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

[b4its2late]

This exchange rate seems backwards. $3.25 US = $1.00 Iraqi

I agree.

[MeekOneGOP]

I'm sure, Grampa ! bttt . . .

[cherry_bomb88]

Protestors: "you can't prove that...there is no proof, there's no connection between terrorism and Iraq"


You think they even read the news???? grrrrrrrrr, I'd just love to copy all of the articles they probably never see because they only watch the main stream liberally slanted media and put it in a huge book and hand it to them and say "you are not allowed to protest until you read all of this"

[madfly]

Who is surprised

[TigersEye]

Reporters and math ... a dangerous combination.

Reporters + information = dog doodoo.
The truth is out there ... and the press will suppress or distort it.

[FITZ]

All they have to do is appear to be Mexican narcotiocs smugglers

That could be very dangerous for them to do to themselves, they'd be killed by a rival group of smugglers ---or the police protecting the territory of the rival group.

[seams2me]

It is not known what the Iraqis planned to do in Crawford

OH, PUHLEEEEEAZE.

[ValerieUSA]

Thanks for the ping - this is interesting. I take pictures out in Crawford all the time.
Prairie Chapel School
less than a mile from the President's Prairie Chapel Ranch

[McLynnan]

I live about a dozen miles as the crow flies from W's ranch, and many of us in the area have had a sense of unease about the ranch since 9/11. When the Bushes are in residence security is very obvious, tight and radiates out for miles. But when they aren't here, I've often wondered how far security stretches beyond the ranch's fence lines. Obviously Ft. Hood is nearby and I presume they watch it closely, but who knows? There are a few private airports and airstrips in that part of the county and air traffic is only restricted when the President is here.

As to Iraqis sticking out like a sore thumb, you might be surprised. They probably would in downtown Crawford, but not so much in the Waco/McLennan County area. We have many people of Middle Eastern descent. Many of them own hotels/motels and convenience stores. There is a convenience store on the main highway between western Waco and Crawford that is owned by Middle Eastern people last time I checked, and Baylor University has an ethnically diverse student body.

[N8VTXNinWV]

Yikes! Too close to 'home' if you ask me!!

:o)

[RWG]

One more reason to arm the citizens' patrol of the border.

[ValerieUSA]

I often wonder why middle eastern Muslims send their kids to a Baptist University.

[angkor]

Just checked some expatriate worker pages and it appears $1USD = 1,850 Iraqi Dinar in the real world.

And there was this:

"Exchange rates: Iraqi dinars (ID) per US$1 - 0.3109 (fixed official rate since 1982); black market rate - Iraqi dinars (ID) per US$1 - 1,900 (December 1999), 1,815 (December 1998), 1,530 (December 1997), 3,000 (December 1995); subject to wide fluctuations"

100,000,000 Dinar = $321,646,831 USD official rate
100,000,000 Dinar = $52,631 USD black market rate

[Stay the course]

If Claudio the Mexican lawyer offered them more than $10,000, he's nuts. The author's claim that they had $325 million is absurd.

[McLynnan]

I wonder that too, but there is a good sized contingent of them at Baylor, including members of the Saudi Arabian royal family. Go figure!

[Beck_isright]

Thankfully I do not. But I fear for my friends out west that do. Godspeed Texans, and protect our great Republic of Texas.

V

[Beck_isright]

"I just can't see this scheme as plausible."

Just remember that on 9.10.01, no one saw flying 757's into office buildings as plausible either.

V