Posted on 11/18/2003 4:51:22 PM PST by holyscroller
SEATTLE -- Terrorists are using Canada as a launching pad to illegally enter America.
An exclusive KIRO Team 7 Investigation uncovers not only are terrorist recruitments going on in British Columbia, but holes in border security between there and Western Washington are an open gate, letting terrorists walk right in.
KIRO Team 7 Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne exposes the threat from Vancouver.
This city wants to be known as our friendly neighbor to the north and host for the 2010 Winter Games.
However, a KIRO Team 7 Investigation discovered it's also home to 55 known terrorist organizations, some of which would do anything to kill Americans.
Hezbollah, Hamas, the Armed Islamic Group, al-Qaida, and the Army of Mohammed aren't confined to terrorist training camps in the Middle East. National security insiders tell KIRO Team 7 Investigators hundreds of seasoned terrorists are hanging out in British Columbia.
"Those people have a hate for this country," said Carey James, retired Border Patrol Chief and current undersheriff of Whatcom County. "Some of the intelligence I had access to said there were terror groups; organizations from all over the world. Every group you can think of has a cell in the Vancouver area."
The sleeper cells aren't just sitting idle.
The Royal Mounted Police tell KIRO Team 7 Investigators al-Qaida is dealing drugs in Vancouver to raise money for its cause. Justice Department sources also tell us this year known terrorists have been probing our porous border just north of Seattle.
"It's a genuine threat to this country," said former U.S. Border Patrol Deputy Chief Gene Davis.
Davis continues to advise Congress about northern border security.
"I'm telling you the threat up there has not diminished one bit. It's probably greater now than ever before and greater right here in this area," Davis said.
KIRO Team 7 Investigators uncovered some pretty scary lapses already. A smuggler successfully walked a group of Pakistani men down a pipeline underneath a broken border camera this summer. Authorities caught two at Sea-Tac Airport, but as many as five others remain at large.
"I think it's well known what can potentially cross the border. They've already crossed," said Daryl Schermerhorn.
Schermerhorn is a current Border Patrol agent along the Blaine sector, a 40-mile stretch of Canadian-U.S. border.
He says the biggest problem agents have right now of stopping potential terrorists is a new Border Patrol mandate: Don't arrest anyone, just chase them back into Canada.
"If you're making arrests, bringing them to the office, identifying them, interrogating them -- then you can gather intelligence. You can't gather intelligence from people you don't arrest."
No arrests mean the terrorist watch list is useless.
"If you're not going to catch 'em, don't know who they are, how you gonna check the list?"
Adding to security problems, the new super-computer remote cameras established to catch trespassers along the northern border still don't work as promised.
KIRO Team 7 Investigation first broke the story last year and very little has changed: $8 million over budget and cameras break down every day.
"It's been shown time and time again that they don't work well in certain weather conditions and those issues haven't been addressed," said Schermerhorn.
Due to national security reasons, KIRO Team 7 Investigators aren't going to reveal the exact location of this camera pole, but we do want to reveal one of the great deficiencies here. There are supposed to be two cameras, one for day and one for night. But agents tell us, the night vision broke months ago and there are no spare parts to replace it.
The Justice Department has ordered at least 400 new agents be assigned to the northern border in the coming months. We're told top officials in Washington, D.C., are nervous that the next big terrorist attack will have Canadian roots.
Canadian House of Common member Val Meredith hopes that's not true, but admits her government has been lax.
"We're very critical that the government hasn't moved strong enough, fast enough, in identifying the terrorist organizations like Hamas," said Meredith.
This Member of Parliament also warns us to look within. She says there is proof already that terrorist recruiting is occurring at local Mosques.
We're not just talking about foreigners; we're talking about our own young people being pulled into this circle of violence and terrorism.
International security experts say that since 9/11, Canadian immigration policies have toughened up. However, some members of parliament say prior to that, Canada did allow some well-known terrorists to slip into Vancouver. Then they disappeared.
No sh*t Sherlock.
And the Seattle City Council, SEA FBI, Hate Free Zone, CAIR, Osama Bin Murray, Bahgdad Jim McDermott, and a thousand other America-hating, Jew-hating SOB's welcome them with open arms.
The jihadis are allowed free reign in Seattle and environs because of their fellow travelers.
Interesting dose of reality but still no excuse for the near total lack of security at present.
You are going to need to have five times as many agents on the border with five times more support staff if you want a true tightening. Do you think that you can get people to go for it when most see no great harm in illegal border crossers?
While much work remains to be done, your statement is not entirely accurate.
Pre 9-11 there were just over 300 Border Patrol Agents assigned to the 4,000 mile US Canadian border. As of this coming January there will be over 1,000 agents and the numbers will continue to grow.
Another significant enforcement improvement was removing the Border Patrol from the INS, which was an agency so liberal, and politically correct they would make the State Department blush.
Just to give you an idea of what the Clinton administration did to border enforcement they picked a Commissioner who was working at the time for the Carnagy Endowment for Peace, the Deputy Commissioner when she left the INS went to the UN High Commission for Refugees. These were the people charged with defending our borders. 9-11 was only a matter time with those people running things.
The Bush Administration has at least assigned enforcement minded senior managers and I believe takes border enforcement seriously. Now if we could just convince them to take on immigration policy with the same zeal as border enforcement as they are inescapably connected.
Pre 9-11 there were just over 300 Border Patrol Agents assigned to the 4,000 mile US Canadian border. As of this coming January there will be over 1,000 agents and the numbers will continue to grow.
Another significant enforcement improvement was removing the Border Patrol from the INS...
It is not my position that needs worked for accuracy. If you are calling the addition of 700 agents a serious effort given the scope of the problem and the seriousness of the threat, it is you that needs to go back to the post drafting board.
With all due respect, you sound like a politico trying to spin us.
To put it in perspective the shortcomings of what you call progress, contrast the present "effort" to what you imagine a FReeper would set out to do if given the assignment of securing our borders. For starters, government haranging of southern border ranchers trying only to protect their property would not be on the agenda.
I'm sorry, but your reply is as inadequate as the present border control effort. It is so weak, in fact, I wonder if perhaps you are a Bush Administration media agent using this board to difuse this issue politically.
"That says it all..."
Of course, I speak of the military. Certainly, there are training bases in the U.S. that are presently stationed well within our borders that could be relocated to the borders. Certainly, there are highly trained U.S. military personnel in countries that are not friendly to us. We can bring them home.
Now, to get back into the box everyone seems to be thinking in, when the libs and the dems complain about "militarization" of the border, it simply gets spun for the media: They are not guarding the border, it is a border incursion training program.
In response to their next retort that the U.S. is being turned into a police state, we remind the libs they are free to leave.
700 agents is a significant increase and I might add they came at a significant operational cost because they were all transferred off the southern border. While this article does bring needed attention to the threat we face on the northern border we are no less vulnerable on the southern border.
No less significant is the complete lack of agent support infrastructure with has existed on the northern border. You can’t just snap your fingers and re-deploy 1,000 agents and expect them to be effective. There is a host of support infrastructure from facilities, vehicles, communications and technology that needs to be included. All I am saying is that the prior administration did nothing on the northern border and our current one is making an effort. To say they are doing nothing is unmerited by the facts.
With all due respect, you sound like a politico trying to spin us.
I call it how I see it.
To put it in perspective the shortcomings of what you call progress, contrast the present "effort" to what you imagine a FReeper would set out to do if given the assignment of securing our borders. For starters, government haranging of southern border ranchers trying only to protect their property would not be on the agenda.
From what I have observed it’s not the federal government haranging them it’s the state and locals prodded on by the CBOs, the media and local opportunist politicians.
I'm sorry, but your reply is as inadequate as the present border control effort. It is so weak, in fact, I wonder if perhaps you are a Bush Administration media agent using this board to difuse this issue politically.
This issue does not need to be defused actually the more people need to become aware and involved. I will end by saying this, all the Border Patrol Agents, military on the border and even a bearded lady will not be enough to secure our borders if we don’t fix our immigration policy first.
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