More proof that Sharon needs to retire and is fighting Israel's WOT using the Bush open border/appeasement strategy.
Nov. 29, 2005 18:55 | Updated Nov. 29, 2005 19:25
Senior Hamas operative crosses into Gaza Strip
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Only days after the Rafah border crossing was reopened, another senior Hamas operative who previously lived abroad crossed back into the Gaza Strip.
Fadel Zahar is the first high-ranking Hamas official known to return to the Gaza Strip since the border crossing was reopened last Friday. His brother, Mahmoud Zahar, is the top leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Fadel Zahar was deported from the Gaza Strip in 1991 along with three other top Hamas operatives: Imad Alami, Mustafa Kanu, and Mustafa Liddawi. Since then Zahar has been living in Sudan and Syria, where other Hamas leaders are located.
Meanwhile, Hamas on Tuesday won elections for the student council at An-Najah University. The victory is seen as a major blow to the ruling Fatah party, whose members won 34 seats as opposed to 40 for Hamas-affiliated students. The student council consists of 81 seats.
Sources at the university said that more than 84 percent of the 13,000 students participated in the vote.
As soon as the results were announced, hundreds of Hamas activists and supporters took to the streets of Nablus, Tulkarm and Jenin to celebrate the victory.
Many Hamas members who have been living in different Arab countries have returned to the Gaza Strip since Israel relinquished control over the Rafah terminal. Last week, shortly before Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas inaugurated the border crossing, another Hamas activist crossed the border into the Gaza Strip.
Rafik al-Hasanat, a senior member of Hamas who has been wanted by Israel for more than a decade, arrived through the Rafah crossing after it was opened briefly to allow stranded Palestinian passengers on the Egyptian side to return home.
Hasanat belonged to Izzaddin al-Kassam, the armed wing of Hamas; he fled to Egypt in 1993 after he learned that the IDF was searching for him because of his involvement in terror attacks. Since then he has been hiding in Sudan, Yemen, Libya and Jordan.
Hundreds of Hamas activists, chanting slogans in support of the Islamic movement, welcomed Hasanat as he arrived home.
Sources close to Hamas said many of its activists, including top leaders, have managed to return to the Gaza Strip since the Israeli pullout. Last month one of the founders of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed al-Milh, returned to the Gaza Strip after spending 20 years in different Arab countries.
Shortly after the Israeli withdrawal, three top Hamas fugitives infiltrated into the Gaza Strip. One of them, Nihro Masoud of the Jabalya refugee camp, was one of the founders of Izzaddin al-Kassam. He fled to Egypt 14 years ago and spent most of his time in Sudan.
Link:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1132475649015&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
November 29, 2005
President Bush Can't Simultaneously Remove and Reward Illegal Aliens
The President is attempting to do something that is physically impossible - he appears to want to be, or at least appear to be, in two places at one time. On the one hand, he claims he want to see the immigration laws enforced and talks about the need to remove illegal aliens who are caught near the border. He noted that the administration wants to implement "expedited removal" for aliens caught anywhere on the border. He also talked about the effort to repatriate illegal Mexican aliens to the interior of Mexico to make it more difficult for those aliens to attempt to try to run the border. Yet, his guest worker program would reward those illegal aliens who succeed in getting to the interior of the United States. These illegal aliens would be eligible to participate in his guest worker program.
We are waging a "War on Terror." The President and his administration remind us of this constantly. He stated that the guest workers would receive secure identity documents to help employers know who they are hiring. This is simply wrong! With the crush of millions of illegal aliens showing up at immigration offices around the country, it is to be expected that many of them will be undocumented aliens. Think, for a moment, what that term means. These individuals have no identity documents. Absolutely nothing would stop terrorists from showing up at an immigration office and apply for a guest worker permit under a false name. If they managed to stay 'under the radar' so that their fingerprints are not on file, it would be absolutely impossible for the immigration employees to really know the identity of the alien standing in front of him/her. Even if the person had been arrested for a minor charge the name relating to the fingerprints might still not be that person's true name. Whenever you look at an arrest record, or "rap sheet" it is not uncommon for the bad guys to have multiple identities. In fact, according to the 9/11 Commission, the 19 terrorists who attacked our nation used a total of 364 different identities. The only thing worse than no security is false security. These documents may be tamper-resistant, but if the process by which they are issued is so terribly flawed, they will not enhance our security, only provide the false illusion that they provide secure and accurate identification of the bearer of these documents.
Link:
http://counterterror.typepad.com/the_counterterrorism_blog/