Posted on 12/06/2004 3:42:13 PM PST by Mike Fieschko
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wis.) issued the following statement regarding legislation responding to the 9/11 Commission recommendations:"I am pleased that the chain-of-command issues Chairman Duncan Hunter has raised have been resolved so that our war-fighters will not be put at risk. Unfortunately, even with these improvements, the current bill is woefully incomplete and one I cannot support.
"Americans deserve a complete bill so that we can prevent another 9/11 from occurring. Border security and immigration reform are vital components of our homeland security efforts, so why are they not included in this legislation? The time to address these issues is now, not next month, not next year. Hollow promises of future consideration are just that - hollow promises.
"Terrorists have exploited vulnerabilities in our asylum system and in the issuance of drivers' licenses. This bill fails to include the strong provisions in the House bill because my Senate colleagues found them 'too controversial.' That's unfortunate, because their refusal to consider these security provisions on their merits will keep Americans unnecessarily at risk.
"I said two weeks ago that the Senate was hell-bent on ensuring that illegal aliens can receive drivers' licenses, regardless of the security concerns. This Sept. 10th mentality in a post-Sept. 11th world is unwise and among those I intend to rectify next year."
Is this shitty bill going to pass?
Any bill that Collins and her ilk support........I do not trust and want no part of.
I was supposed to go to the local Bush dinner after working hard and volunteering in S. Fla. If this pro-illegal garbage goes thru then I will stay home.
The War on Terror is a huge waste in $$$ and a joke if we don't protect the borders. Bush and the Repubs are starting to remind me of Democrats of old.
You'll need it to blow up your date for the night.
I have a hard time believing he understands how serious this is!
An issue like this can divide the Republicans in Congress and nullify his whole agenda for the rest of his term!
Laughable. There were no "loopholes". The licenses were legal. They used passports and visas to get them.
.
"Sensenbrenner's provision would have barred the use of drivers licenses to board airplanes from states that issue them to illegal aliens. "
Then they would have simply used their passports or visas to board the airplanes. Sensenbrenner's provision is aimed at Mexican gardeners, not Muslim terrorists. That's why all the FR anti-Mexican immigrant posters are so supportive of him. The man is a fraud.
You made the exact point that I was---Bush has never made it a secret that he wants a "guest worker" program. If you want to take that as blanket amnesty, go ahead, I don't think we have seen a bill yet with his plan.
We do know that Kerry was for blanket amnesty, in fact it is in the democrat platform.
Since Bush didn't make it a secret, then any of you that are ready to lynch Bush, better not have voted for him. If you did, then you only have yourself to blame.
I, like you fatalis, knew this was his position, and I don't agree with it, but there are so many more good things that he's done, that I'll still be a Bush supporter.
He hasn't exactly been ignoring domestic terrorist issues, remember the Lakawana 8 in Buffalo, NY? And, according to Bill Gertz, we will never know how much has been done to avert attacks here in the USA.
Agreed. He sold us out. I'm not surprised.
I forgot something---I haven't seen any posters on any of the threads that have had this subject today, mention one of the main stumbling blocks to immigration reform, and stopping illegal immigrants, shipping back illegal immigrants, even asking for proof of identification for illegal immigrants.
THE ACLU..........
Anyone can get a driver's license and a birth certificate in the US. I have known truck drivers who have over a hundred of the things and say they have never personally taken a test. Yet they get one with their picture on it.
The anti-Hispanic posters never let facts interfere with their prejudices.
From the 9/11 Commission Report p.16:
"Entering the United States as tourists was important to the hijackers, since immigration regulations automatically guaranteed tourists six months of stay. Thus the 14 muscle hijackers who entered the United States in the spring and early summer of 2001 were able to remain in the country legally through September 11.
The six-month tourist stays also assured the hijackers of sufficient time to make such preparations for their operation as obtaining the identifications some of them used to board the planes on September 11.
Fourteen of 15 operatives and all of the pilots acquired one or multiple forms of U.S. state-issued identification. Only Satam al Suqami did not, possibly because he was the only hijacker who knew he was out of immigration status: his length of stay end date of May 20, 2000, was clearly inserted in his passport."
I see that you, La Raza's sock puppet, have joined us on another thread regarding illegal immigration. And I see that you brought along your La Raza-issued Race Card to wave around. How very predictable of you, bayourod. Actually, Sensenbrenner's provision is aimed at Mexican illegal alien lawbreakers (and illegal alien lawbreakers from other countries).
bayourod, you are a fraud.
I made a needed correction to your comment:
The anti-Hispanic illegal alien lawbreaker posters never let facts interfere with their prejudices.
And, yes, you are correct. I am prejudiced against Hispanic illegal alien lawbreakers, just as I'm prejudiced against illegal alien lawbreakers from every other country.
He's obviously a racist who hates Bush. /sarcasm
Thank you, GOP, for leaving Hillary something to campaign with when she launches her quest to the reign of terror.
It was. Amnestying illegals, er, 'starting a guest worker program' was part of the Bush 'mandate.' /sarcasm
We do know that Kerry was for blanket amnesty, in fact it is in the democrat platform.
No, neither was for a blanket amnesty. Virtually no one is, everyone has illegals they would exclude.
Since Bush didn't make it a secret, then any of you that are ready to lynch Bush, better not have voted for him. If you did, then you only have yourself to blame.
LOL I'm not a single issue voter.
I, like you fatalis, knew this was his position, and I don't agree with it, but there are so many more good things that he's done, that I'll still be a Bush supporter.
What's your point? I supported him for President, oppose him on amnesty. That's politics.
The anti- Illegal immigration add-on will not only torpedo any chances of passing this particular intelligence bill, but will cause the defeat of every future attempt to reform our intelligence services and defend our homeland security that includes such a rider or provision. The 'pubbies should let Bush have this one, ASAP.
BTW: I DO believe that illegal immigration is a huge, evergrowing threat to the future security of America, but that it is an issue which should be legislated on SEPERATELY from the causes that immediately threaten homeland security (namely Islamic terrorism). If you go whole hog on this one, we will not see satisfaction of either problem.
No, several were vouched for by illegal aliens to obtain Virginia drivers licenses. You know this, as I've posted the information to you before.
FLASHBACK: November 5, 2001 Suburban Washington's Terror Trail
Luis Alonso Martinez-Flores is a 28-year-old Salvadoran who, according to an FBI affidavit, "has been living unlawfully in the United States since 1994."
On August 1, he went to the parking lot of the 7-Eleven store on Glen Carlyn Road, just off Leesburg Pike, in Falls Church, Va. His purpose, he later told FBI Special Agent Jesus H. Gomez, was to look "for day labor."
People in the neighborhood knew Martinez. He often hung out, some local businessmen say, near the entrance of a First Union Bank branch at the corner of the Culmore Shopping Center. This center--a strip mall on Leesburg Pike--sits just across a narrow side street from the 7-Eleven. In the middle of the strip, a bit nearer to the bank than to the 7-Eleven, is the Peking Gourmet Inn. This restaurant was such a favorite of the senior President Bush that he reportedly ate there some 50 times during his presidency and vice presidency. President-elect George W. Bush took his brother Marvin there for a birthday dinner in December.
But also last December the restaurant was named in a Washington Post story that did not mention good food or politicians. "Fairfax County police have identified the man who was shot to death in the Culmore Shopping Center last weekend as Thomas X. Duong, 42, of Falls Church," said the Post. "Duong, a cook at the Peking Gourmet Inn, was found dead in his car behind the restaurant. . . . Police said yesterday that he was shot several times in the upper body."
Some local businessmen say that over the last two decades the neighborhood has increasingly become a gathering spot for illegal aliens.
The police can't do anything about it, said one, because they can't arrest someone merely for being an illegal alien. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) doesn't do anything either, he added, presumably because they lack the resources. Another local merchant noted that in the mornings, when the largest number of illegal aliens congregate in local parking lots, Fairfax County police cars park nearby to keep a watchful eye on the crowd.
But it wasn't a squad car that approached Martinez in the 7-Eleven parking lot on August 1. It was a van carrying two Arab men.
Martinez told Special Agent Gomez that two prospective day laborers approached the two men in the van "but refused to assist Hanjour and Almihdhar when they learned the Arab men wanted help with DMV forms."
Martinez did not share their qualms.
He jumped into the van and directed the two Arabs to drive several miles south to the Springfield Mall. In the mall, they made their way to the "DMV Express," a Virginia state office set up in a storefront.
At that time, to get an official photo identification card from the state of Virginia, a foreign national needed three documents: two to prove his identity, and one to prove his legal residence in the state. A person lacking ordinary documentation of their identity and residence--such as an out-of-state driver's license, a passport, a paycheck, a utility bill--could present the DMV with a pair of certified forms instead. The first form, a so-called DL6, was to establish the applicant's identity. To be legal, a DL6 needed to be signed by a witness who knew the applicant and certified by an attorney in the presence of a notary public. The second, the DL51, which was supposed to establish the applicant's legal residence, needed to be signed--in the presence of a notary public or a clerk at the DMV--by a witness who knew where the applicant lived.
When Hanjour and Almihdhar showed up at DMV Express, they apparently already had two forms of ID--a passport and a legal visa would have been accepted---because they did not submit DL6s to establish their identity. But they did submit DL51s, to "prove" their Virginia residence. Martinez allegedly certified the forms for both of them.
On the forms, the men claimed to live in an apartment complex on the 5900 block of Leesburg Pike--one block down from the strip mall. "This address did not belong to either Hanjour or Almihdhar," Gomez wrote in his affidavit, "but was rather the address that appeared on Martinez's Virginia identification card. Martinez no longer lived at the address, but had in the past."
With their newly minted photo IDs, the two suspected terrorists drove back with Martinez to Culmore. "At the 7-Eleven they all got out of the van," wrote Gomez. "Hanjour and Almihdhar went inside the store and appeared to use the ATM machine. They then came out, paid Martinez $100 in cash for his efforts, and left in the van. Martinez did not see them again."
But the Virginia DMV had not seen the last of these two. Hanjour and Almihdhar were now qualified to certify the legal residency of other terrorists.
That is exactly what they did the next day--at a DMV about three miles from the Pentagon on South Four Mile Run in Arlington.
Wrote Special Agent Gomez: "DMV records also show that Hanjour and Almihdhar used the address Martinez gave them on August 1, 2001, to complete DL51 forms for Majed Moqed (Moqed) and Salem Alhazmi (Alhazmi) on August 2, 2001. Moqed and Alhazmi are believed to be two more of the hijackers who flew Flight 77 into the Pentagon. . . . Hanjour certified Moqed's Virginia residence, Almihdhar certified Alhazmi's Virginia residence. Moqed and Alhazmi submitted these DL51 forms in support of applications for Virginia identifications cards. . . . Both applications were approved."
Al Qaeda had the system down cold. In Minutes
Three other suspected hijackers showed up at the Arlington DMV that very same day. They, too, needed witnesses to help them secure Virginia IDs. But unlike Hanjour and Almihdhar, they needed not only DL51s, to establish a residence, but also DL6s, to establish their identities. That meant they had to have the help of a witness, a notary, and a lawyer.
They got them all in minutes.
Victor M. Lopez-Flores is allegedly one of those who helped. The "INS deported Lopez-Flores to El Salvador on November 19, 1993, following a felony conviction," Special Agent Gomez wrote in an affidavit. "He then returned to the United States unlawfully."
On the day in question, Lopez-Flores later told Special Agent Gomez, "he was standing in a parking lot near the Arlington DMV office with several other Hispanic males.
"There," Gomez writes, "three Arab males approached him in a van with out-of-state plates and sought his assistance in obtaining Virginia identification cards for two of the three of them."
A second Hispanic man, who went by the name of "Herbert," but who carried an ID card in the name of "Oscar Diaz," joined them. "Herbert is in fact Herbert Villalobos," FBI Special Agent Brian G. Weidner said in an affidavit.
Herbert and Lopez-Flores got into Herbert's car and drove to an attorney's office on Columbia Pike in Falls Church. The three Arab men followed in their van.
"According to Lopez-Flores," wrote Gomez, "when they arrived at the attorney's office, he and 'Herbert' took the men into a waiting room where they were all greeted by a female secretary."
The secretary remembered not three, but four, Arab men in her office that day.
"I interviewed Kenys Galicia, the secretary who worked at the attorney's office in Falls Church," wrote Gomez. "Galicia stated that she worked at the attorney's office as a secretary and that she notarized documents for the attorney as well. Galicia stated that a man she knew as 'Victor' and a second Hispanic male brought in four Arab males to her office on our about August 2, 2001."
"Victor" allegedly was a regular customer. "She stated that she has known Lopez-Flores approximately one year," wrote Gomez. "During that time, he brought several people into her office and helped them complete DL6 and DL51 forms."
One of the Arab men in the office that day was Ahmed Alghamdi, one of the suspected hijackers of United Airlines Flight 175, which flew into the World Trade Center towers. Lopez-Flores vouched for his DL51 form, on which Alghamdi falsely claimed to live on Edison Street in Alexandria.
Abdul Alomari was another one of the Arab men in the law office that day. He is a suspected hijacker of American Airlines Flight 11, which also crashed into the World Trade Center towers. Alomari claimed to live on Buchanan Street in Arlington. "Oscar Armando Diaz," whom the FBI believes to be Villalobos, certified Alomari's residency on the DL51. (The actual resident at this location was Villalobos' cousin.)
Villalobos, who told the FBI he believed the men to be Pakistani or Iraqi, added an interesting note. "Villalobos said the attorney then came out of his office and signed the forms as well," wrote Special Agent Weidner. "Here, Villalobos noted that the attorney conversed with the 'Pakistanis' in 'their language.' After this conversation, each 'Pakistani' man paid the secretary $35, and then all returned to the Arlington DMV office. Once back at the DMV office, the 'Pakistani' men paid Villalobos $50 for his assistance and then went into the DMV to get identification cards."
When the FBI later showed Villalobos photos of the suspected September 11 hijackers, he identified five of them--Hani Hanjour, Salem Alhazmi, Majed Moqed, Khalid Alghamdi and Abdul Alomari--as being at the Arlington DMV that day. "These identifications," Special Agent Weidner wrote, "were later confirmed by Virginia DMV records which show that all five men did in fact conduct various transactions relating to Virginia identifications cards at the Arlington DMV on August 2, 2001."
But that did not end the connection between the Virginia DMV and the suspected September 11 hijackers. The agency also has a tie to one of the suspected hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93--the plane that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after the hijackers were apparently overwhelmed by a group of courageous passengers.
This takes us back down I-395--the main highway heading south from the Pentagon into Virginia--to the Springfield Mall and its "DMV Express."
"DMV records further show that Hanjour used the address Martinez gave him on August 1, 2001, to complete a DL51 form for Ziad Jarrah (Jarrah) on August 29, 2001," wrote Gomez. "Jarrah is believed to be one of the hijackers who commandeered United Airlines Flight 93. Jarrah's DL51 was certified by Hanjour. . . . Jarrah submitted the completed DL51 form in support of an application for a Virginia identification card . . . at the DMV office in Springfield, Va. The application was approved."
As far as the government of Virginia was concerned, five of the September 11 hijackers were just peaceful aliens sharing a small apartment a block from the President's favorite restaurant.
Two more of the suspected hijackers, as far as the state of Virginia was concerned, were peaceful aliens living in Arlington and Alexandria, in neighborhoods close to the Pentagon and Reagan National Airport.
I live in Sensenbrenner's district. He's a good man. Our district is one of the most Republican in the nation and 97.4% of the county voted in the last election. He is as bullet proof as an elected official can get.
I am wondering if he was put up to this by the President. Does W want tougher immigration laws and does he want to shore up the lisencing requirements? Probably yes. But he has to be very careful how he introduces these changes. He may be working with Sensenbrenner behind the scenes to plant some seeds. Who better to do this than a representative chairing a powerful committee from a very Repubican district?
Sensenbrenner would see the need to be the one to do this and would not only go along, but take the ball and run if he thought it was best for the country.
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