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WASHINGTON -- The U.S. immigration system is so broken that it can't be fixed, a former top security official at the Department of Homeland Security's Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) told NewsMax in an exclusive interview. "Internal corruption at CIS is so pervasive that hostile foreign governments have penetrated the agency," said Michael J. Maxwell, who was forced to resign as chief of the CIS Office of Security and Investigation earlier this year. "Terrorists and organized crime are gaming the immigration system with impunity. Taken together, these three elements form the perfect storm," Maxwell said. "You can't separate immigration from...

The coming of the micro-states By Fred Weir | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor MOSCOW - As goes Montenegro, so goes Kosovo, Transdniestria, and South Ossetia? As Montenegro officially declared independence this weekend, accepting the world's welcome into the community of nations, a handful of obscure "statelets" are demanding the same opportunity to choose their own destinies. In the latest example, Transdniestria, a Russian-speaking enclave that won de facto independence in the early 1990s, declared last week that it will hold a Montenegro-style referendum in September as part of its campaign for statehood. Experts fear that many "frozen conflicts"...

The director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that would administer a new guest-worker program and rule on applications from millions of illegal aliens, says the pending Senate bill doesn't give his agency enough time to prepare for that giant task. "Quite frankly, I don't think that's really practical. Ninety days to register 12 million people. Do the math," Emilio T. Gonzalez, who took over as director early this year, told The Washington Times. In a wide-ranging interview, he said he is on track to make USCIS a true part of the nation's national security team, defended the...

The conflict has little to do with Russia’s neo-imperialism, but a lot to do with Western reluctance to foot the bill of Soviet de-colonisation. • The “genuine democracies” created in the former Soviet Union in the wake of the so-called “colour revolutions” are failing to deliver political stability and economic prosperity. Insofar as they have failed to reduce dependence on subsidised Russian gas, they are also implicitly failing to deliver real independence. • Ukraine’s demands for continued supplies of cheap Russian/CIS gas in effect mean that Kiev is promoting the preservation of Soviet economic structures. Thus, it is implicitly promoting...

Moldova going to quit CIS after Georgia and Ukraine [ 12 May 2006 15:35 ] Moldova is also going to quit the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) following Georgia and Ukraine. APA’s Eastern Europe bureau reports that Moldovan deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Affairs and European Integration Minister Andrei Stratan stated that the government is ready to discuss pro-opposition fraction parliamentarians’ proposal to quit the CIS. In March this year, some parliamentarians from Moldova Noastra (Our Moldova) opposition alliance proposed to annul the treaty between Moldova and the CIS. The proposal was submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers for deciding whether...

Russia Delivers Missiles to Belarus By YURAS KARMANAU, Associated Press Writer Sat Apr 22, 12:52 AM ET MINSK, Belarus - Russia began delivering advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Belarus on Friday, the Belarusian defense minister said. Russia and Belarus signed an agreement last year on the delivery of the latest and most advanced version of Russia's S-300SP surface-to-air missile system, capable of shooting down targets some 90 miles away. Belarusian Defense Minister Leonid Maltsev denied a report in the British defense journal Jane's Intelligence Digest that Belarus agreed to transfer the S-300SP missiles to Iran to defend against any possible U.S....

This study is one of the first to estimate the total impact of illegal immigration on the federal budget. Most previous studies have focused on the state and local level and have examined only costs or tax payments, but not both. Based on Census Bureau data, this study finds that, when all taxes paid (direct and indirect) and all costs are considered, illegal households created a net fiscal deficit at the federal level of more than $10 billion in 2002. We also estimate that, if there was an amnesty for illegal aliens, the net fiscal deficit would grow to nearly...

The 11 million 11 million happens to be the standard number used to estimate how many illegal immigrants are in the United States. Currently, there are several bills being drafted in the US Senate that are supposed to deal with the 11 million in some way. Media Pundits, Hispanic activist groups, liberals, and too many gullible Republicans have claimed that we can't get 11 million people out of this country, that removing them would collapse the US economy, and that pandering to illegals is the only way to gain the “Hispanic Vote”. These are the reasons that some senators want...

WASHINGTON - A former homeland security official will tell Congress Thursday morning that his one-time superiors are turning a blind eye towards deep-rooted corruption and the involvement of foreign agents in the nation's immigration system. Michael Maxwell, who until early this year was the director of the Office of Security and Investigations at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, said in an interview Wednesday that his bosses "buried their heads in the sand" and refused to act on "major national-security vulnerabilities" that his team brought to their attention. "These breaches comprise virtually every part of the immigration system, leaving vulnerabilities...

As President Bush and his allies in the Senate push forward for amnesty for the 11-12 million illegal aliens already in the United States and for a guest-worker program that would bring in millions more “temporary” workers, they are withholding an important report that scathingly indicts the agency that would be processing the massive influx of aliens we would expect under the proposed programs. An investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS), the agency within the Department of Homeland Security in charge of adjudicating immigration benefits such as citizenship and...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a package of legislative amendments creating the legal foundations for CIS citizens to serve in the Russian army on a contract basis

Ukrainian diplomat: Russia has no special relationship with other ex-Soviet states Mar 09 2006, 17:23 (AP) Russians must abandon the idea that Moscow has a special relationship with ex-Soviet republics or plays a civilizing role in the post-Soviet region, a senior Ukrainian diplomat said Thursday. "If we want to talk about having normal relations, we must reject some of these myths," Deputy Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko said at a round-table with Russian and Ukrainian political analysts in Kyiv about how Ukraine's March 26 parliamentary elections will affect the neighbors' relations. "You have to understand and accept that Ukraine is not...

Italian Panel: Soviets Behind Pope Attack By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 31 minutes ago ROME - An Italian parliamentary commission concluded "beyond any reasonable doubt" that the Soviet Union was behind the 1981 attempt to kill Pope John Paul II — a theory long alleged but never proved, according to a draft report made available Thursday. ADVERTISEMENT The commission held that the pope was a danger to the Soviet bloc because of his support for the Solidarity labor movement in his native Poland. Solidarity was the first free trade union in communist eastern Europe. "This commission...

<p>There are reports that four men from the Middle East who are being held in the Tri-State may have issued threats at an Ohio Air Force Base.</p> <p>The men -- Sanjar Yormuhamdov, Sayfitdin Mulloer, Kahranan Pultov, and Zohirjon Zahidon -- are from Uzbekistan, a former Soviet bloc nation. They were arrested Friday in Fairborn, Ohio, near the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, WLWT Eyewitness News 5 reported.</p>

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, on his arrival in Germany yesterday on an official visit, called Russia a “very rich, insidious, malicious and experienced enemy.” Shortly before that, Georgian Ambassador to the UN Revaz Adamia accused Russia of genocide of Georgians. Thus Georgian officials are doing everything they can to place Russian-Georgian differences on a world level and gain Western support in the issue of withdrawing Russian peacekeepers from South Ossetia and Abkhazia. A Blow against Peacekeepers The war of words between Russia and Georgia reached a new height on February 1. The cause of the escalation was a collision between...

Georgia quits Russian group From correspondents in Tbilisi 04feb06 GEORGIA is withdrawing from the council of defence ministers of the Russian-led Commonwealth of Independent States on the orders of President Mikheil Saakashvili, his office revealed overnight. Georgia, which plans to join NATO in 2008, joined the CIS council with the other former Soviet states minus the Baltic states, following the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. Saakashvili's decision came in a decree that was published on the presidency's website. Russia reacted by saying it was Tbilisi's sovereign right to withdraw. "Georgia is a sovereign state which decides for itself...

The recent squabbles between Russia and Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia over gas have shed light on an interesting symbiotic relationship between Russia's National Security Concept, signed in March 2000, and Russia's Energy Strategy adopted in August 2003. The most significant "modification" of Russia's National Security Concept appears to be an expanded role given to the use of energy as the primary lever of Russian foreign policy. The "Energy Strategy of Russia Up To 2020," while not formally a part of the National Security Concept, has become a road map for Russian foreign policy. According to the Energy Ministry's website: "Russia...

~SEE VIDEO~ IRAQI GENERAL: SADDAM MOVED WMD TO SYRIA BEFORE INVASION(ABSENCE OF EVIDENCE IS NOT EVIDENCE OF ABSENCE, CINDY SHEEHAN)by Mia T, 01.29.06 CINDY SHEEHAN: ECHO OF THE LEFT the democrats are gonna get us killed (kerry, clinton + sandy berger's pants) series5by Mia T, 8.28.05 (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE)   DEBUNKING CINDY SHEEHANHEAR ABE LINCOLN/JOHNNY CASH + PBS' NEIL CONANby Mia T, 8.31.05 (viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE) "You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make...

DAVOS, Switzerland (FORTUNE) - Be afraid. Be very afraid. That's the message from two of the world's most successful investors on the topic of high oil prices. One of them, Hermitage Capital's Bill Browder, has outlined six scenarios that could take oil up to a downright terrifying $262 a barrel. The other, billionaire investor George Soros, wouldn't make any specific predictions about prices. But as a legendary commodities player, it's worth paying heed to the words of the man who once took on the Bank of England -- and won. "I'm very worried about the supply-demand balance, which is very...

Russian FM Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday sanctions are not the best and only solution. DEBKAfile adds: Moscow is muscle-flexing ahead of EU-Russian negotiations due to take place with Iran over a formula for Iranian nuclear enrichment in Russia, mediated by Chancellor Angela Merkel and accepted for study by Tehran. When the talks yield a proposal, it will be brought before Washington. The Kremlin is saying the threat of UN sanctions is counter-productive if the next round of diplomacy is to succeed. The five permanent UN Security Council members meeting in London failed to agree on a referral of the Iranian...