such as Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Pakistan...
"Entered without inspection" means crossing the border illegally, or otherwise sneaking in not at a port of entry.
A table showing the arrests, what they were arrested for, and their countries of origin is in this
PDF file. A key for the U.S. Code sections is in this
.doc file.
In the PDF file, those with "EWI" in the status column are the illegal crossers.
And here it was just Sunday when
Ed Bradley assured us no terrorists had come over the border.
UPDATE: Tancredo may or may not have jumped the gun. The Denver Post salivates in
"Tancredo releases miscast terror data" that the DHS claims that none of the 51 were arrested on terrorism charges, they were only arrested for illegal entry. However, they were investigated for links to terrorism:
The suspects were investigated by federal terrorism officials because they came from "countries of interest," such as Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, the FBI said.
"I'm unaware of any instances at this time of individuals that have been charged with terrorism-related offenses (among) individuals who have been smuggled across the border," said FBI spokesman Bill Carter.
However, neither he nor a spokesman from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could rule out any ongoing terrorism investigations involving any of the 51...
..."I'm somewhat disappointed that Homeland Security is somewhat afraid of talking about it straight out," [Tancredo] said when told of the agency's statements.
Asked about his press release saying that the suspects had been arrested on terrorism-related charges, Tancredo said, "We shouldn't have been probably so definitive in that, and I'm sorry we did that. I take responsibility for that."
Nevertheless, Tancredo said, the data are the first evidence that people in the country illegally are being investigated for possible terrorism connections...
Posted at 05:35 AM
| Comments (0)
November 22, 2005
From
11/20/05:
An al-Qaida operative who was on the FBI's terrorist watch list was recently captured near the Mexican border, housed in a Texas jail and turned over to federal agents, Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, said on Friday.
"A confirmed al-Qaida terrorist, an Iraqi national, was held in the Brewster County jail," Rep. Culberson told ABC Radio host Sean Hannity. "He was captured in Mexico. This was within the last six weeks. He was turned over to the FBI."
The Texas Republican said he obtained the stunning information about the terrorist's capture "from the sheriffs who were directly involved.
"In fact, one was the sheriff who incarcerated him in the Brewster County jail [and who] confirmed this as well," he explained. The same sheriff also confirmed "that this guy is on the FBI's al-Qaida list," he added...
Posted at 06:43 AM
| Comments (6)
November 17, 2005
Maybe Rep. Sue Myrick was partly right: "Lawmaker: Terror war spilling across border".
Posted at 08:52 AM
| Comments (1)
November 16, 2005
Last week, North Carolina Rep. Sue Myrick made a shocking aside when speaking about a bill she sponsored:
"Al-Qaida ops busted at Mexican border?" Needless to say, none of the reporters there at the time followed up.
Now, comes
this:
Trouble is, Myrick's claim -- that three al-Qaida members were recently arrested near the Mexican border -- isn't true.
"An honest mistake," Myrick spokesman Andy Polk said later.
And the accuracy of what [Rep. Patrick McHenry] said -- that some of the 9-11 terrorists had N.C. driver's licenses -- is questionable. There's no proof that any of the hijackers did; the man who masterminded the attacks might have -- 20 years ago...
It's things like this that just give ammo to those on the other side.
Posted at 03:51 AM
| Comments (1)
November 11, 2005
The Charlotte Observer recently published the following quote from U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) concerning a bill to prevent illegal aliens from getting driver's licenses in her state:
"This isn't aimed at any one race," said Sue Myrick, who is being mentioned as a potential candidate for governor of the state. "Our main concern is: Who's in our state? This is a critical issue today. They just arrested, down on the border, a couple of weeks ago, three al-Qaida members who came across from Mexico into the United States."
Needless to say, the race-baiting was the more important issue to the local reporters: none of them had a follow-up on the much more important bombshell she dropped in the second part of her quote.
WND was unable to get more information, but eventually someone will find out whether Myrick was mistaken or whether she let slip something that hasn't yet been announced and probably wouldn't have been announced otherwise lest those five people who still think Bush cares about homeland security changed their minds.
Posted at 07:00 AM
| Comments (3)
November 10, 2005
From this:
[Legal immigrant Sam] Malkandi has said that he was approached at Northgate Mall [in Seattle] by an Arabic-speaking stranger named Ahmed Bawarth soon after arriving in Western Washington. The two became friends, Malkandi said, and about a year after they met, Bawarth asked Malkandi to assist him in helping a friend from Yemen into the country. The friend, according to the government, was [Tawfiq] bin Attash, planner of the bombing of the Navy ship USS Cole in Yemen in 2000 and the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
They want to deport him for those reasons and he's admitted to lying to obtain his green card. But, he claims he's not an AQ operative. Darrick Smalley, U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement senior special agent, disagrees:
"Somebody picked Sam Malkandi out of all the millions of people in the country to entrust with the safety of one of the highest-ranking al-Qaida operatives? They don't operate that way."
Posted at 09:26 PM
| Comments (3)
October 31, 2005
A couple years ago, I visited the White Sands Missile Range museum, right outside the gate of that military base. Obviously, it would be foolish for almost anyone who doesn't belong there to try to sneak onto that secure military facility.
"Almost anyone", because dozens of illegal aliens (i.e., citizens of other countries who have no allegiance to this country) have been caught working at secure military facilities. This is one of the few areas in which the Bush administration does workplace enforcement. But, if they did such enforcement elsewhere, that would reduce the number of illegal aliens available to work at such facilities, and there's also the worry that there are dozens more out there still illegally working at these areas, and some of them might not be such "kind-hearted folks". For recent cases, see the entries in this category or the recent article "US Missile Base Invaded by Illegal Immigrants".
Posted at 02:20 PM
| Comments (2)
October 22, 2005
From the
AP:
Scores of illegal aliens working as cooks, laborers, janitors, even foreign-language instructors have been seized at military bases around the country in the past year, raising concerns in some quarters about security and troop safety.
I don't know exactly how to parse the "some quarters" bit. Shouldn't everyone be concerned about this?
The aliens did not work directly for the military but for private contractors, as part of a large-scale effort by the Pentagon to outsource many routine rear-echelon jobs and free up the troops to concentrate on waging war.
Some worry that this fast-growing practice could make U.S. military installations more vulnerable to security breaches...
I don't know if this started under Clinton, but I'd imagine it's accelerated under Bush. "Some quarters" still think of the latter as our Homeland Security President.
The rest of the article lists some of the recent arrests, and I think all of them have been previously discussed in this category.
Posted at 07:57 AM
| Comments (1)
October 18, 2005
See "Violent gang with Central American roots expands deep into U.S." for the scoop. See "Can you trust the Las Vegas Sun?" for more on that paper.
Posted at 10:30 AM
| Comments (0)
October 14, 2005
Back in May 2004 I posted
"[Navy] Base security scrutinized over illegal-immigrant workers" about one Miguel Ramos-Amaya. He was accused of importing illegal aliens - including MS-13 gang members - to work on the Navy base in Norfolk, VA. As in, the United States Navy, the one with those ships that are used in wars and to defend the country and all.
Now, comes
"Feds investigated contractor found slain at his home":
...Authorities are not tying the killing of Miguel A. Ramos-Amaya, 37, who ran Mickey's Construction, to the federal investigation at this time, said Chris Amos, police spokesman.
But he added, "They're not closing any doors in terms of possible suspects or motives."
Ramos-Amaya was found at his home in the 1100 block of Templar Boulevard about 2 p.m. Monday. Three people in hooded sweatshirts were seen leaving the house, Amos said...
Ramos-Amaya's lawyer, Jon M. Babineau, said Ramos-Amaya had told somebody he had to stop by his house. Babineau theorized that he stumbled upon thieves there.
...In 2004, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities alleged in an affidavit for a search warrant that Ramos-Amaya was using undocumented aliens – including gang members – as cheap labor for his construction business, which did some work on the naval base.
...Ramos-Amaya fought the seizure and worked out a compromise.
He got back half his money, the computers and other assorted items. The government kept the other half of the money, as well as two handguns, court records show.
Ramos-Amaya was not charged in the case and Babineau said the government lacked evidence to show he committed crimes.
Posted at 04:56 AM
| Comments (0)
October 06, 2005
From
"Language teachers arrested at U.S. military base":
Two Indonesians and a Senegalese who worked as foreign language instructors for elite U.S. special operations troops at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, have been arrested on immigration charges, authorities said on Wednesday.
The Army said the three worked at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg. Sgt. Joseph Healy, a spokesman for Army Special Operations Command, said the three had a purely academic role and "were not exposed to any Army special operations tactics techniques or procedures."
Those arrested were Senegalese Ousmane Moreau, 38 and Indonesians Nurkis Qadariah, 34, and Sayf Rimal, 37. They worked for BIB Consultants Inc., "a Florida-based company that provides language instructors to U.S. Special Forces and other military personnel at Fort Bragg."
Now, read this from the
AP:
All employees of the company must go through background checks, and checks on the three men "came back clear," Daniel Guillan, director of government and contracting for the company, told WTVD-TV in Durham.
And, we get a reminder:
"What's important to remember is they did not teach any classified materials, and they were not exposed to any classified materials," JSOC spokeswoman Tina Beller said.
As with other past cases, subcontractors - for one reason or another - end up employing illegal aliens, and the feds take their word that those people are here legally. Robin Hayes (R-NC)
wrote to Donald Rumsfeld trying to find out how this could happen.
Posted at 12:23 PM
| Comments (0)
September 16, 2005
Three kind-hearted undocumented friends from Vicente's country were stopped from entering a
NUCLEAR POWER PLANT in Nebraska. It's bad enough when good-hearted folks end up workin' at Navy bases, but when they work at something that could lead to a "China syndrome",
perhaps even our "American" president might consider waking up.
Three illegal aliens were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents this week when they reported for work as outside contractors at a secure area of a Nebraska nuclear power station.
ICE spokesman Dean Boyd yesterday said the men, all Mexican nationals, had been hired by an independent contractor to perform maintenance work at the Omaha Public Power District's Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station.
As they attempted to enter a secure area of the plant, Mr. Boyd said, the men presented identification documents that raised the suspicions of Omaha Public Power District employees. They, in turn, contacted ICE agents for assistance. The men were arrested after agents determined they were in the United States illegally...
Posted at 02:42 PM
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Mahmoud Maawad has been in the U.S. for six years, working for cash at a convenience store. He's undocumented. And, he's a student at the University of Memphis.
With that information, both George Bush and Nina Bernstein would probably start feeling their compassion welling. But,
hold off for a second, you two:
When FBI agents walked [his] spartan apartment [on Sep 9]... they found a desk, chair, computer and a Koran.
They also found an airline pilot's uniform, a chart of Memphis International Airport, and instructional DVDs, including one called "How an Airline Captain Should Look and Act."
...Between April and August, the penniless student ordered $3,000 in aviation materials, DVDs titled "Ups and Downs of Takeoffs and Landings," "Airplane Talk," "Mental Math for Pilots" and "Mastering GPS Flying," FBI agent Thad Gulczynski testified.
He also ordered a pilot's coat and hat, and a chart of the Memphis airport terminal area from Spotty's USA in San Diego...
He's currently in jail awaiting trial on non-terrorism charges. According to Asst. U.S. Atty. Steve Parker:
"we don't know either way" if Maawad is a terrorist or connected to any terror groups
Posted at 01:25 PM
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September 03, 2005
From
this:
Members of Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamist missionary group that the United States accuses of links to Al-Qaeda, are in Argentina with the possible aim of recruiting local Muslims for terrorist activities, a newspaper has said.
Citing sources in the intelligence community and the foreign ministry, the La Nacion said the 26 Islamists arrived in Argentina in five groups over the past few months.
The militants, from Pakistan, Malaysia, South Africa, Qatar and Egypt, came into the country to possibly contact and recruit Argentine Muslims to train them abroad to conduct terrorism, the newspaper said on Friday.
The Argentine government, which will host the Summit of the Americas November 4-5 in Mar del Plata in the south, did not immediately comment on the report. US President George W Bush is to attend the summit.
La Nacion reported that Argentine intelligence received information from their Spanish and Italian counterparts. Spanish counter-terrorism experts gave the Argentine government details on Tablighi Jamaat, saying it was under investigation for the alleged role of some of its members in the March 11, 2004, bomb attacks in Madrid, the daily said.
The original report is
here.
Posted at 06:00 AM
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September 01, 2005
The Bush administration has ordered the Border Patrol to move some personnel and equipment from the border to deal with Katrina, NewsMax
reports:
...According to [the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency], however, plenty of its scarce resources are now committed to rescue and law enforcement support in the multi-state areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
Its fixed wing aircraft are used for transportation and for surveillance/reconnaissance efforts to identify anyone in peril. CBP helicopters are also used in transport and in search and rescue efforts.
The air support efforts are being coordinated through an airborne command center, which includes airborne radar and traffic management capabilities. Marine support is also providing transportation and rescue assistance. And CBP is sending over one hundred Border Patrol agents to provide law enforcement support to the impacted area. As CBP pointed out to NewsMax, its relief teams in the New Orleans area are not by any means gratuitous. The proliferation of ports of entry in the area means that the agency has a large number of CBP personnel regularly on the ground. Many of these CBP personnel were hit by the storm and are in need of relief...
While Katrina was obviously not an attack, perhaps
this article might shed a tiny little bit of light on why this is a very bad idea.
Posted at 02:49 PM
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August 30, 2005
The CIS has released a new study written by Janice Kephart, former counsel for the 9/11 commission:
"Moving Beyond the 9/11 Staff report on Terrorist Travel".
From the AP report
"Study: Terrorists Exploit Immigration Laws":
Suspected or convicted foreign-born terrorists have routinely exploited federal immigration laws over the last decade to enter or remain in the United States illegally...
"The attack of 9/11 was not an isolated instance of al-Qaida infiltration into the United States," the 46-page report found.
"In fact, dozens of operatives both before and after 9/11 - other than the 9/11 hijackers - have managed to enter and embed themselves in the United States, actively carrying out plans to commit terrorist acts against U.S. interests or support designated foreign terrorist organizations," the report concluded. "For each to do so, they needed the guise of legal immigration status to support them."
Overall, 59 of 94 foreign-born nationals who were either convicted or indicted on terror charges broke federal immigration laws to enter or remain in the country between 1993 and 2004, the report found...
The report identified many of the immigrants as affiliated with at least one terror organization, including 40 with al-Qaida, 16 with Hamas, 16 with the Palestinian or Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and six with Hezbollah...
The AP follows that up with a statement from DHS asserting that they're working on it. And, in other news, shoelace production is up 42% in this quarter. Then:
A spokesman for the National Immigration Forum, an immigration advocacy group, did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment Monday evening...
I previously provided excerpts of the
9/11 Commission's Staff Report. I don't know what overlap exists between that and this study.
Posted at 08:02 AM
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In fiscal year 2004, 1483 Chinese (as in Red China) nationals were detained by the Border Patrol... just in the Rio Grande Valley sector. The report doesn't mention the numbers for other sectors in Texas, only saying that it's small. And, it doesn't mention the figures for other states. But, only 49 were detained last fiscal year in that same area. And:
Federal figures show that the American government has consistently granted asylum to between 600 and 900 Chinese nationals each year for the past five years.
And, from this:
FAIR Comment: The article notes that the U.S. government has consistently granted asylum to between 600 and 900 Chinese nationals each year for the past five years, but does not report that number will rise dramatically as a result of the ceiling for such claims being removed by Congress earlier this year.
Posted at 05:42 AM
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August 23, 2005
From
"Texas sheriffs seek aid fighting illegals":
County governments in Texas, overwhelmed by a flood of illegal aliens and rapidly increasing border violence, want the federal government to come up with $10 million to help them pay for manpower increases, rising fuel bills and much-needed vehicles and equipment.
Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez, a member of the Texas Border Sheriffs' Coalition, said the federal government's failure to control illegal immigration and to curtail the growing violence along the 1,200-mile Texas-Mexico border had forced county law-enforcement authorities into a "financial nightmare."
"We have tried everything we know to make the federal government aware of the problems at the border and how they have [affected] us," Sheriff Gonzalez told The Washington Times. "And while they say they are aware of the problems, they just leave it alone."
...Sheriff Gonzalez said he did not know what response to expect for the funding request. He noted that in July, when it invited President Bush, a former Texas governor, the state's two U.S. senators, six members of Congress who represent Texas' border areas, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico and other elected officials to a coalition meeting, only Rep. Henry Cuellar, Texas Democrat, attended.
A major concern to the coalition, Sheriff Gonzalez said, is the possibility that terrorists could be paying Mexican drug and immigrant smugglers for help in crossing the border. In the meantime, Sheriff Gonzalez said Texas border residents are terrorized by rising violence...
Posted at 07:34 PM
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From
"Kilgore sticking to gang concern":
Virginia gubernatorial candidate Jerry W. Kilgore yesterday said law-enforcement officers would be foolish to assume that there is no link between the al Qaeda terrorist network and the Salvadoran gang Mara Salvatrucha.
"MS-13 is the most violent street gang around, and Homeland Security has said it makes sense to see these gangs as being targeted by al Qaeda," Mr. Kilgore, a former state attorney general, told The Washington Times. "We'd be crazy to put our heads in the sand and just say there could never be a link."
Immediately after that comes the extremely un-funny punchline:
Two Northern Virginia prosecutors yesterday criticized the Republican candidate for similar statements he made last week. The prosecutors dismissed Mr. Kilgore's comments as "pandering" and an attempt to score political points.
"We certainly have not seen any evidence that there is any connection between any gang and al Qaeda," said Alexandria Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Sengel. "It just makes the problem worse for those of us who are trying to deal with it on the front lines."
Mr. Sengel and Arlington Commonwealth's Attorney Richard Trodden made their comments during a press conference call set up by a campaign arm of the Democratic Party of Virginia...
Ka-ching. The Democratic Party is quickly devolving into the "Crazy Dare Party", as in: "I dare you to defend an ultra-violent paramilitary machete-wielding Central American street gang." The WashTimes follows that with a discussion of their previous coverage of a possible link between the two organizations (no, not the Dems and the gang, between AQ and the gang), including comments from former
Homeland Security Deputy Secretary James Loy.
The post
"Herndon VA approves illegal alien hiring hall" also mentioned Kilgore.
Posted at 06:56 PM
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August 19, 2005
From
this:
An anonymous tip triggered an investigation of undocumented workers at Camp Lejeune, resulting in 40 people being detained and a federal investigation, a base spokesman said.
Camp Lejeune officials detained 27 people at base gates during security checks Wednesday and another 12 at various construction sites Monday...
Details on where the workers are from, how they got on base and what will happen to them now were not immediately made available...
...Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not commenting now because the investigation is ongoing. Carpenter declined to mention any contractors by name, saying only that investigators were "looking into the practices of several contractors right now..."
Previously in this long line of stories about illegal aliens working at military installations:
"Arresting illegal aliens at Air Force base puts New York Times in tizzy".
Posted at 04:36 PM
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August 15, 2005
Leo Banks offers a long article about ranchers directly on the border entitled
"Images From the Battleground". It includes this:
The Border Patrol doesn't release a by-nation breakdown of those it arrests, and the agency is particularly tight-lipped about arrests of special interest aliens, known as SIAs. These are individuals from the list of about 35 countries the U.S. considers terror threats. But the Weekly has obtained SIA arrest figures from a federal law enforcement source who asked to remain anonymous.
From 2000 through 2003, plus the first nine months of fiscal 2004, agents in the Tucson sector, and the Arizona office of the Yuma sector, arrested 132 SIAs. The numbers include 10 from Afghanistan, seven from Iran, 12 from Yemen, 11 from Pakistan and three from Iraq.
Using the common estimate that the Border Patrol only catches one out of every three who cross, or as some believe, one of every five, we can calculate that upward of 660 individuals from terror-threat nations have crossed into our country through Arizona.
Those SIA arrest figures, by the way, include six individuals from Saudi Arabia, the country that produced 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 maniacs.
Homeland security?
Along the border south of Arivaca, you'd best stand back when you utter those words, because the subject tends to make folks spitting mad. Even Robinson, a silver-haired, soft-spoken gentleman, gets a fire in his eyes when he talks about it.
"It's a joke," says the 67-year-old, semi-retired veterinarian. "Homeland security doesn't exist."
Posted at 02:42 PM
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July 28, 2005
Like Los Angeles, New York, (reportedly) Denver, and several other major cities (and terrorist targets) Houston has a sanctuary policy that prevents their cops from asking about someone's immigration status.
HPD Captain Bruce Williams explains how this works:
"If the citizen can come to us and know that we're going to take the information that they give us without looking into their status as an immigrant, then they're more free to come to us and talk about crime issues."
Councilman Mark Ellis is trying to change the policy:
"I am in favor of supporting what the Bush administration has asked local government entities to do, and that is to assist in enforcing the criminal illegal immigration laws."
However, Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt says:
"That is our policy. At this time we do not have any intention of changing it."
Now, see "'Sanctuary' practice in Houston draws fire". Last year 9/11 Commission member John Lehman said:
"The terrorists know" which cities have such policies
Posted at 12:46 PM
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July 26, 2005
From
this:
FBI and law enforcement officials told ABC News the five men — four illegal immigrants and one law enforcement fugitive — were arrested Sunday night following a tip to the Newark Police Department. In addition to the subway maps and video, the men had train schedules and $8,000 in $20 and $50 bills...
FBI officials said the men have no known link to a terror network but noted that none of them could adequately explain the items they had in their possession, the large amount of money or their reasons for being in the United States. Mohamed Ibrahim Gaber has been a fugitive since he jumped ship from an Egyptian flagged freighter in September 2000.
The men, all of whom claimed to be unemployed civil or chemical engineers, are set to be deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
No word on whether they snuck over the border or overstayed their visas.
Posted at 08:25 PM
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July 18, 2005
Knight-Ridder outlines a somewhat fantastic plot involving Los Zetas and a Mexico-based Arab people smuggler joining forces: "FBI bulletin outlines possible terrorist plot at Texas border". The Arab will get to smuggle explosives in trucks into the U.S.; the Zetas will get help freeing a cartel leader.
However, this information came from an informant, who may or may not be credible. KRT says this information is in a confidential but unclassified FBI intelligence bulletin, and apparently the FBI is opposed to its release.
On the larger issue, the article contains some interesting quotes:
Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration and members of Congress from both parties have viewed the southern border as a weak link in efforts to keep terrorists out of the United States, even though the Sept. 11 terrorists entered the country with visas, some legal, others forged.
They also used illegally-obtained driver's licenses from various states, but that aside the idea that Bush and congress are concerned about our southern border - other than as a source of cheap labor - is news to me.
"That's been the concern all along, that there would be a bargain struck between al-Qaida or some (other) terrorist organization and these organized crime networks that would allow terrorists to be smuggled into the country," U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in an interview. "I think that's a very real concern."
Read him shining on his constituents who are concerned about illegal immigration here.
At a hearing Tuesday of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the chairman, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said: "Given the threat of international terrorism, there is great concern that our land borders could also serve as a channel for international terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. The threat of terrorist penetration is particularly acute along our southern border."
Lugar was present when Mexico's former foreign secretary threatened to allow terrorists to enter the U.S. As far as I know, he has neither condemned those remarks nor has he suggest that Castaneda be deported.
I wish I had one of those Edmund Scientific giant balloons, because there's so much free hot air available out there.
Posted at 04:17 AM
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July 16, 2005
Forty or so illegal aliens were recently arrested in a sting at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina. Previous coverage starts in "Why the left is untrustworthy and weak on national security, Part #43823294". Now, to drive that point home, comes the NYT with "Immigration Sting Puts 2 U.S. Agencies at Odds".
As with other "liberal" coverage of this story, it concentrates on the poor illegal immigrants who were working at a military base. And, it concentrates on BICE defending their sting rather than, oh I dunno, advocates for illegal immigration defending supporting illegal aliens working at an Air Force base.
According to the federal Dep't of Labor:
"This is not something we were involved in, and we do not condone the use of OSHA's name in this type of activity."
And, reaching into their race group rolodex, the NYT has this quote:
"We think it's an absolute outrage and danger for the immigration authorities to use this type of tactic," said Cecilia Munoz, vice president for policy at the National Council of La Raza, an advocacy group for Hispanics. "Our labor law system is completely complaint-driven, and our ability to keep the work force safe depends on workers being able to complain, and by masquerading as OSHA officials, immigration authorities will clearly discourage immigrant workers from coming forward. This won't affect just immigrant workers, it will affect the safety of all workers."
There's much more about the National Council of the Race at the link above.
If "liberals" would stop defending massive illegal immigration and giving cover to those corrupt businesses that employ that labor, this wouldn't be an issue.
Posted at 11:01 AM
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From
"Former FBI Official: Canada's Immigration Laws Too Lenient":
A former FBI official who currently specializes in international terrorism, counterintelligence, and foreign counterintelligence is warning that Canadian immigration laws are too lenient and make Canada a perfect destination for would-be terrorists.
Speaking at the 15th World Terrorist and Disaster Management Conference in Toronto this week, Ty Fairman said Muslim radicals are arriving in Canada and heading for Ontario because of that province's existing and extensive Muslim population. According to Fairman, Canada is home to approximately 750,000 Muslims. Sixty-one percent of that population lives in Ontario with 5% of that number living in Toronto. Fairman added that Toronto has the highest number of Muslims in any North American city.
Fairman went on to say that the al-Qaida terror network distributes intricate training manuals to all members which offer step-by-step instructions in how to effectively infiltrate nations in the western hemisphere adding, "One of their main missions, as far as expansion, is to travel to places undetected, unnoticed, go to places with lenient immigration laws."
Now, for the second part of my title:
A spokesman for Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan quickly rebuffed Fairman's warnings concerning this country's lax immigration laws maintaining that existing laws do not draw the attention of international terror groups.
Either there's a translation problem, or McLellan is an absolute idiot. Apparently at the conference she said that Canadians need to prepare themselves for a large terrorist attack.
The latter prompted "Dave Harris, a former Canadian Security Intelligence Service chief of strategic planning"
to say:
"That gave me the uneasy feeling that we were living in a fool's paradise, that now we have to be prepared for an attack. I'm worried that we are skipping a step... What we need is to get a grip on our disgraceful immigration policies because we don't know what radicals are coming in... We need to hold the politicians' feet to the fire because the topic of immigration has been untouchable... Do we have to accept a number of bloody outbursts rather than come to a head with politically sensitive issues?"
The report
"Would-be terrorists see Canada as perfect destination, ex-FBI agent says" (also
here) has another idiotic comment from McLellan's spokesperson.
And, from last year, see
"Canada admits: We're terror haven":
The [Canadian Security Intelligence Service] report confirms a recent U.S. Library of Congress study that said Canada's welfare system, immigration laws, infrequent prosecutions and light sentences had turned the country into "a favored destination for terrorists."
Posted at 08:55 AM
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July 14, 2005
The AP has the
scoop:
Illegal immigration is contributing to a growth in gang activity in north Georgia, U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said Wednesday after a law enforcement summit addressing the problem.
Nahmias, federal prosecutor for the Northern District of Georgia, said the past few years have seen a "serious increase in our gang problem." He said the addition of new Asian and Hispanic gangs -- joining more traditional white and black gangs -- has been a factor in crimes ranging from truancy and theft to drug dealing and murder.
"As we gain population, particularly when we see illegal immigration increase, we're also seeing gang activity increase with that," Nahmias said...
Posted at 05:08 PM
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July 03, 2005
The AP has a
long report on Salim Boughader Mucharrafille, a Mexican-Lebanese people smuggler:
...A report released by the Sept. 11 commission staff last year examining how terrorists travel the world cited Boughader as the only "human smuggler with suspected links to terrorists" convicted to date in the United States.
But after Boughader was locked up, other smugglers operating in Lebanon, Mexico and the United States continued to help Hezbollah-affiliated migrants in their effort to illicitly enter from Tijuana, a U.S. immigration investigator said in Mexican court documents obtained by the AP.
[The Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka tried to get four of their members into California. They were posing as Mexicans and they were bound for Canada.]
An AP investigation found these are just some of the many pipelines in Central and South America, Mexico and Canada that have illegally channeled thousands of people into the United States from so-called "special-interest" countries - those identified by the U.S. government as sponsors or supporters of terrorism.
[...discusses the OTM scandal...]
...Lebanese carpenter Mahmoud Youssef Kourani, smuggled in over the California border, admitted spending part of his time in the United States raising money to send back to his country to support Hezbollah - at least $40,000, according to an FBI affidavit. Kourani, court records said, told the FBI that his brother is the group's chief of military security in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah is widely admired as a resistance force...
...At least one al-Qaida-linked man smuggled himself over the border. Nabil al-Marabh, a now-deported Syrian citizen once No. 27 on the FBI's list of terror suspects and accused by Canadian authorities of having connections to Osama bin Laden's network, was caught sneaking from Canada into New York in the back of a tractor-trailer in June 2001 with a fake Canadian passport...
[...Admiral Loy's testimony...]
...[Smugglers] have moved people by plane - into suburban Washington, D.C., Florida, California. And they have crossed clients in vehicles or on foot into Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California and over the Canadian border, then helped deliver them to destinations across America.
...Other people-couriers use altered passports to fly clients to the United States. One of them, convicted smuggler Mohammed Hussein Assadi, schooled his Iraqi customers to carry nothing identifying them as Arab while traveling...
...Boughader's clients told U.S. and Mexican investigators they paid thousands of dollars to obtain fraudulent visas from Mexico's consular office in Beirut. A woman who oversaw the office between 1998 and 2001 was arrested on charges of participating in the smuggling scheme.
In May, the former director of immigration in Honduras was arrested, accused of selling hundreds of Honduran passports to migrants from Lebanon, China, Cuba and Colombia - possibly to aid their entry into the United States. The investigation continues...
...Maximiano Ramos, a former Los Angeles supervisor with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, admitted taking $12,500 to smuggle immigrants from the Philippines...
...Linda Sesi, an assistant ombudsman for the city of Detroit, is awaiting trial on charges of conspiring with four others to smuggle more than 200 migrants from Iraq, Jordan and other Middle Eastern countries into the United States from 2001 up until her arrest last September... [She flew] them to Dulles airport outside Washington, D.C. [see "Three Michiganians charged with smuggling Middle Easterners to U.S." where she's named as Basima Sesi --LW]
...Intelligence suggests that since 1999 human smugglers have facilitated the travel of terrorists associated with more than a dozen extremist groups, according to the Sept. 11 commission's terrorist travel report [former Sept. 11 commission counsel, Janice Kephart] helped write. Prior to Sept. 11, al-Qaida employed smugglers to get jihad recruits into Afghanistan for training, the report said.
Terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, "use human smugglers and document forgers to a great extent," Kephart said. "They know their value. It only makes sense that they would transfer that to infiltrate the United States."
...Following Boughader's arrest, smuggling of Lebanese through Tijuana ceased for several months, ICE investigator Ramon Romo said in court documents filed in Mexico. Then some Lebanese men were apprehended at the Tijuana airport and another by the U.S. Border Patrol, and in April 2003 intelligence revealed that five members of Hezbollah were preparing to cross the border, Romo stated...
...Boughader acknowledged transporting a Lebanese man who worked at al-Manar, a global satellite television network owned and operated by Hezbollah. The U.S. State Department added al-Manar to its Terror Exclusion List in 2004, meaning anyone associated with the station may be refused entry or deported from the United States...
Note that the S.F. Chronical's version is entitled
"Pipelines Send Illegal Immigrants to U.S." and they also omitted the first couple paragraphs for some reason.
Posted at 06:56 AM
| Comments (2)
June 13, 2005
FWIW, see
"Mexico's blind eye to al-Qaida activity. Intel sources see porous border posing major terror threat to U.S.":
...Gen. Jorge Serrano, the head of the Attorney General Office's special terrorism investigation unit, says no Muslim terrorists have been found living in Mexico.
Yet intelligence sources in the U.S. and Canada say Islamic jihadists have been working with zealots in Mexico for more than 20 years. Early activities were sponsored by Iran. Later, the recruitment activities got support from the Egyptian, Pakistani and Saudi embassies. It is known the Egyptians paid the rent for a prayer hall and allocated funds for students who wanted to study at the Islamic al-Azhar University in Cairo. The Pakistanis organized Muslim converts and others to visit madrassas in Pakistan, a golden opportunity offered to the Taliban and al-Qaida to reach a larger pool of recruitment candidates. Saudi funds created a range of activities linked to Hajj or studies in Saudi Arabia where young zealots established contacts with Sufi and Wahabi activists one way or another connected to master terrorist Osama bin Laden.
Mexican authorities revealed in 2002 they knew Spanish Muslim converts of Basque origin were present in Chiapas state preaching the ideas of Islam and jihad as they mingled with local aboriginals. At least in two cases Mexican authorities, unable to determine the whereabouts of Basque Muslims, sent letters to their last known address informing them their stay in the country was illegal. According to a CISEN official, most Basque and Spanish Muslims were linked to the North African-based al-Murabitun World Tzotzil Movement, known for its blend of socialism and Islam. Information on Basque activity in Mexico is regularly collected by the Spanish government, but is not shared with the U.S. by the Mexicans...
Now see
Rep. John Cornyn: "It is very clear to us that there are no Mexican terrorists".
Posted at 11:16 AM
| Comments (2)
In something that apparently hasn't been covered by the U.S. press, American and Mexican legislators met in Rhode Island over the weekend to discuss issues of importance to the two countries. Similar annual meetings have been occuring for decades, and this year's event was apparently focusing on immigration matters. Details in
"Strategy sought for migrant plan". I don't know how many U.S. legislators attended, but the two mentioned in the article are on the wrong side of this issue.
Of note, we have
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) saying,
"It is very clear to us that there are no Mexican terrorists." First of all, that's incorrect. There are various terrorist organizations operating in Mexico, but they're concerned with internal politics so they aren't that much of a threat to the U.S.
And, of course, there are growing numbers of Muslims converts in Mexico, some of whom may take on militant points of view.
But, on the larger issue, that's also an extraordinarily naive thing for a high-level U.S. politician to say (assuming he believes it). Anyone who's an adult about this issue realizes that whenever you have millions of citizens of another country in a host country that can cause problems, including riots, agitated mobs, revolutions, civil unrest, and so forth. I mean, that's just a lesson of history. Denying that possibility is like denying all those history books in the library. He might not want to say that out loud when in discussions with our buds from the south, but I get the feeling that I'm one of the few people who's even thought about that, which isn't exactly a good thing since all those politicians are supposed to be worried about such things on my behalf.
The article also includes this charming quote from one of our friends:
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) Dep. Alberto Aguilar, of Sinaloa, agreed it was important not to unfairly demonize Mexican migrants.
"They see monsters and ghosts where there really are none," he said.
Translation: Send money home.
Posted at 06:16 AM
| Comments (2)
June 04, 2005
26 employees of a subcontractor of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems Operations in Pascagoula, MS have been arrested for working illegally in the U.S., falsely claiming to be U.S. citizens, and other violations. NGSS builds and repairs commercial ships as well as military vessels for the U.S. and other countries. The Navy was involved in this latest investigation.
Detailed local version in "Subcontractor employees arrested at Northrop". AP version in "Authorities arrest 26 illegal immigrants at Northrop Grumman". Many other similar stories - including at least one involving gang members working on U.S. Navy ships - in this category.
Posted at 11:09 AM
| Comments (0)
June 03, 2005
It's not difficult to find
MSM propaganda supporting massive illegal immigration. What's harder to come by is MSM articles discussing such issues as whether the presence of millions of citizens of other countries in our country poses a danger as regards civil insurrection.
However, the OC Register offers us an article that even the most corrupt supporter of massive illegal immigration might want to consider:
"Alliance without borders". The group described wants Indians to be able to traverse the border at will. One wonders whether that also includes those who are part Indian, such as the
Mestizos, who make up 60% or so of Mexico's population.
The article also includes this bit:
She helped organize a May 25 protest [of a speech by the Minuteman Project's founder in Garden Grove] to demonstrate opposition. She said her intentions were nonviolent - but she stopped well short of condemning the rock and can throwing that took place.
"When there is hatred in the community, things can happen. The supporters of the Minutemen provoked us. They shouted at us and swore at us, tried to intimidate us. It wasn't like the Minutemen just parked their cars and went inside."
Most attendees did simply go straight inside, but a few traded barbs first.
Attendees "shouldn't have done that," said Ada McKnight, a Minuteman Project supporter at the meeting. She said the protesters "are so full of hate. They're ignorant and we understand that. They're irrational savages. The answer to everything is, 'You're a racist.'"
As covered many times before, there's a very great threat of terrorists coming across our borders. However, there's also a threat posed by agitated, far-left, anti-Americans who are already here. Since some putative Americans who profit off illegal immigration are so corrupt they care only about themselves, they might want to consider the threat to their property (or worse) posed by those groups.
Posted at 03:00 PM
| Comments (1)
May 27, 2005
From
this:
Goliad County wrote a new chapter Tuesday in its ongoing dealings with human smuggling. Sheriff Robert DeLaGarza said more than a dozen Asians who appear to be illegal immigrants were caught traveling through south Goliad County by a deputy patrolling an area north of Sarco.
DeLaGarza said the suspected illegals had passports from the Republic of China. It appears they are obtaining passports to enter Mexico as tourists, then making their way to the United States border, he said.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent who picked up the immigrants later in the day told DeLaGarza the agency is seeing more and more Chinese coming across the Mexican border...
There are no reported ties to terrorism or spying. Note that this article could have been a bit clearer. When they say
"Republic of China" I assume they mean it in the Taiwan sense, and their use of that term is not just shorthand for the
People's Republic of China.
Posted at 01:07 PM
| Comments (0)
May 23, 2005
"OTM" means "other than Mexican", and refers to Central Americans, South Americans, Middle Easterners, North Koreans, etc. who are caught sneaking over our southern border. The article
"Officials: OTMs 'a very grave problem'" states that many crossers choose Texas as the place to cross because they know they won't be detained due to limited detention space. Not only that, but:
"Down in Eagle Pass, we'll see them sitting by the side of a road, and they'll chase us down and nearly beg to be arrested," said one field agent who asked to not be identified.
"They know they’ll be released pretty fast, and that paper (court "notice to appear" document) is like their ticket to go wherever they want."
...Berg explained that OTM release actions have been widely broadcast throughout Central America and beyond, causing the Texas section of the U.S. border, from Del Rio to Brownsville, to be the geopolitical objective in the sights of millions of would-be border crossers...
From October 2004 to the present they detained 42,239 illegal aliens. 14,569 of which were OTMs, and about 13,000 of those were released into the U.S.
See also:
"Illegals detained at border released onto U.S. streets"
"Bonilla demands review of OTM release policy"
"Illegals from terrorist nations are crossing the border into Arizona."
Posted at 03:14 PM
| Comments (3)
From
"ICE arrests 60 illegals working in sensitive areas":
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have arrested 60 illegal aliens working as contract employees at a dozen critical infrastructure sites nationwide, including seven petrochemical refineries, three power plants, a national air cargo facility and a pipeline company.
There was no evidence that any of them had terrorist ties or were engaged in a terrorist plot, although they had access to sensitive critical infrastructure locations and posed a serious homeland security threat, said Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Michael J. Garcia, who heads ICE...
The arrestees are from Mexico and Central America, and all of them worked for Brock Enterprises, which is reportedly cooperating with and isn't a target of the investigation.
The above is a Jerry Seper report; the AP report is similar except papers seem to have given it various interesting titles:
The Houston Chronicle's title manages to not be the longest and still be the clearest:
"60 illegal immigrants arrested at plants in 6 states".
The S.F. Chronical stresses the arrestors and not the arrestees:
"US immigration agents arrest 60 illegal workers across country".
An HR site gets PC:
"60 Undocumented Workers Arrested".
And, the L.A. Times continues to lead the way with impartial, journalistically-excellent headline writing:
"60 Immigrant Workers Held".
See the other posts in this category for many other examples of illegal aliens - even including gang members - working at secure facilities, including military bases.
Posted at 03:04 PM
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May 19, 2005
No, really. From
"N.C. airport workers arrested on alleged immigration violations":
Nine workers who service U.S. Navy planes at a Winston-Salem airport were arrested Tuesday on alleged immigration violations...
The "Operation Shield America" raid at Smith-Reynolds Airport is aimed at finding illegal aliens doing work for the Pentagon.
Reports also said that those arrested were working on P-3 Orions - surveillance planes known as "submarine killers."
...The arrests come two months after federal authorities arrested 27 workers at the Piedmont/Triad International Airport in Greensboro for using counterfeit documents...
These are just the latest in a long series of such incidents. Start in
"DHS: Naval contractor employed 86 illegal aliens".
Posted at 01:32 PM
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April 14, 2005
According to the DHS, out of 167 employees of a naval contractor, 86 are illegal aliens. The aliens painted Navy ships at the Naval Station San Diego and, of course, had some degree of access to the base and its 50+ ships. You know, those ships we use in battles and stuff like that.
The AP report is "Navy contract workers found to be illegal immigrants", and it mentions that the contractor seems to have been a bit lax in their vetting process: some of the aliens' IDs had smudge marks and [s]ome had misspellings. One phony Social Security card read: "Contac your local Social Security office for any other matter regar" [sic].
Considering this case and the generally porous borders, one is dumfounded to understand how anyone could have lost to Bush. The opportunities Bush gave were a bit like, if I might mix my metaphors, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar lifting you up to the basket and Shaq handing you the ball. All Kerry had to do was drop it a vertical foot. Instead, he pretended not to see the basket and started pontificating on his days playing football.
Previously, just today in fact: "Illegal Workers Raise Security Concerns".
Posted at 10:59 PM
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The AP has a roundup of recent cases where illegal aliens were found to be working in sensitive facilities, including a nuclear power plant and as an airline mechanic. Surprisingly, the same AP headline is used in all of the dozens of newspapers that published the report. Story
here or
here.
Note the quote from the AILA at the end:
"Part of reform needs to recognize that there are people here, living in the U.S., and working and paying taxes, who need to come out of the shadows," said Judy Golub, spokeswoman for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
"We're never going to enhance our security until we have immigration reform," Golub said.
Of course, in another context it wouldn't be out of the question to expect her to spout Lie #5: "they're just here to do the jobs Americans won't do."
Posted at 01:31 PM
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April 08, 2005
FP:
Street gangs are proliferating around the world. The United States has unwittingly spurred this phenomenon by deporting tens of thousands of immigrants with criminal records each year. But that only partly explains how gangs went global. Credit also goes to the Internet, where gangs are staking out turf and spreading their culture online. Gang members may have never heard of globalization, but it is making them stronger...
Posted at 12:11 AM
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March 16, 2005
FoxNews is running a five-part series on the possible terrorism-related implications of our lax border policy.
I haven't seen the video, but the report includes the following:
"These people that are coming up here, including the undocumented, are good people that are enriching our lives. We do need them," said Juan Hernandez, a dual national and Texas resident who formerly represented Mexicans north of the border in the Mexican cabinet.
And did he ever. Bearing in mind he's also an American citizen, here's another one of his quotes:
"By populating the United States with millions of Hispanics who are tied economically, politically and linguistically to Mexico, we are able to exert enormous influence and pressure on U.S. policy and its dealings with Mexico."
and this quote about Mexican immigrants to the U.S.:
"I want the third generation, the seventh generation, I want them all to think 'Mexico first'."
Part 2 of their series is here.
Posted at 11:05 PM
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March 14, 2005
Via Drudge comes this WashTimes report:
Illegal aliens using false Social Security numbers were able to enter and work as contract painters at a power plant in Florida, including work near one nuclear reactor.
Officials at Progress Energy, which runs the Crystal River Energy Complex in Citrus County, say they followed federal regulations and that the contractor should have better vetted its employees...
[...Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, Florida Republican calls for law changes to prevent this happening again...]
...The individuals worked for Brock Specialty Services, a Texas-based company that was hired to do maintenance at the facility...
See similar reports starting in "Yet another arrest of illegal aliens at facilities building U.S. Navy ships".
Posted at 02:12 PM
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March 08, 2005
The article "U.S.: Russia trained Greenfield man to spy" has a great deal of info on his background:
A Greenfield truck driver accused of offering to sell the names of U.S. intelligence agents to the Iraqi government received espionage training in Russia about 30 years ago, authorities say.
Court documents released Friday in the case of Shaaban Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shaaban also reveal that the Jordanian native had five passports and used several Social Security numbers...
In 1972, he lived in Moscow and married his first wife, Svetlana Anatolevna Shaban. It's unclear whether they were divorced.
During his stay in Moscow, the federal government says, Shaaban received training from Russian intelligence agents. The documents do not detail what kind of training. Authorities refused to elaborate...
In 2003 and 2004, he worked for Greenfield-based Novelty Inc., which manufactures and distributes toys and trinkets. For some of the time that Shaaban drove for Novelty, the firm's "Iraq's 52 Most Wanted Playing Cards" were a hot seller, company attorney Jeanne Hamilton said...
Previous report here.
Posted at 11:57 PM
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FBI Director Robert Mueller confirmed before Congress today what has long been known: that aliens from terrorist-sponsoring countries have come over the Mexican border. Story: "FBI warns of 'special interest' aliens"
Note that he drew the distinction between terrorists and those just from countries that sponsor terrorism; he said he wasn't aware of any terrorists infiltrating the U.S. via our border. He also discussed terrorists trying to pose as Mexicans in order to blend in. That was also discussed here months ago.
He made these statements under questioning from U.S. Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas).
UPDATE: On their evening broadcasts, ABC/NBC/CBS all had a segment on Mueller's testimony. However, all three highlighted his testimony about those on the terrorism watchlist being able to buy guns. And, all three had similar short interviews from Wayne LaPierre. Only CBS mentioned the contents of this post. I guess ABC and NBC have different priorities.
Posted at 05:42 PM
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March 07, 2005
FPM has a roundup. It mentions Adm. James Loy's testimony, Rep. Solomon Ortiz' efforts, loose nukes, possible ties between gangs and terrorists, the Minuteman project, Rep. James Sensenbrenner's efforts, and these bits I wasn't familiar with:
...A bill has been introduced in Texas legislature to allow fingerprinting at hospitals in an effort to stop terrorism. The legislation’s intent is to prevent terrorists from entering the United States untracked, said State Rep. Armando "Mando" Martinez, D-Weslaco, the bill's author. Not surprisingly, self-declared "civil rights groups" opposed the bill on the grounds it violates the illegals' "freedoms" and may discourage people from seeking medical care.
Martinez argues, however, that a recent explosion in Mexico illustrated how terrorists might fake injury as a guise to enter the U.S, because customs officers don’t ask questions of someone crossing the border to seek medical care. Martinez asked, "What is to prevent a terrorist from staging a possible bombing or explosion, acting like they’re injured...and once they’re in a room and everybody walks out, and they can just get up and walk out AMA (against medical advice)?"
Homeland Security officials have warned that bankrolled terrorists can traverse the border by paying professional smugglers. A Juarez television station recently reported a suspected terrorist paid a taxi driver $400 to take him to Juarez, and that the driver left the man at the Santa Fe, New Mexico, bridge...
Posted at 12:58 PM
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March 06, 2005
The Sierra Vista Herald discusses illegal aliens using Fort Huachuca in far southern Arizona as a transit hub in "Lawmakers say they see immigration as an issue for fort, too":
State Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said Friday that illegal immigrants being detained on Fort Huachuca is a problem for the Army...
Farnsworth said garrison commander Col. Jonathan Hunter said that last year 3,000 illegal immigrants were detained on the post...
Farnsworth said the fort's high-technology missions are critical to the nation's defense. But, he said, having illegal immigrants going through the federal installation puts fort officials between a rock and hard place.
Having expressed concerns about the illegal immigrant traffic going through the fort, Farnsworth said he does not believe the post will be on the upcoming Department of Defense's Base Closure and Realignment list...
Saying he knew the fort is a key player in the military's intelligence arena, Yarbrough said he was unaware of the fort's other high-tech functions that make the installation missions more critical to the nation.
Besides the Intelligence Center, the fort is home to the Army Network Enterprise Technology Command, 11th Signal Brigade, Army Electronic Proving Ground, Department of Defense Joint Interoperability Test Command and a number of other units involved in developing, testing or fielding command, control, communications, compute and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance systems...
In Bush's America, even the functions described in the last paragraph take a back seat to cheap labor.
Posted at 08:52 PM
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March 04, 2005
"Hoosier jailed in Iraq conspiracy" has the details and a timeline. In brief, here's what Shaaban Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shaaban did or is accused of doing:
- went to Iraq and struck a deal with the Iraqi government to get $3 million dollars in exchange for the names of U.S. intelligence agents.
- fraudulently obtained an Indiana driver's license, complete with authority to transport hazardous materials
- fraudulently obtaining his U.S. citizenship
- trying to create an Iraq-friendly TV station in the U.S.
- trying to organize human shields for Iraq
Posted at 02:12 PM
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BROWNSVILLE — Non-Mexican immigrants, including those from nations that support terrorism, are abusing the lack of detention space in the Rio Grande Valley to help them illegally stay in the country, according to testimony given Thursday before a congressional judiciary subcommittee.
During the Immigration and Border Security subcommittee hearing, witnesses told congressional officials there has been a 137 percent increase of non-Mexican immigrants crossing into the United States compared to last fiscal year.
Of the 19,000 such immigrants caught nationwide through the first half of the year, 40 percent entered through the Valley, said U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi...
If their record is clean and there is no space to accommodate them at a local detention center, the immigrants are asked their destination and then given an order to appear at an immigration court hearing there.
Most of those immigrants come from Central and South American nations and, according to federal figures, almost 90 percent of them do not appear on their court dates...
Continued in "Rep Ortiz: Non-Mexican migrants getting free pass into U.S."
At the hearing he played the video of Border Patrol agents acting basically as chauffeurs for illegal aliens. See "Border Patrol Releases Immigrants at [Harlingen, TX] Bus Station". See also "Potential terrorists released due to lack of jail space, congressman says".
Posted at 12:07 PM
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March 02, 2005
Joel Mowbray:
In a sign that new Secretary of State Condi Rice is not yet ready to close the open-door visa policy for Saudis, consular chief Maura Harty was recently asked to say on indefinitely...
A controversial nominee to the post two and a half years ago, Ms. Harty swayed a reluctant Senate to confirm her by pledging substantial reform at the agency responsible for improperly issuing legal visas to all of the 9/11 terrorists. She has not made good on her word...
Lawmakers were steamed about a program that Ms. Ryan continued operating in Saudi Arabia for 10 months after 9/11 called Visa Express, which allowed residents in the country that sent us 15 of 19 hijackers to apply for visas at private Saudi travel agents. On the eve of the first committee vote on taking the visa authority out of State entirely, Colin Powell sacked Ms. Ryan and Visa Express was shuttered.
But Gen. Powell proved he had no appetite for reform, as he appointed the protégé and clone of Ms. Ryan, Ms. Harty, as her replacement. Ms. Harty, like Ms. Ryan, was a career veteran of the Foreign Service, and was an enthusiastic supporter of the courtesy culture—putting customer service for foreign visa applicants ahead of border security—instituted by her predecessor.
Not only that, but Ms. Harty was a top deputy to Ms. Ryan when many of the 9/11 terrorists received their visas, and she was involved when the agency was developing Visa Express...
Posted at 09:40 PM
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March 01, 2005
Arrested yard workers identified: Workers for a Northrop Grumman Newport News subcontractor face immigration charges.
The two employees of a Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard subcontractor who were arrested Friday were identified today as Sang Han Yang and Sang Bok Lee...
The shipyard, a sensitive site as the nation's only builder of nuclear aircraft carriers and one of two builders of nuclear submarines, was notified by the Navy of the arrests, said yard spokeswoman Jennifer Dellapenta. "We immediately deactivated their badges and are cooperating with authorities," she said.
Under the agreement between the shipyard and subcontractor, Dellapenta said, the subcontractor was supposed to verify citizenship and other information about the workers before they were allowed to work at the yard...
It's not known whether they're from North or South Korea. And, in case you missed it above, they build nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines there.
Previously: "4 illegals caught working for military contractor".
Posted at 08:16 PM
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February 19, 2005
WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 - ...Intelligence that "strongly suggests" that Al Qaeda operatives have considered using the Mexican border as an entry point was cited in written testimony [before Congress on Wednesday] by Adm. James M. Loy, the deputy secretary of homeland security. But he wrote that there was "currently no conclusive evidence" that this had succeeded.
In the past, law enforcement officials have said Al Qaeda might try to use the Mexican border, but the testimony on Wednesday seemed to suggest increasing concern. In response to questions from the senators, Admiral Loy described it as a "very serious situation,"...
In his written testimony, Admiral Loy cited recent information from investigations and detentions as the basis for his concern about the Mexican border. He added, "Several Al Qaeda leaders believe operatives can pay their way into the country through Mexico and also believe illegal entry is more advantageous than legal entry for operational security reasons."
Posted at 12:22 AM
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February 10, 2005
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Christopher Cox (R-CA) delivered the following remarks during today's news conference on the REAL ID Act:
...
"Border agents have reported an increased number of individuals from countries of national security interest -- countries known to harbor terrorists -- who have been smuggled recently across our borders.
"In 2004, border patrol agents arrested over 650 suspected terrorists from countries of national security interest trying to cross the southern border, and they expect the number will rise this year...
Posted at 12:31 PM
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February 07, 2005
"Feared Latin gang touches region".
The region in question is Miami, and the gang in question is the one featured in "Eastie [Boston] gang linked to al-Qaeda" and mentioned in "Unholy Border Alliance", "Al-Qaida recruiting Central American gang members?", "And all the ships in drydock" (gang members working on Navy ships), and "[Navy] Base security scrutinized over illegal-immigrant workers".
What's that buzzing sound? It's getting louder... I can almost make it out... "willing workers"... "kind-hearted"... "compassionate compassionly compassion"... "jobs Americans won't take"...
Posted at 10:33 PM
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From this:
Fifteen presumed North Korean defectors who had settled in South Korea were arrested for trying to sneak into the U.S.
The Los Angeles-based Association of People From Five Northern Provinces said on Sunday it learned that 15 North Koreans were arrested by U.S. Border Patrol as they tried to smuggle themselves into the U.S. from Tijuana, Mexico. But the associations president Kim Ho-jeong added it remained to be confirmed whether the 15 really were defectors.
The 15, who are being held at an immigration detention center in San Diego, California, said they intended to seek political asylum in the U.S. after previously settling in South Korea. Kim Yong, the head of another defectors association in Los Angeles, said that under U.S. law such individuals were usually deported.
Posted at 12:17 AM
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Here are some fun facts about the base outside Sierra Vista in far southern Arizona:
See also this report about OTMs.
Posted at 12:10 AM
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February 06, 2005
[Cross-posted to the
Command-Post and the-lonewacko-blog.redstate.org/story/2005/2/7/15523/85908]
SACRAMENTO -- The terrorist believed to have flown a hijacked airliner into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, obtained a California driver's license without providing the required Social Security number for identification, officials are acknowledging for the first time.
Nawaf Alhazmi then used that license when he registered for the flight training that enabled him to pilot the doomed airliner.
Alhazmi used a loophole, since closed, in California law that allowed hundreds of thousands of foreign drivers without Social Security numbers to use a generic number in its place. Even some foreign citizens with Social Security numbers skirted the identity check required of U.S. citizens.
Although the process changed a year ago, some of the drivers still have their original licenses... ...a 1994 court decision required the state to also give driver's licenses to qualified applicants, such as foreign students, who had no Social Security number...
184,000 such licenses were issued between 12/2000 and 2/2002.
There are various bills being proposed in other states to tighten or loosen the rules regarding driver's licenses. Rep. Sensenbrenner [R-WI] has
authored a bill that would set nationwide standards.
In California, state Sen. Gil Cedillo [D] recently continued his multi-year attempt to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens:
"Actors, writers and musicians push for [illegal] immigrant drivers licenses" (commentary
here, picture of the ad
here.) Security checks would supposedly be performed. Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the last such Cedillo bill that was passed, saying the security safeguards weren't stringent enough.
The 9/11 hijackers reportedly had a combined total of 63 driver's licenses from various states, although the exact number is
disputed, albeit without providing direct contradictory evidence. Various DMVs across the country have had scandals where employees issued licenses to those without the proper ID; the AP offers a roundup
here. Other 9/11 terrorists had driver's licenses from
Virginia or
Florida. The procedure they used to obtain some licenses is detailed
here.
(Same AP report
here and
here.)
Posted at 10:55 PM
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January 25, 2005
SDUT:
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico, Islam has joined a battle for the hearts and minds of Mexico's volatile Tzotzil Indians in Chiapas state, home of Zapatista rebels and a hotbed of sectarian strife between Christians.
In an unlikely meeting of two worlds, an idealistic Muslim sect has converted some 300 Tzotzils, a Maya Indian group known for drink-fueled fiestas and religious fervor...
The growth of Islam in such a restive area has raised the eyebrows of Mexico's intelligence agency, wary of possible terrorist activity aimed at the neighboring United States...
Several dozen Spanish missionaries who introduced Islam to Chiapas and still live here hold radical political and economic views such as wanting to do away with currencies, taxes and the nation state, but church leaders and academics say the group has no connection to violence...
The group's site is islammexico.org.mx
Posted at 11:16 AM
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January 19, 2005
Drudge is linking to this Boston Herald report. It sounds a bit questionable, but then again see the other entries in this category for examples of border infiltrations by potential terrorists. From the article:
Federal and state authorities are investigating a nuclear terrorist threat against Boston after a man calling from Mexico told California police that he smuggled two Iraqis and four Chinese over the border, the Boston Herald has learned.
``They got a call from across the border in Mexico to the California Highway Patrol and he said he brought two Iraqis and four Chinese (individuals) across the border and according to him, they stated soon to follow behind them would be some sort of material,'' said a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation.
``He refers to some sort of nuclear material that will follow them through New York up into Boston.''
According to the source, the caller has not identified himself and did not show up for a meeting with federal investigators in California but he did leave pictures of four Chinese men and some names at a ``drop'' site at the Mexico-California border.
``They were dropped by the source at a location. He literally threw them over a fence from Mexico to the U.S. side,'' said the source. ``There are pictures of the four Chinese and some names but just how accurate they are remains a question..."
Posted at 04:43 PM
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January 05, 2005
Drudge is linking to this Boston Globe article:
A burgeoning East Boston-based street gang made up of alleged rapists and machete-wielding robbers has been linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, prompting Boston police to ``turn up the heat'' on its members, the Herald has learned...
...In recent months, intelligence officials in Washington have warned national law enforcement agencies that al-Qaeda terrorists have been spotted with members of [the gang] in El Salvador, prompting concerns the gang may be smuggling Islamic fundamentalist terrorists into the country. Law enforcement officials have long believed that [the gang] controls alien smuggling routes along Mexico.
The warning is being taken seriously in East Boston, where Raed Hijazi, an al-Qaeda operative charged with training the suicide bombers in the attack on the USS Cole, lived and worked, prosecutors have charged.
Also, the commercial jets that hurtled into the World Trade Center towers in New York City were hijacked from Logan International Airport...
Posted at 11:51 PM
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AP:
An employment agency pleaded guilty to falsifying forms to get illegal immigrants jobs at the nation's top producer of U.S. military battlefield rations.
James Echensberger, vice president of San Antonio-based Tollin Group Inc., on Tuesday pleaded guilty on the company's behalf to one count of conspiracy to provide false and fictitious statements during an FBI investigation.
Investigators found that Tollin, which does business as Remedy Intelligent Staffing, was trying to cover up hundreds of fraudulent "I-9" employment eligibility documents. The illegal workers were hired by Wornick Co., which packages high-calorie "meals ready to eat" for troops in Iraq.
The FBI initiated the investigation after an al-Qaida operative arrested in 2003 was found with information indicating that McAllen and Wornick could be terrorist targets. Wornick had a $47 million Department of Defense contract to deliver more than 1.1 million meals between February and May 2003...
Previous report
here.
UPDATE: There are many more details in the local report
"Company pleads guilty to fraud charges".
10/28/05 UPDATE: This
says Tollin (dba "Remedy Intelligent Staffing") got five years of probation, were fined $20,000, and were ordered to pay $414,000 in civil penalties. And, they won't get DoD contracts for three years. It also says the FBI did background checks on all Wornick's employees and found no dirct terrorism links.
Posted at 04:50 PM
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January 04, 2005
FPM:
Roughly 60,000 illegal immigrants designated as 'other-than-Mexican,' or OTMs, were detained last year along the U.S.-Mexico border, including a sizable number from Arab and Muslim countries. And if recent reports are any indication, they may be getting some troubling new help in their efforts to enter the United States.
In a December 4 incident that received scant media attention, a Bangladeshi Muslim man named Fakhrul Islam was among a group of 13 illegal aliens arrested near Brownsville, Texas, just across the border from Mexico. Border Patrol agents have said that one of the men detained along with Islam was a member of... a violent Salvadoran criminal gang with more than 300,000 members across Central and North America, including powerful enterprises in several major U.S. cities...
Posted at 12:37 AM
| Comments (1)
December 16, 2004
From Tucson's KVOA:
In August, The Investigators on Eyewitness News 4 first reported the possible threat of terrorists using the Arizona/Mexico border to cross into the U.S...
Now, we've uncovered even more evidence that the threat along our border is real.
"The story you did was 100% accurate. It showed what's happening on the border on a daily basis. It was completely accurate," says a Border Patrol agent...
..."So they took him back to the Naco station for further investigating there, and when they entered his fingerprints into the AFIS database, which is maintained by the FBI, several minutes later they received a phone call from someone on the other end -- I'm not sure who it was..."
"We received intel that seven males of Middle-Eastern descent had entered the United States illegally, and they were here to carry out a terrorist attack on this country. I'd never seen the agency go to the level that we did as far as treating it with such urgency."
"and when we got that information we immediately sent agents to patrol the highways. We had never done anything like that before. And like I said before, within a week, there I am, watching the nightly news, and the terror threat was raised, and they actually showed pictures of these seven men who had reportedly entered the country. And that's when it kinda really hit me for the first time that it's really happening."
"We were told specifically that these people had terrorist pasts and they were coming here specifically to carry out a terrorist attack."
As far as we know, no arrests were ever made in that case, but this Border Patrol agent says he's been told that other terrorists are, perhaps, lying in wait south of the border...
Posted at 12:54 PM
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December 09, 2004
(12-08) 21:10 PST HOUSTON (AP) --
A South African woman whose arrest heightened fears that terrorists were slipping across the U.S.-Mexico border has been sentenced to time served and will be deported.
Farida Goolam Mahomed Ahmed, sentenced Tuesday, had been in custody since July 19, when Border Patrol officers at the airport stopped her as she tried to board a plane for New York; she did not have a visa to travel in the United States.
The officers later discovered her passport had three pages ripped out of it.
Ahmed, 48, also was carrying about $7,300 in various currencies as well as flight itineraries indicating she traveled from Johannesburg on July 8, via Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to London, then to Mexico City on or about July 14...
Previous coverage starts here.
Posted at 12:52 PM
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December 07, 2004
From the transcript of Lou Dobbs' 11/16 show:
DOBBS: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is warning of the threat of terrorists entering this country through the same routes as those used by illegal aliens. Secretary Rumsfeld, traveling in South America, warned that enemies look for weaknesses and take advantage of them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The risk is that some of these human-smuggling routes into our country from this hemisphere could be used just as easily for terrorists.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOBBS: And three million illegal aliens are estimated to be entering this country this year.
Secretary Rumsfeld also said the United States has to be, as he put it, smarter and quicker in securing our borders. The federal government's failure to secure those borders is leading individual states to take action. Arizona's Proposition 200, which limits state benefits for illegals, passed overwhelmingly two weeks ago. Now at least half a dozen other states are considering similar measures.
Posted at 11:59 PM
| Comments (0)
December 03, 2004
From this:
Four employees of a San Diego military contractor were apprehended by immigration authorities yesterday morning at work after federal agents determined them to be undocumented immigrants.
The four men, all Mexican nationals, worked for Marine & Restaurant Fabricators, a company that installs aluminum and fabric in commercial restaurant kitchens as well as inside Navy ships.
This is just the latest of a long string of such incidents.
Posted at 12:20 AM
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November 10, 2004
Chuck Henry - yes, Chuck Henry - reports for KNBC. Apparently the video of the story is available at the link:
DOUGLAS, Ariz. -- It's no secret that people sneak into the United States from Mexico every day. But what has been kept under wraps is exactly who is coming in. NBC4's Chuck Henry went deep in the Arizona desert to find out.
It's a place that used to go by the name "Cocaine Alley" because of all the drugs that were smuggled through. But now some officials are more concerned about human smuggling, specifically illegal entry at the border by individuals who are not actually from Mexico. They're called "Special Interest Aliens," because they're coming from countries believed to be a threat.
"People are coming here with bad intentions. I know of 10 that have been detained at my station alone," said a Border Patrol agent whose identity has been withheld at his request. He said this is something that agents have been told not to talk about.
"We know for a fact that people coming from the Middle East are now coming into Mexico and spending a year, even two years in Mexico, to learn how to speak Spanish," the Border Patrol agent told NBC4.
"The key is to pass yourself off as a Mexican," said retired Army Colonel Ben Anderson. He has been following what he calls the terrorist trail and connecting the dots on his website...
"Any American that thinks we have security on our southern border is mistaken, " said California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher...
...NBC4 called the Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security asking them to speak on camera about the issues surrounding "Special Interest Aliens." They declined.
See also August's KVOA-TV (Tucson) report "Illegals from terrorist nations are crossing the border into Arizona".
Posted at 01:56 PM
| Comments (1)
October 27, 2004
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...
Posted at 11:26 PM
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FYI:
The Federal Government calls on El Paso Police to help keep the country safe during the election and through early 2005. Beginning Wednesday, off-duty El Paso Police Officers will patrol potential terrorist sites around the clock.
The US Department of Homeland security has given the El Paso Police Department a $400,000 grant...
El Paso Police worked with Homeland Security officials to determine potentially terrorist sensitive areas along the border. Police will assign up to 200 off-duty officers to patrol those areas...
Posted at 09:56 PM
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October 21, 2004
CHICAGO (AP) -- Six men of Middle Eastern descent from the Chicago area were charged with helping illegal immigrants trying to conceal their legal status obtain fraudulent Social Security cards and Illinois driver's licenses, prosecutors said.
Hundreds of people used addresses associated with the defendants to secure the fake documents, according to a criminal complaint made public Tuesday in U.S. District Court...
Those arrested were from Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait. They're still looking for two more, from Egypt and Morocco. Despite the category, no suggestion that they were linked to terrorists is provided in the article.
Posted at 10:20 PM
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October 14, 2004
From this:
A senior al-Qaida operative lived in New Jersey and posed as a student to disguise his surveillance of financial institutions as possible terror targets, officials said Wednesday.
The FBI's top agent in New Jersey, Joseph Billy Jr., confirmed that the operative led an al-Qaida mission to survey the physical layout and assess weaknesses of the Prudential Financial Inc. building in downtown Newark.
While carrying out this reconnaissance operation - which included surveys of the New York Stock Exchange building on Wall Street and Citigroup's headquarters in midtown Manhattan - the man attended several institutions of higher learning in New Jersey, Billy said. He did not identify the schools...
...Discovery of those surveys led U.S. Homeland Security officials to declare an orange alert Aug. 1 for America's financial sector...
...[the reports were detailed...] ...One notation said that using the PATH train system was an option, but pointed out that exact fare should be carried for use at its automated turnstiles to speed a getaway, the official said...
...The documents describe surveillance operations at U.S. financial buildings during 2000 and 2001...
In case that link doesn't work, try the AP reports here or here.
The last link says those sites were surveilled in 2001 and 2002, but the first two say it was in 2000 and 2001. That would seem to be a crucial bit of information. Since the first link is from the reporter who interviewed the FBI agent directly, 2000 and 2001 are probably the accurate dates.
This abuse of our immigration system is, of course, a key way terrorists have entered and stayed in the U.S. See Chapter 3 of the 9/11 Commission Staff Report.
Posted at 09:54 PM
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October 12, 2004
From Bill Gertz in the Washington Times comes "Chechen terrorists probed":
U.S. security officials are investigating a recent intelligence report that a group of 25 Chechen terrorists illegally entered the United States from Mexico in July.
The Chechen group is suspected of having links to Islamist terrorists seeking to separate the southern enclave of Chechnya from Russia, according to officials familiar with intelligence reports.
Members of the group, said to be wearing backpacks, secretly traveled to northern Mexico and crossed into a mountainous part of Arizona that is difficult for U.S. border security agents to monitor, said officials speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The intelligence report was supplied to the U.S. government in late August or early September and was based on information from an intelligence source that has been proved reliable in other instances, one official said.
A second U.S. official said the report is being investigated, but said it could not be determined whether the group of Chechens actually entered the country, as the intelligence source reported.
"We don't know whether or not that report is true," this official said.
A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed that the intelligence report was provided by another government agency, but said Border Patrol agents were unable to verify its accuracy...
Up to three million people will cross our southern border this year.
If only a few people were crossing, groups like that above would stand out. But, we aren't ever going to be able to reduce the flow that sharply. However, we could reduce it as much as possible in order to make the job of the Border Patrol that much easier and to make those trying to cross stand out as much as possible.
The way to do that is to start fining those employers who are putting the rest of us at risk and to reduce the other incentives to being here illegally, such as free healthcare and driver's licenses. However, because of Bush and many others that is not being done.
If terrorists do attack the homeland after coming over the border, look through my immigration categories for the companies, groups, and politicians that are to blame.
Posted at 09:02 PM
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October 08, 2004
From the AP:
Terrorists might try to use existing criminal networks on the border to slip operatives into the United States, but so far there is no evidence any have tried to do so, a high-ranking U.S. official told The Associated Press.
The comments by Michael Garcia, assistant secretary of Homeland Security, come amid concerns international terrorists might be trying to infiltrate organized crime in Mexico and Central America.
"I personally don't know ... (of an) al-Qaida known terrorist trying to come through Mexico into the United States," Garcia said. "What I do know is that obviously there are smuggling organizations very active along the border, and they present a risk."
Garcia spoke in an interview Wednesday during a convention of the global police agency Interpol. In addition to serving as Interpol's vice president for the Americas, he is assistant secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement...
The rest of the article has quotes from other Interpol officials attempting to downplay the chatter about terrorists coming over the border.
See also Ridge: no sign of terrorists trying to cross border, which links to some of that chatter.
Posted at 11:51 PM
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October 04, 2004
Relax! They're just here to poison the MREs Americans won't poison:
U.S. officials are probing the possibility the al-Qaida terrorist network sought to infiltrate a Texas company in order to contaminate ready-to-eat meals designated for the military.
A high-ranking al-Qaida operative provided information leading authorities to nearly a dozen illegal immigrants working for the McAllen, Texas-based Wornick Co., the largest supplier of the meals, according to McAllen's The Monitor newspaper.
The firm that places the workers at Wornick has been charged with conspiring to make and use false employment eligibility verification forms.
U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby explained, "Immediately after the liberation of Afghanistan from the Taliban in 2002, U.S. forces on the ground received specific information that links McAllen, Texas, by name and the Wornick facility by name to information within al-Qaida's possession..."
Posted at 01:36 PM
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(Washington, D.C.October 4, 2004) In last week's debate with John Kerry, President Bush said he will never subordinate U.S. national security decision-making to international pressure. Instead, he apparently has his own litmus test for deciding what is needed to protect homeland security. Sadly, the President is again unwilling to take vital security steps if they offend the cheap labor lobby or impinge on the open borders policies of Mexican President Vicente Fox. This position is confirmed today in the Washington Times, ("House Told to Alter Intelligence Bill," A-11, October 4, 2004)...
..."The House leadership including Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX) have assembled a sound bill that will implement most of the 9/11 commission recommendations, including those required to modify the immigration policies that led to the attacks of 9/11, and that continue to leave the nation vulnerable to attack. The President and those in congress who oppose including these immigration provisions are deluding themselves if they believe the only threat facing Americans is the threat faced by American military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq. We are a nation at war and our enemies will have no compunction about attacking us here in the United States, where we are the least prepared, if we allow them to do so" said FAIR's Stein.
Posted at 01:20 PM
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September 30, 2004
From this:
Federal authorities have taken 41 suspected illegal immigrants into custody after they were found working at a Department of Defense contractor at the Port of Brownsville.
Luisa Aquino, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said today that the Wednesday raid came after an investigation found AMFELS Inc.'s subcontractors were hiring undocumented workers. She said AMFELS was not part of the investigation and had alerted federal officials to false Social Security numbers...
"These companies [apparently the subcontractors mentioned below --LW] were hiring undocumented aliens and providing them with fraudulent documents to have access to very secure areas that are critical to our infrastructure and national security," Aquino said...
Wednesday, Gilbert Elizondo, AMFELS' vice president for human resources, told The Brownsville Herald the company has 40 to 50 contractors who hire their own workers. He said AMFELS has about 1,000 employees and "they have to meet the legal requirements to work here"...
Previous coverage of illegal aliens in highly secure military facilities starts here.
Posted at 10:32 PM
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September 28, 2004
From the AP:
NOGALES, Ariz. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge says he's seen no sign of terrorist efforts to cross the U-S-Mexico border.
Speaking in Nogales, Arizona, yesterday, Ridge said the United States is not going to start militarizing the border.
Ridge says nothing from intelligence reports has suggested that terrorists have tried to cross the border...
Now, go read up on all that chatter about terrorists coming over the border and decide whether Ridge is telling the truth or not...
The longer version of the AP report is titled "South African Woman Pleads Guilty In Altered Passport Case". It concentrates on the matter discussed here and includes Ridge's comments. It contains this priceless quote from Ridge:
"We have a long tradition with our friends to the north and south. We're very fortunate that we've never had to assign military to our borders, and we're not going to start that now"
Ridge's remarks are unhistorical both specifically and in the general context. Surely, no one could forget Texas, or the Alamo (except Bush that is), or the Mexican-American war, or Pancho Villa? Specifically, see the PDF linked to from here. On Page 2 we find the following discussion of events just before the U.S. entered World War I:
German agents also sought to generate ill-will towards the United States among Mexicans and Mexicans resident in the United States. [9] As part of this effort, Germany encouraged Pancho Villas actions against the United States. [10] There were other raids and acts of sabotage into the United States from Mexico both before and after Villas spectacular night raid on Columbus for which no direct evidence of German involvement exists [11] however, on at least one of those sabotage raids, American authorities took prisoners that included a Japanese saboteur and Mexican soldiers apparently operating under orders from the Carranza government. [12]
In the short-term, these border skirmishes did what the German government had hoped. The Army assigned half the mobile armed forces in the continental U.S. to guard the South Texas border. [13] A total of 184,000 soldiers, in Regular Army and National Guard [14] units from every state but Nevada, were moved to the border to prevent further intrusions, consuming equipment and ammunition. [15]
Did Ridge not know this, or did he just choose to forget it?
That PDF also discusses the "Plan of San Diego", an early 1900s attempt by some Mexican officers at cleansing the Southwestern U.S. of "Anglos."
Posted at 11:37 AM
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September 27, 2004
From this:
A South African woman whose arrest raised fears of terrorists crossing into Texas from Mexico pleaded guilty today to illegal entry, lying to a federal agent and using an altered passport...
Despite the alarm expressed by several officials, the U.S. Attorney's Office found no reason to handle the case as anything other than an immigration matter.
Prosecutors have not made public any connection between Ahmed and any terrorist organization...
Officials searched her baggage and discovered wet, muddy pants, $6,300 in U.S. currency and 550 British pounds. An Emirates Airline itinerary dated July 8 showed travel from Johannesburg to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, then to London. A second itinerary showed travel from London to Mexico City on British Airways.
Previous coverage starts here.
Posted at 01:40 PM
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September 23, 2004
From the Hampton Roads Pilot Online article "Shipyards, military bases face security breaches":
A Mexican worker used forged documents to obtain work in Hampton Roads and was caught.
Normally, such an arrest wouldnt warrant headlines. But when the illegal immigrant is cuffed on the deck of a Navy amphibious assault ship, the story takes on a more urgent meaning.
Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, at least 52 illegal workers have been arrested at Hampton Roads ports, shipyards and military installations, according to court records and news accounts. The number could be higher, because law enforcement agencies dont keep count...
The article goes on to provide a summary of many of those cases, and it includes more information on what those who want to hire legal workers are up against.
See also "[Navy] Base security scrutinized over illegal-immigrant workers" and "Doing the high security jobs Americans won't do". In the first article, a contractor might have hired people who were not just illegal aliens, but were members of a Central American gang. The same gang featured in "Al-Qaida meets with Central American gang, lawmaker says."
Posted at 02:28 PM
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September 22, 2004
From this:
The government has no idea how many of the thousands of illegal aliens from terrorist-sponsoring states it has caught at the U.S. border and released back onto America's streets were terrorists or had ties to terror groups.
...more than 4,000 people from countries identified by the State Department as terrorism sponsors or national security concerns [Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, North Korea, China, Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia] were apprehended since 2000 and that "an unknown number" were released back into the United States...
"The Department of Homeland Security's answers about border security and enforcement do not inspire confidence," [Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA)] said...
Mr. Grassley, who said the department did not provide any information to show "any serious or meaningful effort" to remedy the problems, said Homeland Security officials also maintained an "alarming" policy of releasing thousands of OTMs after their capture.
Posted at 11:30 AM
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September 17, 2004
From WND:
Al-Qaida plans to use Mexico as a key infiltration route for sending operatives into the United States, according to a Mexican newspaper.
Mexican intelligence agencies have identified at least two routes for al-Qaida infiltration, the Proceso newspaper reported last week...
Two of three suspected al-Qaida terrorists recently arrested in England and Pakistan had passed through Mexico with South African passports...
Their itinerary: South Africa -> London -> Mexico or South America -> U.S. How the newspaper found out this information is not revealed.
Posted at 01:31 PM
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Athens, Texas is a no doubt quaint small town 75 miles southeast of Dallas:
Athens Police contacted the FBI office in Tyler Tuesday after a routine traffic stop led to a national security concern.
In the course of the stop, several forms of identification for the same individual were discovered...
At approximately 8:30 a.m., APD Patrolman Ron McCurry stopped the male suspect, 48-year-old Qamar Abbas Syed... Syed was driving a minivan with Wisconsin plates...
Agents with the FBI conferred with the Department of Homeland Security, which in turn identified the individual as someone they wanted to question...
McCurry searched the vehicle and found narcotic paraphernalia, which resulted in a misdemeanor charge and Syed's arrest and incarceration. He was then taken into FBI custody for questioning.
"We're trying to determine where he's from," said FBI officer Garret Floyd. "Any individual like that we have to do some research on."
Syed was still in the Henderson County Jail this morning, but was expected to make bail today.
Maybe he's just a druggee, maybe not. One shouldn't base conclusions just on his name, and it appears he's been cleared by the FBI.
Posted at 01:24 PM
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September 15, 2004
From FAIR:
Responding to the 222-177 vote by the House of Representatives last night, adopting an amendment introduced by Representatives Michael Oxley (R-OH) and Barney Frank (D-MA), allowing banks and other financial institutions to accept the Mexican matricula consular document in lieu of valid U.S.-issued documents, FAIR issued the following statement:
Once again, Congress has placed the priorities of a powerful special interest ahead of homeland security interests. In this case, the full House overrode the decision of the Appropriations Committee barring the acceptance of these documents and sided with the powerful banking lobby, which mounted an all-out campaign to have the ban against acceptance of the matricula card stripped from the final Treasury Appropriations measure.
The House capitulated to the demands of the banking industry in spite of the fact that top law enforcement and homeland security officials have publicly stated that these documents are not secure and can be easily used by terrorists and criminal organizations to engage in money laundering. The desire of the banking industry to do business with people who are in the U.S. illegally has won out over the imperative to close the loopholes that have already been exploited by terrorists and criminal enterprises...
The voting breakdown is here. And, there's now overtaken-by-events backstory in "Texas lawmaker wants Mexico's ID cards barred from U.S. banks".
And, see "FBI Official Says Matricula Consular Card Is Security Threat".
And, for the view of the non-liberal press on these matters, see the example presented in the L.A. Times article "Barriers to Latino Home Buying". Despite its general title, it's partially about illegal aliens:
[A] study released Tuesday by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute... favors the creation of a nationwide secondary market for mortgages sold to customers who do not have Social Security numbers...
...many undocumented Latinos believe they cannot open a bank account without a Social Security number.
In fact, in many states, including California, banks are allowed to accept the matricula consular, an identification card issued by the Mexican government through its consulates in the United States. Many banks also accept taxpayer ID numbers as a valid form of identification.
Posted at 08:27 PM
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The L.A. Times offers a round-up of stories about terrorists coming from either Canada or Mexico.
According to "U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials" there has been a "security crackdown in recent months as well as new levels of official cross-border cooperation." As with other stories in which U.S. officials are used as a source, this could perhaps be considered an attempt at CYA.
Here are the incidents that may or may not have already been enumerated in Tucson Weekly's "Other Than Mexicans" article:
In August, U.S. authorities issued an alert for a Middle Eastern man who paid what officials said was an unusually large amount of money to be smuggled into the United States near the border town of Tecate, Mexico. He was last seen getting into a waiting black pickup and driving off into the night. Authorities have declined to release further information, or say how they learned how much he paid to be smuggled into the United States...
Of all the leads about the smuggling of potential terrorists from Mexico into the United States, the most intriguing may be the case of a young Lebanese man who was dropped off at a Chula Vista hospital in June 2002.
The man, near death, showed signs of radiation poisoning, suggesting work with a radiological "dirty bomb."In the end, the radiation symptoms were discounted and the man died of undetermined causes. But the case led to the arrest of the owner of a Lebanese restaurant in Tijuana who last year was convicted of operating a smuggling ring, in league with a Mexican diplomat based in Lebanon. U.S. officials estimated that he arranged for the illegal entry of 80 to 200 Arabs into the United States over a period of months.
Then, in July, federal agents arrested an Egyptian man in Miami on charges that he ran a smuggling ring based in the Middle East and Latin America. Ashraf Ahmed Abdallah, 34, was charged with directing migrants from Egypt and neighboring countries to travel to Latin America, and from there to Guatemala, the base of the smuggling operation, where they would be transported through Mexico for entry into the United States.
I think the Lebanese restaurant owner may be the same person discussed in Chapter 3 of the 9/11 Commission Staff Report: "One smuggler, Salim Boughader-Mucharrafille, smuggled Lebanese nationals sympathetic to Hamas and Hizbollah into the United States and relied on corrupt Mexican officials in Beirut, Mexico City and Tijuana to facilitate their travel. Specifically, Boughader obtained Mexican tourist visas from an official at the Mexican embassy in Beirut to facilitate the travel of humans to Mexico..."
The LAT article also includes this (once again remember to consider this might be CYA):
a recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement memorandum obtained by The Times says that the Drug Enforcement Administration developed intelligence that Al Qaeda operatives had been in contact with human and drug smuggling rings in Mexico to gain entry into the United States. Homeland Security officials said they had been unable to confirm the information but took it seriously.
Posted at 12:31 PM
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September 12, 2004
From the AP:
The U.S.-Mexico border remains susceptible to terrorist infiltration and needs more investment for homeland security, a Texas congressman says.
U.S. Rep. Jim Turner said he and Rep. Silvestre Reyes want to create a $1 billion infrastructure investment fund aimed at closing the security gaps and bolstering the economy along the 2,000-mile border...
"We cannot pretend that our homeland is secure if our borders are not," said Turner. "We firmly believe that America is at risk if we do not immediately take action to close these security gaps."
Doubling law enforcement personnel along the border, deploying technology for constant monitoring, screening cargo trucks for weapons and expanding detention operations for illegal immigrants are among Turner's proposals.
Last year, 24,000 undocumented immigrants from countries other than Mexico were apprehended by the Border Patrol, but released on bond in the United States because of lack of detention space," Turner said.
"Although we're hearing a lot about taking the fight to the terrorists in the war on terror," said Reyes, "we also know that in practical terms, we have got to do a better job of defending the homeland."
Posted at 01:35 PM
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September 09, 2004
Tucson Weekly has a long, interesting article about the situation down at the border. It offers a round-up of the chatter about al Qaeda infiltrating the U.S. There's too much to quote, so here it is.
Posted at 11:56 AM
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September 08, 2004
From the AP:
Three Sterling Heights, Mich., residents have been charged with operating a smuggling ring that transported more than 200 illegal aliens from the Middle East to the United States from 2001 on.
Those charged include Detroit Assistant Ombudsman Basima Sesi.
[...those transported were Jordanians and Iraqis... they were given visas to enter an unnamed South American country... no word is given on how they came to the U.S. after arriving in that unnamed country...]
L.I. Newsday, CNN and ABC have an AP report very similar to that above. However, the latter version is rewritten and adds this:
There was no indication in the indictment that terrorism was involved in the case. The charges indicate that the defendants used the alleged smuggling ring simply to make money.
The page for the Detroit ombudsman has this soon-to-disappear blurb:
Basima Sesi, Assistant Ombudsman, received her B.S. in 1981 in Data Processing from the Detroit Institute of Technology. She previously worked for the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department as a Systems Analyst from 1982 to 1994.
Posted at 08:02 PM
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September 01, 2004
Rest easy, citizen:
The Mexican border is secure, despite the hundreds of thousands who continue to cross illegally and a Sept. 11 commission warning that terrorists could be among them, the nation's top Border Patrol agent said yesterday...
See also "Illegals from terrorist nations are crossing the border into Arizona", Who's coming over our southern border?, and How many didn't get caught?
And, there's a definition of "doublethink" here.
Posted at 11:52 AM
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August 26, 2004
From Knight-Ridder:
There's a growing sense of urgency among those who police America's long, porous borders that tighter control is needed to prevent terrorists from slipping into the flood of illegal immigrants entering the United States.
The Sept. 11 Commission found that the nation's borders are largely unprotected and recommended that border security become an integral part of national security policy. Now that airline security has been improved, terror suspects increasingly are being detected trying to enter the country on ships or overland...
Where does one begin?
First of all, perhaps we should try to prevent the "flood" from coming here in the first place. With Bush administration-mandated interior enforcement practically non-existant, the "flood" is going to keep coming.
Cynically speaking, perhaps the "growing sense of urgency" is a sense that CYA pieces like the one above need to be fed to as many newspapers as possible.
Posted at 09:09 PM
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August 25, 2004
This is about a month old, but I apparently didn't provide a link to it at the time:
Releasing undocumented immigrants to roam freely in the U.S. is "a terrible policy," U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla told Del Rio [Texas, right on the border in the middle of nothing] and Eagle Pass leaders during a press conference in Del Rio Friday, and announced he is asking the Department of Homeland Security to take a hard look at the issue.
"If these people were being released in your neighborhood I am sure you would be outraged. This is happening in the communities I represent and I am outraged," Bonilla said in a letter Thursday to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge...
Posted at 12:44 PM
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August 23, 2004
Below are some excerpts from Chapter 3: Terrorist Entry and Embedding Tactics, 1993 to 2001. That chapter describes the various techniques used by terrorists to travel not just between foreign countries, but to enter and remain in the U.S. It provides several examples of the different ways that terrorists have done the latter: using several visas, overstaying visas, using student visas, getting married to U.S. citizens, applying for asylum, ad infinitum. The common theme is that they were very familiar with our immigration policies, and they used loopholes and lack of enforcement to their advantage.
Quoting from Page 46:
Although there is evidence that some land and sea border entries without inspection occurred, these conspirators mainly subverted the legal entry system by entering at airports.4 In doing so, they relied on a wide variety of fraudulent documents, on aliases, and on government corruption. Because terrorist operations were not suicide missions in the early to mid-1990s, once in the United States terrorists and their supporters tried to get legal immigration status that would permit them to remain here, primarily by committing serial, or repeated, immigration fraud, by claiming political asylum, and by marrying Americans. Many of these tactics would remain largely unchanged and undetected throughout the 1990s and up to the 9/11 attack. Thus, abuse of the immigration system and a lack of interior immigration enforcement were unwittingly working together to support terrorist activity.
That was pre-9/11. But, have we learned our lesson? See the earlier posts "Potential terrorists released due to lack of jail space, congressman says" and "Why don't you let us do our jobs?" for an answer to that question.
Continuing with the report, in the sidebar 'Exploring the Link between Human Smugglers and Terrorists' (p. 61)
We have already seen that documents are critical to terroriststhey are needed by those wishing to plan and carry out attacks. Documents are similarly critical to human smugglers, who have access to document vendors able to obtain genuine passports and visas from corrupt government officials. [Footnote 151 quoted below] Corrupt officials are also paid off to allow illegal migrants to pass through travel and security checkpoints.152...
Finally, there are uncorroborated law enforcement reports suggesting that associates of al Qaeda used smugglers in Latin America to travel through the region in 2002 before traveling onward to the United States.155 To date, only one human smuggler with suspected links to terrorists has been convicted in the United States. [Footnote 156 quoted below]
Footnote 151: One smuggler, Salim Boughader-Mucharrafille, smuggled Lebanese nationals sympathetic to Hamas and Hizbollah into the United States and relied on corrupt Mexican officials in Beirut, Mexico City and Tijuana to facilitate their travel. Specifically, Boughader obtained Mexican tourist visas from an official at the Mexican embassy in Beirut to facilitate the travel of humans to Mexico...
Footnote 156: Boughader was charged with human smuggling and sentenced to 11 months in prison. After serving his sentence he was deported to Mexico where he was arrested along with several other members of his smuggling ring. They face criminal charges and if convicted could serve lengthy jail times.
The 'Ajaj and Yousef: A Case Study in Fraud' sidebar (p. 47) contains too much to quote, but it's a must read:
Upon [WTC1 perpetrator] Ajajs arrival at Kennedy [International Airport], the immigration inspector noted that he was traveling on a photo-substituted Swedish passport. Ajaj was sent to secondary immigration inspection, where he claimed he was a member of the Swedish press.12 His luggage was searched and officers found a partially altered Saudi passport and a passport from Jordan, the documents supporting their alias identities, a plane ticket and a British passport in the name of Mohammed Azan, bomb-making manuals, videos and other material on how to assemble weapons and explosives, letters referencing his attendance at terrorist training camps; anti-American and anti-Israeli material, instructions on document forgery, and two rubber stamp devices to alter the seal on passports issued from Saudi Arabia.13 The immigration inspector called an agent on the FBI Terrorist Task Force to tell him about Ajaj, but the agent declined to get involved, instead requesting copies of the file. The inspector also called the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which was not interested...14
Ajaj was detained then jailed for six months for using an altered passport. Then... well, read the rest for yourself.
There's a summary of this chapter in "Al-Qaeda 'travel agency' revealed".
I excerpted part of Chapter 4 here, and I'll return with a longer post later.
Other excerpts from the report are in the extended entry. Click MORE directly below to read them.
p. 47
Once terrorists had entered the United States, their next challenge was to find a way to remain here. Their primary method was immigration fraud. [The next names are perpetrators of the 1993 WTC attack --LW] For example, Yousef and Ajaj concocted bogus political asylum stories when they arrived in the United States. Mahmoud Abouhalima, involved in both the World Trade Center and landmarks plots, received temporary residence under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers (SAW) program, after falsely claiming that he picked beans in Florida. [Footnote 7: His application was later denied. Abohalima was indicted as an accessory after the fact for assisting the WTC1 attackers.] Mohammed Salameh, who rented the truck used in the bombing, overstayed his tourist visa. He then applied for permanent residency under the agricultural workers program, but was rejected.8 Eyad Mahmoud Ismail, who drove the van containing the bomb, took English-language classes at Wichita State University in Kansas on a student visa; after he dropped out, he remained in the United States out of status.9
p. 52
Atlantic Avenue Subway Plot, July 1997. Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer committed serial immigration fraud during his planning to destroy the Atlantic Avenue subway in Brooklyn with explosives in 1997.49 Mezer was arrested on his third illegal entry into the United States along the northwest border with Canada. He asked to be deported to Canada, but Canada refused to accept him. He then filed a political asylum claim in the United States and was released on bond. Mezer withdrew the application, claiming he had returned to Canada when in fact he was in Brooklyn. His co-conspirator, Lafi Taisir Mufleh Khalil, was originally issued a C-1 transit visa; but upon his arrival at JFK Airport in New York, the immigration inspector incorrectly treated him as a tourist, which allowed Khalil to stay in the United States for six months. Khalil overstayed his visa and was arrested along with Mezer on July 31, 1997, the morning of the planned attack50.
p. 54
Thus, despite evidence that difficulties with travel documents restricted terrorist movement, no agency of the U.S. government was analyzing terrorist travel patterns or immigration abuses before 9/11.62 Because the government simply did not know what it knew, it missed opportunities to disrupt terrorist mobility and, therefore, terrorist operations. Conversely, by 2000, when al Qaeda began inserting participants in the September 11 plot into the United States, their operational knowledge of our immigration, visitor, and border systems was considerable.
p. 58-59
Document vendors provided al Qaeda with a wide range of bogus and genuine documents and were valued for their forgery skills. Through these vendors, al Qaeda operatives had access to an impressive range of fraudulent travel, identification and other documents, including passports from countries in almost every region of the world, travel cachets, blank visas, foils, stamps, seals, laminates, and other material.122 Some of these forgers are dedicated to al Qaedas cause and tend to be located along main travel routes; others are interested only in profit.123
Corrupt government officials have facilitated terrorist travel by selling genuine travel documents. Ramzi Yousef, convicted of attempting to blow up a tower of the World Trade Center in 1993, claimed he bought an Iraqi passport from a Pakistani official for $100.124 Two of the 9/11 hijackers, Waleed and Wail al Shehri, reportedly received new Saudi passports from a relative in the passport office.125 Al Qaeda also relied on bribery to get passports and the special plastic used inside them to protect biographical information.126 Moreover, corrupt officials have been known to take bribes at the border from a terrorist lacking proper documentation.127
There is also evidence that terrorists used human smugglers to sneak across borders.129 Smugglers were typically paid to make all logistical arrangements, including mode of travel and lodging, and to pay off corrupt officials if necessary.130 A typical smuggling scheme aided jihadist youth wanting to travel through Iran to Afghanistan to train in al Qaedas camps.
Posted at 11:37 PM
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From the
LAT:
All of the Sept. 11 hijackers broke U.S. immigration laws and some of those violations could have led to their detection and arrest, according to a new staff report from the bipartisan commission that investigated the attacks.
The detectable violations included fraudulent passports presented by as many as seven of the 19 hijackers, the report said. Also, U.S. intelligence had linked at least three of the hijackers to terrorist groups, but officials never placed their names on the watch lists used by border inspectors.
Moreover, the report said, ringleader Mohamed Atta was allowed back into the United States in January 2001, even though he had previously overstayed a tourist visa and was not eligible for admission...
See also the AP's
"9/11 staff report focuses on immigration".
The report is available
here. A brief look at 'Chapter 4: Immigration and Border Security Evolve, 1993 to 2001' reveals the following discussion of "immigrant advocacy" groups and sanctuary laws:
Friction also existed in these relationships. It mainly arose from the INS's inability to respond to all requests for assistance, ambiguity regarding the role of state and local law officers in enforcing immigration regulations, and the discomfort many various immigrant advocacy groups had with local enforcement of immigration law. Despite these difficulties, many police officers continued officially and sometimes unofficially to work with the INS by identifying criminal aliens and turning them over to the INS. Many county officials sought to prevent criminal aliens from returning to the streets, and frequently pressured their congressional representatives to force local INS offices to deport them.
...In 1996, a new law enabled the INS to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies through which the INS would provide training and the local agencies would exercise immigration enforcement authority. [281] Terrorist watchlists would not be made available to them. Such agreements were voluntary, and only Salt Lake City unsuccessfully attempted to take advantage of the law. Moreover, in prior years mayors of cities with large immigrant populations sometimes imposed limits on city employee cooperation with federal immigration agents. [282]
Footnote 282: This "sanctuary" policy was first published by Mayor Edward Koch on August 7, 1989, and directed city "line workers" who had contact with the public to not transmit information respecting any alien to federal immigration authorities. However, it exempted the police and the Department of Corrections and directed them to continue to work with federal authorities "in investigating and apprehending aliens suspected of criminal activity." Koch, executive order, Aug. 7, 1989.
See
this for more information on L.A.'s Special Order 40. The previous post
"License Crackdown Stirs Sharp Debate at Hearing" has more information about the 9/11 hijacker's use of driver's licenses.
Posted at 11:07 AM
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August 21, 2004
This AP report mainly focuses on the possibility of AQ conducting attacks in Latin America, but it does mention a few U.S.-specific items:
Governments throughout Mexico and Central America are on alert as evidence grows that al-Qaida members are traveling in the region and looking for recruits to carry out attacks in Latin America - the potential last frontier for international terrorism...
...U.S. officials have long feared al-Qaida could launch an attack from south of the border...
...Mexican and U.S. border officials have been on extra alert, checking foreign passports and arresting any illegal migrants...
In South America, U.S. officials have long suspected Paraguay's border with Brazil and Argentina as an area for Islamic terrorist fund-raising. Much of the focus has fallen on the Muslim community that sprouted during the 1970s, and authorities believe as much as $100 million a year flows out of the region, with large portions diverted to Islamic militants linked to Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas...
Concerns increased this summer about whether Mexico was doing enough to screen international visitors after a 48-year-old South African woman arrived in Mexico with a passport that was missing several pages and then waded across the Rio Grande into Texas.
Farida Goolam Mahamed Ahmed was arrested July 19 while trying to board a flight in McAllen, Texas. She pleaded innocent Friday to immigration violations and was under investigation for links to terrorist activities or groups...
"U.S. officials have long feared al-Qaida could launch an attack from south of the border"? So, like, why haven't they tried to, like, you know, prevent as many illegals as possible from coming here? And, "arresting any illegal migrants"? They do arrest about a million a year, but they also let a million a year come here.
Posted at 08:14 PM
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According to FoxNews:
The FBI has received information that U.S. Armed Forces recruiting facilities could potentially be the target of a terrorist attack, sources familiar with the threat told FOX News Friday.
However, the threat information is uncorroborated and unsubstantiated, one law enforcement official warned...
What they didn't mention is the terrorists might have come here via Mexico:
Sierra Vista, Arizona - August 20, 2004 - 2:30 pm -- According to a reliable source, three terrorists crossed the border into the United States from Mexico yesterday. Two were apprehended. The FBI learned that the terrorists came to assassinate the military personnel who work in store-front recruiting offices in the Sierra Vista mall in Sierra Vista, Arizona. -- The recruiters were briefed on the situation and told to be on the alert and to notify local police of any suspicious activity. -- The nationality of the terrorists is not known. -- In the face of American Patrol's skepticism, our source insisted the story is true.
That last "rumor mill" item was supposedly posted before the FoxNews report. (Note that that URL is probably not a permalink.)
Posted at 08:02 PM
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August 17, 2004
The long, footnoted article "The Open Borders Lobby and the Nation's Security After 9/11" shows the ties between various Open Borders groups. The article came out in January 2004 and, while I might have linked to it before, a second link won't do any harm.
If you want to know about the Ford Foundation, MALDEF, AILA, ABA, and other such organizations, it's a gold mine.
Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here.
Posted at 09:17 PM
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August 15, 2004
Tucson TV station KVOA reports:
Tom McNamara and the Eyewitness News 4 Investigators have spent the last three months talking to experts and eyewitnesses...
And in just one hour, during this stake-out along the border between Douglas and Bisbee, The Investigators count 198 illegals in five different groups crossing into the U.S. with no resistance...
[Maybe they're just coming to do the jobs Americans won't do! --LW]
...The investigators found that on this day, several [OTMs] were being detained [at the federal detention center in Florence, Arizona], including some from Sudan, Iran, and even Iraq.
These are just the ones who were caught.
...But some ["Special Interest Aliens"] disappear very quickly, usually before they even reach this center or other holding facilities. They're taken away by tight-lipped federal agents to who-knows-where.
...[Ben Anderson, a retired U.S. Army Colonel] says these Special Interest Aliens originate in the Middle East or Northeast Asia. They travel through Spain to what's called the tri-border area of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, then, to Mexico City.
They pay to learn Spanish language skills, and by the time they reach the U.S., they're acting and talking like Mexicans to fool border agents...
And here's the shocking part: if they are caught, they are often released on their own recognizance, never to be seen again...
[Bbbut, they're just here to do the jobs Americans won't do! --LW]
Posted at 12:45 PM
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August 13, 2004
And, what countries are they coming from? While that can't be determined, we can look at who gets caught.
Based on the (uncorroborated) FY2003 information here, this is a breakdown by region of those who were caught trying to cross illegally from Mexico:
- <500 from Caribbean countries
- <100 from smaller former Soviet countries
- <500 from Europe (28 countries; 4 from Norway, 1 from Sweden)
- 125 from non-Arabic Africa (including 26 from Nigeria)
- 650 from Asia (including 286 from China)
- 190 from Arabic/Muslim/Middle Eastern countries (3 from Afghanistan, 40 from Pakistan, 2 from Saudi Arabia, 7 from Yemen)
- 10 from Australia
- 26 from Canada
- 4 from New Zealand
- over 900,000 from Latin America (95% of that number from Mexico)
Posted at 09:29 PM
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August 10, 2004
Splashed in 48 point font on Drudge, comes the New York Times article "U.S. to Give Border Patrol New Powers to Deport Illegal Aliens":
Citing concerns about terrorists crossing the nation's land borders, the Department of Homeland Security announced today that it planned to give border patrol agents sweeping new powers to deport illegal aliens from the frontiers abutting Mexico and Canada without providing the aliens the opportunity to make their case before an immigration judge...
"We recognize that we have to secure [the borders] and that's the president's first principle of immigration reform," Mr. Hutchinson said. "America must secure its borders and this is a part of that effort."
I have one word: bull[bleep!]
Read the three links in the previous post. Seriously, go read them. Then, tell me whether the Bush administration takes illegal immigration and border security seriously. A certain number of people might believe what the Bush administration says on this issue, but that number is shrinking each day.
Posted at 06:31 PM
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August 07, 2004
From the
Houston Chronicle:
September 11 Commission member John Lehman Thursday criticized so-called "sanctuary" practices in Houston and elsewhere that restrict cooperation between local police and federal immigration officials as an invitation to terrorists looking to enter the United States.
"It is ridiculous that five cities in the United States do not allow local police to cooperate with the federal immigration service," said Lehman, visiting Houston to lobby for Sept. 11 commission report recommendations.
"The terrorists know" which cities have such policies, Lehman said, naming Houston and Los Angeles among those cities.
Posted at 11:44 AM
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August 06, 2004
An update on the woman with the South African passport and the suspected terrorism ties who was caught after having successfully entered the U.S. illegally:
WESLACO, Texas -- For the first time since the arrest of a woman carrying a South African passport on immigration charges in McAllen, the FBI confirms it is investigating her...
Previous coverage - including complaints about releasing Middle Eastern illegal aliens on their own recognizance - starts here.
See also "U.S. warns of al-Qaida from South Africa":
Fearing al-Qaida may try to sneak operatives into the U.S. using South African passports, the Department of Homeland Security has put inspectors at major airports and seaports across the nation on high alert for suspicious travelers from that nation, which U.S. officials say has become a breeding ground for terrorists.
The order to "increase scrutiny" of South African travelers, contained in a closely held bulletin obtained by WorldNetDaily, comes on the heels of the arrest of four South Africans with alleged links to terrorism. [the lady mentioned above, plus one in Mexico and two in Pakistan --LW]...
Dated July 30 and marked "For Official Use Only," the bulletin was sent to field operations directors at four major international airports and two seaports on both coasts. WorldNetDaily has elected to withhold the names of the cities for security reasons...
Needless to say, Los Angeles has an international airport and a major seaport, but so do San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, and Seattle.
UPDATE: "Grand jury to hear case of women caught with altered passport" tells us: "A grand jury in Houston is scheduled to hear her case on Aug. 16, said Michael Shelby, the United States attorney prosecuting the case." It also has several details on this case and a "she just came to work" defense from her relatives.
Posted at 07:52 PM
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July 30, 2004
A national source finally picks up on the story:
The U.S. government has become increasingly concerned that al Qaeda might try to exploit security gaps at the nation's borders, especially the Mexican border, ABC News has learned.
Concerns about border security were highlighted on July 19, when officials at McAllen-Miller International Airport in southern Texas arrested a woman suspected of having ties to al Qaeda...
The arrest is one reason why U.S. officials are increasingly concerned al Qaeda may try to smuggle terrorists into the United States from Mexico.
"Al Qaeda has recognized that one of our vulnerabilities is our [in]ability to completely seal and control access through Mexico," said ABC News consultant Jerry Hauer, former director of New York City's Office of Emergency Management...
"It's easy for anyone, including a terrorist who really wants to get into the United States to do so by crossing the Mexican or Canadian border," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, former chief of antiterrorism in the Bush and Clinton administrations.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. has been trying to improve security at both borders with unmanned surveillance aircraft, increased vehicle searches and X-ray devices that scan vehicles for hidden illegal weapons or people.
Along the U.S.-Canada border in the woods of Vermont, sensors hidden in the ground trigger surveillance cameras that zero in on anyone trying to enter the United States illegally.
But it may be impossible to fully police the more than 5,000 miles of U.S. border with Canada and Mexico.
ABC News has finally noticed that our nearly-open borders are a security risk? Well, duh. There's years of backstory involved here that ABC has largely ignored until now.
Our administration officials have become "increasingly concerned?" So, they just noticed that their open borders policies have created a security risk? And, these are the Keystone Kops we put in charge of preventing another 9/11?
The problem here is not that the idea of terrorists coming over the border is a new thing. The problem is our "leaders'" willful attempts to ignore the danger. While 90-year-old grannies are strip-searched, the Racial Identity groups of the left and the serf labor lobby of the right have steadfastly ignored the very real probability of terrorists coming over the border.
Certainly, the administration has been "trying" to increase border security with the use of drones. At the same time, they've been trying to encourage as many illegal aliens as possible to come here via talk of amnesties and new giveaways for illegal aliens.
We've got over a million people coming illegally over the Mexican border each year. If that number were reduced to just thousands, those illegal crossers would stand out. Our present forces are able to handle thousands each year, especially when augmented with sensors, drones, cameras, and human intelligence. Our deserts provide a natural defense, as anyone who's attempted to hike even a few miles through one can attest.
The way to reduce the number of crossers is to - surprise - crack down on illegal immigration. Instead of doing just a dozen workplace sweeps each year, there should be hundreds, and companies that violate our immigration laws should receive heavy fines.
Those companies would be forced to hire citizens and legal residents. That would reduce the major incentive to come here illegally. Together with ending financial incentives to live here illegally, that would be good for American workers and it would make border control a great deal easier.
Previous coverage starts here.
This site contains dozens of examples of the Bush administration's unwillingness to enforce our immigration laws. Just one very blatant example can be found here. That post reports how a Bush administration official cynically and dismissively laughed when it was suggested that Bush enforce our immigration laws.
Posted at 08:40 PM
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July 28, 2004
From the 7/23/04 Brownsville TX Herald:
Middle Easterners with possible terrorist ties have been detained after entering the country from Mexico but released for lack of jail space, said U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness.
It is true. It is very reliable information, from the horses mouth, and its happening all over the place, Ortiz, D-Texas, told The Herald on Thursday.
Its very, very scary, and members (of Congress) know about this. We have contacted several agencies, and I have talked to some people, but I cant say who...
Culbersons spokesmen Tony Essalih and Jeff Morehouse told The Herald on Thursday that U.S. Attorney Michael T. Shelby of the Southern District of Texas told Culberson that several Middle Easterners have used Hispanic surnames to enter the country undetected.
This was during a meeting in Houston May 25, Essalih said.
The Middle Easterners are from Yemen, Essalih said.
Shelby is not issuing any statements, said Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Herrera of the Southern District of Texas, noting that the office is prohibited from confirming or denying any investigation...
I searched news.google.com for Solomon Ortiz, and I'm surprised I didn't spot this earlier. I also called Culberson's Washington office last week and, unlike the Brownsville Herald, they weren't able to offer me additional information...
In any case, earlier coverage of this subject is in "South African woman's passport prompts federal investigation" and "Congressman: Terrorists are infiltrating the U.S. via Mexico".
UPDATE: And, here's yet another report, "South African Woman Confirmed on Watch List":
NEWSCHANNEL 5 confirms that the name of a South African woman taken into custody while trying to board an airplane in McAllen last week appears on an FBI watch list.
A senior Homeland Security official confirmed that 48-year-old Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed is a person of interest. This information follows on the heels of Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas) telling NEWSCHANNEL 5 Wednesday in Brownsville that Ahmed is on a list of persons (investigators) wanted to talk to and possibly on a list of terrorists.
..."She is a person of interest, Ortiz said. Thank God for the professionalism of these people from the border patrol, the customs officials who were able to detain this lady."
Investigators are trying to confirm Ahmed identity and nationality, while attempting to determine whether she has any ties to terrorism. Government officials said that name is on an FBI watch list and that it was put on the list after it surfaced during an investigation of an overseas terrorist incident...
Posted at 07:06 PM
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July 27, 2004
There's a minor update to the previous post "Woman With Possible Terror Ties Arrested" [smuggled in from Mexico]. From the AP:
U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz of Corpus Christi, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, said "very credible" people told him Ahmed has traveled within the United States more than 250 times, and that federal authorities were investigating whether she had ties to terrorists.
The Associated Press reported earlier Tuesday that authorities believed crime syndicates operating within the South African government were believed to be selling illegal passports for as little as $77 apiece.
While it's believed the passports mostly go to poor people hoping to get into Europe or the United States a little easier, the director general of South Africa's Department of Home Affairs said South African passports had been found in the hands of al-Qaida militants and other terrorists traveling through Europe.
Eddie Rios, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol in McAllen, said the agency had not been told that South African passports were being used by terrorists...
See also the earlier post "Congressman: Terrorists are infiltrating the U.S. via Mexico".
(BugMeNot is your friend)
UPDATE: AP has a report from SA that doesn't mention the U.S. border, just SA and Europe:
Barry Gilder, director general of the Department of Home Affairs, said he has come across a number of instances in which South African passports were found in the hands of al-Qaeda suspects or their associates in Europe... They sell mostly to economic migrants... but terrorists appear to be tapping into these networks, Gilder said...
And, from Federal News Radio (apparently a private company owned by WTOP that covers the feds), we have this:
A South African woman picked up in Texas almost 10 days ago may turn out to be a key, high-level al-Qaida operative... Government sources tell FederalNewsRadio.com that capturing this woman could be comparable to the arrest of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of 9/11. It was revealed in court Tuesday that she was on a watch list and had entered the U.S. possibly as many as 250 times.
ANOTHER UPDATE: The News24 (SA) report SA woman 'on US terror list' ends with this:
"It is certainly true that this case has not been handled in the manner that normal immigration cases are handled," [her court-appointed attorney] said, adding he doesn't know why.
[U.S. Rep. Solomon] Ortiz said Ahmed's arrest has increased his concerns that terrorists could enter the United States along the southern border.
He noted that many undocumented people who are not from Mexico are routinely released because of a lack of detention space.
The NewsChannel 5 TV network reported that Ahmed had visited the US before, but that her visa had expired in 1996.
It added that she had, however, remained in the country for three more years.
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: A newly-discovered article from last week with more information in is this later post.
Posted at 07:08 PM
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July 26, 2004
Here are a few excerpts that mention immigration, borders, or visas:
Page 213
Between late March and September 2001, the Intelligence Community identified numerous signs of an impending terrorist attack, some of which pointed specifically to the United States as a target:
...In May, the Intelligence Community obtained a report that Bin Ladin supporters were planning to infiltrate the United States by way of Canada to carry out a terrorist operation using high explosives. This report mentioned without specifics an attack within the United States. In July, this information was shared with the FBI, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Customs Service, and the State Department and was included in an intelligence report for senior government officials in August.
ADDITIONAL VIEWS OF REPRESENTATIVE MIKE CASTLE (R-DELAWARE)
...The State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs and the Justice Department's Immigration and Naturalization Service have joint responsibility for the management of our visa program, yet this program's administration has been characterized by poor management practices, uneven enforcement policies, and inadequate coordination between these agencies and other elements of the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities. The majority of theSeptember 11th hijackers were wrongly admitted to the United States -- in violation of U.S. immigration laws -- as a result of decisions made and errors committed by responsible State Department and Justice Department officers. The fact that many of them entered and operated in true name, further emphasizes the extent to which the current system is broken...
...I strongly believe that significant legislative changes are urgently needed to redirect and reorganize our national visa policies.
JOINT INQUIRY STAFF REPORT/ADDITIONAL VIEWS/SENATOR JON KYL, SENATOR PAT ROBERTS
...The failures that led to 9/11 occurred not only in the intelligence community. The JIS was selective about what threads of inquiry it was willing to follow beyond the intelligence community. Failure to examine the State Departments visa-issuance process must rank as the most glaring of these omissions because the answer to the question could 9/11 have been prevented -- is yes, if State Department personnel had merely followed the law and not granted non-immigrant visas to 15 of the 19 hijackers in Saudi Arabia.
We repeat: If our own laws regarding the issuance of visas had been followed by the State Department, most of the hijackers would not have been able to obtain visas, and 9/11 would not have happened. Because the entire culture of the State Department is geared toward facilitating smooth relations with foreign governments, State Department personnel have tended to ignore the potential effect of their practices on national security.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
(link) Neither the State Department's consular officers nor the Immigration and Naturalization Service's agents and inspectors were ever considered full partners in a national counterterrorism effort. Protecting borders was not a national security issue before 9/11...
(link) ...Set standards for the issuance of birth certificates and sources of identification, such as driver's licenses.
See, for example, the earlier post "Congressman: Terrorists are infiltrating the U.S. via Mexico". Due to political correctness and a desire for serf labor, are we doing all we can to prevent another attack?
Posted at 10:00 PM
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July 23, 2004
I almost put this into the WackyHumor category because of the last bit, but this is indeed a serious demonstration of how our lack of border enforcement could lead to tragedy:
A border watch group claims it successfully sneaked into the United States carrying a fake weapon of mass destruction.
American Border Patrol spokesman Glenn Spencer told a Tucson newspaper the test was intended to show how easy it would be for terrorists to sneak deadly weapons across the border...
The Mexican government is checking a videotape and may enter a formal complaint with the United States government.
"If the incident can be confirmed," said Miguel Escobar, Mexico's consul in Douglas, "a formal letter of protest will be submitted to the U.S. government."
Note that despite that being an AP report that was filed yesterday, so far it's only appeared on three news sites...
Now, let's compare how the Bush administration deals with complaints from our own congressmen about Mexico violating our own laws.
From this 1/03 post:
The Mexican government, despite concerns by U.S. law-enforcement authorities and immigration officials, is handing out thousands of identity cards ["Matricula Consular cards"] to Mexican nationals in this country, including those here illegally...
Last week, in a letter to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, 12 House members questioned the propriety of the cards, describing them as an "issue of enormous significance that has massive implications for the nation..."
"While the issuance of national identification cards is nothing new, providing them with the express purpose of evading U.S. law is something entirely different," the lawmakers said. "The active lobbying of local and state governments by consuls of foreign countries is, at least, a breach of international protocol deserving of a serious response by our government."
This week, we have the administration trying to block Congressman John Culberson's attempts to prevent banks from accepting those Matricula Consular cards:
Yesterday that amendment was sustained in the full committee by a vote of 26-25, despite major arm twisting by the Bush Administration to remove the provision. Treasury Secretary Snow wrote Appropriations Committee Chair, Rep. Bill Young, The Administration believes as a general matter that Americans are better protected if consumers of all nationalities are invited into the financial mainstream.
Note that the Matricula Consular cards are only of use to illegal aliens.
Posted at 01:54 PM
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According to Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough:
U.S. border agents since October have picked up five Arabs trying to cross into the United States illegally from Mexico, according to U.S. officials. The arrests are raising new concerns that al Qaeda terrorists are trying to enter the country from Mexico.
However, officials at the Homeland Security Department's Customs and Border Protection section formerly the U.S. Border Patrol were quick to dismiss as erroneous an Internet report this week that said a "flood" of Middle Eastern men were caught recently trying to sneak into the United States across the Mexican border with Arizona.
[...they were Oaxacan Indians...]
Here's the report Gertz' sources are presumably referring to:
However, seasoned Border Patrol field agents have shared some disturbing information with the [Tombstone AZ] Tumbleweed...
The Tumbleweed has verified information that a flood of middle-eastern males have been caught entering the country illegally east of Douglas, Arizona. The increased patrols in the Huachuca Mountains area of Cochise County, seems to have diverted the flow of OTMs, other than Mexicans east to the Chiricahua Mountains.
Adame, who says many of the agents in the area are green, questions why they would have shared the information with the Tumbleweed or any other source. Our policy is to turn any OTMs over to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, Adame said in a phone call made to the Tumbleweed Wednesday morning.
For reasons of National security, Adame said his agency cannot talk about the origin of nationaity, however Adame says that since October 1, 2003, the beginning of the fiscal year for Border Patrol, agents in the Tucson sector have apprehended 5,510 illegals from countries other than Mexico or other central or South American countries. Adame described them as people from all over the world.
In the last month, the Tumbleweed has confirmed at least two documented accounts of Border Patrol agents encountering large groups of non-Spanish speaking males in the Chiricahua foothills and on trails along the high mountain areas.
On or about the early morning hours of June 13, 2004 Border patrol agents from the Willcox station encountered a large group of suspected illegal border crossers, estimated to be around 158... 71 suspected illegal aliens were apprehended; among them were 53 males of middle-eastern descent.
According to a Border Patrol field agent, the men were suspected to be Iranian or possibly Syrian nationals. One things for sure: these guys didnt speak Spanish and after we questioned them harder we discovered they spoke poor English with a middle-eastern accent; then we caught them speaking to each other in Arabicthis is ridiculous that we don't take this more seriously, and were told not to say a thing to the media, but I have to, said the agent, who spoke to the Tumbleweed with the promise of anonymity.
Adame confirms the groups of illegals were apprehended on those dates in the same area but stated, There were no middle easterners in the group. Every single one of them was Mexican.
Posted at 10:48 AM
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From KRGV (near Brownsville,TX):
Federal agents believe a South African woman they have in custody may have ties to terrorists.
Farida Goolam Mahomed Ahmed was taken into custody Monday when she tried to board a plane at McAllen Miller International Airport. The Federal Bureau of Investigation would not release any information Thursday, but NEWSCHANNEL 5 obtained court papers filed by an FBI Special Agent assigned to the bureau's Joint Terrorism Task Force...
Investigators found travel itineraries showing that Ahmed flew from South Africa to London, via the United Arab Emirates on July 8. Six days later, Ahmed flew from London to Mexico City. After initially claiming her VISA was left in New York, Ahmed later admitted that she was smuggled into the United States through the Texas border...
See also the earlier post "Congressman: Terrorists are infiltrating the U.S. via Mexico".
Posted at 10:19 AM
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July 16, 2004
Al Qaeda-related terrorists are coming to the U.S. over the Mexican border disguised as Mexicans,
Congressman John Culberson (R-TX) has disclosed. The terrorists are adopting Hispanic names and blending in with the hundreds or thousands of illegal aliens who enter the U.S. via Mexico each day.
Culberson made this statement on the
John & Ken show (
KFI-640 Los Angeles), and KFI is reporting his statement in their news segments.
A listener to the show offers this
report:
Congressman John Culberson (R - TX), speaking on the John and Ken show in Los Angeles, tells the hosts that he's now authorized, for the first time anywhere, to disclose that Middle Eastern men with Al Qaeda links have been mixing with the stream of illegal aliens coming in via the Southern US border. Having changed their names from Islamic to Hispanic ones, and having obtained authentic Mexican Matricula Consular ID cards using faked Mexican birth certificates, the men are paying up to $30,000 to obtain entry into the US among the flow of Hispanic illegal aliens crossing. They're choosing this path because the screening process the US is using on incoming airline passengers is becoming increasingly effective. Once in the US, these men are burrowing into small towns, posing as doctors, lawyers, CPAs, and other professional occupations which are scarce in these communities, making them more accepted and welcome. These "sleeper agents" then await activation for terrorist acts.
Culberson says he was informed of this by federal prosecutors in Texas... Culberson adds that he's also been told that an Al Qaeda attack before the November election is "100% certain."
One of the prosecutors is
reportedly Southern District of Texas U.S. Attorney
Michael Shelby.
Culberson will have more information, including a letter presumably from federal prosecutors, on Tuesday.
Culberson is currently
leading the fight in the House of Representatives to prevent the acceptance of the Matricula Consular card; the FBI says that card is
inherently unsafe. The Matricula Consular card is only of use to illegal aliens, not to legal residents. Culberson's attempts are being opposed by the financial industry, pro-illegal immigration, and ethnic lobbies.
In the past, there have been rumors of terrorists planning to come over the border with Mexico. See, for instance,
"Feds discount rumor of Iraqis lurking in Mexico"
However, the fact that these statements are coming from a U.S. Representative and reportedly from a U.S. Attorney give them quite a bit of weight.
A month ago,
WABC reported the following:
The FBI has arrested an American citizen [a naturalized citizen from Pakistan --LW] living in Queens said to be a sleeper agent for Al Qaeda.
ABC News reports investigators have tied the man to a terrorist cell set to carry out a series of bombings and assassinations in London...
The man has told investigators that Al Qaeda is planning more attacks in the United States. He has also revealed a scheme to smuggle terrorists across the Mexican border...
In March 2003, I posted
"Some 9/11 conspirators entered via Mexico?":
Some of the terrorists who helped with the September 11th attacks are now reported to have entered the country through Hidalgo County. State Representative Kino Flores, who sits on the state homeland security board, in an exclusive with Newschannel Five tells us these terrorists are said to have helped with the operation...
At the time, I unsuccessfully attempted to contact Flores for more information.
Over two years ago, Sen. John Breaux (D-La.)
raised questions about Mexican trucks being used to transport hazardous materials or terrorists into the U.S.
The articles
"Preventing the Entry of Terrorists into the United States" and the heavily-footnoted
"Enchilada Lite: A Post-9/11 Mexican Migration Agreement" have background information on the issue of border security and controlling illegal immigration.
Unfortunately, the Bush Administration is obviously not serious about controlling illegal immigration. While hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens are turned away from the border each year, the Bush Administration recently halted very minor immigration sweeps in Southern California due to
pressure from pro-illegal immigration and
ethnic groups.
Asa Hutchinson, the Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security and the person who reportedly halted the sweeps,
refused to indicate if or when the sweeps would be reinstated. And, very few companies are even fined for immigration violations. While there have been a few high-profile cases where companies have been prosecuted for immigration violations (such as Wal*Mart), they are so small in number that one is forced to draw the conclusion that those prosecutions are simply for show.
For instance, both
Asa Hutchinson and Bush
campaign manager Ken Mehlman were interviewed on KFI and asked about companies that were fined for immigration violations. Both provided Wal*Mart as an example that they were doing something. Neither however were able to provide examples of companies that operate in the Southern California area, where there are somewhere between one and three million illegal aliens.
Furthermore, the proposed Bush Amnesty has caused an
uptick in illegal crossings, and Bush recently stated that
"America is a nation of open doors".
On the other side of the fence, Vicente Fox and his predecessor have both claimed that the millions of "Mexicans" in the U.S. - including Mexican-Americans - are part of the
greater Mexican Nation. In 2002, Mexico's foreign minister stated that he was instructing his consulates to begin
"propagating militant activities" in order to obtain a "migration accord." None of these statements have been met with a public response from the Bush Administration.
UPDATE: I posted this at redstate.org/?op=displaystory;sid=2004/7/17/14157/5043, and that inspired a post (redstate.org/?op=displaystory;sid=2004/7/17/85722/8728) from someone else in reply. I also posted this at
command-post.org. All three threads have comments as well.
UPDATE 2: Related posts
here and
here.
Posted at 10:31 PM
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May 05, 2004
Illegal aliens have not only worked at Norfolk Naval Station (the world's largest naval base), some of them appear to be
members of a violent Salvadoran gang:
Federal authorities said Monday that they are investigating whether local construction companies bribed Norfolk Naval Station security officials to allow illegal immigrants and suspected foreign gang members through the gates to work...
The investigation began nearly two years ago, when five undocumented men were found on the world's largest naval installation taking photographs near a pier...
As the investigation broadened, Norfolk police learned that some other workers claimed to be members of a "notoriously violent" El Salvadoran gang called "MS Thirteen" and that Ramos had smuggled them into the country, court records say.
Later, Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents discovered MS Thirteen-related graffiti in living quarters on the base, the papers say.
Navy officials said they have not changed or reviewed their security procedures as a result of the case.
"I wouldn't say that there is a security hole," said Beth Baker, a spokeswoman for the Navy's Mid-Atlantic Regional Command, headquartered in Norfolk.
"Our security and access to our bases is pretty tight," she added. "The Navy appears to be a relatively small part of a larger investigation here..."
Posted at 01:17 PM
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April 17, 2004
The NYT article "9/11 Panel Calls Policies on Immigration Ineffective" discusses the immigration programs which were presumably put in place after the 9/11 attacks. It does have a dissenting comment from a former administration counsel. I don't have enough knowledge of these programs to comment, however my thoughts at the time regarding the roundup of immigrants from Middle East countries was that they were designed to fail. In other words, a pro-mass-immigration bureaucrat might have decided to make the program look bad by making a draconian roundup which was doomed to get bad press.
In any case, the article includes supporting quotes from the usual suspects. Read the NYT article in light of these two articles which describe those usual suspects in more detail than the NYT would ever give you: 'The Open Borders Lobby and the Nation's Security After 9/11' and 'Strange Bedfellows: Left and right on immigration'.
Posted at 11:06 AM
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April 08, 2004
From 'Navy contractor workers arrested for immigration violations':
"Thirty-one employees of a Navy contractor who have access to military installations and vessels were arrested Thursday on immigration charges, authorities said.
The suspects worked in San Diego for Continental Maritime, a unit of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Newport News division. They worked in ship maintenance jobs, including welding, painting, mechanics and pipefitting..."
Last I heard, welding and pipefitting are fairly critical jobs; one bad weld in the wrong place, and really bad things could happen. Foreign citizens - even if they're the nicest, hardest-working people in the world - should not be doing sensitive jobs on Navy vessels or have access to Navy installations.
On the one hand, the Bush Administration is to be congratulated for catching this. However, if not for their Wink 'n' Nod immigration policies, this might have been caught earlier, and the company might have been extra vigilant to make sure they were only hiring citizens.
Posted at 07:05 PM
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March 18, 2004
From the NYT comes this weepy, Sally Struthersian article about Muslim immigrants in Spain: 'Deep Unease Over the Future Gnaws at Moroccans in Spain'.
They fear they're going to get blamed, etc. etc. All it's missing is a loop of violins.
Consider this excerpt:
For nearly 800 years, the Moors ruled Spain from its southern stronghold, El Andalus, ushering in a period of enlightenment and relative tolerance while the rest of Europe thrashed about in the Dark Ages.
The NYT might want to check out 'The Corrosive Hagiography of Muslim Spain'. "Relative" is definitely the operative word here:
Celebratory announcements July 10, 2003 of a "return of Islam to Spain" marked the completion of the new Granada Mosque. Unfortunately, at a conference entitled, "Islam in Europe" that accompanied the opening of the mosque, some alarming statements were made by European Muslim leaders. For example, the keynote speaker at this conference, Umar Ibrahim Vadillo, a Spanish Muslim leader, implored Muslims to cause an economic collapse of Western economies (by switching to gold dinars, and ceasing to use Western currencies), while the German Muslim leader Abu Bakr Rieger told attendees not to adapt their Islamic religious practices to accommodate European (i.e., Western Enlightenment) values...
The NYT might want to check out this quote from a very well-known Muslim scholar, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi:
Nowadays, the conquest of the other city Romia [Rome] remains unfulfilled. Namely, Islam will return once more to Europe as a conqueror and as a victorious power after it was expelled twice from the continent....I assume that next time the conquest [of Europe] will not be achieved by the sword [i.e., war] but by preaching (_daawa_) and spreading the ideology [of Islam]....The conquest of Romia [Rome] and the expansion of Islam will reach all the areas where the sun shines and the moon appears [i.e., the entire world]....That will be the result of a planted seed and the beginning of the righteous Caliphate's return....[The Islamic Caliphate] deserves to lead the nation to the plains of victory.
According to the NYT, Stalin was relatively tolerant as well.
Posted at 09:21 PM
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January 16, 2004
From Steven Emerson (producer of Jihad in America):
For years, the Democratic Party, in California and across America, stood for justice and decency and fairness and equality and peace. For years, the Democratic Party embodied principles and beliefs that define America, and led our nation to a better, stronger, freer day. Thus, it is deeply troubling to find that the leader of the Democratic Party in California, Art Torres, has chosen to engage in the most vicious form of demagoguery in his recent appearance before the annual convention of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) held in Long Beach, California on December 20-21, 2003...
See the page for Torres' speech, as well as various quotes from members of MPAC. Torres' quotes aren't that horribly damning, but those from MPAC are.
You'll recall Art Torres' comments on Prop. 187:
Art Torres, the Chairman of the California Democratic Party and the keynote speaker at the meeting, shouted to the audience "Power is not given to you. You have to take it...Remember 187 is the last gasp of White America in California!" [sound clip here] and "Que Viva La Causa!" (Long Live our Cause!) -- and then later exulted over how he could make such racist remarks with total impunity.
Now, the only problem is to get Democrats from other states to repudiate Torres. The problem after that is to make them look bad because they won't repudiate him. The problem after that is to get anyone in the media to pay any attention...
Posted at 09:49 PM
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April 08, 2003
Interesting article about Border Patrol officers being deployed away from the "Cochise Strip" in AZ, leaving it largely unguarded. (Some) of the culprits? Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and the Department of Homeland Security.
Posted at 11:58 AM
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March 05, 2003
From this:
Four suspected illegal immigrants from Mexico were arrested while working in a restricted area of the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, NASA said Tuesday...The arrests came more than a month after NASA took unprecedented security measures for the launch of space shuttle Columbia, whose crew included an Israeli astronaut.
Posted at 01:11 PM
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