Posted on 08/23/2004 11:46:11 AM PDT by knighthawk
THE al-Qaeda terror network is running a clandestine travel service, possibly in partnership with people smugglers south of the US border, which helps move its terrorists around the world.
A national commission that investigated the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US disclosed its findings in a report released at the weekend as its final act before formally disbanding.
"There are uncorroborated law enforcement reports suggesting that associates of al-Qaeda used smugglers in Latin America to travel through the region in 2002, before travelling onward to the US," the panel said, without offering specifics.
The US Border Patrol has also started using pilotless "Predator" aircraft to patrol the Arizona stretch of the US border with Mexico, where people smuggling has been rampant for decades.
Determined to send its terrorists all around the world, al-Qaeda has put a premium on creating false travel documents and identity cards, according to the report.
Before the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan, it operated a secret office in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, which specialised in producing forged passports, visas and other travel documents.
After US troops occupied Kandahar, the office was moved to the Pakistani city of Karachi.
The terror network also used experienced travel facilitators, chief among whom was Abu Zubaydah, a close Osama bin Laden associate captured in Pakistan in 2002. According to the report, he taught al-Qaeda recruits how to avoid detection.
Meanwhile, Honduras has stepped up security at embassies in its capital of Tegucigalpa after the Government received information al-Qaeda was trying to recruit Hondurans to attack the embassies of the US, Britain, Spain and El Salvador, Security Minister Oscar Alvarez said yesterday.
He said the purported al-Qaeda plot was linked to the war in Iraq and targeted countries with troops there.
- with Agence France-Presse
Ping
ping
I guess all those one-way tickets they sold gave them away.
Yikes! bump
Holy crap bump!
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