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 creat