Access Of Evil (terrorism implications of the unsecure border)

Investor's Business Daily ^ | 1-23-05

[inquest]

The arrest in January 2005 of Noel Exinia and Cesario Nunez appeared on the surface to be just another drug bust. But court documents obtained by the Brownsville (Texas) Herald show the necessity of surveillance of overseas call and e-mails.

They also show why Osama bin Laden's latest audiotape warning of a new attack that Homeland Security won't be able to stop should be taken seriously.

Both Exinia and Nunez eventually pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy charges, including moving more than a quarter-ton of cocaine from Mexico through the Rio Grande Valley and on to New York City. But court documents filed in Exinia's case contain details of a December 2004 incident where he allegedly tried to secure transportation for 20 Middle Eastern men waiting to enter the U.S. from Puebla, Monterrey and Chiapas in Mexico.

As the Herald reported, "Recorded conversations authorized under the U.S. Patriot Act and a court order captured the (suspect) referring to the 20 men as 'gente de Osama,' or 'Osama's people.' " During a Jan. 5, 2005, conversation, Exinia described the men as "Iraqis," ages 25 to 33, who were willing to pay $8,000 for transportation past Border Patrol checkpoints in South Texas and into the U.S. interior.

Could they have been terrorists? Coast Guard Adm. James Loy, who was acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security before the swearing-in of Michael Chertoff, told the Senate Intelligence Committee last year: "Several al-Qaida leaders believe operatives can pay their way through Mexico and also believe illegal entry is more advantageous than legal entry for operational security reasons." Recent information, he added, showed "al-Qaida has considered using the Southwest border to infiltrate the United States."

[inquest]

On a lot of the threads dealing with illegal immigration from Mexico, we still have a few people show up insisting that the terror threat from there is non-existent because the 9/11 terrorists entered "legally". Well, guess what? Drug dealers bring in drugs through "legal" channels as well as by illegally jumping the border, and there's every indication that terrorists are similarly diversified in their approach.

[afnamvet]

Rep. Solomon Ortiz, a Democrat from Corpus Christi and former sheriff of Nuences County, said the information found in court documents underscores the U.S.-Mexico border's vulnerability to terrorist infiltration. "We know there are terrorist cells in the United States," he told the Herald. "These guys are coming through the back door."

Ortiz reports that local ranchers have found clothing native to the Middle East and items such as Sudanese money in the South Texas brush and that al-Qaida is trying to use the MS-13 gang (Mara Salvatruchas) "to move high value al-Qaida operatives across the border for a large sum of money."

The threat from an open border is real. Secure our borders NOW.

[mtbopfuyn]

But they're guests of Al-Jorge.

[robowombat]

Even a couple years ago, after 9-11, there was a vitriolic chorus of abuse directed by certain Freepers at anyone who raised the issue of border security being linked to stopping terrorist infiltration. There was also a lot of abuse of anyone who took a strongly anti-illegal (pardon me undocumented Americans)immigrant position. We were vilified as racists and xenophobes. This article states in spades just what many of us said back then. The Islamos are exploiting the porous border. The current administration for a complex of reasons related to borderless world commercial ideology, attempts to woo Hispanic voters, and campaign contributions by industries such as agribusiness and food processing that profits from use of illegals is wedded to using intelligence gathering and interception strategies rather than sealing the frontiers to head off terrorists. No matter how good our intel gathering is sheer numbers of islamos stealing in will bring terrorists into our midst as well as making much of the southern frontier the property of bands of heavily armed narco-terrorists.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Correct! Only a moron could be blind to this.

[inquest]

Even a couple years ago, after 9-11, there was a vitriolic chorus of abuse directed by certain Freepers at anyone who raised the issue of border security being linked to stopping terrorist infiltration.

A few of them are still around, but their numbers are dwindling. The owner has apparently gotten fed up with their antics, which were becoming more and more transparent over time. When the facts are so decisively arrayed against them, it's not like they really have much option but to ratchet up the moonbat factor to the point where it becomes their undoing.

[Tammy8]

The reason it has been so hard to convince people that the Mexican border is a terrorist risk is because most who do not live on the border do not know what really happens here. The politicians and the media do not want them to know. So many times when we try to get the truth out, even here on FR, we are met with disbelief, "That can't be true, it would be all over the news!" is the response I have often heard.

I give credit to the Minutemen for getting the truth out, they more than anyone managed to get the media to at least report some of what happens here. Also the Border Patrol and other LE officers are speaking out and contacting the media even though they are under orders to keep quiet.

The reason BP & LE officers are finally speaking out is because they realize if the border policies are not drastically changed they will likely lose their life in this border war zone that our country refuses to recognize.