SAN ANTONIO – The story sounded plausible: sixty Afghan and Iraqi terrorists smuggled in by a Mexican drug cartel to attack an Army post in Arizona. As quickly as the story spread from a report last month in the Washington Times and reverberated around talk radio and conservative blogs, it died. The FBI dismissed the reported plot as not credible.
But the discredited scheme to blow up Fort Huachuca underscores a reality that haunts law enforcement and homeland security specialists: the fact that one day a terrorist could be among the thousands who cross the border illegally each year. State and federal officials charged with homeland protection, including securing the border, quickly stress that an illegal immigrant from a nation linked to terrorist groups is not necessarily a terrorist. "[But] every report, every rumor has to be investigated. We have to err on the side of caution," said Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Homeland Security office.
"We operate on the knowledge that groups like al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah have communities of support in Texas and the U.S.," he said. "We know terrorists have expressed interest in working through Mexican smuggling organizations to exploit our very porous border to enter the U.S. for terror operations."
Border Patrol officials defer to the FBI and other agencies any questions about whether suspects believed to have direct links to terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda have been apprehended at the border. But they emphasize that only a minuscule number of people picked up at the border are from one of the 35 countries designated by U.S. intelligence agencies as "special interest" for the potential to export terrorism.
In fiscal 2007, which ended in September, less than 1 percent of the 24,000 non-Mexican citizens apprehended by the Border Patrol came from special-interest countries. For example, seven came from Iran, eight from Iraq and 10 from Pakistan. Of the total, an even smaller group was turned over to the FBI for further investigation after their fingerprints triggered a "watch list" alarm. Mr. McCraw acknowledged that the overwhelming majority of people from suspect countries picked up at the border have no involvement with terrorism.
"There were 436 people from countries with known al-Qaeda presence arrested along the Texas/Mexico border in the past few years," he said. "Obviously, not all these people are al-Qaeda. Maybe none. "But one terrorist getting through is too many. We have to think about the ones that didn't get caught."
Mr. McCraw made headlines in September when he said in a speech in Dallas that terrorists with ties to Hezbollah, Hamas and al-Qaeda have been arrested along the Texas border. His comments echoed comments by National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell to the El Paso Times last summer that a small number of people with known links to terrorist organizations have been caught crossing the border. The FBI and the National Intelligence Office have not provided any details about these arrests.
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A Melbourne mother is being investigated by police over her links to Somali jihadis and accusations she supports Islamic martyrdom. The Muslim convert, a friend of Sydney's militant Islamic matriarch Rabiyah Hutchinson, is also alleged to have declared herself and her family "soldiers of Osama bin Laden", who act on his orders.
The allegations are contained in an official statement given to the Australian Federal Police in relation to its investigation into Somali community figures suspected of encouraging dozens of young men to return to their homeland and join Islamic jihad. The statement accuses another Australian convert, Aisha Whitehead, of encouraging her Somali-born Australian husband Ahmed Ali to fight alongside terrorists in his war-torn homeland.
The mother, who introduced Ms Whitehead to Mr Ali, allegedly told a small gathering of Muslim women in Melbourne that she supported Islamic jihad and was a follower of the hardline Wahabi form of Islam.
"We are Wahabi," the mother is quoted as saying in the sworn statement seen by The Australian and given by a Somali community member to the AFP in August. Asked at the gathering whether it was bad to be a Wahabi, she replied: "No, we are soldiers of Osama bin Laden. We take orders from him. If he tells us to go somewhere, we go."
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http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22911335-2862,00.html
Home made bomb found in Egremont (U.K.)
11 December 2007
POLICE are hunting a man after a home-made bomb was found at his house in Cumbria. Neighbours were evacuated after a “small, rudimentary explosive device” was discovered at the Egremont home of Sellafield worker Darren Morris yesterday. A bomb disposal squad was brought in and a 100-metre cordon put in place around the property on Southey Walk.
Police said a squad from the Catterick army garrison in North Yorkshire made the device safe. It has now been taken away for forensic examination. Senior officers stressed there was no risk to the public. It is understood the alarm was raised by bailiffs who discovered what they thought was a suspicious package as they visited Mr Morris’s home yesterday.
Police added they were concerned for the safety of Mr Morris, who they said was being treated as “a vulnerable missing person”, and appealed for the public’s help in finding him. He was last seen in the town’s Red Lion pub on Main Street yesterday afternoon. The alert was sparked at 1.30pm.
Acting Superintendent Gary Slater said: “A thorough investigation is currently underway and I would ask for the public’s help in tracing Darren Morris. “I would like to reassure the public that this is an isolated incident and that incidents of this nature are extremely rare in Cumbria.” Sellafield workers were told of the alert today so that they were aware in case Mr Morris decided to go to the site, where he has recently worked as an external contractor.
Officers said there was no other link to the nuclear site. They said they were liaising with Sellafield in a bid to trace Mr Morris. Mr Morris was wearing a cream hooded top and blue jeans when he was seen at the Red Lion. He is described as being between 5ft7ins to 5ft8ins tall, of medium build and has a distinctive scar on his neck. Anyone with information should phone Workington CID on 0845 3300247
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=573278