Terrorism and U.S., Canada, and Mexico Border Issues

[al-Canine]

Casey/Petronas, please movethis if another thread exists elsewhere... there have been so many stories on this issue, I thought it would be good to begin to consolidate them.

Despite New Efforts Along Arizona Border, 'Serious Problems' Remain

By ERIC LIPTON

NOGALES, Ariz. - Back in Washington, officials have promised to step up protection against terrorists by securing the borders. But here along a dusty brown expanse of desert, where Border Patrol agents struggle to stem the flow of illegal immigrants by relying on tactics like horseback patrols, underground sensors and helicopters, commanders have yet to achieve what they call "operational control."

"We have had successes," said Kevin L. Stevens, the assistant patrol chief in the Tucson sector. "But we have some gapping areas out there, some serious problems."

The mission has gained new attention in Congress and at the White House because of intelligence reports that operatives of Al Qaeda may try to use this desolate stretch to enter the United States.

Although citing no evidence of such efforts, officials of the Homeland Security Department recently said the agency worried that would-be terrorists might enter the country by drifting in with illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.

"The southern border is literally under siege, and there is a real possibility that terrorists, particularly Al Qaeda forces, could exploit this series of holes in our law enforcement system," Representative Solomon P. Ortiz, Democrat of Texas, said at a Congressional hearing.

The Border Patrol has intensified its enforcement efforts in the last year, starting a campaign called the Arizona Border Control Initiative and making surveillance with a "substantial probability of apprehending terrorists" a top priority.

But Border Patrol agents interviewed in February in the Nogales region said privately that the get-tough policy was an all-but-impossible expansion of a nearly hopeless mission.

"Anyone with any determination can still make it into the United States," said an agent who refused to give his name because he feared being fired. "It is all nonsense, all smoke and mirrors."

No one can reliably estimate how many illegal immigrants cross the 6,000 miles of United States border each year. It is certainly more than a million.

The only objective indicator is the number of arrests, which hit 491,771 in 2004 for just the 261 miles of border that make up the Tucson sector. That is up from 139,473 a decade ago, which explains why Arizona had more border captures in 2004 than California, New Mexico and Texas combined, and why special initiatives have begun here.

The effort has had some obvious effects. Border communities like Nogales now experience much less illegal traffic, as well as fewer border-related crimes, the Border Patrol says.

Dozens of migrants still try to cross the border each day. But new digital video cameras scan almost all the border just inside the cities, and sensors have been built into towering steel border barriers that detect when someone climbs them or tries to cut open a hole.

Cameras have even been placed in a sewer between Nogales on the Mexican side and its sister city, Nogales, Ariz.

"We have taken the easiest routes away from them," Chief Stevens said. "Gain, maintain, expand. That's our strategy."

The intense surveillance in the cities, backed by an increase in Border Patrol agents in the Tucson sector, where the force has tripled to 2,170 in 10 years, has apparently pushed the illegal movement elsewhere.

The Arizona initiative promised to take the enforcement campaign into the desert - enormous expanses of Indian reservations, environmental conservation areas, cattle ranches and wild stretches of this big sky world. Pilotless aerial vehicles, or drones, were leased, and more motion sensors were installed, as were more sophisticated cameras.

This technology is the start of what the Bush administration hopes will turn into a $2.5 billion investment over five years to install a new generation of surveillance equipment, creating what it calls America's Shield Initiative.

But many frontline agents wonder whether all the spending makes much sense. In the eight months that the drones circled, at a cost of $6 million, they contributed to 1,294 captures, officials said, or less than 0.5 percent of the sector total in the last fiscal year.

"It is a ridiculous waste of money," an agent said. "There are so many more practical items we need. More vehicles, more agents, even new bulletproof vests. And yet they are spending millions on an unmanned reconnaissance vehicle simply to generate good press."

Some aerial reconnaissance is essential because it is only from the air that border runners can be easily spotted. One afternoon in February, a Border Patrol helicopter came upon 30 or so men and women out in the craggy, cactus-dotted hills. Agent John L. Kimmel dipped his helicopter toward the ground, using a loudspeaker and a barrage of noise, dust and bursts of air to nudge the suspects from their hiding spots.

"Get up!" he yelled in Spanish. "Get up!"

Thanks to a quick response by an agent on the ground, most, if not all, of the suspects were rounded up. But even before they were put in patrol wagons, some were probably plotting their next crossings.

Martin Arrendo, 35, was caught while heading from his home in Irapuato, Mexico, to his job in Sonoma County, Calif., where he earns $16 an hour pruning vines or picking grapes, compared with $10 a day at home.

"As soon as they take me back, I will try again," Mr. Arrendo said.

Security officials have been concerned about Qaeda operatives trying to enter the United States even before the Sept. 11 attacks.

The most specific alert about the southern border came last August, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned that Adnan G. el-Shukrijumah, a Saudi pilot sought by the United States as a high-ranking Qaeda leader and who was believed to have examined the New York Stock Exchange for a possible attack, was spotted in Honduras and might try to cross into the United States from Mexico.

In recent months, officials have reported a worrisome increase in the "Other Than Mexican" category of arrests along the southwestern border. That number has reached 41,360 this fiscal year, up more than 100 percent from the same period in 2004. More than 90 percent of those non-Mexicans are from Latin America, Border Patrol officials said.

But last fiscal year, 682 of those caught were designated "special interest aliens" because they came from countries that have active terrorist presences. In some cases, people from Middle Eastern countries, after paying smugglers to help them, have adopted Mexican names in an effort to disguise their identities, the director of the F.B.I., Robert S. Mueller III, told members of Congress in early March.

"It is a tremendous concern to us," Mr. Mueller said. "We're working together to try to identify those smuggling organizations and take them out of business."

Border agents try to identify such migrants by listening carefully to their accents, not an entirely reliable system. Suspects from the "special interest" countries, which include Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, are turned over to other federal agencies for more questioning.

Ultimately, though, most of the non-Mexicans are released in the United States pending deportation hearings and are typically never heard from again, Representative Ortiz said.

Border Patrol officials say that as they intensify surveillance of the desert, migrants and others trying to enter the United States are changing strategies, moving through far southwestern Arizona and New Mexico. Smugglers have been trying to build cross-border tunnels like one found under construction by agents in Nogales in early March.

Various plans have been offered to secure the border. Congress passed a measure late in 2004 that authorized doubling the number of Border Patrol officers in five years, to 20,000, as well as increasing the number of beds for detainees over the five years by 40,000. That would mean that fewer people awaiting deportation hearings would need to be released.

President Bush wants to create a temporary worker program that would legalize the presence of millions of immigrants, perhaps reducing illegal traffic.

For Border Patrol agents, the problem breeds palpable frustration. Chief Stevens said that like soldiers in battle who do not always appreciate the nuances of a wise general's strategy, they must understand that the key is keeping up the fight.

Some agents have grave doubts.

"It seems quite obvious here," one said. "We are not winning this war."

Copyright 2005*The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/14/politics/14border.html?

[Petronas]

Actually, I think this separate thread is a very good idea, so that these stories don't get lost in the general U.S.A. news thread. I see the U.S./Mexican border as the main risk area for infiltration of additional terrorists into the U.S. I'll post another three articles from the last six months that I think are of interest to this topic.

Mexico attorney general says no sign of terrorism on U.S. border, pledges cooperation
March 10, 2005

MEXICO CITY - As U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived to meet Mexican leaders Thursday, Mexico's attorney general pledged cooperation against terrorism while dismissing reports of terrorist activity on the U.S.-Mexico border. Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha also reiterated Mexico's irritation at U.S. criticisms on crime, human rights, drug trafficking and security in Mexico. His remarks to a news conference at an anti-terrorism conference in Madrid were distributed to reporters in Mexico. Such analyses of problems "should always be done from a multilateral perspective," Macedo said. "When one country unilaterally evaluates (another), we don't agree with that. This has caused much irritation in Mexico. President Vicente Fox and some of his Cabinet members earlier complained about the U.S. reports and indicated they would bring the matter up with Rice.

Rice's meetings with Fox and Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez were aimed at defining the agenda for Fox's talks with U.S. President George W. Bush and the Canadian prime minister in Texas later this month. Other potential topics were Bush's proposed temporary guest-worker program for Mexican migrants, the dispute with U.S. border states over water and Mexico's concern with vigilante efforts to patrol the southeast Arizona border for undocumented Mexican crossers. While civil liberties groups have accused the United States of infringing on rights at home in its fight against terrorism, Macedo said that Mexico would seek security "without the loss of any liberties." "Our starting point should be the globalization of democracy," he said.

U.S. officials recently have expressed concerns that terrorists could slip across the vulnerable Mexican border into the United States, though they have said there is no evidence that has happened. "Investigations we have conducted have shown that no such thing has occurred," Macedo said. "Under no circumstances will Mexico allow our national territory to be a refuge for terrorists."

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/11404.html

[Petronas]

Middle Easterners Enter United States Illegally From Mexico
2004 November 15 Monday

"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. ...

... Patrol agents told one Arizona newspaper that 77 males "of Middle Eastern descent" were apprehended in June in two separate incidents. All were trekking through the Chiricahua mountains and are believed to have been part of a larger group of illegal immigrants. Many were released pending immigration hearings. According to Solomon Ortiz, the Congressman for Corpus Christi in Texas, similar incidents are "happening all over the place. It's very, very scary". The two groups of Arab males were discovered by patrol guards from Willcox, Arizona. "These guys didn't speak Spanish," said one field agent, "and they were speaking to each other in Arabic. It's ridiculous that we don't take this more seriously. We're told not to say a thing to the media." A colleague told the paper: "All the men had brand-new clothing and the exact same cut of moustache." Local ranchers have also reported a rise in the sightings of large groups of young males. ...

... "The law does not differentiate based on nationality. So enforcement does not differ based on nationality," says Reed Little, Detention and Enforcement Officer for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He added that ICE officials must justify their actions before immigration judges. Asked if a 25-year-old man from Saudi Arabia would be treated at all differently from other illegal aliens coming across the Mexican border, ICE spokesman Manny Van Pelt said, "No." Van Pelt said the government's general practice is to release apprehended aliens into the United States without requiring bond pending their deportation hearing, unless they have criminal records, are flagged in a government database as a potential threat, or their interviews with agents reveal a potential threat. ...

http://www.parapundit.com/archives/002457.html

[Petronas]

Newspaper reports that Mexico is serving as al-Qa'ida’s back door into US
October 16, 2004

An Austrailian newspaper, The Australian, reported this week that it has learned from intelligence that 25 Chechen terrorism suspects have illegally entered the US from Mexico and have refocused attention on the porous U.S/Mexican. Despite a nine billion dollar budget, and assurances from President George W. Bush that border security is tighter than ever, public figures of all political stripes in the border states say the danger of al-Qa'ida infiltrating the US from Mexico has never been higher.

The Washington Times newspaper reported that a source told US intelligence officers that the Chechens, seen carrying backpacks, were shepherded from northern Mexico in July through a remote mountainous region of Arizona that is notoriously difficult to patrol. It is not known if this intelligence was behind a warning issued by the US Education Department for American schools to be vigilant after Chechen militants took over a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, last month, a tragedy that cost at least 344 lives, half of them children.

The Chechen report has angered those who have been warning for months that US borders are insecure. 'In the name of national security we must do something about our wide-open southern border,' said Arizona Republican congressional candidate Stan Barnes. 'We are now in a war mentality. The first duty of a country in a war situation is to protect its borders.' Experts say it is not difficult for terrorists to blend into a vast sea of an estimated 13million illegal aliens, most of them impoverished Mexicans seeking work.

To make matters worse, the Department of Homeland Security is so hopelessly overstretched that it has taken to releasing what it calls OTMs (Other Than Mexicans) because it cannot house them until it arranges for deportation hearings. 'If they're deemed not dangerous, they're given a notice to appear in court, and the border patrol agents even have to drive them to a bus station and watch these people get on buses for New Jersey or California,' said Cathy Travis, a senior aide to veteran Texas congressman Henry Ortiz. Fewer than 30 per cent of the OTMs released into the US actually show up for their hearings, meaning an estimated 400,000 illegal aliens are currently in the US after being caught and released.

Officially, fewer than 100 border jumpers apprehended along the Mexican borders within the last year were from nations associated with Islamic terrorism. However, Travis said that few of these people had identification papers, and many lied and said they were from South America in order to evade attention and have a better chance of being released.

'We have heard from border patrol agents that they're being told to let people who look like they're from East Africa and the Middle East go because they say their name is Juan Pablo Garcia from Guatemala - except that they don't speak a word of Spanish,' she said. Congressman Ortiz has said that intelligence shows al-Qa'ida working with El Salvadorean criminal gangs as well as reports of Brazilians being recruited to accompany Arabs to illegally cross the US border. If they are apprehended, the groups say they are Brazilian - knowing there are few Portuguese-speaking border patrol agents - and are usually released into the US. Sheriff D'Wayne Jernigan, of Del Rio, Texas, last month publicly blasted the dubious policy after being ordered by the Homeland Security Department to release 17 captured Brazilians before they had been interrogated.

Congressmen Ortiz, a Democrat, and Henry Bonilla, a Republican, also of Texas, wrote to President Bush and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge last month seeking an urgent solution. 'We simply cannot continue allowing US citizens to be under the mistaken impression that OTMs from countries that should raise suspicion are being detained in the US when, in fact, they are free to roam the nation at will,' the congressmen wrote. But the issue, surprisingly, has hardly made the front pages. 'It's an election year,' Travis explained. 'This is a very sensitive time. People on both sides have reasons not to want to talk about it. For Republicans, they don't want to upset the apple cart for Bush, while for Democrats, they know this whole issue of the border is very sensitive within the Hispanic community.'

The FBI and CIA, however, are apparently very interested, especially after intelligence reported that a key lieutenant to Osama bin Laden, Adnan El Shukrijumah, was seen in Honduras and northern Mexico in recent months.

http://www.usbc.org/info/2004/oct/alqaedabackdoor.htm

[Petronas]

Al Qaeda seeks tie to local gangs
September 28, 2004

A top al Qaeda lieutenant has met with leaders of a violent Salvadoran criminal gang with roots in Mexico and the United States — including a stronghold in the Washington area — in an effort by the terrorist network to seek help infiltrating the U.S.-Mexico border, law enforcement authorities said. Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a key al Qaeda cell leader for whom the U.S. government has offered a $5 million reward, was spotted in July in Honduras meeting with leaders of El Salvador's notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang, which immigration officials said has smuggled hundreds of Central and South Americans — mostly gang members — into the United States.

Although they are actively involved in alien, drug and weapons smuggling, Mara Salvatrucha members in America also have been tied to numerous killings, robberies, burglaries, carjackings, extortions, rapes and aggravated assaults — including at least seven killings in Virginia and a machete attack on a 16-year-old in Alexandria that severely mutilated his hands. The Salvadoran gang, known to law enforcement authorities as MS-13 because many members identify themselves with tattoos of the number 13, is thought to have established a major smuggling center in Matamoros, Mexico, just south of Brownsville, Texas, from where it has arranged to bring illegal aliens from countries other than Mexico into the United States.

Authorities said al Qaeda terrorists hope to take advantage of a lack of detention space within the Department of Homeland Security that has forced immigration officials to release non-Mexican illegal aliens back into the United States, rather than return them to their home countries. Less than 15 percent of those released appear for immigration hearings. Nearly 60,000 illegal aliens designated as other-than-Mexican, or OTMs, were detained last year along the U.S.-Mexico border.

El Shukrijumah, born in Saudi Arabia but thought to be a Yemen national, was spotted in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in July, having crossed the border illegally from Nicaragua after a stay in Panama. U.S. authorities said al Qaeda operatives have been in Tegucigalpa planning attacks against British, Spanish and U.S. embassies. Known to carry passports from Saudi Arabia, Trinidad, Guyana and Canada, El Shukrijumah had sought meetings with the Mara Salvatrucha gang leaders who control alien-smuggling routes through Mexico and into the United States. El Shukrijumah, 29, who authorities said was in Canada last year looking for nuclear material for a so-called "dirty bomb" and reportedly has family members in Guyana, was named in a March 2003 material-witness arrest warrant by federal prosecutors in Northern Virginia, where U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said he is sought in connection with potential terrorist threats against the United States. A former southern Florida resident and pilot thought to have helped plan the September 11 attacks, El Shukrijumah was among seven suspected al Qaeda operatives identified in May by Attorney General John Ashcroft as being involved in plans to strike new targets in the United States. Citing "credible intelligence from multiple sources," Mr. Ashcroft said at the time that El Shukrijumah posed "a clear and present danger to America." In August, an FBI alert described him as "armed and dangerous" and a major threat to homeland security. Earlier this month, Mr. Ashcroft confirmed that U.S. border agents and inspectors had ramped up efforts to find El Shukrijumah amid reports that the al Qaeda leader was thought to be seeking entry routes into the United States along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Mr. Ashcroft noted that increased enforcement efforts were under way in the wake of a rise of arrests of border jumpers from Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Authorities said Mara Salvatrucha gang members moved into the Los Angeles area in the 1980s and developed a reputation for being organized and extremely violent. The gang since has expanded into the Washington area, including Virginia and Maryland, and into Oregon, Alaska, Texas, Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Georgia and Florida. More than 3,000 Mara Salvatrucha gang members are thought to be in the Washington area, with a major operation in Northern Virginia. Other gang centers, authorities said, include Montgomery and Prince George's counties and the Hispanic neighborhoods of Washington. Mr. McNulty, whose office has prosecuted Mara Salvatrucha gang members, has described the organization as the "gang of greatest interest" to law enforcement authorities. He said gang members are recruited predominantly from Hispanic communities and typically among juveniles, some as young as 13. Recruits are "jumped" into the gang by being beaten by members while others count to 13, he said. Gang rules, he said, are indoctrinated into new recruits and ruthlessly enforced. Those who cooperate with law enforcement are given the "green light," he said, meaning that the gang had approved their killing. In March, the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office filed an injunction against Mara Salvatrucha, charging that the gang's criminal activity constituted a "public nuisance" based on the number of killings, robberies and drug crimes. The injunction requires gang members, under public nuisance statutes, to follow curfew rules and regulations and prohibits them from associating, driving or appearing together in designated areas of the city.

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040928-123346-3928r.htm

[Petronas]

Illegal Alien Influx May Compromise Security
Tuesday, March 15, 2005

DOUGLAS, Ariz. — The U.S.-Mexican border is nearly 2,000 miles long. America's determination to keep illegal aliens out is matched only by their desperation to get in. "The reality is that hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world are successfully sneaking into the United States," said Dave Stoddard, a 27-year Border Patrol veteran. In spite of the massive resources invested in border security, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of undocumented aliens make it into the United States every year.

Although some say illegal immigration seems to be out of control, others in government and private industry argue that low-wage, unskilled labor is critical to keeping prices down and America competitive. "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.

Rancher George Morin, who raises cattle along the Arizona border, has had several run-ins with illegal aliens near his property. "I woke up real early in the morning, went over to the little dike right here behind the house, and there was about 600 people in the tank there," Morin said. "So I stood there and looked at them and got ahold of the Border Patrol and they actually loaded three Greyhound buses." "The rest of the people were running off like quail," he added. "It was just insanity." Morin added that not every run-in has been nonviolent. Two of his dogs were killed by illegal aliens; one had its head cracked open with a stick, and the other one was poisoned, he said.

In the 1970s, fewer than 100,000 workers entered the United States illegally each year. By 1990, that figure had doubled. Since then, illegal immigration has exploded, with more than 1 million instances of foreigners being detained at the U.S. border last year. Some Americans are even taking the law into their own hands, patrolling the borders they feel Washington has abandoned.

Experts say that possibly 12 million people live in the United States illegally — more people than live in Oregon, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Arkansas and Rhode Island combined. The latest U.S. government estimate was that 7 million illegal immigrants lived in the country in Jan. 2000, more than five years ago.

What's most unsettling to many Americans is not the huge numbers of illegal aliens caught at the border, but the possibly millions more who are not caught. "Can anybody explain to me why we shouldn't be paranoid about the southern border being porous?" asked Rep. Tom Tancredo (search), R-Colo. Tancredo has obtained records showing that since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, agents from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency have stopped 132 nationals from countries considered a national security threat, including Syria, North Korea and Iran. If those numbers are accurate, they may indicate that hundreds more from suspect nations made it across the border.

"The element that concerns me today is the terrorist element. Mainly, radical Muslims from the Middle East," Stoddard said. Stoddard spent the last eight years in an area known locally as the "Arab Road," where ranchers recently found a prayer rug, a Koran and a diary written in Arabic.

Those who call for immediate action to better secure the country's borders are concerned about the millions who come to America to make a better life, but even more worried about the handful whose intentions are not so noble. The intelligence reform bill recently signed into law by President Bush calls for an increase in border staffing from 10,000 to 20,000 over the next five years. But the administration's fiscal 2006 budget calls for only 210 new agents next year. "If we have another event like 9/11, or worse, and if that event is perpetrated by somebody who has come into this country illegally and if we have done no more to secure those borders than we have presently done," Tancredo said, "then the blood of everyone who's killed in that will be on our heads in the Congress and on the president of the United States."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,150520,00.html

[uchiuke123]

Thanks Petronas for posting these articles. Very informative and simply amazing.

uchiuke123

[Petronas]

Al-Qaeda's Illegal Immigration Threat
March 7, 2005

The convergence of terrorist threats, a nuclear weapon black-market, a porous national border and escalating illegal immigration is finally attracting the attention the growing crisis deserves. Unfortunately, the attention is being paid by terrorists, not by the U.S. government.

“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,” Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Admiral James Loy testified on February 16 before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “At home, we must prepare ourselves for any attack, from IEDs (improvised explosive devices) to Weapons of Mass Destruction…from soft targets like malls to national icons.” Loy is hardly a lone voice.

“Al-Qaeda is intent on finding ways to circumvent U.S. security enhancements to strike Americans and the homeland,” CIA director Porter Goss told the committee, adding “it may be only a matter of time before al-Qaeda or another group attempts to use chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons.”

FBI director Robert Mueller reinforced the ominous assessment, explaining that the FBI’s top concerns are covert operatives, who may already be in the country planning attacks. Additionally, there are increasing reports that al-Qaeda seeks Weapons of Mass Destruction, and concerns terrorists will recruit radical Americans to their cause.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who testified to the House Armed Services Committee last week, warned of “troubling” evidence pointing to terrorists seeking non-conventional weaponry. In Rumsfeld’s words, “We can reasonably predict that future foes might use cyberattack or Weapons of Mass Destruction.”

The continuing terrorist threat, coupled with fresh concerns about infiltration across the U.S.-Mexico border, is exacerbated by Russian nuclear stockpiles believed to be missing, perhaps sold to terrorists. “I can’t account for some of the material,” the CIA’s Goss conceded. A National Intelligence Council report in November raised the specter of nuclear material diverted or stolen in Russian since the 1991 breakup of the USSR. Although Russian authorities twice frustrated terrorists’ attempted surveillance of weapon storage facilities in 2002, the whereabouts of suspected missing weapons-grade nuclear material remains a question. “We find it highly unlikely that Russian authorities would have been able to recover all the material reportedly stolen,” the report said. “There is sufficient material unaccounted for so it would be possible for those with know-how to construct a nuclear weapon,” Goss testified. He also wouldn’t rule out the possibility terrorists may be supplied through the network of Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan, who remains under house arrest for selling weapons expertise.

Such warnings of impending danger close to home increasingly raise concerns across the political spectrum. “We really don’t know who comes into this country illegally over the Southwest border,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA. “This is a big problem.”

For months Solomon Ortiz, Democratic congressman from Corpus Christi, Texas, has voiced concerns about the release of non-Mexican immigrants awaiting deportation hearings for illegally entering the country. Ortiz spokeswoman Cathy Travis said some of those released are from “countries of interest,” such as Brazil. “It's a visa-waiver country with Mexico,” Travis said. “A bad guy who wants to go to the United States can first go to Brazil and then go to Mexico, and at that point it’s easy to go north and cross illegally and not be caught – or be caught” then released.

While there remain those on the Left like Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, who claim the allegations of terrorists entering the country by abusing the asylum process are exaggerated, there nevertheless seems to be growing concern about such potential dangers. The 9/11 Commission warned in August that “the challenge for national security in an age of terrorism is to prevent the very few people who may pose overwhelming risks from entering or remaining in the United States undetected.”

Complicating the challenge is what the FBI believes may be cooperation between al-Qaeda terrorists and Central American gangs that already have infiltrated the United States. Central American and U.S. authorities are conferring on ways to keep the gang known as the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, from spreading. In Mexico, gangs have taken over some migrant smuggling routes, and the FBI and U.S. Homeland Security officials are interested in charges by Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez, who has accused al-Qaeda of trying to recruit Central American gang members to sneak terrorists into the U.S.

This month a man considered a leader of MS-13, gang, who also is accused of masterminding a Christmas bus massacre in Honduras, was jailed after he was arrested 110 miles inside the U.S.-Mexico border. Ever Anibal Rivera Paz previously was deported four times from the U.S before his February 10 arrest in South Texas. Authorities said Rivera Paz, known as “El Culiche” (“The Tapeworm”) is being held in federal custody, facing up to 20 years for felony re-entry after deportation.

Mexico’s state-run National Migration Institute estimates there are 100 migrant-smuggling rings operating in Mexico. But it is not just the criminal element making terrorists’ entry to the U.S. easier. The Mexican government has printed a guide for those seeking to illegally enter the United States. Arizona congressman J.D. Hayworth says the guidebook could be termed, “how to enter the United States illegally.”

Many in the U.S. in and out of government appear to be losing patience with floods of job-seeking illegal immigrants that mask potential terrorists intent on murderous missions, aided by the Mexican government and criminal networks alike. 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.

“We know that terrorists in our hemisphere are increasingly engaged in narcotics and weapons smuggling, and money laundering, as a means to fund their criminal agendas,” Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson said recently. “What we have to do in the future is to continue to adjust to new tactics of the terrorists,” said Hutchinson, making a case for international information sharing and intelligence sharing:

And whenever there is one vulnerability in one country, with the interconnectedness of our transportation industry – whether it is cargo containers or whether it is aviation – that becomes a vulnerability to all of us…whether it is Brazil, whether it is Ecuador, whether it is a Caribbean nation – all of those can be avenues of access that will ultimately lead to the southern border between the United States and Mexico.

U.S. Border Patrol has arrested tens of thousands of illegal immigrants with criminal records, ranging from suspected murderers to child molesters, since installing a fingerprinting system last year. About 30,000 of the 680,000 illegal migrants arrested from May through December were shown to have criminal records, compared to only 2,600 identified with criminal records during the same period in 2002.

Despite stepped-up Border Patrol efforts, increasingly the U.S. citizenry appears less willing to sit idly by as the threat mounts. There has been reaction in Arizona state government, where new legislation requires proof of citizenship or of legal immigration status for voting and receiving some public benefits, to several other states, where similar legislation is under consideration.

Private citizens, too, are getting into the act. The “Minutemen Project” seeks to secure the Arizona border against illegal immigrant crossings, despite U.S. officials’ warnings against taking the law into their own hands. About 500 volunteers promising to stay within legal limits have vowed to patrol a 40-mile stretch of the southeast Arizona border throughout Apri, the month when illegal immigration peaks. “I felt the only way to get something done was to do it yourself,” said Jim Gilchrist, a retired accountant and decorated Vietnam War veteran who is recruiting Minutemen.

The grassroots movements and voter pressure on state legislatures appears to reflect growing opinion that despite new technology and increasing crackdowns, the Border Patrol remains overwhelmed by the flood of illegal immigration. Even though armed with underground sensors and cameras to pan the desert, agents catch only about one-third of the three million illegal immigrants crossing the border yearly.

Moreover, increasing numbers of the illegal immigrants originate from Asia, Central and South America and the Middle East. In 2003, the Border Patrol apprehended 39,215 illegal immigrants described as “other-than-Mexicans,” along the Southwest border. The next year the amount increased 68 percent to 65,814.

The federal government reacted to the imminent peril posed by foreigners streaming across the Mexican-U.S. border when the House of Representatives last week overwhelmingly approved a strong measure to combat the illegal alien influx, and its terrorism component. Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-WI, sponsored the Real ID Act, which passed 216-161. The bill gives immigration authorities and judges the ability to expeditiously deport illegal aliens and prevent foreigners from taking advantage of asylum rules. The bill also speeds construction of a security fence along the U.S.-Mexico border authorized nearly a decade ago, but delayed by challenges from open-borders advocates and environmentalists. The bill creates minimum standards for Driver’s Licenses and identification cards to prevent illegal aliens from obtaining the forms of identification needed to board planes, access federal buildings or use federal services. The legislation has been sent to the Senate.

“[T]he House of Representatives took a small step toward keeping faith with the families of victims of September 11th by acting to implement what are perhaps the most important recommendations that the 9/11 Commission made,” said Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-CO, chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus. He described the legislation as, “possibly the most significant improvement of border security and immigration law in nearly a decade.” But stronger action is needed and soon. Our enemies are aware of our porous border, but our political leaders still seem blissfully unaware.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=17216

[Petronas]

Governor signs bill letting local police arrest migrant smugglers
March 18, 2005

PHOENIX Later this year, local police agencies in Arizona will have the power to arrest the smugglers who sneak thousands of immigrants into the state each year. Governor Janet Napolitano signed into a bill into law today granting that authority by creating the state crime of human smuggling.

Proponents say the power was needed because the federal government isn't doing enough to fulfill its responsibility to enforce immigration law in Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point on the nation's southern border. Opponents say the change won't do anything to confront the mass of problems tied illegal immigration and question whether local police can afford to crack down on smugglers.

The law doesn't provide additional money for police agencies to arrest migrant smugglers. It also aims to confront migrants and others who are forced into labor or prostitution.

http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=3075913

[al-Canine]

US-Mexican border as a terror risk

Recent intelligence gives the most evidence yet of terrorist plans. Lawmakers push for tighter security.

By Faye Bowers | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON - Concern is growing at the top levels of government about the US-Mexican border becoming a back door for terrorists entering the United States. While Al Qaeda infiltration across the nation's southern border has been a constant concern since 9/11, US officials cite recent intelligence giving the most definitive evidence yet that terrorists are planning to use it as an entry point - if they haven't already.

As a result, a number of Republican and Democratic lawmakers - mainly from border states - are pushing to tighten checkpoints and other ways of monitoring the porous 1,400-mile boundary. The subject will also be central to President Bush's summit in Texas Wednesday with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.

"I'm worried about our border," Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona said at a March 17 Senate hearing on threats facing the US. "We have now hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people who are crossing illegally every year. And we are now seeing a larger number of people cross our southern border who are from countries of interest as opposed to just Latin American [countries]."

The "countries of interest" that Senator McCain refers to are those so designated by the US government as known to house radical, if not terrorist, groups.

One of the biggest concerns is that terrorists may exploit the current crossing procedures to make their way into the US. One way they might do this - and members of Congress say evidence is mounting that terrorists are trying this - is by paying smuggling networks, especially organized gangs.

The other is through a loophole in the system to separate the large number of illegal Mexican migrants, who are automatically turned back at the borders, from citizens of other countries who are allowed in, pending immigration hearings. These others are referred to as "other than Mexicans," or OTMs, by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). They come from other Latin American countries as well as other parts of the world, many of them designated by the government as countries of "special interest." In 2004, some 44,000 OTMs were allowed into the US.

It's not clear how many terrorists or people having connections to terror groups may have entered the US as OTMs. But FBI Director Robert Mueller, in a House Appropriations Committee hearing March 9, said he was aware that individuals from countries with known Al Qaeda ties had entered the US under false identities.

Furthermore, in a Feb. 16 Senate hearing, Mr. Mueller cited the case of Mahmoud Youssef Kourani, who paid to be smuggled across the US-Mexico border in 2001. He pleaded guilty on March 1 to providing material support to Hizbullah and was sentenced to no more than five years in prison.

The most recent sign, though, that terrorists may be thinking of entering the US from the south came from the mastermind of many of the terror attacks in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Last week, US officials revealed that Mr. Zarqawi may be planning to broaden his campaign to include strikes in the US - and suggested it would be easy to infiltrate the US through the southern border.

Of the 44,000 OTMs who entered the US last year, it is not known how many were detained and how many remain free. Members of Congress are continuing to lean on government officials, asking for clear assessments of numbers as well as policies intended to thwart the entry of those who would harm the US.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) of California asked the DHS's Adm. James Loy at a hearing last month about the numbers of OTMs detained and those set free. He replied that he didn't have the numbers, and as of the end of last week, the senator's office said the DHS still hadn't provided her those numbers.

But in response to a request from Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D) of Texas, the DHS supplied numbers of OTMs registered, by country of origin, who had been released on their own recognizance for fiscal years 2002, 2003, and 2004. The totals were 5,775, 9,139, and 30,756 respectively.

Some countries, such as those known to export gang members, showed dramatic increases in numbers entering the US. The DHS document, for instance, shows 1,463 OTMs entering the US from El Salvador in 2002. That number increased to 7,963 in 2004. Some 2,539 OTMs entered the US from Honduras in 2002, and that number increased to 12,549 in 2004.

Representative Ortiz, though, disputes many of the DHS numbers. He says he regularly hears reports of much higher figures from border patrol officials from his district in Texas, which includes the border-crossing area of Brownsville.

"In the Brownsville sector alone, border patrol officials reported they caught 23,178 OTMs crossing through August 2004," Mr. Ortiz says. "Of those, 16,616 were released."

Ortiz also points out that another loophole is entering Mexico through Brazil, where a visa is not required to travel to Mexico.

"We believe there is an international Salafist jihadi movement with a goal to attack the near enemy and far enemy - the US," says Richard Shultz, an international security expert at Tufts University's Fletcher School in Medford, Mass. "These terrorists are smart. They study these issues and learn from one other. And one way in is right through the southern security perimeter."

www.csmonitor.com

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0322/p01s01-uspo.html

[al-Canine]

U.S. agency poised for big border security operation

Arizona-Mexico stretch focus of effort

By Brock N. Meeks
Chief Washington correspondent
MSNBC Updated: 5:15 p.m. ET March 29, 2005

TUCSON, Ariz. - The U.S. government will launch a multi-million dollar security initiative along a 370-mile stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border Wednesday in an effort to shut down the main artery for illegal immigration into the United States and secure an area thought to be vulnerable to terrorist infiltration, MSNBC.com has learned.

The operation, run by the Customs and Border Protection unit of the Department of Homeland Security, will increase the number of agents in the region by 25 percent, to over 2,500. The initiative, the second phase of an operation begun last year, is scheduled to be formally announced Wednesday.

The goal is to “establish and maintain operational control” of the border, according to planning documents for "Operation Full Court Press," the initiative's code name. The operation will* redeploy Black Hawk helicopters and significant numbers of air and ground resources from around the country, the documents say.

Some 51 percent of the 1.1 million illegal immigrants apprehended by border patrol agents last year crossed into Arizona from Mexico.

The Border Patrol will be strengthened by more than 500 agents in several stages through the year.

Kristi Clemens, a Customs and Border Patrol spokeswoman, said the operation is intended to “strengthen and improve” the border protection procedures put in place last year, when the government launched the Arizona Border Control Initiative (ABCI), a $23 million operation. That* operation was viewed as a great success, helping to yield nearly a half-million apprehensions -- about 50 percent more than the previous year.

One segment of the Arizona border, the 260-mile long stretch known as the Tucson sector, has become the leading corridor for illegal entry into the United States, according to Wayne Cornelius, a political science professor and border expert at the University of California at San Diego. In a paper, “Controlling ‘Unwanted’ Immigration: Lessons from the United States, 1993-2004," Cornelius wrote that the Tucson sector accounted for 490,827 apprehensions, or about 43 percent of all those along the Southwest border of the United States during fiscal year 2004.

“We’ve learned some things,” Clemens said.* “We know where some things have been successes so we’re going to emphasize those areas and even add to that.”

'Like we squeezed a hose'

The Arizona-Mexico border is now the main entry point for illegal immigrants, owing in large part to significant enforcement build-ups along the border at San Diego, El Paso and the southern Rio Grande Valley in Texas.*

“It’s almost like we squeezed a hose [at both ends] and now Arizona is where it’s bulging, because we’ve closed off so many areas,” Clemens said.

Planning documents for "Operation Full Court Press" note that U.S.-Mexico border crossings are vulnerable to a variety of "human and contraband smuggling" operations into the United States. The documents list “terrorists and weapons of terrorism” as a main “criminal element” along with “human and contraband smuggling organizations that operate exclusively in the Tucson” area that could be encountered over the course of the operation.

Officials from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security recently testified to Congress about the vulnerability of the Mexican border to potential terrorist infiltration, although each said there is no conclusive evidence that such a plot is underway.

“We are concerned, Homeland Security is concerned about special interest aliens entering the United States,” FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress, using the Bureau’s phrase for people from countries known to harbor al-Qaida operatives.


Deterrence, risk questioned
Despite the success of last year’s effort, the flow of illegal migration seems to have had little effect on the numbers of those attempting illegal migration.

“These guys really want to get in,” said Clemens.* “They have an economic incentive to get in, you see some trying over and over and over again,” she said.* “Why hasn’t it been a deterrent?* I think it has,” Clemens said, “you also have to look at our numbers in San Diego and some in Texas, they are way down,” leaving Arizona has the main problem area, she said.

But those who study the issue maintain that such efforts have little or no real deterrent effect.* “The ‘ABC Initiative’ is tantamount to tossing another boulder in the stream,” said Cornelius. In January he interviewed more than 600 Mexican immigrants who recently returned to their home communities.* Overwhelmingly Cornelius said he found that tougher border enforcement “has had no deterrent effect on the likelihood that someone would cross the border illegally.”*

Knowledge of increased border enforcement and even first hand knowledge of someone that has died attempting entry into the U.S. doesn’t have a deterrent effect, he said.* “Migrants and people-smugglers are avoiding, end-running, the most heavily fortified areas,” he said.* “They know perfectly well where these are. Their probability of being apprehended is still low enough to justify the physical risks.”

The vulnerability factor

A federal law enforcement agent familiar with "Operation Full Court Press" voiced concern that critical areas of the country, already deemed to be “high interest targets” for terrorists, were being left vulnerable because so many resources were being shifted to Operation Full Court Press.

“Anyone determined to enter this country in a clandestine fashion will know shortly or already knows about this operation,” the federal agent told MSNBC.com on the condition of anonymity. “They will also know that we have finite resources … the vulnerability is huge for it will make it easier to cross the border in other places,” the agent said.

In addition, shifting assets to the Arizona border for an extended time significantly decreases the investigative support those resources provide for other anti-terrorism operations, such as the Joint Terrorism Task Forces, the agent said.* “Foolish placement of all of ones assets in one place will allow the enemy to sneak in behind you and hit you where you are vulnerable,” he said.

CPB’s Clemens acknowledges such potential but maintains that because there is now a single agency responsible for border protection the agency has greatly expanded its flexibility and mobility.* CPB officials will be briefed daily, Clemens said, and if a problem is noted, such as a surge in apprehensions in another border area, resources will be shifted from Arizona to deal with the problem.*

And no area, Clemens insists, is being left vulnerable.*

“A lot of work has gone into figuring out that delicate balance (of shifting resources), taking some air assets, taking some personnel borrowing, if you will… from areas were it’s deemed it will not leave them vulnerable,” Clemens said.* “We have a limited number of resources and have got to do the best job with what we currently have.”

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7317822/

[Hound]

U.S. attorney general, Mexican officials, discuss border safety, terrorism


MEXICO CITY – U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Mexican President Vicente Fox discussed safety and commerce on the U.S.-Mexican border, drug interdiction, and anti-terrorism efforts during a meeting in Mexico City on Wednesday, authorities said.

Fox expressed satisfaction with the countries' recent cooperation in the fight against organized crime and in other law enforcement areas, according to a written statement from the president's office. Gonzales did not speak to the news media during his visit.


Advertisement



In January, the U.S. State Department angered Mexican officials by issuing a travel advisory urging Americans to "be aware of the risk posed by the deteriorating security situation" along Mexico's northern border.

Mexican officials say that much of the drug violence is caused by internal disputes within criminal organizations that break out following their leaders' arrests.

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza later issued a statement acknowledging that much of the violence was indeed a backlash to the Fox administration's effective anti-drug trafficking efforts.

The son of Mexican immigrants, Gonzales was Texas secretary of state from 1997 to 1999, serving as the state's lead liaison on Mexico and border issues. He was sworn into his new post on Feb. 3.

Gonzales also was scheduled on Wednesday to meet with Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez, Mexican Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha, and Eduardo Medina, director of Mexico's Center for Investigation and National Security, the Mexican equivalent of the CIA.

After arriving Tuesday night, Gonzales dined with Macedo and Garza at the ambassador's residence. Garza is also a former Texas secretary of state.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20050330-1408-mexico-us-gonzales.html

[al-Canine]

U.S. Will Tighten Passport Rules

Canada, Mexico Borders to Be Affected by 2008

By John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 6, 2005; Page A01

Millions of Americans will be required to show passports when they reenter the United States from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean by 2008 under new rules announced yesterday by the State and Homeland Security departments.

The new policy, designed to thwart terrorists from exploiting the relative ease of travel in North America, means that Americans who lack U.S. passports will have to obtain them to travel between the United States and neighboring nations. It also will require Mexicans and Canadians to present either passports or another official document to enter this country, with details to be determined.

Currently, U.S. citizens in most cases need to show only driver's licenses to reenter this country from Mexico and Canada, though officials said that since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, some officials at border crossings at times have asked for additional documents.

"We're asking people to think of travel in and out of the U.S. [in this hemisphere] in the same way they would travel to and from Europe," said Elaine K. Dezenski, deputy assistant secretary for border and transportation security at the Department of Homeland Security.

Some travel industry executives predicted that the initiative could lead to long lines for foreigners entering this country and could discourage U.S. youngsters from traveling on school trips, or spontaneously, to Canada and Mexico. Much smaller percentages of young people have passports than older people do, industry officials said.

An increasing amount of travel planning is being done only days or weeks before a vacation begins because of Americans' harried lifestyles, and the new rules could discourage U.S. citizens without passports from taking quick jaunts to Canada and Mexico, tourism officials said.

"For the last-minute traveler, this could be a problem," said Hank Phillips, president of the National Tour Association, which represents the tourism industry. "We're concerned about this, but we're taking a wait-and-see attitude, because security is a top priority."

Michael Palmer, executive director of the Student & Youth Travel Association, which represents tour operators, said yesterday that the new rules also could "drastically" reduce the number of Mexican and Canadian students who visit the United States.

"I can see the student travel business [from Canada into the United States] almost drying up," said Doug Ellison, who owns a large youth travel firm outside Ontario. The regulations also will discourage Canadian cross-border shoppers, he said. "If you don't want us to come, you're giving us a good reason not to," he said.

The changes, to be phased in over the next three years, were mandated by the intelligence reform law approved last December and have been expected for months.

Sixty million Americans have U.S. passports, and officials expect to issue 10 million more this year. More citizens are obtaining passports every year because of the perceived desirability of having citizenship documents, said Maura Harty, assistant secretary of state for consular affairs.

The new policy was needed to tighten security for travelers around the Western Hemisphere in part because of heightened concern that terrorists could smuggle equipment or operatives into the United States from neighboring countries, officials said. U.S. officials also want to reduce their reliance on state driver's licenses because of the ease of obtaining fraudulent licenses.

State and Homeland Security officials are distributing cards to U.S. and foreign travelers in this hemisphere, warning that "all travelers to and from the Americas, the Caribbean and Bermuda will soon be required to have a passport or other accepted document that establishes the bearer's identity and nationality to enter or reenter the United States."

The rule's first phase will go into effect Dec. 31, 2005, requiring all U.S. citizens traveling by air or sea to or from the Caribbean, as well as Central and South America, to have passports. The next phase, which will apply these rules to all air and sea travel to or from Mexico and Canada, will begin a year later.

The last phase, which will affect the most people by far, will take effect on Dec. 31, 2007, and will apply the requirement to all air, sea and land border crossings with Mexico and Canada.

Phillips of the National Tour Association predicted long lines at land border crossings in the first months after that, however thorough the planning, because the vast majority of the 1.1 million people entering the United States every day arrive by land.

U.S. officials said they will decide later whether to accept as valid entry documents a number of types of official papers used by some Mexicans and Canadians who cross into this country frequently. Among these are the border crossing card and the Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection (SENTRI) card, given to some Mexicans; and other papers given to some Canadians under the Free and Secure Trade (FAST) and Nexus frequent-visitor programs.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28188-2005Apr5.html

[al-Canine]

Probe Faults System for Monitoring U.S. Borders

A critical network of cameras and sensors installed for the U.S. Border Patrol along the Mexican and Canadian borders has been hobbled for years by defective equipment that was poorly installed, and by lax oversight by government officials who failed to properly supervise the project's contractor, according to government reports and public and industry officials.

complete article at
http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?p=121640

[Petronas]

ACLU aiding illegal entry into U.S.?
Posted: April 15, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern

American Civil Liberties Union activists shadowing the Minuteman Project at the U.S.-Mexican border in Arizona are actively aiding and abetting aliens attempting to enter the country illegally, said a spokesman for the volunteer civilian force.

Grey Deacon told Joseph Farah's nationally syndicated "WorldNetDaily RadioActive" audience yesterday that ACLU monitors sent to the border to watch Minuteman activity and report civil-liberties abuses to authorities have begun flashing lights, sounding horns and warning off illegals and their "coyote" human smugglers from entering territory patrolled by the volunteers. "They are actively engaging in criminal activity," said Deacon.

Deacon said the ACLU activists are resorting to new tactics because of the success the Minuteman Project is having in assisting the Border Patrol in spotting illegal aliens and in generating publicity about the insecure U.S.-Mexico border. The ACLU dispatched its representatives to the 23-mile section of the Arizona border patrolled by the Minutemen after predicting the group would abuse the rights of illegal aliens. No such abuses have materialized to date. "The ACLU's position is that illegal aliens have a right to enter our border and stay in this country as long as they want," said Deacon. "That's what one of the leaders of the group told me personally."

Deacon said the ACLU representatives make noises and flash lights as a signal to the illegals and their human smugglers that the area is being patrolled. Thus, he said, those intent on entering understand they should move on to other areas of the border that are wide open for illegal entry.

The Minuteman Project has attracted hundreds of volunteers, many legally carrying guns and waving flags, from across the country. They plan to keep watch around the clock until the end of the month, intimidating illegal aliens with their presence and alerting the Border Patrol via cell phones or radios when they see people crossing. Just as important, they want to send a message to the White House and the rest of the country that something must be done about the country's border policies. President Bush has referred to the Minutemen as "vigilantes." And some Border Patrol officials have suggested members of the group are interfering with the government's work. The ACLU has claimed the group is creating a "powder-keg situation" on the border that could lead to violence.

Since the volunteers began arriving March 30, the number of illegal immigrant apprehensions along the stretch of border has dropped significantly. "It's worked," said Chris Simcox, one of two primary organizers. "The news is going across the border, and we've virtually shut down this whole area."

In addition to assistance from the ACLU, illegals – including drug-runners – are getting assistance from the Mexican army, say Border Patrol sources and other officials including a U.S. congressman. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, has denounced the Mexican military for escorting illegals, their "coyote" human smugglers and drug-runners to other parts of the border unpatrolled by the Minutemen.

"President Bush should publicly denounce Mexico's latest act to curb U.S. law," said Tancredo. "The president of Mexico is threatening to sue any member of the Minutemen who have contact with a Mexican national, threatening to take the U.S. into the International Court of Justice at The Hague over the passage of Prop 200 in Arizona, and is providing transportation to Mexican nationals trying to sneak into the U.S. One could say he is acting in the best interest of his nation. Isn't it unfortunate we cannot say the same thing about President Bush?"

Border Patrol sources say the Mexican army recently moved about 1,000 troops to the Agua Prieta region, just south of where the Minutemen are. These troops, the sources say, are diverting all of the illegal alien and drug-smuggling traffic away from the Minutemen. The volunteers focused on the border area near Naco, Ariz., because it had become one of the highest traffic corridors for border-crossing illegal aliens. Last year, more than 40 percent of the 1.15 million illegal aliens caught by the Border Patrol were taken into custody in the southern Arizona region.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43812

[Petronas]

ACLU smoking dope at border?
Posted: April 19, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern

Volunteers with the Minuteman Project in Arizona say "legal observers" sent by the ACLU to monitor the citizen border patrol have been seen smoking marijuana in violation of the law. Photographs were posted on the website of the South East Arizona Republican Club after Minuteman participants reported they saw, and smelled, the ACLU workers smoking pot. Eleanor Eisenberg, executive director of the ACLU of Arizona, did not respond to a request for comment given to her assistant by WorldNetDaily.

As WND reported, ACLU activists shadowing the Minuteman Project at the U.S.-Mexican border are actively aiding and abetting aliens attempting to enter the country illegally, according to a spokesman for the volunteer civilian force.

Grey Deacon told Joseph Farah's nationally syndicated "WorldNetDaily RadioActive" audience Friday that ACLU monitors sent to the border to watch Minuteman activity and report civil-liberties abuses to authorities have begun flashing lights, sounding horns and warning off illegals and their "coyote" human smugglers from entering territory patrolled by the volunteers. "They are actively engaging in criminal activity," said Deacon.

Deacon said the ACLU activists are resorting to new tactics because of the success the Minuteman Project is having in assisting the Border Patrol in spotting illegal aliens and in generating publicity about the insecure U.S.-Mexico border. The ACLU dispatched its representatives to the 23-mile section of the Arizona border patrolled by the Minutemen after predicting the group would abuse the rights of illegal aliens. No such abuses have materialized to date.

"The ACLU's position is that illegal aliens have a right to enter our border and stay in this country as long as they want," said Deacon. "That's what one of the leaders of the group told me personally."

A volunteer reported, according to the South East Arizona Republican Club, "The ACLU is getting desperate to get something on the Minutemen and are trying to provoke incidents now." "They pushed one of the Minutemen the other night trying to get him to push back. Didn't work. Then last night they walked up and shined a spotlight right in a Minuteman's face from six inches or so away. Didn't work that time either. We immediately report these types of contacts with them to the sheriff to counter any claims they try to make against us. They should be called the UCLU (Un-American Civil Lawsuit Union). "They give us the middle finger every chance they get to try to get us to react. We are still trying to figure out if that is their age or IQ."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43867

[Petronas]

Border Patrol agents in Arizona face increased confrontations
April 18, 2005

NOGALES, Ariz. -- In the rocky, expansive desert here separating the United States and Mexico, attacks on federal law enforcement officials are on the rise this year. Meanwhile, volunteers from a citizens patrol have flocked to the area to monitor the border. The Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, which covers all of Arizona except for Yuma, reports that shootings and assaults against its agents are increasing. During the first six months of this fiscal year, sector officials recorded 132 assaults on agents, including 15 shootings. For all of last fiscal year, only 118 assaults were reported. "It has increased here," said Michael Nicely, the Border Patrol's chief of the Tucson Sector.

Nicely attributed the increased assaults to the Border Patrol's efforts to shut down drug runners and smugglers of illegal immigrants. "What happens is when we begin to gain operational control of an area, we do see violence go up," he said. "It's one of those things where the smugglers of narcotics and aliens start feeling the frustration, and they start reacting violently. It's something we've seen in other areas of the border."

The confrontations include 15 physical assaults and 22 incidents in which criminals have tried to ram agents with vehicles. Agents have reported 79 incidents of rocks being thrown at them or their vehicles. In some cases, the rock-throwers are kids from poor neighborhoods on the other side of the border. Nicely said his force is equipped to handle the surge in violent confrontations. "When assaults go up or there's an area that's more and more dangerous, we don't back away from that area--quite the contrary," he said. "If we've got a smuggling operation in narcotics or aliens that poses a threat to our guys, we intend to lock that down."

Nicely acknowledged that the Border Patrol does not have "operational control" over all of the Arizona-Mexico border, which has the highest rate of illegal immigration in the nation. In response, the Homeland Security Department is pumping an unprecedented level of resources into the area. Last month, DHS officials announced the launch of the second phase of the Arizona Border Control Initiative, which will add 200 Border Patrol agents to the Tucson Sector, bringing the total number in the region to more than 2000.

The ramped-up enforcement was announced just days before citizens descended on parts of the border as part of the Minuteman Project. The all-volunteer effort calls on citizens to peacefully set up observation posts during April and report illegal immigration to the Border Patrol. The modest observation posts stretch along a 20-mile patch of lowlands across the San Pedro Valley east and west of Naco, Ariz. Some consist of nothing more than one volunteer, a car and a folding chair.

But organizers say a simple presence along the border makes a difference. James Gilchrist, the main Minuteman organizer, said illegal immigration almost has been stopped in the areas where citizens are observing. "The progress has been impeccable. It's been astounding," he said. Gilchrist estimated that about 800 volunteers had shown up as of mid-April. He said organizers want to continue after the end of the month. They plan to begin a "white-collar" campaign in California targeting employers who hire illegal immigrants, and then start setting up border observation posts in October in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

"We will achieve change. It's going to take time," Gilchrist told his supporters during a rally on Saturday near Naco. "We're going to have our own bloodless revolution. You might call it a social revolution like they had back in the early '60s. The power of change comes through the power of peace. You will get people who will cooperate with you if you try to achieve change through a peaceful means." Civil rights activists, however, continue to worry that citizen patrols could result in increased harassment or violence against immigrants.

The Border Patrol has reported reduced illegal immigration activity near the Minuteman posts. But Nicely does not favor efforts such as the Minuteman Project. He said the decreased activity is the result of Border Patrol operations and the presence of Mexican authorities on the other side of the border. He added that Minuteman volunteers are tripping sensors and distorting markings that agents use to track illegal immigrants or drug smugglers. "These folks have really blurred the line," he said, "between making a political statement ... and interfering with our operations."

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0405/041805c1.htm

[Petronas]

Border Patrol told to stand down in Arizona
May 13, 2005

U.S. Border Patrol agents have been ordered not to arrest illegal aliens along the section of the Arizona border where protesters patrolled last month because an increase in apprehensions there would prove the effectiveness of Minuteman volunteers, The Washington Times has learned. More than a dozen agents, all of whom asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, said orders relayed by Border Patrol supervisors at the Naco, Ariz., station made it clear that arrests were "not to go up" along the 23-mile section of border that the volunteers monitored to protest illegal immigration.

"It was clear to everyone here what was being said and why," said one veteran agent. "The apprehensions were not to increase after the Minuteman volunteers left. It was as simple as that." Another agent said the Naco supervisors "were clear in their intention" to keep new arrests to an "absolute minimum" to offset the effect of the Minuteman vigil, adding that patrols along the border have been severely limited.

Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar at the agency's Washington headquarters called the accusations "outright wrong," saying that supervisors at the Naco station had not blocked agents from making arrests and that the station's 350 agents were being "supported in carrying out" their duties. "Border Patrol agents are the front line of defense against terrorism," Chief Aguilar said, adding that the 11,000 agents nationwide are "meeting that challenge, head-on ... as daunting a task as that may sound." The chief -- a former head of the agency's Tucson sector, which includes the Naco station -- said that with the world watching the Arizona border because of the Minuteman Project, agents in Naco "demonstrated flexibility and resilience in carrying out their critical homeland security duties and responsibilities."

But Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican, yesterday said "credible sources" within the Border Patrol also had told him of the decision by Naco supervisors to keep new arrests to a minimum, saying he was angry but not surprised. "It's like telling a cop to stand by and watch burglars loot a store but don't arrest any of them," he said. "This is another example of decisions being made at the highest levels of the Border Patrol that are hurting morale and helping to rot the agency from within. I worry about our efforts in Congress to increase the number of agents," he said. "Based on these kinds of orders, we could spend the equivalent of the national debt and never have secure borders."

Mr. Tancredo, chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, blamed the Bush administration for setting an immigration enforcement tone that suggests to those enforcing the law that he is not serious about secure borders. "We need to get the president to come to grips with the seriousness of the problem," he said. "I know he doesn't like to utter the words, 'I was wrong,' but if we have another incident like September 11 by people who came through our borders without permission, I hope he doesn't have to say 'I'm sorry.' "

During the Minuteman vigil, Border Patrol supervisors in Arizona discounted their efforts, saying a drop in apprehensions during their protest was because of the Mexican government's deployment of military and police south of the targeted area and a new federal program known as the Arizona Border Control Initiative that brought manpower increases to the state. The Naco supervisors blamed the volunteers for unnecessarily tripping sensors, disturbing draglines and interfering with the normal operations of the agents. They said that their impact on illegals was "negligible" and that civilians should leave immigration enforcement "to the professionals."

Several field agents credited the volunteers with cutting the flow of illegal aliens in the targeted Naco area, saying the number of apprehended illegals dropped from an average of 500 a day to less than 15 a day. More than 850 volunteers, in a protest of the lax immigration enforcement policies of the White House and Congress, sought to reduce the flow of illegal aliens along a popular immigration corridor on the Arizona-Mexico border near Naco by reporting illegals to the Border Patrol as they crossed into the United States. Their goal was to show that increased manpower on the border would effectively deter illegal immigration. Organizers said the protest resulted in Border Patrol arrests of 349 illegal aliens.

Area residents, in a half-page ad in the Sunday edition of the Sierra Vista Herald, told the volunteers: "Thanks for doing what our government won't -- close the border to illegal aliens. It was the quietest month we've had in many years ... You made us feel safe because the border was closed."

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20050513-122032-5055r.htm

[Petronas]

Iranian smuggling ring busted near Mex border
Posted: June 1, 2005

A smuggling ring specializing in bringing Iranians into the U.S. over the Mexico border has been broken up in an FBI sting operation. A 39-year-old Iranian with permanent legal residency status who is suspected of having smuggled 60 other Iranians into the U.S. was arrested Thursday in Mesa, Ariz., according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. At his arraignment yesterday, Zeayadali Malhamdary, who owns a tailoring business, pleaded not guilty. He faces a detention hearing tomorrow. Iran has long been designated a terrorist state by the U.S. State Department and FBI.

The FBI began investigating Malhamdary after a source told immigration officials that Malhamdary had sought help getting false Mexican visas so he could bring Iranians into Mexico and then across the border into Arizona. The source also told investigators that Malhamdary had asked for help bringing his sister into the United States. According to the probable cause statement by FBI Agent Aaron Kellerman, the source didn't help him, but the sister did arrive in Arizona.

Federal prosecutors say Malhamdary had previously smuggled about 60 Iranians into the United States. Malhamdary flew to Tehran, Iran, in March, allegedly to get the passports of the Iranians he planned to smuggle into the United States through Mexico, Kellerman said in the statement. In late March, the undercover agent was given three passports. Malhamdary allegedly told the undercover agent in May that he had eight more people who wanted to be smuggled into the United States.

The undercover agent on Thursday met with Malhamdary and agreed to pick up three Iranians in Mexico City and then to bring them to Nogales, Mexico, and arrange to have them smuggled across the border, Kellerman said in his statement. When he was arrested, Malhamdary allegedly told investigators that he wanted to bring Iranians into the United States so they could seek refugee status. No one answered the phone at his tailoring business yesterday afternoon.

If convicted of the three attempted smuggling charges, Malhamdary could face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each of the counts. FBI officials said they had no reason to believe there were any terrorist connections to the case.

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44531

[Petronas]

Al-Jazeera to look at open U.S. border
Posted: June 25, 2005

The Arab TV news network criticized by the new Iraqi government and others for its anti-American bias and willingness to carry the messages of terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida, is headed for the U.S.-Mexico border to document how easy it is to enter America illegally. Al-Jazeera has contacted Minuteman Civil Defense Corps leader Chris Simcox to try to arrange interviews. Simcox, who rejected the request for cooperation with the TV network, says al-Jazeera, seen by millions throughout the Arab world and elsewhere, is producing an hour-long documentary news special on lack of security at the U.S. southern border.

Al-Jazeera reporter Naisser Hssaini mentioned the increase in apprehensions of illegal aliens known as OTMs – other than Mexicans. These foreigners increasingly include Arabs, Muslims and others from the Middle East. The reporter also mentioned his familiarity with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement police of catching and releasing OTMS – particularly those not specifically known to be on any terrorist watch list. "The group has been denied requests for interviews by Minuteman Civil Defense Corps organizers but they still insist on filming the groups’ activities along with the rest of the media during a July 4th weekend mission near Arivaca, Arizona," said Simcox.

Simcox has contacted the offices of Arizona's two Republican U.S. senators – John McCain and Jon Kyl – to invite them to do interviews with al Jazeera, "so perhaps they can explain to the viewers of this news outlet just how secure America's borders really are." "The offices of the Arizona members of the United States House of Representatives will also be contacted to alert them to the presence and the intent by the al-Jazeera news crew to film the lack of security along the U.S. border with Mexico," said Simcox. "The office of the Department of Homeland Security will also be notified. The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps also wonders just what DHS would tell al-Jazeera about the condition of our border security."

Simcox also mentioned the U.S. Border Patrol has already been notified. "Would we allow Japanese or German television to film the unsecured border during World War II?" asked Minuteman spokeswoman Connie Hair. "These people broadcast to the enemies of America. It's not a news story, it's recon."

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is the citizen border patrol that virtually stopped illegal crossings from Mexico in a highly trafficked area of Arizona. It is now making plans for similar actions in other areas, other states and along the Canadian border.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44987

[Petronas]

The ACLU is for free speech, as long as they agree with it...

ACLU man joins Minutemen, local chapter gets suspended
Posted: June 22, 2005

The American Civil Liberties Union may fight for those holding unpopular beliefs and taking controversial stands, but the ACLU of New Mexico suspended an entire chapter of the organization because a member of the board of directors is leading the state's Minuteman group. The state organization suspended its Las Cruces chapter after learning that a member of the group's board, Clifford Alford, was heading the formation of a Minuteman group in New Mexico.

Gary Mitchell, a Ruidoso attorney and president of the ACLU board of directors, said the suspension of the southern chapter was a technical move to make sure the leader of the New Mexico Minutemen, a civilian border patrol group, no longer had authority to act or speak on behalf of the ACLU. "We will not tolerate racism and vigilantism in the leadership structure of our organization,'' Mitchell told the Albuquerque Journal. "They are repugnant to the principles of civil liberties and the mission of the ACLU.''

Alford has said he's not a hateful vigilante and that he would like to see immigration policy reformed. He has said that if the federal government allowed more immigrant workers to enter the country legally, many problems on the border would be solved. He reportedly scouted the New Mexico-Mexico border two weeks ago for sites to station his 42 volunteers to detect illegal immigrants sneaking into the country. His group plans to offer food, water and medical aid while reporting the illegal immigrants to the U.S. Border Patrol.

Mitchell said the ACLU was not trying to muzzle Alford. It is just a matter of not wanting him representing the ACLU in a leadership position. When Alford refused to resign, the state board decided over the weekend to temporarily suspend the 14-member southern board until new elections are held. Mitchell said the ACLU's rules do not provide a means for removing a single board member, so the entire board had to be suspended. "We are not going to tolerate anyone depriving anyone of liberty without due process of law, not going to tolerate vigilante groups on the border without speaking out against them and without monitoring," Mitchell said.

Alford said the dust-up is the result of a lack of understanding about how the Border Watch group plans to operate. He said the ACLU didn't ask questions, "just attacked."

The ACLU has mobilized nationally against the Minuteman Project and last April stationed its own volunteers on the border to watch the border monitors watch the illegal aliens – reporting any civil liberties violations to authorities. The president of the ACLU's Southern District chapter, former State Rep. William Porter, said he didn't know how the local board would respond to being suspended. "We are not 100 percent happy with it," Porter said. Porter said he does not support Alford's Border Watch group and would personally like Alford to resign but believes it is up to the local board to seek Alford's removal if that is its decision.

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44919

[al-Canine]

Lawmaker wary of Al Jazeera film

By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published July 1, 2005

A member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday said a proposed Al Jazeera documentary on security along the United States' southwest border could have been "a powerful potential tool for terrorists to enter the United States."

Rep. Rick Renzi, Arizona Republican, who outlined his concerns in a letter to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Robert C. Bonner, said that while he was happy to see plans for the show had been dropped, he warned of increased attention by special-interest aliens in the United States' southern borders.

"I was extremely concerned to learn that Al Jazeera was planning to film a documentary on America's southern border and security issues," he said.

"The need to secure our borders is more important than ever. This show would have had the capability to seriously undermine the safety and security of our nation, especially because the intended audience could be potential terrorists.
****"The U.S. is seeing a disturbing increase in special-interest aliens who are trying to gain entry in the United States, and the last thing we need to do is hand over a blueprint on how to enter this nation illegally."
Al Jazeera, the Arabic news channel, scrapped plans on Tuesday to broadcast an hour-long special on the state of security along the Arizona-Mexico border after Minuteman Civil Defense Corps officials publicly questioned whether its intent was to help terrorists find new routes into the United States. A spokeswoman at the network's Washington office said at the time the channel had planned to cover a Minuteman rally over the Fourth of July weekend in Phoenix and then do stories along the border, but the three-minute segment later was cancelled for editorial reasons.

The network said: "Al Jazeera's Washington bureau was considering a program because we felt it was of importance for our audience because it shed light on domestic politics, economic and security issues in the U.S.A. concerning the border."

The network said the piece could proceed at another time, adding that "the topic remains an important one from an editorial perspective, so it's not abandoned as a project."

Chris Simcox, founder and president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, said he refused a request last week by the network for an interview and filming access to Minuteman patrols on the border.

He said Al Jazeera reporter Naisser Hssaini told him the network wanted to highlight the state of security along the U.S. southern border, which would include information on the recent rise in the number of foreign nationals being detained who were identified as other than Mexican.

Mr. Simcox said the Al Jazeera reporter was aware that many non-Mexican detainees are released immediately after their arrest pending future immigration hearings because of a lack of detention space.

"I felt that allowing Al Jazeera to come along on our patrols or to assist them in their report was aiding and abetting the enemy, so we declined," he said.
****
Copyright © 2005 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050701-010437-2703r.htm

[al-Canine]

U.S.-Canada Border Leaves Many Jittery

By BETH DUFF-BROWN and PAULINE ARRILLAGA
The Associated Press

ON THE U.S.-CANADA BORDER -- Nearly four years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks and after billions in security investment on both sides of this frontier stretching from Atlantic to Pacific, authorities and average folks are still jittery. Here's why:

- At the edge of a sprawling raspberry field where Washington state meets British Columbia, a U.S. Border Patrol agent shakes his head at tire tracks that snake between rows of berries and over the international boundary, which here is a gravel ditch so puny a person could leap it.

"They're long gone," says agent Candido Villalobos, who raced to the scene after a surveillance camera spotted the vehicle _ transporting contraband? Drug money? Something more sinister? Too late to know. "They beat us," Villalobos murmurs.

- At Sandwich, Ontario, across the river from Detroit, the Olde Town Bake Shoppe overlooks the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest trade crossing between the United States and Canada. Thousands of trucks rumble along its lanes daily, loaded with everything from Nova Scotia salmon to U.S. auto parts.

But bakery owner Mary Ann Cuderman worries about what else might be passing, especially given public concern that infrastructure could be a terrorist target. A citizens group she heads, the Windsor West Community Truck Watch Coalition, wants closer scrutiny. "How do you feel secure," she says, "knowing that anybody, at any time, could drive right up on that bridge?"

- Near the eastern end of the border, where Maine and New Brunswick touch, the story prompted international headlines, comedians' snickers and lawmakers' ire: A man carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what seemed like blood sought entry to the United States. After confiscating his weapons and questioning him, border agents let him in.

Canadian-born Gregory Despres was a naturalized U.S. citizen returning home, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials explained. But the day after he was admitted to America back in April, authorities in his Canadian hometown found two bodies _ one decapitated, the other stabbed to death. Despres was arrested wandering a road in Massachusetts.

"The whole thing gives me a queasy feeling," says Colin Kenny, chairman of Canada's Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defense.

Two U.S. congressmen, Edward Markey and Stephen Lynch, sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, seeking answers about the Despres case and a review of entry procedures. Said Markey: "Giving the green light to this deranged individual to enter our country raises serious questions about these procedures."

Balancing the historic openness of the U.S.-Canada border with today's necessary wariness is a challenge the two nations still have not mastered _ and some fear the continued ambivalence could be harmful.

"Despite what should have been the wakeup call of September 11, 2001, there has been an unsettling lack of progress on both sides of the border to improve efficiency and strengthen security at land border crossings," said a 192-page report issued last month by Kenny's committee.

It calls for a hardening of border security on the Canadian side _ arming of border agents, like their U.S. counterparts, and giving the minister of public safety authority to expedite border infrastructure construction and the right to eminent domain in the name of national security.

And last week, Chertoff and his counterparts from Canada and Mexico met in Ottawa to pledge better integration of terrorist watchlists and other measures to counter threats against the "three friends living in the same neighborhood."

Yet tightening rules along the border is rarely easy. This spring the Bush administration first proposed, then held up, a plan to require passports of everyone entering the United States from Mexico, Bermuda, the Caribbean, Panama and Canada. The latter nation is the largest U.S. trading partner, with more than a billion dollars worth of goods crossing the border daily.

"If people have to have a passport, it's going to disrupt the honest flow of traffic," President Bush said, backing off the plan, though he added, "On the larger scale, we've got a lot to do to enforce the border."

Much has already been done, of course. In the Blaine, Wash., border sector, where the raspberry field tire tracks were found, 32 new camera surveillance systems are online and 133 agents on staff, 2 1/2 times the number prior to Sept. 11.

Still, Eugene Davis, retired deputy chief of this Border Patrol sector, frets: "We are still wide-open." In a letter to the Sept. 11 commission, he expressed fear that terrorists would exploit the porous border.

Canada's welcoming immigration policies and limited border enforcement have long been the subject of scrutiny from Americans, who fear a terrorist claiming refugee status could lie in wait to carry out a mission down south.

That threat still exists, says David Harris, former chief of strategic planning for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Canada's counterpart to the CIA. Harris asserts more than 50 terrorist organizations have a presence in Canada.

"Canada has essentially said, if you put your foot in Canada and you declare yourself a (Geneva Convention) refugee, then by and large you are," says Harris, who now heads a security firm. "All of that has implications; it means that we're quite susceptible to penetration."

People worry about penetration all along the border.

At the mile-and-a-half-long Ambassador Bridge, vehicles are not inspected before they embark from either country; as with other border spans, that only happens once they reach customs officers at the opposite end.

Skip McMahon, a spokesman for Detroit International Bridge Co., the private owner, declines to spell out safety measures taken since Sept. 11 but says "we have hardened our assets. We have employed armed guards on and around our bridge 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Concerned citizens, he says, should get both federal governments to move on a proposal for inspections of suspicious cargo before vehicles cross.

Canada has one of the most democratic, multicultural societies in the world. Instead of closing doors to immigrants post-Sept. 11, the nation continues to encourage foreigners to come and work. Critics caution that welcoming some 250,000 new immigrants and refugees each year potentially opens the door to terrorists.

"Canada's the only country that I would say hasn't significantly tightened up," says Martin Collacott, Canada's former ambassador to Syria and Lebanon and once director general for security services and counterterrorism within the ministry of foreign affairs.

He describes the refugee system as "dysfunctional." A Canadian government report this year notes that refugee claims can be delayed up to two years, meaning potentially dangerous applicants can disappear.

Though not a refugee, Fateh Kamel, suspected former ringleader of an Islamic extremist group, easily returned to Montreal in January after serving a prison term in France for terrorist plots there. His Canadian passport (he holds Algerian-Canadian citizenship) gave officials no choice but to admit him _ though some lawmakers have since suggested his citizenship be revoked.

The case has parallels to that of Despres, the naturalized American with the chain saw, who authorities said violated no immigration rule.

About 1,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents work along the U.S.-Canada border, roughly triple the 2001 force but a fraction of the 9,600 agents who patrol the Mexican border, about half as long at 1,900 miles.

On the Canadian side, no single agency specifically patrols the border. Rather, it is monitored by 23 enforcement teams, consisting of officers of the 4,500-member Canada Border Services Agency, supplemented by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and local police departments.

Most of Canada's 160 land and maritime border crossings are staffed by only one guard, unarmed for now. Long stretches between official entry points go unmanned.

On both sides of the border, mountaintop forests and island-dotted waterways harbor hidden nooks where helicopters, motorboats, even kayaks drop off or collect drugs.

Recalling a highly publicized terrorist case, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Peter Ostrovsky says, "We're lucky that Ahmed Ressam did not hook up with Canadians smuggling contraband into the country."

Ressam, with ties to the Algerian Armed Islamic Group, was arrested in 1999 in Port Angeles, Wash., as he drove off a ferry from Canada. Customs agents, suspicious of his nervous behavior, searched his trunk and found explosives. Ressam, who had been living in Montreal, was convicted of plotting a blast at the Los Angeles airport.

Last August, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security added a small air and marine operations branch south of Blaine to help police 200 miles of water dividing the United States and Canada. In October, a similar base opened in Plattsburgh, N.Y., and branches are planned for Michigan, North Dakota and Montana.

Kenny, the Canadian Senate security committee chairman, wants customs agents on his side of the border to focus more on pulling over other potential Ressams for secondary questioning, rather than nabbing commuters for smuggling in consumer goods.

"We've got to change the culture of having tax collectors to front-line country protectors," he says.

Kenny's committee has found successes post-Sept. 11, such as Canada's modernizing of surveillance technology to identify ships heading to its ports. It praises the government for raising military spending and improving cooperation with the United States.

The friendship between the countries has a potent symbol in downtown Blaine. Peace Arch Park, 20 acres dotted with picnic benches and swing sets, straddles the international line. People from both nations may meander through its gardens _ so long as they go home at day's end.

Many don't.

Palestinian Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer, convicted in 1998 of plotting to bomb a New York subway, illegally entered the United States this way.

On June 29, 1996, six days after he'd been caught crossing the border farther east, Mezer jogged through the park. A Border Patrol agent stopped him and returned him to Canada, where he had a pending immigration application. He would return to the United States months later, again crossing the Washington border.

Directly across from Peace Arch Park on the Canadian side is the home of 84-year-old Dorothy Kristjanson. She recalls watching a whole family illegally crossing, heading south; another time, a burglar going north dropped backpacks on her porch and fled.

"It's something that happens every day," she said one recent morning. "If I see somebody go by here with a backpack and I say, `Uh-oh, he looks cagey,' I'll phone (authorities) and say, `Keep an eye on that guy.'"

But she isn't too concerned.

"You know," she said, "the border's pretty safe."

Safer, anyway, many officials contend.

A few months after the Sept. 11 attacks, Canada adopted a new anti-terrorism act and a "smart border" plan with Washington intended to increase security while permitting the flow of commerce and some 300,000 people across the border each day. Today, U.S. and Canadian screeners work jointly at eight major airports.

In 2003, a new agency _ Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada _ was created, a counterpart to the U.S. Homeland Security department.

A program that identifies low-risk frequent travelers and gives them speedier crossings has enrolled 76,000 people. An additional 54,000 truckers have been screened for faster passage.

"Security has increased dramatically," says Danny Yen, a spokesman for the Canada Border Services Agency. "It's not only on the program side, but also on the intelligence side."

In Blaine, the Border Patrol's Joe Giuliano believes security is greater but speaks pragmatically:

"Am I going to tell you I've hermetically sealed this border? No, that's not true. I can put a million agents out there and have them run willy-nilly across the border catching everything that moves and throwing it back. Two hours later, they're going to try again ... and sooner or later somebody's going to find that one little seam and exploit it."

___

EDITOR'S NOTE _ Beth Duff-Brown, AP's Canada bureau chief, reported from Ontario and Ottawa; Pauline Arrillaga, an AP national writer, reported from the Blaine, Wash., area.
©*2005*The Associated Press

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/04/AR2005070400512.html

[al-Canine]

50 Terror Groups Believed to Be in Canada

By BETH DUFF-BROWN
The Associated Press

TORONTO -- Though many view Canada as an unassuming neutral nation that has skirted terrorist attacks, it has suffered its share of aggression, and intelligence officials believe at least 50 terror groups now have some presence here.

They are from Sri Lanka, Kurdistan and points between and include supporters of some of the best-known Mideast groups, including al-Qaida, authorities say.

Osama bin Laden named Canada one of five so-called Christian nations that should be targeted for acts of terror. The others, reaffirmed last year by his al-Qaida network, were the United States, Britain, Spain and Australia.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service, counterpart of the CIA, said terrorist representatives are actively raising money, procuring weapons, "manipulating immigrant communities" and facilitating travel to and from the United States and other countries.

Besides al-Qaida, those groups include Islamic Jihad; Hezbollah and other Shiite groups; Hamas, the Palestinian Force 17, Egyptian Al Jihad and various other Sunni groups from across the Middle East, CSIS said.

CSIS said the Irish Republican Army, Tamil Tigers and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and major Sikh terrorist groups also have supporters in Canada.

The Air India bombing of 1985 was the deadliest terrorist attack on a commercial airliner prior to Sept. 11, with the government accusing Sikh terrorists living legally in Canada of taking down the airliner over Ireland, claiming 331 lives, most Canadian.

The separatist Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka _ whose followers helped start the trend in suicide bombings when they assassinated Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 _ have their political headquarters in a Toronto suburb.

Canada's clandestine Communications Security Establishment, which listens in on conversations and translates messages from foreigners under suspicion, has increased its annual budget by 57 percent since Sept. 11, and Canada has spent some $6.5 billion to beef up security along its border.

There currently are four Arab Muslim men in Canadian jails under "security certificates," which allow Ottawa to detain suspects without public trial or evidence in the name of national security. All four suspects argue they face risk of torture if returned to their native Algeria, Morocco, Syria and Egypt. A fifth suspect, Adil Charkaoui, was granted conditional release in February but must wear an electronic tracking device and remain in Montreal. Human rights groups have condemned Canada for holding the men.

Canada adopted its Anti-Terrorism Act in the months that followed Sept. 11, yet only one man has been arrested under the act: Mohammad Momin Khawaja.

Born in Canada to Pakistani immigrants, Khawaja was arrested in March 2004 on suspicion of participating in and facilitating terrorist activities in London and Ottawa, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Young men like Khawaja, 26, are representative of the type of recruits al-Qaida is after, CSIS said in a report recently made public by the Toronto Star.

"There is a direct threat to Canada and Canadian interests from al-Qaida and related groups," CSIS said. "Converts are highly prized by terrorist groups for their familiarity with the West and relative ease at moving through Western society."

The U.S. State Department has estimated there are 40 terrorist organizations with sympathizers or supporters in the United States.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE _ AP Homeland Security reporter Lara Jakes Jordan contributed to this report from Washington.
©*2005*The Associated Press

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/04/AR2005070400518.html

[Petronas]

Closer look at smuggling from nations with terror ties
Saturday, July 2, 2005

IRAN TO ARIZONA:

A 39-year-old Iranian man was arrested May 26, 2005, for allegedly trying to smuggle other Iranians into the United States over the Arizona-Mexico border. Last September, the FBI began investigating Zeayadali Malhamdary, a tailor in Mesa, Ariz., after an informant accused him of trying to enlist his services to bring migrants from Iran to America, according to a court affidavit. An undercover agent, posing as a smuggler, subsequently recorded phone calls in which Malhamdary allegedly offered to pay him $12,000 to insert fraudulent Mexican visas into Iranian passports to help the migrants get from Iran to Mexico and then over the border, the affidavit states.

During a meeting in late March, Malhamdary allegedly told the undercover agent he had previously smuggled about 60 Iranians into America. At another meeting in May, when the agent returned the doctored passports, Malhamdary allegedly instructed the agent to pick up three Iranians at the Mexico City airport then take them to the border town of Nogales and arrange to sneak them into Arizona and transport them to the Phoenix area. At one point, the government contends, Malhamdary told the undercover officer that he needed a source for Mexican visas because other Iranian clients were turned away from a flight into Mexico due to improper visas. "This had negatively affected (Malhamdary's) reputation with the Iranians seeking to use his services as an alien smuggler," the FBI affidavit states. Malhamdary, a legal permanent resident of the United States, has pleaded not guilty, and trial is pending.

THE MICHIGAN MISSION:

In September 2004, five defendants were indicted on federal charges of smuggling more than 200 illegal immigrants from Iraq, Jordan and other Middle Eastern countries into the United States from 2001 to 2004. The defendants include Sterling Heights, Mich., residents Neeran "Nancy" Hakim Zaia and Basima "Linda" Sesi, Iraqi-born naturalized U.S. citizens. The defendants are accused of providing counterfeit passports and fake documents to fly illegal migrants from the Middle East to Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, D.C., using South American countries as transit points. Zaia, the indictment says, recruited clients by promising them help in obtaining legal visas to the United States. Instead, they were provided visas to South American countries, including Ecuador and Peru, then flown to Dulles and delivered to their final destination, often Michigan. The suspects are accused of bribing an immigration official for Ecuadorean visas to further the operation.

Zaia advertised her services in Arab-language Detroit media outlets, including a magazine and radio station. She also recruited in Iraq and Jordan, and ran an Amman-based travel agency where she and a cohort met with clients, court records allege. Sesi, who worked as an assistant ombudsman for the city of Detroit, is accused of acting as a point person between Zaia and migrants, taking payments and transferring smuggling fees — including $10,000 to an undercover agent posing as a smuggler. Prior to the Sept. 11 attacks, Zaia collected a $9,500 down payment to bring three migrants from Baghdad to the United States. A month after the terror assault, she raised the price, demanding an additional $12,000 for her services, according to the indictment. The defendants are awaiting trial in Washington, D.C.

THE GUATEMALAN EXPRESS:

An Egyptian man described by U.S. authorities as one of their most wanted people-smugglers was arrested July 2, 2004, at Miami International Airport on charges of transporting dozens of illegal immigrants into the United States since 1997, primarily from the community of Bata, Egypt. A federal indictment alleges that Ashraf Ahmed Abdallah — aka "Juan Manuel" — ran his operation from Guatemala City along with his Guatemalan wife, Sara Luz Diaz Gamez. Abdallah employed a recruiter in Egypt, as well as transportation coordinators and stash-house operators in Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico, the indictment says. Once recruited in Egypt, migrants were allegedly directed to travel to Brazil, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and other Latin American countries on tourist visas, and from there to Guatemala, the base of the operation. Court records say Abdallah would house the migrants in Guatemala before transporting them to Mexico for illegal entry over the border into Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. A typical fee was $8,000 per migrant, records say, and Abdallah allegedly kept the migrants' passports to guarantee payment of the final installment of their fee upon their arrival in the United States. Abdallah and Gamez are awaiting trial in Washington, D.C.

CANADA CONNECTION:

Last October, a federal judge in Seattle sentenced a Pakistani cab driver to 17 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to smuggling Pakistani and Indian citizens over the border from Canada. Investigators with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement learned through an informant that Muhammad Qasum Lala was smuggling anywhere from six to 10 people several times a week from Canada into the area around Blaine, Wash. Lala, who lived in Surrey, British Columbia, charged about $3,000 a person, court documents say. In May 2004, Border Patrol agents began surveillance of a Victorian-style bed and breakfast in Blaine that the informant said Lala had used while transporting migrants. It was called the Smuggler's Inn. Lala was arrested outside of the inn on May 31, 2004, after illegally transporting nine migrants into the United States and staying the night with them at the inn. Several of Lala's Pakistani clients told immigration agents they had traveled to Canada and applied for refugee status, but then heard through friends about a man (Lala) who could get them into the United States.

In a separate case in 2003, Choudhry Muhammad and Mohammad Rana pleaded guilty to federal charges in New York after admitting their roles in a scheme that smuggled people from Pakistan into the United States via Canada in trucks for fees of $15,000 to $30,000 per migrant. Muhammad told authorities the scheme had operated since at least 1997 and was overseen by a Pakistan-based boss who funneled profits into a Brooklyn, N.Y., bank account. Muhammad alone collected fees from successfully smuggled clients or their families 40 times. Muhammad was sentenced to a year in prison on each of two charges. Rana, who admitted that his nephew was smuggled into the United States as part of the operation, was placed on probation for five years.

"OPERATION SHADOW":

A year after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Maher Wazzen Ahmed Yusuf Jarad pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit alien smuggling for transporting Middle Eastern migrants, primarily Iraqis, to the United States. Former Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner James Ziglar told the Sept. 11 commission that Jarad, operating out of Quito, Ecuador, was the head of a large smuggling organization known to smuggle Iraqis, Syrians, Palestinians and Egyptians. He operated from at least October 2001 through February 2002, when authorities interdicted the Ecuadorean vessel "Esperanza" sailing to Guatemala with dozens of U.S.-bound illegal immigrants, including Ecuadoreans and Iraqis. Jarad worked with associates in Jordan, Guatemala and Mexico, and stashed migrants in an apartment in Quito before transporting them out of the country, according to court records. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison after agreeing to testify against another smuggler, Mohammed Hussein Assadi.

"OPERATION CHIVA":

Mohammed Hussein Assadi transported hundreds of people from "special-interest" countries, primarily Iraqis, into the United States from 1999 through January 2002 via commercial airliners, according to former INS commissioner Ziglar's testimony and court records. Assadi's ring provided migrants with stolen, photo-substituted passports — often from European countries whose citizens did not require U.S. entry visas. Assadi instructed clients to carry nothing identifying them as Arab, and advised them to alter their appearance and mannerisms to look more European. He told one client to shave his mustache, another to dye her hair blonde, court records say. An Iranian, Assadi was based in Ecuador and often used aliases, such as Antonio Roosevelt Choez Arreaga, and spoke numerous languages, including Farsi, Arabic, Spanish and English, Maher Jarad testified at Assadi's 2002 trial.

Assadi used bribery to ensure that local airport and immigration officials did not prevent the departure of his customers aboard flights to the United States, according to a synopsis of the case written for the U.S. Department of Justice. He transported customers out of Venezuela, Colombia and elsewhere. Assadi instructed the migrants to destroy their travel documents while en route to the United States and, upon arrival, surrender to U.S. immigration authorities and make a plea for asylum. "Assadi exploited the common knowledge that lack of sufficient detention space would result in the release of most of his clients during the asylum review process, thereby achieving his objective of getting them into the country," the DOJ case synopsis says.

Assadi was arrested in January 2002 in Colombia preparing to put an Iraqi couple and their children on a flight to Miami with altered passports. A jury convicted him in October of that year, and he was sentenced to 30 months in prison. Jarad testified, and government prosecutors confirmed, that Assadi took over the smuggling pipeline from another people-mover — Iraqi George Tajirian. In 1998, Tajirian admitted in U.S. federal court that he smuggled more than 1,000 Palestinian, Jordanian, Syrian, Iraqi and Yemeni illegal immigrants into the United States. He made some $50,000 a month working with a corrupt Mexican immigration officer who guided migrants through Mexico and over the border, according to court records.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/07/02/state/n111759D25.DTL

[WuzzFuzz]

I'm new to this forum. Rec'd this from a friend. Don't know veracity of its purported publisher, Joseph Farah. Will appreciate any comments, etc. WuzzFuzz
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FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN
Al-Qaida nukes already in U.S.
Terrorists, bombs smuggled across Mexico border by MS-13 gangsters


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Posted: July 11, 2005
12:22 p.m. Eastern

Editor's note: Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin is an online, subscription intelligence news service from the creator of WorldNetDaily.com - a journalist who has been developing sources around the world for almost 30 years. The subscription price for the premium newsletter has been slashed in half and is now available for only $9.95 per month.


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(c) 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

WASHINGTON - As London recovers from the latest deadly al-Qaida attack that killed at least 50, top U.S. government officials are contemplating what they consider to be an inevitable and much bigger assault on America - one likely to kill millions, destroy the economy and fundamentally alter the course of history, reports Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

According to captured al-Qaida leaders and documents, the plan is called the "American Hiroshima" and involves the multiple detonation of nuclear weapons already smuggled into the U.S. over the Mexican border with the help of the MS-13 street gang and other organized crime groups.

Al-Qaida has obtained at least 40 nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union - including suitcase nukes, nuclear mines, artillery shells and even some missile warheads. In addition, documents captured in Afghanistan show al-Qaida had plans to assemble its own nuclear weapons with fissile material it purchased on the black market.

In addition to detonating its own nuclear weapons already planted in the U.S., military sources also say there is evidence to suggest al-Qaida is paying former Russian special forces Spetznaz to assist the terrorist group in locating nuclear weapons formerly concealed inside the U.S. by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Osama bin Laden's group is also paying nuclear scientists from Russia and Pakistan to maintain its existing nuclear arsenal and assemble additional weapons with the materials it has invested hundreds of millions in procuring over a period of 10 years.

The plans for the devastating nuclear attack on the U.S. have been under development for more than a decade. It is designed as a final deadly blow of defeat to the U.S., which is seen by al-Qaida and its allies as "the Great Satan."

At least half the nuclear weapons in the al-Qaida arsenal were obtained for cash from the Chechen terrorist allies.

But the most disturbing news is that high level U.S. officials now believe at least some of those weapons have been smuggled into the U.S. for use in the near future in major cities as part of this "American Hiroshima" plan, according to an upcoming book, "The al-Qaida Connection: International Terrorism, Organized Crime and the Coming Apocalypse," by Paul L. Williams, a former FBI consultant.

According to Williams, former CIA Director George Tenet informed President Bush one month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that at least two suitcase nukes had reached al-Qaida operatives in the U.S.

"Each suitcase weighed between 50 and 80 kilograms (approximately 110 to 176 pounds) and contained enough fissionable plutonium and uranium to produce an explosive yield in excess of two kilotons," wrote Williams. "One suitcase bore the serial number 9999 and the Russian manufacturing date of 1988. The design of the weapons, Tenet told the president, is simple. The plutonium and uranium are kept in separate compartments that are linked to a triggering mechanism that can be activated by a clock or a call from the cell phone."

According to the author, the news sent Bush "through the roof," prompting him to order his national security team to give nuclear terrorism priority over every other threat to America.

However, it is worth noting that Bush failed to translate this policy into securing the U.S.-Mexico border through which the nuclear weapons and al-Qaida operatives are believed to have passed with the help of the MS-13 smugglers. He did, however, order the building of underground bunkers away from major metropolitan areas for use by federal government managers following an attack.

Bin Laden, according to Williams, has nearly unlimited funds to spend on his nuclear terrorism plan because he has remained in control of the Afghanistan-produced heroin industry. Poppy production has greatly increased even while U.S. troops are occupying the country, he writes. Al-Qaida has developed close relations with the Albanian Mafia, which assists in the smuggling and sale of heroin throughout Europe and the U.S.

Some of that money is used to pay off the notorious MS-13 street gang between $30,000 and $50,000 for each sleeper agent smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico. The sleepers are also provided with phony identification, most often bogus matricula consular ID cards indistinguishable from Mexico's official ID, now accepted in the U.S. to open bank accounts and obtain driver's licenses.

The Bush administration's unwillingness to secure the U.S.-Mexico border has puzzled and dismayed a growing number of activists and ordinary citizens who see it as the No. 1 security threat to the nation. The Minuteman organization is planning a major mobilization of thousands of Americans this fall designed to shut down the entire 2,000-mile border as it did in April with a 23-mile stretch in Arizona.

According to Williams' sources, thousands of al-Qaida sleeper agents have now been forward deployed into the U.S. to carry out their individual roles in the coming "American Hiroshima" plan.

Bin Laden's goal, according to the book, is to kill at least 4 million Americans, 2 million of whom must be children. Only then, bin Laden has said, would the crimes committed by America on the Arab and Muslim world be avenged.

There is virtually no doubt among intelligence analysts al-Qaida has obtained fully assembled nuclear weapons, according to Williams. The only question is how many. Estimates range between a dozen and 70. The breathtaking news is that an undetermined number of these weapons, including suitcase bombs, mines and crude tactical nuclear weapons, have already been smuggled into the U.S. - at least some across the U.S.-Mexico border.

The future plan, according to captured al-Qaida agents and documents, suggests the attacks will take place simultaneously in major cities throughout the country - including New York, Boston, Washington, Las Vegas, Miami, Chicago and Los Angeles.

In response to the G2 Bulletin revelations, Chris Simcox, founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a citizen action group demanding the U.S. government take control of its borders, said an immediate military presence on the borders is now imperative "to stop the overwhelming influx of unidentified, potentially hostile and seditious persons coming across at an alarming rate."

"Terrorists have carte blanche to carry practically anything they want across our national line at this time," he said. "As ordinary citizens have warned this government for years, the only surprising part about the new information reported here is that nothing apocalyptic from Mexican-border weapons trafficking has yet happened. Terrorism has reared its ugly head in London again these past few days, and as we know all too well we are not immune in this country. At this point, the next attempt to attack America at home is just a matter of 'when,' not 'if.' And our unsecured borders have surely contributed to this threat - yet our government officials continue to fiddle while our nation's margin of security and safety burns away. The president and Congress had better wake up before they have to answer for another devastating terrorist incursion on our own soil."

[rectar]

It's a little bit fuzzy like the fuzzy wuzzy in New Guinea, who knows, some people perhaps....but something is stirring natives worldwide....

[Petronas]

Lawmaker: Terror war spilling across border
Posted: November 16, 2005

A U.S. lawmaker says elements of the war on terror are now spilling across the nation's southwestern border, and that colleagues he's spoken to who have seen the problem first-hand, as he has, say they felt safer "during trips to Iraq than they would have in a pickup truck on our southern border." Rep. John A. Culberson, R-Texas, also says there has been an increase in apprehensions of so-called "special interest aliens," or SIAs – aliens from countries where al-Qaida is known to be in operation – along the U.S.-Mexico border, and that American law enforcement and intelligence agencies are aware of it.

Further, an increasing number of Texas law enforcement officials are reporting al-Qaida-related arrests and activity, and say the nation's porous borders are making it easier for suspected terrorists to infiltrate the U.S. In testimony Nov. 10 before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims, Culberson – a member of the congressional Immigration Reform Caucus headed by Colorado Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo – told the panel, "I am particularly concerned that aliens from countries such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, Indonesia and the Sudan are entering our country illegally."

He went on to tell members he questioned FBI Director Robert Mueller Jr. during a hearing before the House Science, State, Justice, Commerce Appropriations Subcommittee in March and asked him specifically "about SIAs entering the United States across the southern border." "… He testified under oath that this was in fact occurring," Culberson said, according to his testimony transcript, a copy of which was obtained by WND. "Specifically, [Mueller] stated that '[t]he FBI has received reports that individuals from countries with known al-Qaida connections have attempted to enter the U.S. illegally using alien smuggling rings and assuming Hispanic appearances. An FBI investigation into these reports continues.'"

As WND reported in March, under questioning, Mueller told the panel illegal aliens from countries with ties to al-Qaida have crossed into the U.S. from Mexico using false identities. "We are concerned, Homeland Security is concerned about special interest aliens entering the United States," he said. Culberson went on to testify that SIAs were trying to thwart authorities by scrapping their Arabic surnames and adopting Hispanic ones, "to elude detection and blend into the flood of illegal immigrants coming across the southern border." Because of this and other findings, Culberson declared, "I am convinced that our porous borders present the most serious national security threat that America faces."

During a border visit last month, the Texas Republican said he "met with a number of sheriffs from the counties along the border" who then "briefed me in detail on several cases involving terrorist activity, narco-terrorist activity, violent gangs such as MS-13 and the increased violence in their counties." After returning to Washington, he said he had spoken with a number of colleagues, sharing "stories and pictures." "I was not surprised to hear that many of them said they felt safer during trips to Iraq than they would have in a pickup truck on our southern border," Culberson told the House panel.

In particular, "increased violence in towns such as Laredo is frightening," he testified. "Business centers are closing down, tourism is declining, and the general population is demoralized by the level of lawlessness." Laredo and its sister city directly across the border in Mexico – Nuevo Laredo – have been hard hit by drug-related violence. But authorities are not sure all the killing is related to drug cartels battling for turf and influence. "I am now convinced that you do not need to go to Baghdad to see the war on terror – you can go to Laredo," Culberson told the panel.

In an earlier interview with the Del Rio News Herald, Culberson was pointed in his criticism of lax border security, saying, "I'm concerned that one day I’m going to wake up to the news bulletins that there have been multiple massive truck bomb explosions in our major cities, set off by al-Qaida terrorists, and that we let them walk over the southern border while they pretended to be Hispanic immigrants."

Culberson's warnings come on the heels of information regarding the recent arrest of a suspected al-Qaida operative in Mexico. Tony Essalih, a spokesman for Culberson, told WND the alleged al-Qaida figure was picked up by Mexican authorities and had been held south of the border for a time before being moved to the United States. He also said Culberson had been told of "paramilitary training camps" near Matamoras, Mexico – a city located across the Rio Grande River from Brownsville, Texas – which are allegedly being operated by special forces officers trained in Nicaragua and Guatemala and contain "terrorists and drug smugglers."

Essalih's claims were confirmed by Sheriff Arvin West of Hudspeth County, Texas – the state's third-largest county, located about 86 miles east of El Paso – who told WND the al-Qaida suspect was "residing in a community across the river and had been residing there for a while" before he was arrested. It was not clear how authorities identified him. West said that, according to information he was provided by Mexican authorities, it appears as though the suspect was monitoring border activity. He said communications found on him were in "code" to make it appear as though he were tracking migratory birds.

"He was part of al-Qaida," West said, adding, "The written communication that we were able to obtain was … in the nature of code words." He said the alleged operative was transferred from Mexico to Brewster County, which borders Hudspeth County, "in the custody of the U.S. Marshal Service." As to the camps, West said fellow law enforcement officials said they consisted of "several different nationalities," including Arab and "Chinese" ethnic groups.

"Basically, they are building up little communities," West said, adding he wasn't sure about any training but that the camps "were real secretive." He said it wasn't clear if the Mexican government was tracking activity within the camps, but that nearby Mexican authorities keep him up to speed.

Word that al-Qaida operatives have been detained along the U.S.-Mexico border surfaced last week in quotes attributed to U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., by the Charlotte Observer. "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," she said in announcing the introduction of legislation aimed at preventing illegal aliens from getting driver's licenses.

But this week her office retracted that statement, saying Myrick was citing old information. "It turns out she was reading information from the previous year," spokesman Andy Polk told WND. "There is no threat to the border from al-Qaida that we know of, or anything like that," Polk said. "The staff had given her some reports, a couple of news articles she had mixed up together, and when she reported that at a news conference, she thought it was current … and factual." He did not elaborate. Despite Myrick's reversal, however, a veteran Texas sheriff says his biggest concern about lax border security doesn't lie with the thousands of illegal aliens who cross into the United States every month per se, but rather the ease with which terrorists could get into the country.

Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr., sheriff of Zapata County, which is east of Laredo, says despite the federal government's creation of the Homeland Security department in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, little has changed along the border in terms of enhancing security. In comments delivered to attendees of a San Antonio conference last week, Gonzalez said the "federal government has failed its citizens' by failing to protect its borders." "Illegal immigration is the least of our concerns. We'll deal with illegal immigration," he said. "What I worry about is the dangerously violent narcotics gangs and especially the terrorists. There are people from countries of interest to the United States which could easily come over this border. They may already be in the country. We don't know."

Drug-related violence in Mexico's Nuevo Laredo has declined in recent weeks, but, according to local reports, drug gang-related deaths remain high. The city has logged more than 30 killings since early September, a level "that would be a crisis most anywhere else," the Houston Chronicle reported. Worse, analysts say, as Mexican authorities expend resources to combat drug-related violence, they have fewer assets available to monitor terrorists or terrorist activity.

Adm. James Loy, deputy homeland security secretary, told Congress in recent months al-Qaida operatives believe they can pay to get into the country through Mexico and that entering illegally is "more advantageous than legal entry."

Other Texas law enforcement officials have raised the possibility that terrorists or, at a minimum, well-armed gangs are using the porous southwestern border as an infiltration point.

As WorldNetDaily reported in March 2003, Sheriff Erasmo Alarcon Jr., of Jim Hogg County, Texas, published a letter in a local newspaper to alert citizens of reports he said he has received for years from area ranchers who say they have spotted unknown paramilitary looking forces, equipped with "professional backpacks" and walking together in a military cadence. In an interview, the county's deputy sheriff, Guadalupe Rodriguez, told WND he believed the armed men were foreign and were not drug smugglers. "They are not your regular traffickers that you get," he said, adding he didn't want anyone to "draw conclusions" or "get worked up" about the report.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47401

[Petronas]

Safeguarding the Border
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 21, 2005

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Kris Kobach, a Professor of Law at the University of Missouri (Kansas City). He served as Counsel to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft from September 2001 to July 2003. He was Ashcroft's chief advisor on immigration law and border control in the wake of 9/11.

FP: Mr. Kobach, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Kobach: Thank you. I’m honored to be interviewed by Frontpage.

FP: Let’s start with a general theme. Can you talk a bit about the importance of immigration enforcement in the war on terrorism?

Kobach: The importance of immigration enforcement in the war on terrorism cannot be overstated. As long as the enemies of the United States rely on suicide bombers who seek to murder civilians on U.S. soil, they will need to find ways to enter our country to accomplish their missions. Consequently, our national border is the most important line of defense in this war.

The weakness of immigration enforcement prior to 9/11 made it possible for that horrific attack to occur. Five of the nineteen hijackers violated committed immigration violations prior to the attack, exploiting our poor enforcement ability. The most common violation was exceeding their periods of authorized stay in the United States (sometimes described as “overstaying a visa”). Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of aliens violate this provision of immigration law every year. The chances of such immigration violators being caught were virtually zero prior to 9/11. The hijackers took advantage of this fact and operated in the United States with impunity prior to the attack.

Although we have made substantial improvements in our ability to apprehend illegal aliens inside the United States since 9/11, we have a long way to go. It remains relatively easy for a terrorist to overstay his visa and remain in the United States undetected, if his connections to terrorism are unknown by the FBI or the CIA. And that is only half of the problem. Although all nineteen of the 9/11 hijackers entered legally through ports of entry, there have also been cases of terrorists entering the United States by sneaking across the border. Until we secure our borders with substantial increases in manpower and technology, terrorists will continue to be able to enter undetected, blending in with the stream of thousands of illegal aliens who enter every night. Al Qaida is well aware of this fact.

FP: Tell us about the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memorandum of 2002 on state and local law enforcement.

Kobach: The OLC memorandum of 2002 answered the question of whether there was any legal barrier to state and local police assisting the federal government by making immigration arrests. Prior to the OLC opinion, some people had asserted that local police could arrest aliens for criminal violations of immigration law (e.g., crossing the border covertly) but not for civil violations (e.g., overstaying a visa). The OLC opinion concluded that this distinction had no valid basis in law. Making immigration arrests for a criminal violation of immigration law, as well as for a civil violation that renders an alien deportable, is within the inherent authority of the states. And this authority has never been preempted by Congress. The Attorney General announced that conclusion in June 2002. The OLC opinion itself was recently released as a result of a FOIA lawsuit. The legal analysis in the opinion speaks for itself.

The open-borders Left has complained a great deal about the OLC opinion, insisting that local police must play no role in immigration law enforcement. That is a dubious policy claim, but it is an even weaker legal assertion. Indeed, the Left has presented no credible legal argument to counter the OLC opinion. They also conveniently neglect to mention that there has never been any dispute about the authority of local police to arrest aliens who have violated the numerous criminal provision of federal immigration law.

FP: How about the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) and the registration of high-risk aliens?

Kobach: I spearheaded the development of NSEERS (the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System) at the Department of Justice in the months after 9/11. NSEERS was designed to correct critical weaknesses in our defenses against terrorism. Essentially, it has three components: (1) the gathering of detailed information, photographs, and fingerprints from high-risk visitors to the United States at the ports of entry, (2) requiring these aliens to register with immigration officials while in the United States, and (3) imposing exit controls on these aliens, in order to determine when overstays occur. The program took effect on 9/11/02, a year after the attacks.

NSEERS now allows the federal government to determine whether a high-risk alien has overstayed his visa. The names and details of many NSEERS violators have been entered into the National Criminal Information Center (NCIC) database, which police officers across the country routinely check. It is absolutely essential that state and local police officers have access to this information and that they can act upon it when encountering an NSEERS violator in a traffic stop.

In the first two years of its operation, the NSEERS system led to the identification of 11 suspected terrorists. In addition to the identification of specific terrorists, NSEERS has served to deter and disrupt terrorist activity in the United States. As the 9/11 Commission Staff Report concluded: “the proposition that these programs had the potential to disrupt and perhaps to deter terrorist plots forming inside the United States after 9/11 certainly has some support…. Our research demonstrates that terrorists often need to break laws in order to successfully complete their operations….” NSEERS also led to the initiation of removal proceedings against approximately 13,000 aliens who were found to be in violation of immigration laws in 2002-03. These removals had a disruptive effect on terrorist planning too. As one Al Qaida detainee stated, the removals made Al Qaida operations more difficult.

In addition to these advances in the war against terrorism, NSEERS has also served to identify inadmissible criminals and prior deportees attempting to enter the United States—primarily through the fingerprinting required under NSEERS. In the first year of its operation, NSEERS led to the apprehension of more than 1,000 aliens in these categories.

FP: You are the lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the suit of Day v. Bond, the lawsuit challenging Kansas's grant of in-state tuition to illegal aliens. Is there anything you are free to say about this matter at the moment?

Kobach: In May 2004, Kansas enacted a statute giving in-state tuition to illegal aliens. That statute clearly violated federal law. In 1996, Congress had passed a federal law specifically prohibiting state governments from giving in-state tuition to illegal aliens (Title 8 U.S.C. Section 1623). Congress declared that no state may give in-state tuition benefits to illegal aliens without extending the same benefits to out-of-state U.S. citizens. The Kansas statute also violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, because the state is discriminating against U.S. citizens and in favor of illegal aliens in the provision of this valuable tuition benefit.

In July 2004, we filed suit in federal court on behalf 24 out-of-state U.S. citizen students attending Kansas universities and their parents. A year later, in July 2005, the district judge ruled that our plaintiffs lacked standing to bring their equal protection challenge and had no private right of action to bring their statutory challenge. The judge did not address the merits of the lawsuit, regarding whether the Kansas statute violated federal law.

We have appealed the district judge’s decision to the Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. We are asking the Tenth Circuit to reverse the district judge’s order and remand the case back to the district court for a ruling on the merits of our challenge.

Beyond the illegality and unconstitutionality of the Kansas statute, it is also strikingly bad policy. Kansas is now encouraging aliens to violate federal immigration laws. The state directly rewards illegal behavior with a valuable education benefit. Amazingly, the Kansas law actually denies in-state tuition to those legal aliens who have a valid student visa. Aliens are sent this message: "In Kansas, we encourage you to violate the law. If you are an illegal alien, you can qualify for in-state tuition. If you actually get a valid visa to study here, we will penalize you by making you pay out-of-state tuition." Talk about perverse incentives.

FP: What is the Left's agenda in its open-borders crusade? What state of mind would someone have to be in to make it easy for people who want to perpetrate another 9/11 to get into the country?

Kobach: The open-borders Left is driven by several motivations. Some believe that borders are immoral and that citizenship is an outdated concept. Others think that the redistribution of wealth in the United States should not be limited to U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents; in their opinion, all aliens are entitled to public benefits provided by U.S. taxpayers and payers into the U.S. health system. Still others are driven by a shameless political calculation: they believe that illegal aliens will vote Democrat if provided a path to citizenship. Regardless of their motivations, they don’t like to talk about the fact that the breakdown of immigration law enforcement enables foreign terrorists to enter and operate in the United States.

FP: So in general, how do you think Homeland Security system is going now and what overall advice do you have for the administration?

Kobach: We are making incremental improvements. But there is a long way to go. My advice to those in the administration who are trying to enforce the law is to remember that the American people are on your side. Inside the Beltway, some people question the merits of stronger enforcement of immigration law. Outside of the Beltway, there is no dispute. The overwhelming majority of Americans want to restore the rule of law in immigration.

FP: Mr. Kobach, it was a pleasure to speak with you today.

Kobach: The pleasure was mine.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20247

[al-Canine]

U.S. ending 'catch and release' at Mexico border

Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants slipped in under legal loophole

LAREDO, Texas - The United States is closing a legal loophole which has allowed tens of thousands of illegal immigrants to slip into the country and join the estimated 11 million undocumented foreigners already here.

Under long-standing procedure along the U.S. border with Mexico, illegal crossers of nationalities other than Mexican — dubbed OTMs by the Border Patrol — have been entitled to a hearing before an immigration judge before they could be deported.

Because of a shortage of space to hold them until the hearing, they were released after being fingerprinted and given a “notice to appear,” a document stating they had agreed to show up at court at a certain date.

The notice serves as a travel document allowing its holder past Border Patrol checkpoints on the roads leading from the border to the interior. Most OTMs do not show up for their hearing and meld into the population.

Known as “catch and release”, the practice has become part of an increasingly acrimonious debate over immigration policy and border security, an issue likely to loom large in Congress, next year’s mid-term elections and the 2008 presidential poll.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said last month his department’s aim was to “return every single entrant — no exceptions” but gave no deadline. Mexicans are usually returned immediately — and most of them try again, some within hours.

Along the border, agents say ending the practice will take time and depends on how quickly the government can build additional detention space told hold OTMs before they are sent to their home countries.

OTMs were a relatively minor problem until 2003, when word of the loophole spread and triggered a growing flood — including thousands of Brazilians inspired by a popular soap opera, “America,” whose sultry star plays an illegal immigrant who swam the Rio Grande and made good in the United States.

Apprehensions set record in 2005

According to Border Patrol statistics, apprehensions of OTMs tripled from fiscal 2003 to fiscal 2005, which ended in October, from 49,545 to 165,175. Brazilians made up the second-biggest group this year, after Hondurans and before people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

The Brazilian rush northwards highlighted the complex nature of international migration patterns. Apart from the lure of emulating soap opera stars, Brazilians were taking advantage of easy travel from Brazil to Mexico, which abolished visas for Brazilians in 2000 to promote tourism and business.

After flying into Mexican airports, the Brazilians would head north to cross over the river or the deserts further west. Mexico re-introduced visas last month.

“Catch and release” is gradually being replaced by ”Expedited Removal,” a process which cuts out the hearing before an immigration judge and allows border patrol agents to decide whether an illegal crosser should be deported.

In one of the many quirks of the complicated U.S. immigration rules, someone who crosses illegally, manages to get 100 miles beyond the border and stay undetected for more than 14 days cannot be subjected to Expedited Removal and is entitled to make a case for staying on to a judge.

(In another immigration law oddity, Cubans who sail across the Straits of Florida and make it to land are entitled to stay while those caught at sea can be returned.)

Expedited Removal expands

First introduced in the Laredo sector of the southwestern border, Expedited Removal is now being expanded to the entire 1,951-mile international line.

Administration officials stress that faster deportations and tighter border controls alone are no solution to illegal immigration. “We are going to need more than just brute enforcement,” Chertoff told the Senate Judiciary Committee recently.

President George W. Bush has been pushing a guest worker plan that would allow foreigners working in the U.S. illegally to get three-year visas, renewable once. After that, they would have to return to their home countries and apply for a new permit.

The Bush plan appeals to part of the president’s support base — employers who want cheap labor — but falls short of the demands of conservatives who say that even with the additional measures now being implemented, border security is not nearly tight enough.

© 2005 MSNBC.com

URL: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10173883/

[Petronas]

...someone who crosses illegally, manages to get 100 miles beyond the border and stay undetected for more than 14 days cannot be subjected to Expedited Removal and is entitled to make a case for staying on to a judge. ...It seems like they treat it as a game of hide and seek instead of a serious matter affecting our national security.

[Petronas]

Tancredo: 51 Terrorist Suspects Crossed Border Illegally
December 12, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. – 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.

“If this isn’t a wake-up call to our lax border security, I don’t know what is,” said Tancredo. “What scares me is not this list from federal law enforcement—after all, we’ve already caught those terrorists. What scares me is the potentially hundreds of terrorists who make their way through our porous borders each year and go undetected.”

The JTTF document shows that the suspected illegal alien terrorists were arrested on a wide variety of charges from smuggling weapons into the U.S. to illegally wiring large sums of money into the country. Regardless of the particular charge, each illegal alien was flagged by a JTTF because of his or her suspected ties to terrorism.

“This week, the House is scheduled to complete a bill to strengthen our border security and enforce immigration laws throughout the country. Judging by these terrorism figures, Congress is not acting a moment too soon,” said Tancredo. “Knowing what we know now, what could Congress say if a terrorist attack occurred that secure borders would have prevented? We’ve relied on our good fortune for too long—we must protect Americans by stopping terrorist before they get here.”

http://tancredo.house.gov/press/pressers/1212Tancredo51TerroristSuspectsCrossedBorderIllega lly.htm

[Petronas]

Infiltration from the south feared
January 15, 2006

The back door to this country is unguarded, and the locks in place to protect it against terrorists are easy to pick. Lawmakers and border security critics have repeatedly made this point, stressing the need for more funding, patrols and protection against illegal entry on the U.S.-Mexico border. Officials are pointing to records in a South Texas drug case with alleged terrorist ties that they say underscores the lack of preparedness here.

The attorney for a jailed Gulf Cartel member cited in the incident, however, says his client was falsely accused of trying to smuggle Iraqi terrorists into this country. He maintains the claims were brought to increase the punishment for a drug offense against the accused.

The allegations are debated but the danger is real, warns U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz who believes federal lawmakers do not realize the exposure that exists on this porous international boundary. “There is a huge disconnect between Washington and the border,” Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, said and called the security issue “alarming.”

‘Gente de Osama’

The January 2005 arrest of Noel Exinia and Cesario Nuñez appeared to be just another Drug Enforcement Administration bust on the border, until court documents in the case are examined more closely. A few days before their arrest on federal cocaine trafficking charges, Exinia and Nuñez moved more than a quarter-ton of cocaine from Mexico through the Rio Grande Valley and on to New York City, the men told officials. Nuñez, 33, pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge in September. His sentencing is set for Thursday. Exinia, 35, eventually pleaded guilty to the same charge. His sentencing is expected in March.

Court documents filed in Exinia’s case make frequent references to his position in the notorious Gulf Cartel. The paperwork also contains details of a December 2004 incident in which he 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 La Feria truck driver referring to the 20 men as “gente de Osama” or “Osama’s people.” During a Jan. 5, 2005, telephone conversation, Exinia 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.

Exinia 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.” Court records show that Exinia tried to employ a pilot — who turned out to be a confidential government source — to fly the men from the Valley to the northeastern United States.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment on the documents in Exinia’s case, citing his pending March sentencing. Nancy Herrera with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas said the documents filed in the case reflect the government’s position at the time they were filed. “The pleadings are what they are and we have no further comment,” Herrera said.

‘A lot of hot air’

Exinia’s attorney John Blaylock said the FBI conducted a thorough investigation into the incident and cleared his client of any terrorism charges. “This is an example of a lot of hot air with a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing,” Blaylock said. He said that the references to terrorism were kept in the court documents to “vilify” his client so they could be used to increase the length of his sentence. Court records show that Exinia’s former attorney William May successfully argued to keep all references to terrorism out the October trial.

At a sentencing hearing for another client in an unrelated case, May told The Brownsville Herald he believed the terrorist allegations against Exinia were “true.” “Otherwise,” he said, “I wouldn’t have filed a motion to argue against it.”

Blaylock maintains the allegations are false and being used as a tool to justify “massive government spending” and a “power grab.” “Terrorism is the flavor of the week,” Blaylock said. “If they could have, they would have charged him with terrorism to justify the Patriot Act that is coming up for renewal.”

The USA Patriot Act, first adopted shortly after 9/11, is meant to “deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes,” according to the version approved by Congress in October 2001. It provides for, among other things, enhanced surveillance procedures, protecting the border, removing obstacles to investigating terrorism and strengthening the criminal law against terrorism. A Patriot Act extension, signed by the president on Dec. 30, keeps anti-terrorism laws that were due to expire Dec. 31 in place until Feb. 3. The extension allows the FBI to continue to investigate terrorism cases using powers granted in 2001, including roving wiretaps and the authority to intercept wire, spoken and electronic communications relating to terrorism, The Associated Press reported.

FBI officials declined to publicly comment on the Exinia case. One federal law enforcement official that asked not to be named, said the men labeled “terrorists” turned out to be undocumented immigrants from a “nation of concern.” The FBI would not say if the group made it across the border or if authorities have located or detained them.

‘A serious flaw’

While attorneys debate the existence of terrorists connected to the Exinia case, Ortiz, a former Nueces County sheriff, said information found in court documents underscores the U.S-Mexico border’s vulnerability to terrorist infiltration. “It is very alarming” he said, holding a copy of the court papers. “We know there are terrorist cells in the United States. These guys are coming through our back door.”

In fact, Border Patrol agents found Middle Eastern clothes and money in the South Texas brush, according to a federal report issued last year. Ortiz said drug cartels and other criminal organizations, including the Central American gang, Mara Salvatruchas or MS-13, are dangerous enemies against U.S. security.

Similar to Exinia’s story about the 20 Iraqis he dealt with, Ortiz said Mexican and Central American criminal organizations are sought out to help smuggle terrorists into the United States. “If they have the money, they’ll bring them across,” he said.

The presence and power of such organizations has long been known to Valley law enforcement but their threat to national security is lost on federal leaders and lawmakers, Ortiz said. In one anecdote, the congressman said he attended a recent terrorism conference in Washington, D.C., in which FBI officials did not know about the Mara Salvatruchas — one of the most notorious organized crime outfits with documented links to al-Qaida. “There is a serious flaw in communication,” Ortiz said. “We need to correct it.”

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/ts_more.php?id=68871_0_10_0_C

[Petronas]

Armed standoff along U.S. border
Ontario, CA, 1/25/2006

Mexican soldiers and civilian smugglers had an armed standoff with nearly 30 U.S. law enforcement officials on the Rio Grande in Texas 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.

"It's been so bred into everyone not to start an international incident with Mexico that it's been going on for years," Doyal said. "When you're up against mounted machine guns, what can you do? Who wants to pull the trigger first? Certainly not us."

An FBI spokeswoman confirmed the incident happened at 2:15 p.m. Pacific Time. "Bad guys in three vehicles ended up on the border," said Andrea Simmons, a spokeswoman with the FBI's El Paso office. "People with Humvees, who appeared to be with the Mexican Army, were involved with the three vehicles in getting them back across." Simmons said the FBI was not involved and referred inquiries to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE did not return calls seeking comment.

Doyal said deputies captured one vehicle in the incident, a Cadillac Escalade reportedly stolen from El Paso, and found 1,477 pounds of marijuana inside. The Mexican soldiers set fire to one of the Humvees stuck in the river, he said.

Doyal's deputies faced a similar incident on Nov. 17, when agents from the Fort Hancock border patrol station in Texas called the sheriff's department for backup after confronting more than six fully armed men dressed in Mexican military uniforms. The men -- who were carrying machine guns and driving military vehicles -- were trying to bring more than three tons of marijuana across the Rio Grande, Doyal said.

Doyal said such incidents are common at Neely's Crossing, which is near Fort Hancock, Texas, and across from the Mexican state of Chihuahua. "It happens quite often here," he said. Deputies and border patrol agents are not equipped for combat, he added. "Our government has to do something," he said. "It's not the immigrants coming over for jobs we're worried about. It's the smugglers, Mexican military and the national threat to our borders that we're worried about."

Citing a Jan. 15 story in the Daily Bulletin, Reps. David Dreier, R-Glendora, and Duncan Hunter, R-San Diego, last week asked the House Judiciary Committee, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the House Homeland Security Committee and the House International Relations Committee to investigate the incursions. The story focused on a Department of Homeland Security document reporting 216 incursions by Mexican soldiers during the past 10 years and a map with the seal of the president's Office of National Drug Control Policy, both of which were given to the newspaper. Requests by Dreier, chairman of the House Rules Committee, and Hunter were made in jointly signed letters.

On Wednesday, Chertoff played down the reports of border incursions by the Mexican military. He suggested many of the incursions could have been mistakes, blaming bad navigation by military personnel or attributing the incursions to criminals dressed in military garb. Mexican officials last week denied any incursions made by their military. But border agents interviewed over the past year have discussed confrontations those they believe to be Mexican military personnel. "We're sitting ducks," said a border agent speaking on condition of anonymity. "The government has our hands tied."

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3430815

[Petronas]

Unfortunately, a good environment for terrorists to be able to cross the border and obtain whatever they may need for attacks inside the United States.

Feds find weapons cache near Mexican border
Saturday, February 4, 2006

A federal task force seized arsenals of illegal weapons and homemade bombs in Laredo, Texas, in connection with a Mexican drug trafficking battle, authorities said Friday. The feds captured more than 30 homemade bombs, grenade components, assault weapons, silencers, machine gun assembly kits, bulletproof vests, police scanners and cash, Julie Myers, assistant secretary of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a statement.

Two of the bombs had been completed and others were under assembly, said officials from the task force that involved Immigration and Customs Enforcement, FBI, local authorities and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Authorities said they suspect last month's three seizures in Laredo are associated with the warring Mexican drug cartels called the Federation and the Gulf Cartel. Officials said they found the weapons in homes during January 12, 26 and 27 searches.

U.S. authorities have said they increasingly fear violence in Mexico will spill over into the United States. About 170 deaths have been attributed to the cartel battles in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, in the past year, officials said. Nuevo Laredo is across the Rio Grande from Laredo.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/03/laredo.arsenal/index.html

[Petronas]

Gang plots border attack
Department of Homeland Security document reveals MS-13 plan
2/6/2006

Members of a violent international gang working for drug cartels in Central and South America are planning coordinated attacks along the U.S. border with Mexico, according to a Department of Homeland Security document obtained by the Daily Bulletin. Detailed inside a Jan. 20 officer safety alert, the plot's ultimate goal is to "begin gaining control of areas, cities and regions within the U.S."

The information comes from the interrogation of a captured member of Mara Savatrucha, or MS-13, a transnational criminal syndicate born from displaced El Salvadoran death squads from the 1980s. The MS-13 member, who claimed to have smuggled cocaine for the Gulf Cartel, explained a plan to amass MS-13 members in Mexican border towns such as Nuevo Laredo, Acuna, Ojinaga and Juarez. The Gulf Cartel runs its drug smuggling operations from Del Rio, Texas, to south of Matamoros, Mexico.

"After enough members have been pre-positioned along the border, a coordinated attack using firearms was to commence against all law enforcement, to include Border Patrol," the alert states.

Mike Friel, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection, would not comment specifically on the alert. Through investment, technology and infrastructure, Friel said, Homeland Security is "determined to gain control of the border."

Law enforcement officials along the border said they had not received the alert. Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez of Zapata County in Texas said he was angry about the alert because he has never received information from the Department of Homeland Security about this or any other threat along the Texas border. "That is something that I was not aware of, but information like this should be given to us immediately," he said. Gonzalez said it's another example of poor communication between law enforcement agencies. "Since Sept. 11, we heard there was going to be a sharing of information, but today we still haven't received anything," he said. "All the information of threat levels, I get through the media."

In Arizona's Santa Cruz County, where in May a sniper shot two Border Patrol agents in the legs, Sheriff Tony Estrada said he was alarmed by the documented threat. "That message seems to be the strongest type of indicator that they are seriously planning to use force," he said. Estrada added that it shows how frustrated the smugglers have become, but said the plot is a "bad idea" that wouldn't work. "It would be real dumb move," he said. "If that should happen, and if any of our agents are threatened or injured or killed, it's going to create a lot of unity and cooperation." Gonzalez added that his deputies have seen increasing violence from drug cartels and what he believes are Mexican soldiers working for them.

A member of the 16-county Texas Sheriff's Border Coalition, Gonzalez said he would immediately inform other sheriffs. As a precaution, he would change how his deputies operate, he said. Some of his deputies have been patrolling the border alone. "We're going to be better prepared, and the officers will too," he said. "Unfortunately (the cartels) are not going to wait."

According to a secretary in the office of Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger, Vinger said he had no information about the potential threat.

Andrea Simmons of the FBI's office in El Paso, Texas, said she is familiar with such threats, but said her office is not investigating any such attacks. "We haven't had any specific threats regarding that or any information for us to be able to follow up on," she said.

The alert documents several armed, brazen attacks on Border Patrol agents between May and January. Violence at the border has risen dramatically during the past couple of years, according to law enforcement officers all along the border. Estrada said crime there is "more competitive, more profitable and more violent," and that increased scrutiny at the border and intensified law enforcement efforts have frustrated criminal elements in Mexico.

A smuggler named Pablo "El Patron" Mercado said he will no longer tolerate the loss of contraband and has ordered smugglers to carry firearms, according to a Jan. 13 alert referenced in the document.

Sgt. Benjamin Reyna of the Bisbee Police Department in Arizona said he's seen much more violence in the past several years. "It's on the increase," he said. "They have a lot less fear of law enforcement now." Reyna said cartel enforcers, smugglers and people suspected of being current and former Mexican military are taking shots at law enforcement officers.

The primary subject of the alert concerns a confrontation between a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector and 20 men armed with assault rifles in the area where a creek feeds into the Rio Grande in Zapata County on Jan. 9. The inspector, who was on horseback, said a boat dropped the group off inside U.S. territory. Some of the subjects appeared to be carrying automatic assault rifles, and threatened to shoot the inspector's dogs, the alert stated. The inspector had his gun and badge hidden under his jacket so the men could not see that he was a law enforcement agent. He told the armed men he was a rancher. "(He) stated that he believed this might have saved his life," the alert stated.

The inspector, who is fluent in Spanish and has lived near the border all his life, believed the men were not Mexican nationals, based on their accents. The incident report concluded that the men probably were from Central America and members of either MS-13 or ex-Guatemalan Kaibiles, a military special forces unit specializing in jungle warfare and counterinsurgency.

http://www.dailybulletin.com/search/ci_3448828

[Petronas]

Is A War Going On In Texas?
Feb 14, 2006

... The Val Verde County chief deputy warned that drug traffickers are helping terrorists with possible al Quaeda ties to cross the Texas-Mexico border into the United States. ...

http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/phyllisschlafly/2006/02/14/186551.html

[Petronas]

FBI stopped Hezbollah smugglers

The FBI broke up a ring that tried to smuggle Hezbollah operatives into the United States. In testimony Tuesday to Congress on the FBI’s budget request, director Robert Mueller said most recent reports on terrorist smuggling do not pan out.

However, he identified one that did: “This was an occasion in which Hezbollah operatives were assisting others with some association with Hezbollah in coming to the United States,” Mueller said. “That was an organization that we dismantled and identified those persons who had been smuggled in. And they have been addressed as well.”

Mueller did not elaborate further, except to say that the ring had attempted to smuggle the operatives into the United States from Mexico.

http://www.jta.org/page_view_breaking_story.asp?intid=2002&ref=daily_briefing

[Petronas]

Confronting the Threat on the Southern Border
Prepared by the Majority Staff of the House Committee on Homeland Security

The entire report is 39 pages long. Read in particular on pp. 27-32 (page numbers at bottom of page:

III. Vulnerability to Terrorist Infiltration

http://www.newschannel5.tv/pdf/investigations.pdf

[Omega]

Why shall I get a passport?

I won't travel to any countries that require one. If my birth certificate and my DL isn't enough then pfffftt...

[al-Canine]

Confronting the Threat on the Southern Border
Prepared by the Majority Staff of the House Committee on Homeland Security

The entire report is 39 pages long. Read in particular on pp. 27-32 (page numbers at bottom of page:

III. Vulnerability to Terrorist Infiltration

http://www.newschannel5.tv/pdf/investigations.pdf

That report is frightening, and it is shocking that no major media are picking up on it (especially in light of the related bits of info such as the interview with Pakistani investigative reporter Hamid Mir).

Hopefully the efforts described below are not a case of "closing the barn door" too late.

Drones to patrol Mexican border

By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has launched its newest weapon in securing the nation's borders with the debut of an unmanned aerial vehicle capable of providing an "eye in the sky" for Border Patrol agents on the ground.

"Our front-line agents deserve proven, effective technology that equips them to secure our borders and to prevent terrorism," CBP Commissioner W. Ralph Basham said. "This unmanned aircraft system provides us with the situational awareness we need to more effectively deny illegal entry at our nation's borders."

The agency's new unmanned aircraft, known as the MQ-9 Predator B, began limited operations last week from Libby Army Airfield in Fort Huachuca, Ariz., to support enforcement activities along the U.S.-Mexico border. The aircraft was introduced during ceremonies Tuesday in Arizona hosted by Air and Marine Assistant Commissioner Michael Kostelnik.

The agency hopes to expand operations to the California and New Mexico state lines in the next month.

Unmanned aircraft give the agency improved and expanded mission capabilities to meet what Mr. Basham has described as "the continuing terrorist threat to our nation." He said the program supports efforts by CBP to expand specialized teams and rapid-response capabilities within the agency to enhance control of the nation's borders.

New unmanned aircraft systems within CBP are designed to augment crewed air and marine assets and ground interdiction agents already on the southwest border. In fiscal 2007, the aircraft will complement crewed air and marine assets and ground interdiction agents on the northern border and the Gulf Coast.

Mr. Basham said the aircraft have the potential to coordinate operations within other Department of Homeland Security agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He said his agency also will work closely with the Defense Department to "gain efficiencies in acquisition, testing, training and deployment."

In 2004, CBP conducted operational tests and evaluations using the Hunter and Hermes unmanned aircraft vehicles, and last year, the agency conducted operational tests using the MQ-9 Predator B. Since 2004, unmanned aircraft have flown 1,878 hours and directly contributed to 3,603 arrests and the seizure of 11,000 pounds of marijuana.

Mr. Basham has called border enforcement "a legal issue as well as a matter of national security," saying the United States "simply must keep people from crossing our borders undetected if we are going to protect our homeland."

To achieve that goal, he has been a vigorous proponent of efforts to better secure the border through a strategy aimed at increasing the number of Border Patrol agents and equipping them with the proper tools, including new roads, lights, fences, barriers, upgraded technology and unmanned aerial vehicles.

The Washington Times (http://washingtontimes.com/national/20061106-121750-5903r.htm)

[Petronas]

45,000 terror-threat illegals released into U.S. population
Posted: November 29, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern

Half of the 91,516 illegal aliens from terror-sponsoring countries and those of "special interest" apprehended at the border between 2001 and 2005 were released into the U.S. population, according to a report by the inspector general's office of the Department of Homeland Security.

The report, "Detention and Removal of Illegal Aliens," released earlier this year with little fanfare or attention, suggests about 85 percent of those aliens – potentially the most dangerous – would abscond and likely never be seen by authorities again. Acknowledging the danger such aliens pose to the national security, the report cites a DHS official testifying that terrorist organizations "believe illegal entry into the U.S. is more advantageous than legal entry for operations reasons."

Budget shortfalls were the explanations for why some 45,008 potential terrorists were released by authorities over a period of nearly five years after Sept. 11, 2001. The budget crunches prompted immigration officials to place strict limits on detention bed space, recruitment, training, travel and expansion of enforcement programs, the report explained.

In addition to the release of these high-risk aliens, 27,947 known criminals were also released between 2001 and 2004 – including 20, 967 "from countries where the notorious Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang members are know to be active."

Given that only one in four aliens attempting to enter the U.S. during this period was caught, that would suggest some 350,000 from high-risk nations entered the country through this five-year period. An additional 400,000 criminal aliens would also have made it into the country between 2001 and 2004, according to the report.

That's a total of 750,000 aliens who would be either known criminals before entering the country illegally or who originated from a terror-sponsoring nation or one in which terrorists are known to operate. ...

http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53151

[Omega]

I'd like to know how many illegal immigrants are crossing into Canada from America.

[Petronas]

The style of this piece is more that of an editorial than a news article, but the point raised is a valid one. I have heard independently that the Saudi government was so eager for this deal because sending these students abroad would help diminish "internal unrest" in Saudi Arabia. When one considers that the major internal unrest in Saudi Arabia comes from Al Qaeda, one gets an idea of the type of "youths" they are probably hoping to include among the 21,000 students they are sending.

Iraq's Studious Terrorists
Posted 1/23/2007

News that al-Qaida in Iraq plotted to smuggle terrorists into the U.S. using student visas, the entry vehicle of choice for terrorists worldwide, makes the deal to mint 21,000 new visas for Saudi students all the more insane.

The terror-exporting plot was revealed earlier this month in an unclassified statement the Defense Intelligence Agency chief submitted to the Senate.

"Documents captured in a raid on an al-Qaida safe house in Iraq revealed AQI was planning terrorist operations in the U.S.," said Lt. Gen. Michael Maples.

The plot was disrupted when AQI leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed last year. But the risk remains. Saudis make up most of the foreign terrorists captured or killed in Iraq, so chances are high they'd be tapped for any martyrdom missions to attack the U.S. in the future.

Fifteen of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi nationals, and three of them entered with student visas. The lion's share of the foreign terrorists over the last decade have infiltrated on them, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. And 60% of terrorists who entered Europe on visas over the past two decades used student visas, according to a recent study by the Nixon Center.

You'd think the U.S. would be curbing them, especially with respect to Saudi Arabia, which borders the al-Qaida stronghold of Anbar province in Iraq. Think again.

We've struck a deal with the Saudi government to let an additional 21,000 young Saudi men pour into America over five years. They're flooding college campuses (or safe houses) right now, many of them in Arizona, where al-Qaida originally set up a base of operations.

We wisely cut the number of Saudi visas after 9/11. But King Abdullah lobbied the White House for more and got his wish. The new wave of Saudi students is supposed to forge better relations between our countries, while promoting cultural exchange.

(Here's how that works: Saudi gets to propagate Wahhabism on our shores, while "unwittingly" exporting more terrorists, and we in exchange get more phony assurances our "ally" is cooperating in the war on terror.)

The White House says not to worry, that U.S. consular officers in Saudi are vetting the applications. Sure, they may catch any of those who show up on our terror watch lists. But they still rely on local Saudi officials to fill in the blanks about the rest of the applicants.

Have they been on jihad in Iraq? Are they radicalized Wahhabis? The Saudis don't provide that kind of background information.

A local Saudi official conspiring with terrorists, sympathetic to terrorists or simply willing to take a bribe from them could be the loophole through which the next Mohammed Atta slips.

The only real reform we've done is demand that colleges monitor foreign students to make sure they enroll when they come to the U.S. But so what? We don't make sure they leave the country. There's still no exit monitoring at airports to make sure the same people we checked in check out when their visas expire. And only a fraction of the foreign visitors who overstay their visas are ever caught by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Even if Saudi students aren't planning any terror, they could easily become radicalized on campus by the Muslim Student Association, or MSA, which was founded by leaders of the pro-jihad Muslim Brotherhood. Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, along with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, all began their terror careers as members of the Brotherhood.

The Cairo-based militant group's motto is: "The Quran is our constitution, the prophet is our guide; Death for the glory of Allah is our greatest ambition." Investigators say the main goals of loyal members in the U.S. are propagating Islam in America, funding jihad and backing Israel's destruction.

Examples of Muslim students becoming radicalized through MSA — including joining al-Qaida — are as legion as the number of Arab students who have overstayed their visas. So why again are we taking the risk of letting thousands more young Saudi men flood across our borders?

http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=254445193755573

[Petronas]

It costs about $2,000 for a Mexican to be smuggled across the border, an amount he can make back in a reasonable time given the higher wages he can earn in the US. But $20,000 to $25,000? These Iraqis aren't coming here to pick fruit and make a few extra bucks... Hmmm...

FBI: Iraqis Being Smuggled Across the Rio Grande
July 17, 2007 3:11 PM

The FBI is investigating an alleged human smuggling operation based in Chaparral, N.M., that agents say is bringing "Iraqis and other Middle Eastern" individuals across the Rio Grande from Mexico. An FBI intelligence report distributed by the Washington, D.C. Joint Terrorism Task Force, obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com, says the illegal ring has been bringing Iraqis across the border illegally for more than a year. Border Patrol officials in the area said they were unaware of the specifics of the FBI's report, and federal prosecutors in New Mexico told ABCNews.com they had no current cases involving the illegal smuggling of Iraqis.

The FBI report, issued last week, says the smuggling organization "used to smuggle Mexicans, but decided to smuggle Iraqi or other Middle Eastern individuals because it was more lucrative." Each individual would be charged a fee of $20,000 to $25,000, according to the report. The people to be smuggled would "gather at a house on the Mexican side of the border" and then cross the Rio Grande into the U.S., the report says. "Unidentified individuals would then transport them to train stations in El Paso, Texas or Belen, New Mexico," according to the FBI document. A spokesman in Albuquerque said the FBI had "no viable information" that could lead to a case.

Until recently, the United States has kept its doors all but shut to the estimated two million refugees fleeing the violence in Iraq. Until this year, the country had taken in fewer than 800 Iraqi refugees, according to the State Department. This May, the Bush administration pledged to resettle 7,000 Iraqi refugees here by the end of the year.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/07/fbi-iraqis-bein.html

[Petronas]

Or could it be that this is what they have in mind?

Al Qaeda may use Iraq operatives to attack U.S.
4:00 p.m. EDT, Tue July 17, 2007

Al Qaeda will try to tap its allies and resources in Iraq in its efforts to exact another terrorist attack on U.S. soil, according to a top government intelligence report released Tuesday. ...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/17/nie.alqaeda/index.html

[Petronas]

Terrorists teaming with drug cartels
August 8, 2007

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 Drug Enforcement Administration report. "Since drug traffickers and terrorists operate in a clandestine environment, both groups utilize similar methodologies to function ... all lend themselves to facilitation and are among the essential elements that may contribute to the successful conclusion of a catastrophic event by terrorists," said the confidential report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times.

The 2005 report outlines an ongoing scheme in which multiple Middle Eastern drug-trafficking and terrorist cells operating in the U.S. fund terror networks overseas, aided by established Mexican cartels with highly sophisticated trafficking routes. 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.

Rep. Ed Royce of California, ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs terrorism and nonproliferation subcommittee, said the DEA document substantiates information that his committee has been given in the past year.

"Hearings I held in Laredo [Texas] last year and this DEA report show that our southern border is a terrorist risk," Mr. Royce 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."

Garrison K. Courtney, spokes- man for the DEA, would not comment on the document. However, he said that the DEA, which has only 5,000 active agents worldwide, is sharing information with other U.S. intelligence agencies and working closely with local law enforcement. "We focus on drugs, but we keep our eyes open for any connection that can aid our other partners in law enforcement," Mr. Courtney said. "Everything we do relies on our ability to gather intelligence. We have said for years that there are shades of gray in the organizations we're dealing with. Intelligence requires us to look at the whole picture. Realistically to leave out a certain set of dots could be a huge mistake."

In the two years since the report was written, other DEA intelligence officials have said they are still struggling to cooperate with and share and gather information from other lead U.S. agencies charged with fighting the war on terrorism.

Lack of information sharing between U.S. intelligence agencies is creating a blind spot in the war on terror and has left the U.S. vulnerable to another attack, the report states. "We are the eyes and ears when it comes to gathering intelligence on the cartels and smugglers," said the DEA official. "What we know for sure is that persons associated with terrorist groups have discovered what cartels have known all along — the border is the backdoor into the U.S."

According to a Department of Homeland Security intelligence report obtained by The Times, nearly every part of the Border Patrol's national strategy is failing. "Al Qaeda has been trying to smuggle terrorists and terrorist weapons illegally into the United States," the 2006 document states. "This organization has also tried to enter the U.S. by taking advantage of its most vulnerable border areas. The seek to smuggle OTMs [other than Mexicans] from Middle Eastern countries into the U.S."

Peter Brown, terrorism and security consultant, stated that the "biggest element" to the DEA report is the ease with which terrorist cells have taken on new identities. "The ability for people to completely transform their nationalities absent of their own identities is a dangerous step in the evolution of this cross-border operation," he said. "This is a true threat."

Lending credence to Mr. Brown's concern, an El Paso, Texas, law-enforcement report documents the influx of "approximately 20 Arab persons a week utilizing the Travis County Court in Austin to change their names and driver's licenses from Arabic to Hispanic surnames."

Under the current drug-intelligence collection, analysis and reporting posture, the DEA runs the risk of failing to detect or report the entry of terrorists, weapons of mass destruction or portable conventional weapons into the United States, according to the DEA document. Many times, smugglers don't know what they are transporting.

"Despite all the pronouncements of the administration that these networks and their funding is being traced," Mr. Brown warned, "progress has been limited, and in certain circles of intelligence, they are nonexistent."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070808/NATION/108080088/1001

[Petronas]

U.S. intel center wary of terrorist attack
By Sara A. Carter
November 25, 2007

Fort Huachuca, the nation’s largest intelligence training center, changed security measures in May after being warned that Islamist terrorists, with the aid of Mexican drug cartels, were planning an attack on the facility.

Fort officials changed security measures after sources warned that possibly 60 Afghan and Iraqi terrorists were to be smuggled into the U.S. through underground tunnels with high powered weapons to attack the post, according to multiple confidential law enforcement documents obtained by The Washington Times.

"A portion of the operatives were in the United States, with the remainder not yet in the United States," according to one of the documents, an FBI advisory that was disbursed to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the CIA, Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Justice, among numerous other law enforcement agencies throughout the nation. "The Afghanis and Iraqis shaved their beards so as not to appear to be Middle Easterners."

According to the FBI advisory, each Middle Easterner paid Mexican drug lords $20,000 "or the equivalent in weapons" for the cartel's assistance in smuggling them and their weapons through tunnels along the border into the U.S. The weapons would be sent through tunnels that supposedly ended in Arizona and New Mexico, but the Islamist terrorists would be smuggled through Laredo, Texas, and join the weapons later.

A number of the Afghans and Iraqis already are in a safe house in Texas, the FBI advisory said.

Fort Huachuca, which lies about 20 miles from the Mexican border, has members of all four service branches training in intelligence and secret operations. About 12,000 persons work at the fort and many have their families on base.

Lt. Col. Matthew Garner, spokesman for Fort Huachuca, said details regarding the current phase of the investigation or security changes on the post "will not be disclosed."

"We are always taking precautions to ensure that soldiers, family members and civilians that work and live on Fort Huachuca are safe," Mr. Garner said. "With this specific threat we did change some aspects of our security that we did have in place."

According to the FBI report, some of the weapons associated with the plot already have been smuggled through a tunnel from Mexico to the U.S.

The FBI report is based on Drug Enforcement Agency sources, including Mexican nationals with access to "sub-sources" in the drug cartels. The report's assessment is that the DEA's Mexican contacts have proven reliable in the past but the "sub-source" is of uncertain reliability.

According to the source who spoke with DEA intelligence agents, the weapons included two Milan anti-tank missiles, Soviet-made surface-to-air missiles, grenade launchers, long guns and handguns. "FBI Comment: The surface-to-air missiles may in fact be RPGs," the advisory stated, adding that the weapons stash in Mexico could include two or three more Milan missiles. The Milan, a French-German portable anti-tank weapon, was developed in the 1970s and widely sold to militaries around the world, including Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Insurgents in Iraq have reportedly used a Milan missile in an attack on a British tank. Iraqi guerrillas have also shot down U.S. helicopters using RPGs, or rocket-propelled grenades.

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson would not elaborate on the current investigation regarding the threat, but said that many times the initial reports are based on "raw, uncorroborated information that has not been completely vetted." But he added that this report shows the extent to which all law enforcement and intelligence agencies cooperate in terror investigations.

"If nothing else it provides a good look at the inner working of the law enforcement and intelligence community and how they work together on a daily basis to share and deal with threat information," Mr. Bresson said. "It also demonstrates the cross-pollination that frequently exists between criminal and terrorist groups."

The connections between criminal enterprises, such as powerful drug cartels, and terrorist organizations have become a serious concern for intelligence agencies monitoring the U.S.-Mexico border.

"Based upon the information provided by the DEA handling agent, the DEA has classified the source as credible," stated a Department of Homeland Security document, regarding the attack on Fort Huachuca. "The identity of the sub-source has been established, however none of the information provided by the sub-source in the past has been corroborated."

The FBI advisory stated that the "sub-source" for the information "is a member of the Zetas," the military strong-arm of one of Mexico’s most dangerous drug trafficking organizations — the Gulf Cartel. The Gulf Cartel controls the movement of narcotics from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, into the U.S. along the Laredo corridor. However, the sub-source "for this information is of unknown reliability," the FBI advisory stated. According the DEA, the sub-source identified Mexico's Sinaloa cartel as the drug lords who would assist the terrorists in their plot.

This led to DEA to caution the FBI that its information may be a Gulf cartel plant to bring the U.S. military in against its main rival. The Sinaloa and Gulf cartels have fought bloody battles along the border for control of shipping routes into the U.S.

"It doesn’t mean that there isn’t truth to some of what this source delivered to U.S. agents," said one law enforcement intelligence agent, under condition of anonymity. "The cartels have no loyalty to any nation or person. It isn’t surprising that for the right price they would assist terrorists, knowingly or unknowingly."

In May, after more than a year of being under surveillance by the FBI, six foreign-born Muslim men were arrested and charged with plotting an attack on Fort Dix Army Base in New Jersey. They were planning on killing as many soldiers as possible in an armed assault with high-powered weapons, according to the FBI.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071125/NATION/71125002/-1/RSS_FP

[Petronas]

Michael Chertoff's deepest fears: Terrorists entering U.S. from Canada
Sunday, February 10th 2008, 4:00 AM

America's top counterterror official says "more than a dozen" people tied to Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and other extremists have tried to infiltrate the U.S. since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But they weren't caught swimming the Rio Grande from Mexico, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the Daily News in a recent interview. "More Canada than Mexico, to be honest with you," he said. Chertoff talked exclusively to The News in his Gulfstream jet on a trip from Washington to New York City last week.

"It's been much more than a dozen" who tried to enter the U.S. from Canada, he said, but they were stopped for links to "a mix" of terror groups through finances, family or spy intercepts. "Do I know they were coming in on a mission as opposed to something else? That I can't necessarily tell you," he said.

Immigration officers have detected an increasing number of Middle Easterners and South Asians illegally entering from Mexico, but they "all seem to be, at this point, refugees," he said. Stopping Mexican illegals from entering the country is a hot political issue - with Chertoff caught in the middle. Immigration critics often claim Al Qaeda will exploit illicit pipelines. But Chertoff insisted, "I don't see any imminent threat" of terrorists infiltrating from Mexico.

He gave a wide-ranging interview close to the fifth anniversary of the Department of Homeland Security, which President Bush created after a Democratic outcry over 9/11 failures. Bush picked Chertoff as the department's second leader because of his resume: federal prosecutor hired by Rudy Giuliani; counsel to ex-Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.) in the Whitewater probe of the Clintons; criminal division chief at the Justice Department after 9/11; U.S. appeals court judge. Reminded of the 1990s Clinton probe, Chertoff smiled dismissively. "A long time ago," he said.

His current job is much more vital - preventing the next attack - and he's deeply worried about Europe as a platform. "That is in the near term what worries me the most - Europe," Chertoff said.

In the past year, he's tried to tighten checks on European visitors entering the U.S. Asked about a recent exclusive in The News on Al Qaeda training white Anglo-looking European recruits, Chertoff said, "They're looking for people who don't fit a particular image of what a terrorist looks like."

Yet many wonder why women and kids get searched in airports. Chertoff said a disrupted 2006 Al Qaeda plot to bomb U.S.-bound jets from London - which was "comparable to a potential 9/11" - involved a mother using an infant to conceal liquid explosives.

Chertoff said a major success has been decimating Al Qaeda in Iraq. But he finds it "worrying" that Osama Bin Laden's group has regenerated in Pakistan and merged with groups in North Africa. When Al Qaeda trainer Abu Laith al-Libi was killed recently by the CIA, eight Al Qaeda franchises from Somalia, Algeria, Palestine and Iraq eulogized him. ...

http://dustmybroom.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2278&Itemid=2