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U.S. offers help to immigrants who aid in war
Attorney General John Ashcroft addresses the press at the Department of Justice.
USA Today
November 29, 2001
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department on Thursday offered the prospect of American citizenship, including a promise to ignore visa problems, to entice foreigners to come forward with information about terrorists. ''The people who have the courage to make the right choice deserve to be welcomed as guests into our country and perhaps to one day become fellow citizens,'' Attorney General John Ashcroft said. The citizenship-for-information program was the latest appeal by the Justice Department to elicit help from the public in tracking down terrorists. Hundreds of Middle Easterners have been swept up in the terrorism investigation, drawing complaints from civil rights and Muslim-American groups.
The "responsible cooperators program" would defer deportation indefinitely for foreigners with visa problems and would allow outsiders to enter the country and eventually apply for citizenship.
Foreigners must provide "reliable and useful" information that helps investigators track down terrorists or avert an attack, Ashcroft said.
"It does not necessarily have to lead to a conviction, and it doesn't have to be comprehensive," he said. "It might be that it's a missing link in a chain of evidence that allows us to actually do something."
Ashcroft said investigators "have clear evidence" that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qa'eda network were responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks and that al-Qa'eda members are in the United States. "Noncitizens are often ideally situated to observe the early stages of terrorist activity," he said.
The announcement was a switch from the hard line the department has taken since Sept. 11 against immigration violators.
More than 600 men from Arab and Muslim countries are in custody for immigration violations and other non-terrorism allegations, and authorities want to question 5,000 other Middle Eastern men in connection with the investigation.
Investigators have been told to check their immigration status and hold those with problems. Ashcroft said foreigners who report to the FBI or U.S. embassies overseas with information about terrorists will not be questioned about their immigration status.
The new program could provide an incentive to get those in custody to cooperate and to encourage those wanted for voluntary questioning who have immigration problems.
"Some visitors may be hesitant to come forward with their information because of their immigration status," Ashcroft said. "They may rest assured that the United States welcomes any reliable and useful information that they can provide. In return, we will help them make America their home."
A program started after the 1993 World Trade Center attacks offers foreigners a special visa if they provide critical information about terrorists that could endanger their lives. Up to 50 such visas can be offered annually. There's no limit on the number of people who can apply for the new program.
Ashcroft also asked Americans to be on the lookout for Clayton Lee Waagner, a convicted felon who escaped from an Illinois jail last February. The FBI says Waagner has claimed responsibility for sending more than 280 letters to abortion clinics across the United States.
Meanwhile, a federal magistrate in Alexandria, Va., ordered Agus Budiman, 31, held without bail on grounds that prosecutors had shown he had close ties to some of the Sept. 11 hijackers.
During a preliminary hearing Thursday on document fraud charges, FBI special agent Jesus Gomez linked Budiman to four of the hijackers, including suspected ringleader Mohammed Atta, and two other people believed to have close ties to the terrorists.
Budiman's defense attorney, Mark Thrash, characterized the government's case as "smoke and mirrors," saying Budiman had only a passing acquaintance with the hijackers through a Hamburg, Germany, mosque. He said there was no evidence that showed Budiman shared the hijackers' views about the United States or knew of their plot.
Gomez testified that Ziad Jarrah, suspected of flying the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, listed Budiman's address on a visa application to get into the United States. He also testified that Ramsi Binalshibh, labeled "the 20th hijacker" by the FBI because agents believe he was supposed to have been aboard the Pennsylvania flight, twice tried unsuccessfully to use Budiman's address to get into the country.
Thrash said the two men used Budiman's address without permission and suggested that an acquaintance of Budiman, Mohammed Bin Nasser Belfas, may have given them the address.
Budiman, a driver for a food delivery service, is charged with helping Belfas, a fellow Indonesian, fraudulently obtain a Virginia ID card. Belfas' whereabouts are unknown.
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Can be found here:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/11/29/govt-help.htm