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.
I haven’t heard of the Border Patrol or any other feds arresting them. I haven’t heard of the US attorney’s office prosecuting them.
Let's see if I have your position correct on this. 1). The federal government totally or nearly totally ignores its responsibility to protect our borders causing the problem in the first instance,
I grant you they can and should do more.
2). Then you say it is none of the federal governments business when states and local governments step in to mitigate conflicts arising with ordinary citizens stepping in to protect their property and do what the federal government should have been doing in the first place.
Actually I have not seen the state and local governments doing anything to mitigate the problem. Quite the contrary most are working to undercut what little enforcement the feds have mounted by offering drivers licensees, forbidding their officers to assist the feds, offering a long list for free services and shielding illegals from the feds.
And please, don't bring up the 700 additional agents again. It is insulting to everyone's intellegence and, frankly, I'd think you would be embarrassed to bring it up the first time, much more so to repeat it.
What’s insulting is you portrayal of the administration having done nothing on the northern border issue. Your welcome to your opinion that they have not done enough, but to claim they have not done anything is inaccurate at best.
Using them as border guards in a civilian setting will blunt their training to the point that they are ineffective as a military force. Police and Boarder Patrol are trained to use restraint. They are dealing with only possible law breakers. They are trained to be in places where there is the law, the lawbreakers, the innocent bystander and the "not so innocent bystander but you are never going to be able to prove it in court" and respond differently to all of them.
The military on the other hand is trained to be in a war zone. Restraint will get you and your buddies killed. There are only three groups, us, them and they shouldn’t be here. You protect your buddies, kill the enemy and try not to shoot the “They shouldn’t be here”. Different training, different response.
That is why even in countries where the border guards are part of the military they are also apart. They are trained to be border guard rather the military. So we are back to where we started. You can train them to guard the border, you can train them to be police but then they will no longer be as effective as military.
At that point you might as well hire those civil servents because they likely won't be quitting in four years making it necessary for you to train a new batch.
Your quick wit at assigning positions to others that they do not hold and your complete avoidence to a very specific question tells me that you are a professional spinmeister.
You can keep spinning this nonsense but I am quite certain no one on here is buying it. Save it for CNN or the Sunday morning talking head shows.
"Using them as border guards in a civilian setting will blunt their training to the point that they are ineffective as a military force." Give me a break buddy. Do you really think people on here are that stupid?!
...And despite the rugged terrain in the more remote areas, it is not unlike the border region they trained in - Afganistan/Pakistan; A few more trees for cover to be sure.
Atos
I am sorry. I re-read your last post to me and I did not see a question there. If you would care to repeat it I will answer. I don't think I assigned a position to you either. I thought we were discussing ideas. As for me being a professional spinmeister, that is funny.
And no, I don’t think the people here are stupid. What I said about their training being blunted is a fact that has been confirmed by other countries that have tried it. Police and border guards are not military, the military is not best used being turned into police and border guards.
It may a bit more dangerous, I guess.
>>>I have no idea how they caught him...<<<
They asked him a few questions - the normal ones - and the Border Agent, a woman as I remember, noticed his nerviousness and lack of English speaking ability....so she asked him to open the trunk, at which point he started hoofing it down the highway. Some Border guys caught up with him. He had all sorts of explosive materials and bomb making stuff in the trunk.
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