Iraqis targeted W ranch - Terror team tried to sneak into Texas through Mexico

New York Daily News ^ | 3/29/03 | JAMES GORDON MEEK

[kattracks]

WASHINGTON - An Iraqi terror team armed with millions of dollars tried to get smuggled into the U.S. through Mexico to Crawford, Tex. - the site of President Bush's ranch, a law enforcement source said yesterday. The alarming attempt to infiltrate the country occurred this month, the source said.

It is not known what the Iraqis planned to do in Crawford, but Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein tried to assassinate Bush's father, the former President George Bush, in 1993.

The unidentified Iraqis wanted to hire smugglers to sneak them into the U.S. because they "wanted to get to the Crawford ranch," according to the well-placed law enforcement source. They also asked a Mexican doctor and a lawyer named Claudio to change about $100 million in Iraqi dinars into U.S. currency - about $325 million.

Secret Service officials would not comment yesterday about the possible threat or the suspects' whereabouts.

The President and First Lady Laura Bush spend most of their downtime on the 1,600-acre Prairie Chapel Ranch, nestled in the central Texas scrubland. Bush used the Texas White House to woo world leaders into his "coalition of the willing" against Saddam.

The assassination attempt on Bush's father came as the former President attended ceremonies in Kuwait celebrating the success of the Gulf War, which ousted Saddam's troops from Kuwait. Because of the failed assassination, then-President Bill Clinton ordered a Tomahawk missile barrage on Iraq.

The current President has not forgotten the attempt to kill his father. A red-faced Bush recently reminded a visitor of the 1993 plot by Saddam, and said, "The SOB tried to kill my dad."

Other plots thwarted

Iraq's attempt to infiltrate the U.S. came to light as U.S. officials announced they had thwarted Iraqi-sponsored terrorism in two foreign countries, as well as plots directed at U.S. targets.

"There are two countries where operations have been compromised, and we have information on plots in other countries," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said.

Department officials declined to say whether the Mexico report had any connection to those Iraqi terrorist plots.

In both foreign cases, the operatives were arrested, terrorist material was confiscated and the attacks were not carried out, said another State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher.

The U.S. has asked a number of countries to expel suspected Iraqi intelligence officers, based on "the significant threat posed by their presence," Boucher said.

With Thomas M. DeFrank

[taxed2death]

Keep dreaming.

[cynicom]

Why sneak in??? Just drive over the border, tell the border people you are going north to do work Americans do not want to do.

[rintense]

Bastards. I would imagine the security around the Ranch is incredible. I think the money is to bribe someone.

[SauronOfMordor]

I could not find the exchange rate in a quick search, but in several stories, I seem to recall that it was several hundred dinars to a U.S. dollar.

At exchangerate.com, black market rate was 1,900 dinar/dollar in 1999. At today's black market rate, Iraqi currency is probably close to worthless

[Riley]

The unidentified Iraqis wanted to hire smugglers to sneak them into the U.S. because they "wanted to get to the Crawford ranch," according to the well-placed law enforcement source. They also asked a Mexican doctor and a lawyer named Claudio to change about $100 million in Iraqi dinars into U.S. currency - about $325 million.

This strikes me as a really half-assed operation. Three times here they clumsily compromise themselves: they reveal their actual target to locals, they don't have some plausible cover story of why middle easterners want to sneak across the US border, and they're carrying Iraqi money.

This looks like politically-reliable suicide commando Fedayeen types rather than anybody with the skills necessary to actually pull it off.

[flamefront]

Exactly why it sounds plausible coming from the desperate Saddam.

madfly - ping

[mathluv]

Do you really think that dims will be better?......at any thing?

[cake_crumb]

The way the article is written, it sounds as though Clinton ordered bombing run on Baghdad because the assassination attempt on the former President Bush failed.

[flamefront]

Even a corrected $32 million would be a dangerous enough amount, I think you'd agree.

[AmericanInTokyo]

We, as a nation, were given ONE CHANCE to overhaul our Immigration System, reverse our Open Border policy with Mexico engineered by Fox and our President, and stop this nonsense right after the September 11th Terrorist Attacks.

Now, with this, we are now given a miraculous SECOND CHANCE to do it once again.

I hope all of these things are taken serious and our domestic borders are no longer porous, and we begin deportation of illegals, who have no right to be here. It is already known that having an open, humanitarian, live and let live border policy, makes it easier for drug dealers and international criminals to be on the move. Add terrorists to that equation.

If true, this really is the LAST, LAST wake up call.

No more excuses, Democrats and RINOs!

[bert]

.......$100 million in Iraqi dinars.......

Worth $100 million in Confederate $$$ but squat in US$$. The Iraqui Dinar is now a worthless currency

These fool should have brought some Krugerands.

[flamefront]

No doubt they have some value in euros, thank the french, even though the US treasury says the dollar-dinar exchange is 0.0000. (No negative number?)

[flamefront]

No more excuses, anti-Americans, Communists, anarchists, socialists, terrorist supporters, and other assorted weasels.

[TLBSHOW]

bump

[Beck_isright]

"I'm concerned about the ones that made it."

When Fox debuted their news magazine, "The Pulse", last spring, Geraldo did a story on this. One of his producers infiltrated a coyote's lair and the coyote told them that he had been smuggling Iranian and Iraqis across the border since 97. During that show, it was revealed that this had been going on since the mid-90's and that this one coyote had probably brought over 2000 across on his own in that time. Just think if there were another 100 smugglers like him and start thinking about what we have to deal with. Sleep tight.

V

[cfrels]

I hope we keep the $$$ to put towards the cost of the war...

[TLBSHOW]

The enemy is sneaking in and drugs are getting in to destroy this country. And we arrest our own people trying to stop this menace, As seen on the THE O'REILLY FACTOR
here..


I mean, our borders right now are our front lines in the war against terrorism, in the fight against drugs, and these are interrelated problems, and we need to look at more National Guard support for deploying those units in intelligence.

O'REILLY: But we're not.

HOUSMAN: Bill, I agree with you.

O'REILLY: What is it going to take?

HOUSMAN: We ought to be looking at that. Well, I -- sadly, I think one of the things it may take is another disaster, and I hope it doesn't...

O'REILLY: Yes.

HOUSMAN: ... come to that...

BONNETT: I...

HOUSMAN: ... but we need a strong border...

O'REILLY: You know what, both of you? We're living out six-million disasters every day because there are six-million Americans addicted to hard drugs, and every day those people go through many disasters in their own life.

Some of them hurt us. Some of them are just pathetic. Some of them sell their bodies. Some of them have AIDS. Every day, six-million disasters. Yet the United States government with all its power will not do anything to help get this drug thing under control.

It's disgraceful.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/857630/posts

[MeekOneGOP]

The way the article is written, it sounds as though Clinton ordered bombing run on Baghdad because the assassination attempt on the former President Bush failed.

LOL ! I thought that too ! What's the odds that's NOT an accident? . . .

[meyer]

I wonder if the coyotes took the $100,000,000 and left the slobs out in the desert as buzzard feed.

I hope not. This would be a legitimate use of RICO laws and we could certainly use the bucks! RICO 'em and leave 'em in the desert to fend for themselves!

[MizSterious]

Cindy, thanks for that link. Most helpful.