Is a Terrorist Army Massing in the U.S.?

Is there is an invisible army of terrorists gathering in America today? The mainstream media and the Bush administration do not want to talk about it.

In July, Defense Watch reported that, in Arizona, an area called the Naco Strip has become a primary route of illegal entry by “significant numbers of Arab-speaking males.” It took a small town weekly newspaper, the Tombstone Tumbleweed, to reveal that, “males of possible Syrian and Iranian descent have been detained in the past few weeks.” Since October 1, 2003, 5,510 illegal aliens designated “Other Than Mexican” (OTM) have been apprehended while crossing the Arizona terrain. These OTM’s are not here to pick vegetables, mow lawns, pluck chickens, or wash cars.

Just do the math. If only five Muslim terrorists crossed the border every day for a year that would add up to 1,825 people ready to do the bidding of Osama bin Laden. If this has been going on for just the years since 9-11, that’s an army of 5,475. Then, too, there are an estimated 2.9 million Muslims in America. Extremists, worldwide, are estimated to be about ten percent of the overall population. Applied to the U.S., that represents a potential 290,000 American Muslims sympathetic to the Islamist cause. No matter how you slice and dice the numbers, it suggests that a substantial threat exists and is exacerbated by the failure to stop terrorists at our borders.

They constitute a virtual army of terrorists who, if not apprehended, could create a day of havoc from coast to coast when al Qaeda gives the signal. When that day comes, remember that you read about it here first.

Or, as some argue, there’s no proof that any al Qaeda operatives have crossed the border. If, however, any were captured, normal counter-terrorism procedures would be to deny this and seek to extract information from those in custody.The 9-11 operatives were here thanks to sloppy immigration procedures and, in the case of illegal aliens, the estimates are that eight to twelve million live among us. That is a huge margin for error.

The topic the Bush administration wants to stay away from until after November 2, Election Day is immigration. Some have called the Bush administration immigration policies “schizophrenic”, but they are not. They are globalist, i.e., the views of someone for whom national borders should be regarded as outmoded while we all join hands in one big, global neighborhood.

One can understand the “schizophrenic” label, given the hue and cry about Bush’s so-called unilateralism and willingness “to go it alone”, but this is the same administration that supports a variety of policies that are globalist, most of which come straight out of the United Nations. The way civics is taught in our schools today is designed to create generations of globalists for whom our national sovereignty and the Bill of Rights are just a bunch of 18th century “ideas.”

There are a number of problems with this see-no-evil immigration policy. On August 10, Jerry Seper of the Washington Times, reported that, under President Bush’s guest-worker program, “Millions of illegal aliens in the United States would be free from arrest and deportation, have access to tax-deferred savings accounts and Social Security credits, and get unrestricted travel to and from their home countries.” This constitutes a massive dollar transfer to Mexico.

Homeland Security Undersecretary, Asa Hutchinson, responsible for the nation’s borders and transportation security, has apparently lost his senses. In a recently reported response to questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, Hutchinson supported the Bush immigration policies while acknowledging that the “incentives” being offered illegal aliens are generous to a fault. The National Border Patrol Council that represents 10,000 of the non-supervisory agents called the guest-worker plan a “slap in the face to anyone who has ever tried to enforce the immigration laws of the United States."

In January 2004, the Mexican government acknowledged that the number of their people entering the US illegally had increased 66% from 1990 to 2002. Naturally, Mexico’s president, Vicente Fox, wants Bush to grant de facto amnesty to an estimated eight to eleven million illegal aliens already working in the United States, the majority of whom are Mexican. Amnesty and any other program of this nature is simply a reward for breaking the laws of the United States of America. There are even some voices suggesting they should be given the right to vote!

One little discussed cost of the open door policy being pursued by the Bush administration is the increase in the cost of law enforcement where illegal aliens gather in numbers. Right now, according to Seper, “About 80,000 illegal criminal aliens, including convicted murders, rapists, drug dealers, and child molesters who served prison time and were releases, are loose on the streets of America, hiding from federal immigration authorities.”

They don’t have to hide that hard. According the figures for 2002 from the former Immigration and Naturalization Service and from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, more than 375,000 known illegal aliens have been ordered deported, but have disappeared pending immigration hearings. Lee Boyd Malvo, the sniper who terrorized the Washington area, was one of them.

Recently, Brazil agreed to step up the policing of the Triple Border Area with Paraguay and Argentina. According to a Washington Times editorial, “It has long been identified as a fund-raising, training and procurement haven for diverse terrorist groups, including al Qaeda and Hezbollah.” The ease with which terrorists could be infiltrated into the US from these South American strongholds cannot be underestimated.

When the facts are examined, there are few good reasons to permit the massive daily influx of Mexicans and other illegal aliens, but there is one very good reason to shut it down completely.

Al-Qaida Said to
Recruit in Latin America
By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ - 22 August 2004
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040822/D84K4Q5O0.html

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) - Governments throughout Mexico and Central America are on alert as evidence grows that al-Qaida members are traveling in the region and looking for recruits to carry out attacks in Latin America - the potential last frontier for international terrorism.

The territory could be a perfect staging ground for Osama bin Laden's militants, with homegrown rebel groups, drug and people smugglers, and corrupt governments. U.S. officials have long feared al-Qaida could launch an attack from south of the border, and they have been paying closer attention as the number of terror-related incidents has increased since last year.

The strongest possible al-Qaida link is Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a 29- year-old Saudi pilot suspected of being a terrorist cell leader. The FBI issued a border-wide alert earlier this month for Shukrijumah, saying he may try to cross into Arizona or Texas.

In June, Honduran officials said Shukrijumah was spotted earlier this year at an Internet cafe in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. Panamanian officials say the pilot and alleged bombmaker passed through their country before the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in May singled out Shukrijumah as one of seven especially dangerous al-Qaida-linked terror figures wanted by the government, which fears a new al-Qaida attack. A $5 million reward is posted for information leading to his capture.

Mexican and U.S. border officials have been on extra alert, checking foreign passports and arresting any illegal migrants. In a sign of a growing Mexican crackdown, eight people from Armenia, Iran and Iraq were arrested Thursday in Mexicali on charges they may have entered Mexico with false documents, although they did not appear to have any terrorist ties.

Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, Mexico's top anti-crime prosecutor, said Mexican officials have no evidence that Shukrijumah - or any other al-Qaida operatives - are in Mexico. But Mexican authorities are investigating and keeping a close eye on the airports and borders.

"The alert has been sounded," Vasconcelos told The Associated Press last month.

In Central America, Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez said officials have uncovered evidence that terrorists, likely from al- Qaida, may be trying to recruit Hondurans to carry out attacks in Central America. He did not offer details.

El Salvador authorities last week reinforced security at the country's international airport and along the borders after purported al-Qaida threats appeared on the Internet against their country for supporting the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. President Tony Saca, undeterred, is sending the country's third peacekeeping unit - 380 troops - to Iraq.

Terrorists have struck in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the United States. Latin America could be next, analysts say, especially as it becomes harder to operate elsewhere.

"If there is a crackdown, they are going to pick up shop and move," said Matt Levitt, a terrorism analyst and senior fellow at the Washington Institute.

Officials worry the Panama Canal could be a likely target. In 2003, boats making more than 13,000 trips through the waterway carried about 188 million tons of cargo.

Earlier this month, the United States and seven Latin American countries - including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Peru and Panama - carried out a weeklong anti- terror exercise aimed at protecting the canal.

In South America, U.S. officials have long suspected Paraguay's border with Brazil and Argentina as an area for Islamic terrorist fund-raising. Much of the focus has fallen on the Muslim community that sprouted during the 1970s, and authorities believe as much as $100 million a year flows out of the region, with large portions diverted to Islamic militants linked to Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The more immediate concern is Mexico, which shares a porous, 2,000- mile border with the United States and is the home to widespread organized crime.

In December, Mexican officials canceled two Aeromexico flights from Mexico City to Los Angeles, and a third was forced to turn around after takeoff because of terrorism concerns.

At the time, the United States, Canada and Interpol told Mexico that officials suspected terrorists might be using Mexican soil to plan an attack, Vasconcelos said.

Concerns increased this summer about whether Mexico was doing enough to screen international visitors after a 48-year-old South African woman arrived in Mexico with a passport that was missing several pages and then waded across the Rio Grande into Texas.

Farida Goolam Mahamed Ahmed was arrested July 19 while trying to board a flight in McAllen, Texas. She pleaded innocent Friday to immigration violations and was under investigation for links to terrorist activities or groups. Court testimony indicated she traveled from Johannesburg on July 8, via Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to London, then to Mexico City on or about July 14. The countries she traveled through do not require South Africans to have visas.

Mexican officials said Ahmed was not stopped upon entering Mexico because her name did not appear on any international terrorist watch- lists.

Mexican officials say they are closely scrutinizing visa requests from the Middle East and have heightened surveillance at the nation's largest airports since Sept. 11.

"The requirements for a visa for people from the Middle East have not changed, but all requests are being checked more thoroughly,"

said Mauricio Juarez, a spokesman with Mexico's Migration Institute.

The country is a popular U.S. entry point for people trying to sneak into the United States, and the majority - 46 percent - of all people arrested on immigration violations in Mexico come from Brazil. The rest are largely from the Americas, China or Singapore.

It has become nearly impossible for people from Muslim countries to get visas to come to Mexico since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Fayesa Amin, a 37-year-old Pakistani, started the process to get a Mexican visa two months before she was to attend a wedding in Mexico. The Mexican consulate in Karachi asked her to fill out several forms and to turn in copies of her credit card and bank statements for a full year.

Amin, who runs three beauty salons in Pakistan, said Mexican authorities told her a visa had been approved and it could be picked up in London. But Mexican officials there said her visa was being held in Ankara, Turkey. In the end, she ended up spending her holiday stranded in London.

"I knew it would be hard to get to that part of the world and that everything had become more difficult," Amin said in a telephone interview from Islamabad. "But I didn't realize how hard it could be."

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