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http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=17216

"Al-Qaeda's Illegal Immigration Threat"
By Mark Landsbaum
FrontPageMagazine.com | March 7, 2005

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The convergence of terrorist threats, a nuclear weapon black-market, a porous national border and escalating illegal immigration is finally attracting the attention the growing crisis deserves. Unfortunately, the attention is being paid by terrorists, not by the U.S. government.

“Several al-Qaeda leaders believe operatives can pay their way into the country through Mexico and also believe illegal entry is more advantageous than legal entry for operational security reasons,” Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Admiral James Loy testified on February 16 before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “At home, we must prepare ourselves for any attack, from IEDs (improvised explosive devices) to Weapons of Mass Destruction…from soft targets like malls to national icons.” Loy is hardly a lone voice.

“Al-Qaeda is intent on finding ways to circumvent U.S. security enhancements to strike Americans and the homeland,” CIA director Porter Goss told the committee, adding “it may be only a matter of time before al-Qaeda or another group attempts to use chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons.”

FBI director Robert Mueller reinforced the ominous assessment, explaining that the FBI’s top concerns are covert operatives, who may already be in the country planning attacks. Additionally, there are increasing reports that al-Qaeda seeks Weapons of Mass Destruction, and concerns terrorists will recruit radical Americans to their cause.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who testified to the House Armed Services Committee last week, warned of “troubling” evidence pointing to terrorists seeking non-conventional weaponry. In Rumsfeld’s words, “We can reasonably predict that future foes might use cyberattack or Weapons of Mass Destruction.”"