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FBI WARNS OF ‘SPECIAL INTEREST’ ALIENS
3-17-05
FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress on Tuesday that people from countries with ties to al-Qaida have crossed into the United States from Mexico, using false identities.
“We are concerned, Homeland Security is concerned about special interest aliens entering the United States,” Mueller said, using a term for people from countries where al-Qaida is known to be active.
Under persistent questioning from Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, Mueller said he was aware of one route that takes people to Brazil, where they assume false identities, and then to Mexico before crossing the U.S. border.
He also said that in some instances people with Middle Eastern names have adopted Hispanic last names before trying to get into the United States.
Mueller provided no estimate of the number of people who have entered the country in this manner.
Bush administration officials have previously said al-Qaida could try to infiltrate the United States through the Mexican border.
In recent congressional testimony, Adm. James Loy, deputy Homeland Security secretary, said al-Qaida operatives believe they can pay to get into the country through Mexico and that entering illegally is “more advantageous than legal entry.”
But Loy said there’s no conclusive evidence that al-Qaida operatives have entered the country via Mexico.
Likewise, Mueller did not acknowledge that terrorists had entered the country through Mexico, only that it’s believed people from countries where al-Qaida is active have done so.
U.S. authorities are investigating groups that may be smuggling people from countries with al-Qaida ties, he said.
On another topic, Mueller said it will take until 2008 and cost an unknown amount of money to replace a flawed computer system that was supposed to greatly improve management of terrorism and other criminal cases.
The Virtual Case File project was to have been the final piece of the FBI’s overhaul of its antiquated computer system, an instantaneous and paperless way for FBI agents and analysts to manage all types of investigations.
Undertaking a New Project
Instead, faced with mounting evidence that the system is inadequate and outdated, the FBI is undertaking a new project.
“We intend to develop and implement a state-of-the-art case management system,” Mueller said.
The new system, as yet unnamed, will be deployed in four phases, Mueller said. An estimate of the additional cost should be ready by the end of March, when planners should know what aspects of the system will have to be developed from scratch and what software can be purchased off the shelf, he said.
“Ultimately, it will be better than VCF,” Mueller said.
But skeptical lawmakers, who heard similar predictions before, were not reassured.
“Can you tell us how you guarantee there won’t be a third failure?” asked Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., the subcommittee chairman, alluding to problems with the Virtual Case File and an earlier FBI computer system.
The FBI director said the new project would be better managed and put into place in distinct pieces.
After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Mueller made improvement of the agency’s computer systems a priority. Members of Congress and the independent Sept. 11 commission said the overhaul was critical to enabling the FBI and intelligence agencies to “connect the dots” in preventing attacks.
The first two phases of the “Trilogy” project - deployment of a high-speed, secure FBI computer network and 30,000 new desktop computers - have been completed.
But the upgrade already is 2 1/2 years behind schedule and, at nearly $600 million, more than 25 percent over its initial budget.
Mueller has said he expects the loss to taxpayers from the Virtual Case File to be $105 million.
Before the overhaul, begun in November 2000, many of the FBI’s computer systems were 30-year-old hand-me-downs from other government agencies. Few of the bureau’s 56 field offices had connections to the Internet and its networks couldn’t even transmit a digital photo.
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MINUTEMEN NO APRIL FOOLS
3-17-05
By Becky Fenger
Used with permission of the Sonoran News
The eyes of the nation will be on the Arizona-Mexico border on April 1, but the Minuteman Project is no April Fool’s joke. Over 1,300 grassroots volunteers from 49 states (no Hawaiians yet) will help Arizona leader Chris Simcox of Civil Homeland Defense protest the refusal of Congress and President George W. Bush to adequately protect our borders.
Simcox is the owner and publisher of the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper serving Cochise County. Originally from Illinois, he was teaching elementary school in Los Angeles when he visited Organ Pipe National Monument and personally witnessed over 3,000 illegal aliens crossing the desert in a two-week period. When he asked the Border Patrol what was going on, they told him, “Don’t worry about it. Those are migrant workers and drug dealers. Just look the other way.”
That was the start of a 3-month border journey in which Simcox documented 10,000 crossers sneaking into our country. When he took the story to the Arizona Republic, the Arizona Star and the Los Angeles Times, he was turned down because he “wasn’t a journalist.” That’s all changed now, and he has created an expansive neighborhood watch group and worked with over 400 civil defense volunteers. “They’re not vigilantes,” he tells us, “They’re undocumented Border Patrol agents!” Clever.
Not that you will find this reported by the mainstream press, but his Civil Homeland Defense has assisted our government in finding over 6,000 illegals from 26 countries, including those harboring terrorists. These brave volunteers have participated in 157 life-saving rescues of the illegals, hardly acts of rabid racists.
Rallies will take place at the Naco and Douglas, Ariz., headquarters on Saturday and Sunday, April 2 and 3. There are already more volunteers (including Hispanics and blacks) for the actual month-long patrols than Simcox and fellow activist James Gilchrist of California can use. There is an intense screening process involving resumes, 2 phone interviews and Internet background checks to weed out the troublemakers. “If it turns into an angry mob, we lose,” says Simcox. He’s right.
“It’s a powder keg just waiting for someone to light the fuse,” Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever warns. Not only is the ACLU converging on the site to make certain that the Minutemen don’t violate any of the illegals’ “civil rights,” there is word of an ultra violent gang called MS-13 who want the Minuteman Project blown sky high. Made up of criminals with ties to drug cartels, rumors fly about gang members playing football with the severed heads of their victims. Cute. Add hordes of media to this—- including the international press—- and you get an idea of the circus atmosphere developing. Onlookers will be in danger of tripping over the maze of tripods!
Fortunately, most of the Minutemen are military veterans and former law enforcement officers who will be grouped in teams of 4. If a patrol volunteer has a concealed carry permit, they will be permitted handguns. No one is to bring rifles or shotguns, and must call the Border Patrol after spotting illegal border crossers.
Two weeks ago, 40 Minutemen had a dress rehearsal. “U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents appreciate our help,” Simcox noted, “and are working with us. But they are forbidden to speak to the media, or they’ll lose their jobs.” President Bush can’t be too thrilled about the month-long exercise of the Minuteman Project, but Simcox counters with, “You can tell Mr. Bush we’re just taking a job he won’t take,” echoing the refrain that illegal immigrants are “just taking jobs Americans won’t do.”
Simcox anticipates deployment of the National Guard, but adds, “I doubt the U.S. government would use troops to stop U.S. citizens from sitting in lawn chairs using binoculars.”
If you would care to donate, send a check to: Civil Homeland Defense, P.O. Box 1579, Tombstone, AZ 85638. Even $10 will make you feel like you’re doing something to protect our borders.
Becky Fenger can be heard every Friday from 9-10 a.m. on KXXT (1010 AM) on the “Charles’ Angels” hour and can be reached at beckyfenger@cox.net
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Border, interior enforcement called severely lacking
3-17-05
By Chris Strohm
Current and former government officials told Congress Wednesday that the nation’s border and immigration security suffers from the lack of a comprehensive mission, poor information sharing and coordination between agencies, inadequate resources, inept management and bureaucratic infighting.
They painted a picture of a border and immigration system overwhelmed with illegal, and possibly terrorist, activity, even though the government has pumped billions of dollars into making reforms since 9/11.
“We miss opportunities every day in the area of counterterrorism because of a lack of intelligence that we gather [and] because of a lack of intelligence that’s passed on between the appropriate agencies,” said David Venturella, former director of the Homeland Security Department’s Office of Detention and Removal Operations. “We’re missing opportunities to gather that intelligence, to determine the right strategies and the right initiatives, to tackle these problems.”
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0305/030905c1.htm
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HOW TO STOP THE FLOOD OF ILLEGAL ALIENS
3-17-05
By Tom DeWeese
March 10, 2005
The issue that will define our era and determine the nation’s future is illegal immigration. Political debate is full of schemes like “guest worker” programs and temporary worker cards to allow illegals to “fill jobs that Americans just don’t want to do.” Such programs are really just political doublespeak from politicians who lack the intestinal fortitude to protect the borders of the United States.
The truth is President Bush is pushing the guest worker plan because he is trying to appease Mexican President Vicente Fox who wants the borders between Mexico and the U.S. and Canada open, just like the European Union. Prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President Bush and Fox agreed to consider granting permanent residency, “green cards”, to as many as three million Mexicans living illegally in the United States. The plan was temporarily sidetracked in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, but now the White House has put it back on the agenda.
Fox thinks that the best way to save Mexico’s failing economy is to grab hold of the U.S. economy in what his administration calls “very common objectives.” Fox’s plan offers very little advantage to the United States.
Economically speaking, the plan offers no hope to solving Mexico’s institutional ills. The reason is that Mexico’s economic problems are created by the fact that Mexico is a socialist country that denies private ownership of property to its people, and taxes businesses to pay for just about any confiscation scheme its corrupt government can dream up.
It’s the same old story. Socialism can’t survive without a free market to prop it up. Mexico has sunk to the depths of socialist depravity and now desperately needs the U.S. economy to save it. Apparently, Fox has never considered fixing his own economy. Like all drowning despots, his only plan of action is to cling to our economy until it too starts to sink under the weight of a hoard of illegal aliens. These law breakers, with Fox’s help and encouragement, are rushing across the border for American goodies.
In an orchestrated plan to actually help Mexican citizens illegally cross our nation’s sovereign border, the Mexican government is creating tools to instruct them, in detail, how to do it. Once they are in our nation, Fox’s government then provides identification for the illegals to help them obtain American documentation and services.
Specifically, the Mexican government is distributing to its citizens a colorful new comic book with advice on how to cross the border. The 32-page book, “The Guide for the Mexican Migrant,” was published in December by Mexico’s Foreign Ministry. Using simple language and colorful drawings, the book offers safety information for illegal border crossings. The book also provides a primer on their legal rights once they get across, and gives advice on living unobtrusively in the United States.
The drawings provide dramatic depictions of undocumented immigrants wading through a river, running from the U.S. Border Patrol, and crouching near a hole in a border fence. On other pages, they hike through a desert and are caught by Border Patrol agents. The book gives no tips on how to obtain a U.S. visa, yet it offers border crossing safety tips such as, when crossing rivers, “Thick clothing increases your weight when wet, and this makes it difficult to swim or float.”
“This is more than just a wink and a nod,” says Rick Ottman, Western field director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “This is so transparent, this is the Mexican government trying to protect its most valuable export, which is illegal migrants.” Ottman is referring to the fact that illegal Mexicans are taking billions of dollars out of the U.S. economy each year and sending the money back to Mexico. In fact, illegal immigration is one of Mexico’s biggest growth industries.
The comic book is being distributed as a free supplement to El Libro Vaquero, a popular cowboy comic book, in five Mexican states (Zacatecas, Michoacan, Puebla, Oaxaca, and Jalisco) that send the majority of illegals to the United States. The government plans to print 1.5 million copies.
Once over the border and safely tucked away in a U.S. city, the illegals need some form of identification to help them get jobs and government services. Again, the Mexican government is providing the answer for its “citizens.”
The Mexican government has issued more than 800,000 slick, pocket-sized identification cards to both legal and illegal immigrants. Of course, those immigrants who have come to this nation using legal means have no need for the cards. So the cards really are specifically designed to help illegals gain a foothold in this country. Called “matricula consular” cards, they are being distributed across the United States through the Embassy of Mexico and its 45 consulates in the U.S.
The cards list the holder’s birth date, place of birth, and U.S. address. The Mexican government is openly lobbying U.S. cities, police forces, local government agencies, and banks to accept the cards as official identification.
Ironically, today, legal U.S. citizens are about to be tied to a national ID card, controlled by massive data banks which document every aspect of our lives, including job history, tax history, medical records, and bank accounts. We’re told such intrusion into our private lives is necessary to protect the nation from terrorists. Within the next 18 months, the national ID cards will be in place, and without them, American citizens won’t be able to get on an airplane, open a bank account, buy a gun, get married, or function in any way in American society.
With the blessing of the Bush Administration, the Mexican government’s matricula cards are now accepted as a form of ID at 74 of the nation’s 9,000 banks. Illegal aliens, who have already broken our immigration laws by entering the country illegally can cash checks and open bank accounts. Yet there is nothing to assure that the cards carry accurate information and there is no means to check the background of the person holding the card. In practice, the consular cards are allowing illegal Mexicans to bypass the growing web of government control now being imposed on American citizens.
True to its promises to the Fox government, the Bush Administration has been silent, refusing to act on these unprecedented actions by a foreign government which are little more than a planned invasion of our nation. In truth, Fox’s policy is leading to little more than colonization of the United States by Mexico. Americans pay the bills, clean up the messes, and watch as our standard of living diminishes while illegals swamp hospitals, schools, and communities.
Fortunately, not all of our U.S. Representatives are turning a blind eye to this invasion. The President’s guest worker proposal is meeting staunch resistance from conservative Republicans in Congress. Representative Charlie Norwood (R-GA) has called on the President to drop the plan, saying it would be “detrimental to our national and economic security.” Norwood has introduced the “Clear Law Enforcement for Alien Removal Act,” (CLEAR) which would force the government to enforce immigration laws and round up illegal aliens.
Most recently, Congressman Scott Garrett (R-NJ) introduced “The Financial Customer Identification Verification Improvement Act” (H.R. 815). Though a mouthful of a name, H.R. 815 will “prohibit the use of identification cards issued by foreign governments, including matricula consular cards for purposes of verifying the identity of a person who opens an account at a financial institution,” says Rep. Garrett. His bill will help foil the Mexican government’s outrageous efforts to undermine the sovereignty and independence of the United States.
The Bush Administration has tried to make the illegal immigration issue sound like an impossible problem to stop. The guest worker scheme is sold as a Band-Aid as we throw our hands in the air to surrender. Such bunk is nothing more than snake oil to cover very bad policy.
The fact is illegal immigration would be fairly easy to fix. First, allow the U.S. Border Patrol to do its job, like it tried to do in Los Angeles a few months back when officers began to round up illegals in the Hispanic neighborhoods. They were stopped by the “suits” in Washington.
Second, stop providing U.S. taxpayer funded programs like hospital care, access to public schools, and welfare handouts. Plans to provide Social Security payments to illegals should never be considered. Stop granting automatic citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants (known as “anchor babies”). This would stop the practice of running across the border just in time to give birth.
Finally, pass H.R. 815 and stop this outrageous attempt by the Mexican government to claim United States territory as their private annex. The Mexican government has no right to meddle in U.S. policy.
Politicians can puff up and spew rhetoric about guest worker programs and filling jobs Americans don’t want, but the truth is our nation is being flooded by people who don’t care about our heritage or culture. They have no allegiance to this country, and in fact, remain loyal to their home country. They choose not to learn our language and they ignore our laws. Our taxpayer-funded services are diminishing, as hospitals and schools are facing overcrowding and bankruptcy. This is no foundation on which to build our nation’s future.
Stop the flow of goods and services to illegal aliens, round up those already here, and strengthen the border. This will solve the problem. It’s really pretty simple. Passing H.R. 815 to stop acceptance of the matricula consular cards is a good start.
© 2005 Tom DeWeese - All Rights Reserved
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ZARQAWI PLANNING U.S. HIT?
3-17-05
Editor’s note.
Well, well, Time Magazine is only three years behind the curve. And to think the Tumbleweed has been warning you about the exact same scenario for years. Will this be enough to direct President Bush’s attention back to the borders of the United States or is he looking to protect the borders of Taiwan with U.S. troops now that China has flexed its muscle?
Remember when I predicted about a year ago that simultaneous attacks of sleeper cells hitting soft targets like malls and schools using small arms and improvised explosive devices was likely?
You are being viewed as an expendable casualty in President Bush’s war on terror because the corporations that elected him need an army of illegal cheap labor to do the jobs you won’t take. Sounds like a fair tradeoff to keep the price of lettuce affordable, doesn’t it?
Intelligence officials say operatives may infiltrate via Central America to strike at soft targets on American soil
By Adam Zagorin, Timothy J. Burger and Brian Bennett
Sunday, Mar. 13, 2005
Two weeks after intelligence officials confirmed that Osama bin Laden had sent a message to Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, urging him to plan attacks on U.S. soil, details are emerging from one of al-Zarqawi’s lieutenants about what the man behind many of the terrorist attacks in Iraq could have in mind. Intelligence officials tell TIME that interrogation of a member of al-Zarqawi’s organization, who was taken into U.S. custody last year and has been described as a top aide, indicates that al-Zarqawi has given ample consideration to assaults on the American homeland. According to a restricted bulletin that circulated among U.S. security agencies last week, the interrogated aide said al-Zarqawi has talked about hitting “soft targets” in the U.S., which could include “movie theaters, restaurants and schools.”
The bulletin also notes the Iraq-based master terrorist’s apparent belief that “if an individual has enough money, he can bribe his way into the U.S.,” specifically by obtaining a “visa to Honduras” and then traveling across Mexico and the southern U.S. border.
Al-Zarqawi’s aide also revealed that his boss, after pondering the absence of attacks in the U.S. in recent years, concluded that a lack of “willing martyrs” was to blame. Al-Zarqawi believes, according to his lieutenant, that “if an individual is willing to die, there was nothing that could be done to stop him,” even in the U.S. There is no evidence, say intelligence agencies, that al-Zarqawi’s agents have infiltrated the U.S. But authorities remain vigilant.
Security sources tell TIME that just last week the FBI sent out two nationwide bulletins warning of a nonspecific threat to railroads in Detroit and Los Angeles. On her visit to Mexico last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued her own reminder of the border’s vulnerability. “There’s no secret,” Rice told reporters, “that al-Qaeda will try to get into this country ... by any means they possibly can.”
From the Mar. 21, 2005 issue of TIME magazine.
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FEDS ROUND UP ILLEGALS IN GANGS
3-17-05
by Robert E. Kessler
STAFF WRITER
March 14, 2005
Federal agents have quietly rounded up 20 Hispanic gang members on Long Island in the country illegally as part of a large-scale sweep across the nation to be announced today, according to several sources.
The arrests in Nassau and Suffolk counties during the past few days by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the FBI, along with local police, are part of a new national push aimed at stemming gang violence, the sources said.
Those arrested on Long Island are primarily members or associates of the MS-13 gang, who had previously been arrested for crimes, the sources said. They and scores of other gang members around the country face deportation, the sources said.
Police officials from several Long Island departments who participated in the arrests were said to be invited to an ICE news conference in Washington today to announce the new crackdown. Most could not be reached for comment late yesterday. But William Kilfoil, chief of the Port Washington Police Department, said that federal agents and his officers had picked up four alleged MS-13 members who lived in the village as part of the sweep. Kilfoil said he was gratified that the federal government was getting more involved in the fight against gang violence.
Leaders of the Hispanic community on Long Island were pleased to hear of the new attack on gang violence, as long as the arrests and deportations would be targeted at criminals. The general sentiment, they said, was that police have not yet done enough to deal with gangs.
“When we’ve done meetings in the community, there’s a pretty strong desire to have these guys taken off the streets,” said Patrick Young of the Hempstead-based Central American Refugee Committee. “There’s really not a lot of love lost.”
He added that “generally, the people they are victimizing are other Central Americans.”
Other advocates said they, too, have no sympathy for immigrants who commit serious crimes, but voiced fear that innocent people could be swept up in raids on suspected gang members. “There’s not a magic wand to tell if they’re criminals,” Carlos Canales of the Hempstead-based Workplace Project said in Spanish.
The Rev. Allan Ramirez, a leading Latino advocate on Long Island, said, “I hope this crackdown includes all undocumented people,” and does not target only Hispanics, as he said some previous sweeps have done.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, who has said he is working closely with federal immigration authorities to deport undocumented immigrants who commit serious crimes, praised the arrests.
Gangs such as MS-13 “are interstate networks that organize a great deal like an organized crime entity,” Levy said.
The FBI considers MS-13 to be one of the bloodiest street gangs in the country and one that is rapidly spreading, officials have said. On Long Island, six members of the gang were arrested in October for alleged involvement in the murder of two people they thought were informants.
The deportation of gang members is just one prong in a new federal offensive against gangs. In his current budget request, President George W. Bush asked for $150 million to combat youth gangs and asked his wife, Laura, to be in charge of a national effort to discourage young people from joining gangs.
The FBI has set up a national task force targeted at MS-13 specifically, and several weeks ago bureau officials were in El Salvador to coordinate tactics with police there, where the gang has roots, according to officials.
Large-scale deportation of criminals in the country illegally has been previously used against sexual predators. In January, 27 illegal immigrants who had been convicted of sex crimes were taken into custody on Long Island for deportation. As of January, 5,000 sexual predators have been arrested after they served their sentences and were being processed for deportation, according to ICE officials.
Staff writer Bart Jones contributed to this story.
Copyright (c) 2005, Newsday, Inc.
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