Al-Qaida evidence along U.S. border?

A U.S. senator says he's been shown "anecdotal evidence" suggesting an Arabic presence along the U.S.-Mexico border, noting the Bush administration has not publicly released the information because it is "a matter of intelligence."

Human Events reported that Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, head of the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship, has seen beverage boxes with Arabic language and other items, including the image of a commercial airliner striking a building.

Cornyn, who is working with other senators to craft legislation that supports President Bush's proposed guest-worker program but adds stricter border and worksite enforcement measures, also told the magazine he thought it plausible that terrorists could easily find their way into the United States because of large, isolated and rural gaps in America's southwest border region.

"The message that America wants to hear, and the message that America needs, is security," Cornyn told the magazine. "We're seeing that now, not just in places like Texas and border states, but also across the nation. People realize instinctively in a post-9/11 world that we have to know who is coming into our country and why they are here. We have no confidence of that now."

Saying he had "no information" as to whether members of the al Qaida terrorist organization, or other similar groups, had already infiltrated through the U.S.-Mexico border, Cornyn said such an undertaking would be "easy to do."

"To me, it's just obvious, because if you have an open door for someone to walk through, why would you climb over the wall. I think, essentially, our border in between our points of entry are – it's the wild, wild West," he told Human Events.

In testimony Nov. 10 before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims, Culberson – a member of the congressional Immigration Reform Caucus headed by Colorado Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo – told the panel, "I am particularly concerned that aliens from countries such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, Indonesia and the Sudan are entering our country illegally."

He went on to tell members he questioned FBI Director Robert Mueller Jr. during a hearing before the House Science, State, Justice, Commerce Appropriations Subcommittee in March and asked him specifically "about SIAs entering the United States across the southern border."

"… He testified under oath that this was in fact occurring," Culberson said, according to his testimony transcript, a copy of which was obtained by WND. "Specifically, [Mueller] stated that '[t]he FBI has received reports that individuals from countries with known al-Qaida connections have attempted to enter the U.S. illegally using alien smuggling rings and assuming Hispanic appearances. An FBI investigation into these reports continues.'"

During a visit to the border in October, Culberson said he "met with a number of sheriffs from the counties along the border" who then "briefed me in detail on several cases involving terrorist activity, narco-terrorist activity, violent gangs such as MS-13 and the increased violence in their counties."

After returning to Washington, he said he had spoken with a number of colleagues, sharing "stories and pictures."

"I was not surprised to hear that many of them said they felt safer during trips to Iraq than they would have in a pickup truck on our southern border," Culberson told the House panel.

Another member of Congress, Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., told the Charlotte Observer newspaper earlier this month U.S. authorities had detained al-Qaida operatives along the southwestern border, but a spokesman from her office later retracted those comments.

"It turns out she was reading information from the previous year," Myrick spokesman Andy Polk told WND. " There is no threat to the border from al-Qaida that we know of, or anything like that."

Action Alert We Need Your Help Now!!

Oppose the "One Face at the Border" initiative Email your Members of Congress asking them to oppose the "One Face at the Border" initiative

In 2003, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the creation of a new Customs and Border Protection Officer (CBPO) position and the “One Face at the Border” initiative. Under this plan, a new position, the CBPO, would combine the duties of legacy inspectors from Customs, the Immigration and Nationalization Service (INS) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) into a single front-line border security position. With 41,000 employees, CBP is in control of 317 official ports-of-entry for travelers and cargo.

Essentially, the “One Face at the Border” initiative was aimed at unifying the inspection process that travelers entering the United States have to go through. Instead of making three stops – an Immigration Inspector, a Customs Inspector and an Agriculture Inspector – travelers would meet with a single primary inspections officer who was specially trained to do the job of all three.

Consolidating these three organizations has caused logistical and institutional chaos and has taken attention away from critical homeland security priorities. It is true that all three of these organizations deal with front line border and port security, but they do so in very different capacities.

Please copy and paste this and email your Members of Congress asking them to oppose the "One Face at the Border" initiative and support a detailed, independent review of the proposal.

The following is a transcript copy of U.S. Rep. JOHN CULBERSON (R.Tex.) on Hannity & Colmes - Fox News Channel TV cable program and the link is:

http://www.culberson.house.gov/news.aspx?A=195

Date: 11/18/05

Transcript of Culberson's Appearance on Fox News Channel's Hannity and Colmes

ALAN COLMES: Welcome back to "Hannity & Colmes." I'm Alan Colmes.

Still to come why did a college professor organize a boycott of a speech by an Iraq War vet? We'll have the exclusive story coming up.

But first, Texas Republican Congressman John Culberson has introduced legislation to help law enforcement officials identify and to detain people who are sneaking in the U.S. illegally. He says known terrorists have recently been apprehended at our borders. And he joins us now with the details.

Representative, what are you saying when you say known terrorists? What are you talking about?

REP. JOHN CULBERSON (R), TEXAS: Well, in fact the FBI director, Robert Mueller, first testified to our subcommittee in appropriations that the FBI has knowledge of individuals from countries with known Al Qaeda connections who have entered the United States leaving false Hispanic identities, pretending to be illegal immigrants and entering the country and disappearing.

I then followed that lead to the river, went to Laredo, went to the Rio Grande River, saw firsthand the war on terror going on there. And the Hudspeth County sheriff, Arvin West, and the Brewster County, Ronnie Dodson, confirmed for me that they had an Al Qaeda terrorist, an Iraqi national who was on the FBI's terrorist list as an Al Qaeda member in the Brewster County jail. He had been apprehended by Mexican authorities, handed over by the Mexican authorities to the Hudspeth County sheriff, with whom the Mexican authorities had a good working relationship...

COLMES: What do you know about terrorist training camps along the border, along the U.S. border?

CULBERSON: Yes. In fact, the sheriff of Cameron County, and all of the sheriffs along the border, confirm that there are today in operation, in the open, in Mexico just across from Brownsville, at least one -- and probably three -- narco-terrorist training camps, run by the Zetas, a paramilitary force that is the muscle and the army for the gulf cartel. It appears there may be, the sheriffs tell me, another narco-terrorist training camp operating outside of Del Rio, about 40 miles southwest...

COLMES: Are they on this? Are they on top of it? Are we doing a good enough job stopping these people from getting in? You've said they've apprehended one who may be in McNairy, Texas, I believe, in a cell.

CULBERSON: Yes. This...

COLMES: So are they doing a god job stopping these people?

CULBERSON: Well, the sheriffs are completely outnumbered and outgunned. And the border patrol, we don't have enough border patrol agents on the border.

So in a bipartisan effort to restore law and order on the border, my good friend and Democrat colleagues, Congressman Silvestre Reyes, Congressman Henry Cuellar, and a number of Republican congressmen, we authorized legislation to send money and authority to the border sheriffs. They're locally elected. They're accountable. They know the territory and the people. And they can respond the most quickly to this -- what is a real national security emergency, because the border is unprotected.

These -- this Al Qaeda terrorist that was in the Brewster County jail, confirmed again by the sheriff there in Brewster and Hudspeth County, was taken away by the FBI, Alan, and to an unknown location about six weeks ago.

And the border patrol congressional office confirmed for me tonight that this is not the first time that Mexican authorities have handed over an Arab from a country with known Al Qaeda connections to a local sheriff across the border. FBI picks them up and disappears and -- yes, sir.

SEAN HANNITY: It's a Sean Hannity. I don't have a lot of time. I want to make sure I get this in. This is important.

You're saying within the last six weeks that we know for a fact that Al Qaeda terrorists have crossed our border and are in the United States? Can you say this with a fact, with a certainty?

CULBERSON: Yes. Yes. Yes, sir. And I encourage you to contact the Hudspeth County sheriff, Arvin West, Sean. I want to put him in touch -- or Sheriff Ziggy Gonzalez. In particular, Arvin West from Hudspeth County, contact him. You need to put this man on the air, and let him tell you straight up. He will testify from his own experience what he goes through.

HANNITY: Are you going...

CULBERSON: And he'll testify that this guy was handed over.

HANNITY: Congressman, are you going just based on what he's telling you or are you going based on the evidence that you've seen? And do you have any other evidence to corroborate this?

CULBERSON: Both Sheriff West and Sheriff Dodson, the two sheriffs from Hudspeth and Brewster County, had this information confirmed for them by the FBI and the Department of Justice, who came down, and this guy was on the FBI's Al Qaeda list of terrorists. He was picked up and questioned. First, questioned carefully by the FBI and then picked up and taken out of the Brewster County jail.

And I just discovered tonight, Sean, the border patrol confirmed that this is not the first time that an Arab from a special interest country, a country with known Al Qaeda connections, has been handed over by the Mexicans to a local sheriff and then picked up by the FBI.

The reason you can't confirm it is the FBI won't talk about it.

HANNITY: Congressman, I have a quick question.

CULBERSON: The NBC affiliate...

HANNITY: Let me ask you the last question. We're about to have this vote tonight on the Iraq pullout and the Murtha position. What is your position? We only have a second.

CULBERSON: Well, the -- I'm going to vote in support of the president of the United States, our commander in chief, in keeping the troops in Iraq until the president and our military is convinced that the mission is complete.

While our troops are there in Iraq fighting the war and chewing up the terrorists over there, we do need to protect the backdoor -- and that's our southern border -- and give the sheriffs and our border patrol and law enforcement the money and troops they need to get out there and enforce law and order on the border.

COLMES: Congressman, we thank you for being with us tonight. Thank you, sir.

CULBERSON: Thanks.

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