Box sent to Travis key to spy charge (Spies and INS Gate revisited by PDN)

Sac Bee via PDN NewsDesk ^ | 2:15 a.m. PDT Thursday, September 25, 2003 | Denny Walsh, Sam Stanton and Pamela Martineau -- Bee Staff Writers

[comwatch]

The accused allegedly mailed documents to his home base.

Inside the box, agents with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations found 60 pages of documents, including some classified as "Secret," as well as another document typed in Arabic, according to search warrant information obtained by The Bee after the Pentagon revealed al-Halabi had been charged with espionage. ...

In addition, he is accused of illegally possessing secret documents on military movements in and out of Guantánamo and classified information on cellblocks housing alleged terrorists.

Al-Halabi also is charged with lying to U.S. officials about his citizenship, allegedly claiming he became an American citizen in Sacramento on Nov. 14, 2001.

Key, who is an Air Force major stationed at Travis, said al-Halabi is a U.S. citizen who was naturalized after joining the Air Force in January 2000.

The charge against al-Halabi that he was not truthful when he claimed to have attained American citizenship "is a mystery to me," Key said.

OSI documents on file in federal court in Sacramento indicate al-Halabi is a U.S. citizen who was born in Syria, but the Air Force said Wednesday his citizenship status is unclear.

[comwatch]

This is just the tip of the iceberg given the citizenship issues quoted above from today's Bee. How is it possible that al-Halabi's citizenship is in question? Just how has INS and our Nation's security been compromised by the impacts of the Clinton Administration and years of looking the other way? One of Clinton's first acts as President was to strip thousands of US Border Patrol and FBI agents and close key training facilities for federal law enforcement. Under Clinton's watch, dirty INS officials thrived until their conduct became so blantant, AG Reno's staff had to act. In the aftermath of 9-11-01 we've often wondered who really supported secret terrorist actions in the US under the cloak of INS policy. We may never know!

 

This is not a new issue for PDN. INS is an utter failure and worse, rampant with fraud and criminals working there.  We covered this very subject here almost two years ago and we explored it in detail on one of our websites. It got little traction in Sacramento and we're still fighting for documents labeled "Confidential Inter-Departmental Communications" and exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

 

Here's just a few of the issues surrounding a crook who ran the INS opperation here.

More on INS scandal in Sacramento:  Sacbee Columnist R.E. Graswich loves to scoop the mainstream media. His zingers sometimes begs more questions than answers. But he's often the lone voice of reason here. It's doubtful his employer, the Sacramento Bee, will launch an investigative report into hints of more dirty tricks inside Clinton's INS. When the topic of Immigration Policy came up at the Sacramento County Republican Party last night, the speaker noted it was a volatile one that must be approached with caution. A lady at our table duly noted (under her breath) "they'll call us racists." I agree ... but we don't have to take it anymore!! CrimeWatch and PDN will continue to file FOIA demands for documentation from DOJ, OMB and God help us, INS itself. Meanwhile, from R.E.'s item today:

R.E. Graswich: Psst! Don't let this get around
(Published Feb. 9, 2001)

Government at work: Lionel Nurse, former chief of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Sacramento, settled his suit Thursday with the agency over his alleged wrongful demotion. But enough about that. The trial revealed a fascinating nugget about local INS operations. Nurse testified he had a "secret phone" and a "secret line" at his Sacramento office. Why? Sometimes, Nurse would get a hush-hush call from Washington ordering him to immediately naturalize special undercover folks working "in different government agencies." When Washington called, "I would turn the phone to a secret code and this way, the call could not be recorded," Nurse said. The purpose of these government workers is an INS secret. But given the speed with which they got things done, we can presume they weren't working for the Department of Motor Vehicles. ...

I added the emphasis in the above quote to underscore the obvious questions. "Special undercover folks"??? "In different government agencies"??? Who, where and what ... the first rule of journalism 101. But R.E.'s column gets people thinking and maybe that's what is important here! We know what it took to get COPS grant fraud evidence ... INS will pull the veil of secrecy over it's activities. It's time for us to get the jack hammers out in Congressional committees. I wonder who those "telephonically naturalized citizens voted for in California. GWB? Riiiiiight!

We're looking for a volunteer or two to explore this subject with our D.C. contacts. Drop me an e-mail if you're interested. I suspect the FOIA effort will be intensive to get to the truth. "The Shadow knows" ... but that might be as far as it goes! Let's get Loud, Citizens!!!

UPDATE to INS-Gate:  Taxpayer's get the bill while INS defies answers to FOIA demands

Ex-INS chief's lawsuit settled
Lionel Nurse accepts a new government offer of about $270,000, plus lawyer's fees.
By Edgar Sanchez -- Bee Staff Writer - (Published March 4, 2002)

Lionel Nurse, the former Sacramento chief of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, who accused his bosses of racism and unfairly demoting him, thought he had a settlement that would allow him to retire and collect more than $1.1 million.

Officials in the U.S. attorney's office denied agreeing to that amount. But the oral agreement negotiated a year ago wasn't implemented because it was never put in writing, the government said last week.

Under a new settlement, Nurse, 55, will retire from the INS' Border Patrol in Sacramento in May and collect about $270,000 over the next nine years. Another $35,000 will be paid to his attorney, Howard Moore Jr.

The first deal was reached in February 2001, while a San Francisco federal jury deliberated Nurse's wrongful-demotion suit against the INS. The panel, it turned out, was divided, with only one of the eight jurors believing Nurse had been wronged.

In the new settlement signed a few weeks ago, the INS denied any wrongdoing against Nurse, who headed the Sacramento INS for a decade until his transfer in 1998.

Matthew Jacobs, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco, said the payments to Nurse will "compensate him for the retirement he would have gotten if he had worked (with INS) until he was 65."

The cash will be in addition to his retirement benefits.

Besides saying that the original settlement was oral, not written, Jacobs declined comment as to why it wasn't honored.

Nurse and Moore declined to be interviewed.

Any case requiring a new settlement to be resolved is highly unusual, said Julie Davies, a tort and civil rights professor at McGeorge School of Law.

Davies, who wasn't part of the Nurse case, said legal scholars can only speculate why Nurse won't receive $1.1 million. For example, she said, someone in the government may have balked at such a large payout.

"It's possible that the amount originally discussed wasn't acceptable to the party who was to sign on the dotted line," Davies said.

INS spokeswoman Sharon Rummery referred questions to the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco.

Nurse, a 31-year INS employee and a black native of Panama, became chief of the Sacramento INS in 1987, heading a staff that serves 23 Northern California counties. He sued after his transfer to the Border Patrol, saying it was a demotion based on racism.

At the trial, both sides agreed that Nurse for years received positive reviews from his white bosses in INS's San Francisco district office.

But in 1997, his performance review plunged to minimally satisfactory. That year, Nurse ignored new rules for processing citizenship applications, government lawyers said.

In August 1998, Nurse was removed as officer in charge by Thomas Schiltgen, then director of the INS' San Francisco district office. At the Border Patrol, Nurse continued to draw his annual salary of $110,000.

Six weeks later, Nurse revealed that he was being investigated by a federal grand jury in Sacramento for corruption. In interviews with The Bee, two persons who testified before the grand jury confirmed the probe.

Nurse insisted he had done nothing wrong. He said the grand jury action was connected to a September 1998 burglary of his Natomas home -- which he said was part of an attempt by his bosses to "terrorize" him into retiring from INS.

INS officials blasted Nurse for his "reckless accusations." Nurse sued the INS in 1999.

During trial, the jury heard about the burglary of his home but not about the grand jury probe. Jurors were on their third day of deliberations when the original settlement was reached.

By then, the jurors were firm in their positions. Seven believed that Schiltgen was a difficult boss, but had done nothing illegal in demoting Nurse. One believed the bosses had violated fair-treatment laws.

Outside court after the jury was dismissed, Nurse's attorney said the INS had agreed to pay more than $1.1 million, plus legal fees, to settle the suit. Moore said Nurse was to retire from the Border Patrol in a few months, then draw his full pay of $110,000 a year until June 2011.

Government attorneys declined to comment about the first settlement, referring questions to public information officers who said they had no information.

The next day, officials in the U.S. attorney's office disputed The Bee's report. The pact, they said, was for roughly $350,000, not $1.1 million.

Moore said The Bee's report was "perfectly accurate."

The U.S. attorney's office vowed to produce documents showing the "correct numbers." The Bee received only a cassette tape supposedly containing a recording of the settlement talks. The tape was blank.

Last week, Jacobs said the earlier settlement was "irrelevant," no matter what numbers it contained. "That settlement is not in effect," he said.


And for those worried about the Patriot Act!
INS Clerk Arrested in ID Scam
AP | 3/14/02

SAN DIEGO, Mar 14, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- An Immigration and Naturalization Service office clerk was arrested Thursday for making at least 40 counterfeit work permits for illegal immigrants, authorities said. Investigators said the agent met illegal immigrants outside the federal building, took their photos in his basement office and processed documents allowing them to stay and work in the United States. He received $400 for each permit he processed, investigators said. The clerk was charged with suspicion to manufacture false documents. Two other non-INS workers who arranged for the immigrants to come to the clerk's office...




 

[Quilla]

Great post. I'm quite interested in reading the translation of the document found typed in Arabic.

[iceskater]

Yeah, but can we trust the translators?

[Chad Fairbanks]

One of Clinton's first acts as President was to strip thousands of US Border Patrol and FBI agents

I knew the man was perverse, but damn... just... damn...

[Sacajaweau]

I was wondering about these translations and translators. Usama spoke a particular dialect. Yee and whomever else is involved speak what dialect? What's the basic dialect at that school in Syria? Is that an opportunity for these Islamic dudes to get together. What an opportunity to sneak info by us. We don't know what they are saying. Nurture a little more trust and it's gonna bite us in the a**. Tell the ACLU to go to hell.

[george wythe]

Al-Halabi also is charged with lying to U.S. officials about his citizenship, allegedly claiming he became an American citizen in Sacramento on Nov. 14, 2001

Does anyone see the stupidity of our federal bureaucracy?

As an employer, my company's personnel office has a phone number from the Bureau of Customs and Immigration Enforcement to call in order to double check the immigration status of a prospective employee.

It seems that when going into the Air Force, all you need to do is to lie about your citizenship status. Am I reading this wrong?

[comwatch]

I must say, while it took months for this information to hit the public airwaves and print media, it's far more informative that we'd have expected. That's the good news. God only knows just how many agencies and branches of the service have "moles" and "sleepers" in their employ. For months I have appealed directly to Attorney General Ashcroft for answers on the INS-Gate questions.

Slowly secrets of the Clinton Administration is leaking out. Whether history will eventually brand him the traitor many of us believe him to be and directly linked to the tragedy of 911 is in question. Until the day I die, the quest will continue. I may be branded a modern day Don Quixote, but better that than live silently with my rage.

Just a side note to all this, we're getting some ink that may help. Here's a copy of a note to our local folks.

The Sacramento City Council, lead by Councilwoman Lauren Hammond and Mayor Heather Fargo, will soon join other cities in resolving to undo the controversial U.S. Patriot Act. Will they ask for a vote of the people first... nah, why do that?  I note with interest that the Sacramento Bee series is running decidedly against the Act in it's selection of candidates for interviews. Other than the FBI, I seem to be the lone exception.

 

Front page photos and headlines below the fold seem reserved for those in opposition to the Act, while a handful of supporters like me, enjoy the view from the back of the bus. That's okay... I really don't need to be looking up at some winged critter's butt who's owner has put the paper to it's best use (albeit tough on the bird)

 

Defying the Borg Concept that "Resistance is Futile", we garnered a little ink while the interview and photo of Daryl Brock was laid victim to the cutting room floor. Something is better than nothing. In Bee tradition, the "Rally for America - Support our Troops" once again became "a state Capitol rally supporting the Iraq war." 

 

As always, I invite Freeper's comments prior to being the lone voices at City Hall when the issue comes on the agenda.

  Read this series

Dave Jenest, Patriot Defenders Network Sacramento Bee Photo By Paul Kitagaki Jr.

Law should go further, he argues Dave Jenest, Patriot Defenders Network A midtown activist well-known to Sacramento lawmakers, Dave Jenest founded the Patriot Defenders Network shortly after the November 2000 election. Jenest said he formed the group because he was frustrated after eight years under President Clinton. The group's mission is to show support for veterans and for the administration, he said. In March, it sponsored a state Capitol rally supporting the Iraq war. The 58-year-old activist supports the Patriot Act, calling it a "necessary response" to the Sept. 11 attacks. Reacting to critics' concerns that it infringes on personal liberties, he said there is no explicit right to privacy in the Constitution. "My general feeling about the Patriot Act is that it's a necessary response to the lack of internal security and the protection of our country," he said. "The Patriot Act merely strengthens existing federal law in areas of obvious weakness and need." In some cases, Jenest believes, the Patriot Act does not go far enough. For instance, a new law scheduled to take effect Jan. 1 will allow illegal immigrants in California to obtain driver's licenses. Jenest said the federal government should be able to intervene. "The federal government should tell states they're not allowed to do that," he said. "It has national and international implications."

[george wythe]

I'll tell you the little I know about Arabic culture that I learned while in college.

There are many regional dialects of Arabic, but Standard Modern Arabic is quite uniform. [Classic Arabic is also universal, but mostly relegated for reading the Quran]

Standard Modern Arabic is spoken by educated speakers throughtout North Africa and the Middle East; that's why pan-Arabic satellite stations are watched from Morroco to Syria and understood by most people.

If educated Arabic speakers from Algeria could not understand an educated Kuwaitti, do you think that al-Jazeera could exist?

[Right Wing Professor]

It seems that when going into the Air Force, all you need to do is to lie about your citizenship status. Am I reading this wrong?

You don't have to be a citizen to be in the Air Force.

I'm inclined to believe they knew exactly what they were doing with this guy and with Yee. Knowing their loyalty was questionable, they sent them to Gitmo, figuring that if they could convince al-Qaida members they were spies, the terrorists would try to get them to pass on information we couldn't get from interrogation. And the lying, etc. just makes a handy addition to the rap sheet once they've outlived their usefulness.

[comwatch]

George:

You asked: "It seems that when going into the Air Force, all you need to do is to lie about your citizenship status. Am I reading this wrong?"

When you strip law enforcement (military and civilian) the ability to conduct meaningful background checks go out the window. With the passage of Driver's Licenses in California along with 40 other states who grant them to outright criminals with no checks, can any rational person deny we're been invaded and taken over? Does anyone really believe someone will verify the box on voter registration forms that asks if you are a US Citizen? When our fellow citizens and those who worked their asses off to legally gain US citizenship find ourselves in the minority what then? Remember, whites are now in that minority in California.

I have said this before in Free Republic: "When we've lost the battle for national patriotism in California, I'll not be in the death march up and down Interstate 5 to Fresno's intermint camps. I pray I'll be in the foothills taking out the traitors who sold us out or dead long before.

[george wythe]

I'm inclined to believe they knew exactly what they were doing with this guy and with Yee. Knowing their loyalty was questionable, they sent them to Gitmo, figuring that if they could convince al-Qaida members they were spies, the terrorists would try to get them to pass on information we couldn't get from interrogation. And the lying, etc. just makes a handy addition to the rap sheet once they've outlived their usefulness.

I hope you're right, since your argument seems to match the information being leaked.

I'm tired of the evil guys infiltrating our government and security services, such as when the Evil Empire had agents at the top levels of the FBI and CIA during the cold war.

[comwatch]

You wrote: "I don't believe that Sac. Bee articles need to be excerpted. If I'm wrong, please let me know..."

An Admin-Moderator will have to answer that question. When we include commentary from our own new desk, we try to follow what we believe to be FR policy. I've run afoul of this policy before and find the exerpted format a way to comply. Perhaps someone will be kind enough to translate that policy for us laymen.

[usurper]

Under a new settlement, Nurse, 55, will retire from the INS' Border Patrol.

OK. I am not following the story here. First the Border Patrol has nothing to do with naturalization, second the Sacramento Office of the Border Patrol does not report to the San Francisco District INS Office. They report to the Livermore Border Patrol Sector and have for about 60 years.

[comwatch]

You wrote: "... the Sacramento Office of the Border Patrol does not report to the San Francisco District INS Office."

Correct, except Lionel Nurse, was the former chief of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Sacramento when he was being investigated for corruption. In August 1998, Nurse was removed as officer in charge by Thomas Schiltgen, then director of the INS' San Francisco district office. The devil is in the details.

[comwatch]

BTW, I should have added that Nurse was tranferred to USBP pending several cuncurrent investigations. He sued INS over that and in typical fashion where the race card was played by Nurse, the feds settled the civil case at our expense. It was from that civil case and depositions we learned of the secret hotline.

[comwatch]

When we include commentary from our own new desk. "I don't quite get your meaning here."

Two of my organizations distribute content and press releases from time to time. It's how we keep topics of interest to our own members more visible to the outside world. As a result, we get to be a voice in the media locally on hot issues. Sometimes we go nationally even when outnumbered by opposing views. With that format and experience, we've been able to put Freepers on the EIB's golden microphone and other talk radio shows, veterans on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, FoxNews etc. etc.

I hope that helps answer your question.

[af_vet_1981]

Yeah, but can we trust the translators?

It depends on their competency, loyalty, and ethics.

[texasbluebell]

In an interview late Wednesday, al-Halabi's defense attorney Jamie Key said his client "insists he is not a spy."

I was watching a Detroit area tv news program just now, this is something I haven't seen reported elsewhere. Key, his attorney says not only is the guy not guilty, but "he's an American patriot". (Exact quote.)

Excuse me, but what the heck is going on here?