Posted on 09/03/2004 1:48:07 PM PDT by 4.1O dana super trac pak
September 3, 2004 - Al Qaida may have an alliance with a violent Central American gang that has established a presence near the Texas-Mexico border, according to members of the U.S. House Select Committee on Homeland Security.
Mara Salvatrucha, an El-Salvador-based gang, has met with the terrorist group and may attempt to infiltrate the U.S. border, committee member U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz, D-Texas, said Thursday at the Veterans International Bridge at Los Tomates.
"We have been in contact with El Salvadoran officials and they have verified that al-Qaida has been active in these gangs," Ortiz said.
"(The gang members) are all over the place. We know (they) are in the Virginia area and across the border in Matamoros and possibly here."
Ortiz was joined Thursday by fellow committee members U.S. Rep. Jim Turner, D-Texas, and U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, who each expressed their concern for more cooperation among Border Patrol, the FBI and CIA.
They also pleaded with the Bush administration and fellow lawmakers to provide the funding necessary to keep the borders and country safe. The three called for an end to the practice of detaining non-Mexican undocumented immigrants - known as OTMS (other than Mexicans) - from the Middle East, Central America and South America and releasing most of them due to lack of jail space.
"Currently, our OTM policy is nothing more than a conduit for terrorist - it is a flawed system. It is profoundly wrong and needs to be corrected," Ortiz said.
The three lawmakers said that about 50,000 OTMs are detained a year in the McAllen sector alone; about 25,000 of them are released in this country. Of the 25,000, between 80 percent to 90 percent don't appear at scheduled deportation hearings.
"You know that represents a very serious security threat to this country and it's got to stop," Turner said. "And we are here today calling upon the President and the administration to take the action that is necassary to provide the detention cells and facilities that we need today, now..."
Jackson Lee also called for more jail space and additional U.S. Border Patrol posts.
"Immigration does not equate with terrorists, but terrorists do exist," she said.
The committee members' concern has been heightened with the new developments of al-Qaida and Mara Salvatrucha, Ortiz indicated.
"This would be a dangerous, new development of international criminal enterprises to expand the (al-Qaida) threat to non-Islamic forces, and it should be examined more fully by law enforcement and intelligence forces," Ortiz said.
Ortiz also noted that he has intelligence reports that Middle Easterners have been sighted on the banks of the Rio Grande.
"We are not here to alarm the community, but we have a responsibility to protect our homeland and to give those in the front line of defense, which is the Border Patrol and local police department, what they need," Ortiz said.
Turner said; "The truth of the matter is the porous border that we have, particularly our southern border, represents one of the greatest security gaps that we have in this country today in the war on terror.
"We have got to recognize the reality and likelihood that terrorist cells are already in our country and are certainly trying to get here. We have got to make the investments in homeland security that are neccassary to make this country safe."
The three lawmakers met with Border Patrol and other federal officials prior to the press conference and they noted that the federal employees are dedicated to their jobs and they do their best with what they have.
Jackson Lee said there is not sufficient staff within the U.S. Border Patrol and said she encountered one agent who had 1,200 files.
"It is impossible to do the job the way they need to do it," she said.
"Needless to say, Americans are concerned about terrorism. Texans are concerned and certainly those in this region have to be concerned."
I guess another case of history impersonating art.
I have been putting off getting that CPL, but maybe it is time.
Texas ping. . .
-ping-
In 1986, Nicaraguan defector Alberto Suhr related to U.S. reporters what he and other Sandinista cadres had been told by Tomas Borge, the Sandinista interior minister. Borge, a ruthless henchman trained by Castro's DGI, instructed his comrades: "We have Nicaragua, soon we will have El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and Mexico. One day, tomorrow or 15 years from now, we're going to take 5 to 10 million Mexicans and they're going to have one thing in mind - cross the border, go into Dallas, go into Houston, go into New Mexico, go into San Diego, and each one has embedded in his mind the idea of killing 10 Americans."
> Hopefully they wake up and secure the mexican border.
Not until the problem becomes painfully obvious.
And neither Bush nor Kerry is touching this issue.
Offering Mexico the option of becoming the 51st state
is probably the only long term solution to both our
immigration problem and their corruption problems.
How would it solve their corruption "problem"?
I'd go for that.
If we have a terrorist incident that came about because of Bush's perplexing chumminess with Vicente, there'll be a lot of conservatives who will not rise to defend him.
I've read about this gang. They're not confined to Texas and Virginia.
They are all over Long Island, New York.
Yes, that's right. LA too, I think.
Frightening!
I hope you're right about waiting until after the election, but I'm skeptical.
"getting that CPL, but maybe it is time."
Had mine for years. Go for it.
http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/administration/crime_records/chl/chlsindex.htm
al-Qaida, et al..........might as well call these groups the Brotherhood of Nod.
How about a damn wall.... you idiots!!!! Stop with the Oprah Winfrey approach and get down to business. These people make me sick!! Seal the borders completely and junt down every illegal here and DEPORT THEM!! It is ILLEGAL to be here without permission, WE NEED TO ENFORCE THE LAW! To hell with political correctness! Our lives are on the line here and someday we will pay for our failure to secure our borders.
>> Offering Mexico the option of becoming the 51st state
>> is probably the only long term solution to both our
>> immigration problem and their corruption problems.
> How would it solve their corruption "problem"?
By getting some outside law enforcement to work on it.
My impression is that the entire national LE & military
hierarchy there is hopelessly corrupt.
Closing the border works for me too, but just delays
fixing the problem.
Hopefully they wake up and secure the mexican border.
Yes, hopefully, unlike during Clinton's administration when such warnings were widely dismissed, our borders weakened, and defense spending diminished. And this sounds even more serious, that gang is described as quite violent. I guess the groups that lobby for the 'return' of much of our southwest to Mexico have just turned up the heat a little, joining up with AQ.
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