Posted on 10/17/2001 12:03:13 PM PDT by reillyoburbank
Syrians flood flight schools 14 enter at Dallas/Fort Worth; INS gives passport info to FBI By Paul Sperry © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com WASHINGTON ? In just the past two days, 14 Syrian men entered the U.S. through Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on student visas to attend flight schools at Fort Worth Meacham International Airport, WorldNetDaily has learned exclusively. The State Department lists Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism. The Syrian men, whose M-1 visas expire April 2002, flew in from London aboard two British Airways flights, with one group of seven arriving Sunday and the rest on Monday ? the day before the Federal Aviation Administration lifted its post-attack ban on novice pilots flying private planes solo in airspace around major metropolitan areas. "Seems that they knew the private plane ban was going to be lifted today," said an Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector at DFW. After the second wave of Syrians deplaned, INS inspectors called the FBI, which asked inspectors to photocopy their passports and other papers, according to the INS source. The men, all clean-shaven and in their early 30s, were not detained, however, and the FBI did not interview them ? although agents have recently questioned Middle Eastern students enrolled at Meacham field schools. The Syrians told immigration inspectors they came here to train to be pilots for their country's national airline. Four of the eight schools at Meacham field are run by Middle Eastern men, airport records reviewed by WorldNetDaily show. Delta-Qualiflight Aeronautics, owned by Khaled Miloud, enrolls the largest share of Middle Eastern students, according to airport sources, who say Arabic is the main language spoken at the school. Miloud did not return phone calls. The schools, using Meacham field's two runways and flight simulators, train students to fly primarily single and twin-engine aircraft. The FBI would not comment on the Syrian students. But a spokeswoman for the bureau's Dallas office said agents have been "working very closely" with INS inspectors at DFW to monitor Middle Easterners coming into the U.S. on flight-school visas. "We're getting thousands of leads here at the Dallas division, many of them concerning Middle Eastern individuals coming in and going to flight schools," Dallas FBI spokeswoman Lori Bailey told WorldNetDaily. "We have several flight schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area." INS inspectors at DFW have detained "numerous" Middle Easterners who are in violation of immigration laws, she said. But the FBI has not arrested any in connection with the PENTTBOM investigation of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. After the 9-11 hijackings, FBI agents tracked a suspicious Algerian man to another Meacham field flight school called American Flyers, WorldNetDaily has learned. According to a spokesman for American Flyers, agents questioned the man at his Fort Worth-area apartment. "He was very cooperative," he said, "and they gave him their blessing" to attend the school. The American Flyers manager says that despite "some obvious bad apples," most of the Middle Eastern students who train at American flight schools are "all right." "I get a lot of people asking me lately, 'Hey, how come you're still letting people from the Middle East train to fly at your school?'" he said. "But I tell them that before they ever get here, their applications are approved by the State Department." Indeed, foreigners applying for a student visa have to fill out a federal application, called an I-20 form, and submit it to the American embassy in their country for approval. The form includes the name and address of the U.S. flight school. "I don't know why the feds are surprised" by the number of Middle Easterners enrolled at U.S. flight schools, he said. "The information is available in advance. They know these guys' names and where they're enrolled long before they arrive here." A State Department spokesman says the Bush administration has no plans to stop issuing visas to flight-school applicants from the Middle East. "The Department of State has changed no laws and no regulations from what was in effect Sept. 10," spokesman Chris Lamora told WorldNetDaily. Meanwhile, the Justice Department has not told the INS to turn back or detain Middle Easterners entering the U.S. with flight-school visas ? not even those from countries that sponsor terrorism, such as Syria. Others on State's terror watch list include Iraq, Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Libya and Sudan. On Sunday, Osama bin Laden's lieutenant warned that another "storm of airplanes" will hit America. "Thousands of young Muslims want to die [as martyrs], and the storm of airplanes will not stop," said al-Qaida spokesman Suleiman Abu Ghaith in a propaganda video broadcast on Arab television. "The storm of airplanes will not be calmed," he said, "if it is God's will."
1. Internment camps--duh, can't do that again, although it sure sounds like a good idea to me. But our legislators would eventually force us (TAXPAYERS) to pay reparations to all those we held unfairly.
2. Deportation. Again, we can't do that, because all the legal Arabs would have to be booted out, and then their argument would be if we boot out the legal Arabs, then to have 'justice for all', we would have to boot out the legal Canadians, (good-bye Paul Shafer) and all the other internationals here on legal visas.
3. Close our borders. C'mon, this is America. It'll never happen. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses longing to be free, your arabs longing to learn to fly a plane...it's all right there on the Statue of Liberty. (OK, well, maybe not that last part, but it's implied!)
So, I don't see that the gubment has much choice. Rewrite the constitution, change our entire legal system...none of the above options seem palatable to the average politician who has sworn to uphold the laws and the constitution of the United States, so help them God...and God knows, right now, they need His help to keep that oath.
As for me, if I had my choice, I'd boot all of them out until they all became Christians...but, then, that's just me.
Excuse my WASTE of BANDWIDTH. I may not be a veteran poster or an HTML jock but I am a concerned citizen and a VIETNAM VETERAN.
But lots of them would rather 'waste' even more bandwidth pointing out the errors of your ways... pisses me off.
How many Arabic-speaking flight schools are there in the US?
The timing of this is suspect, to say the least.
After the attacks on 9/11 this is totally assanine policy of the U.S.
I apologize for not putting my tongue more prominently in my cheek...please note my post. I also said "give me your arabs longing to be pilots"... c'mon, I was joking.
and line breaks
are your friends!
Actually, it hasn't been officially declared a war. We're not fighting against a country, so much as a misguided group of people scattered around the world. I don't think they can change the immigration laws unless we have declared war against a particular nation. I'm sure I could be wrong, and the politicians are certainly within their rights to change the laws to suit this unusual situation, but until the Congress actually participates in 'declaring war', what can they really do?
BELIEVE ME, I agree with you...I want them to stop letting them in, but I don't think it's as easy to do as it would seem to us.
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