Posted on 10/04/2004 8:55:55 AM PDT by esryle
U.S. officials are probing the possibility the al-Qaida terrorist network sought to infiltrate a Texas company in order to contaminate ready-to-eat meals designated for the military.
A high-ranking al-Qaida operative provided information leading authorities to nearly a dozen illegal immigrants working for the McAllen, Texas-based Wornick Co., the largest supplier of the meals, according to McAllen's The Monitor newspaper.
The firm that places the workers at Wornick has been charged with conspiring to make and use false employment eligibility verification forms.
U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby explained, "Immediately after the liberation of Afghanistan from the Taliban in 2002, U.S. forces on the ground received specific information that links McAllen, Texas, by name and the Wornick facility by name to information within al-Qaida's possession."
The Texas paper noted the Department of Defense has a $67 million contract with Wornick to produce the meals.
Armed with the al-Qaida operative's information, the FBI was led to an employee-placement firm, Remedy Intelligent Staffing in McAllen, which referred a number of workers to Wornick.
"There had to be an investigation into the possibility that al-Qaida had the intention of infiltrating the Wornick Company for the purposes of contaminating -- possibly -- the MREs produced by the company," Shelby stated, according to The Monitor.
Shelby said no contaminated meals have been found, but 10 temporary employees at Remedy, involved in all aspects of assembling the meals, were convicted in July on charges of stealing Social Security numbers.
The indictment of Remedy, unsealed Thursday, was a significant event to servicemen worldwide, Shelby said, noting Wornick officials cooperated with the investigation.
Remedy's vice president, James Eckensberger, appeared in court Thursday to enter a plea of not guilty on behalf of the company.
"Remedy and all of its officers are responsible for following all federal laws and regulations concerning its own workforce, including those laws that prohibit the hiring of unauthorized workers or illegal aliens," Shelby said.
"Today's indictment alleges that Remedy hired a number of illegal aliens and did so basically knowingly and then they falsely certified that they had in fact checked the information provided by those unauthorized workers when in fact, they had never even attempted to verify the information for hundreds of people," Shelby said.
The attorney said that after the managers were confronted by the FBI with the discrepancies, they tried to conceal the fact they had not verified the illegals' information by creating false official forms and delivering them to the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Shelby said he did not want to discuss where the undocumented workers might have obtained their fake Social Security cards.
John Wayne bars...ummmmm....liked the little packages of smokes too...who could ever forget dehydrated pork patties...
It's all boiled down to, "party and corporation before country".
This is so damn disgusting. A time bomb.
All for the profits of a few.
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/
Do you believe illegal immigration should be one of the principle issues discussed by President Bush and Sen. Kerry?
Yes 81% 665 votes
No 19% 156 votes
Total: 821 votes
It's now 88 percent yes-----12 percent no.
Thanks for that B.
I just emailed this poll to about 50 people.
Seem like a lot of them are here. Strange, I don't find this cute or funny.
Thanks for adding the sarcasm tag. I almost fell out of my chair.
Well, I'll tell you what, I'm more than bored with a handful of people telling the vast majority of us that no one cares about the illegal/border issure. CNN is mostly liberal, uninformed viewers. THEY even get it for pitty sake.
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/
Do you believe illegal immigration should be one of the principle issues discussed by President Bush and Sen. Kerry?
88 percent yes-----12 percent no.
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/
Do you believe illegal immigration should be one of the principle issues discussed by President Bush and Sen. Kerry?
Yes 88% 3196 votes
No 11% 408 votes
This think caught fire the last 5 minutes!
This poll jump by hundreds in just the past few minutes.
BTTT
Poll seems jammed, can't get in to view results....LOL
not sure, but here's an interesting link for all of us P38 owners-
http://www.georgia-outfitters.com/page52.shtml#p38
It's amazing what political contributions can buy these days...especially if you own a Texas Company.
You bet. If this happened in Cal, calls to have the state fenced off would be quite loud.
He knows the score on this administration and takes cues from his viewers.
Answer: Illegal aliens in Texas!
It's been my hunch for a long time that if we get hit again, Texas would seem a prime target.
Right in POTUS backyard, you know, a slap in the face type thing. Looking at what the did on 911 was pretty was about as bold/crazy as you can get.
I'd be easy to get a truck, and instead of packing it with the usual 200 illegal aliens, pack it with something a bit more interesting, drive across the border, and park it in downtown Houston or Dallas.
Of course, I could be wrong.....
Er...Right in POTUS backyard, you know, a slap in the face type thing. Looking at what they did on 911, was about as bold and crazy as you can get.
I detest CNN. But when Dobbs walked off the set during impeachment because he was chastised for critisizing Clinton, I tune him in and he's right on the border issue.
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