Free Republic

How does the pro-terrorist group Code Pink infiltrate closed events where the U.S. Secret Service is in charge of security? One way is with fake press credentials made by a diarist at the Daily Kos.Code Pink has made a habit of infiltrating events and getting close to officials under the protection of the U.S. Secret Service.Yesterday Code Pink member Desiree Farooz rushed the stage and came dangerously close to President Bush at Monticello. The weekend before she rushed John McCain. Last fall she got close enough to Condoleeza Rice to place her hands around the Secrtary of State's head.At the...

A group of immigrant rights organizations in Contra Costa County is looking to create a municipal identification card in the East Bay, encouraged by adoption of a similar program in San Francisco. "It would give a little bit of insurance for people to have something in their hands," said Miriam Wong of the Latina Center, a Richmond-based organization that teaches leadership skills to women in the Latino community. Such an ID card could be used to open bank accounts, get library cards or just provide peace of mind, proponents say. Currently, San Francisco and New Haven, Conn., are the only...

21 January 2008 Posted to the web 21 January 2008 Betrand Nwankwo The security measures put in place by the Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST) to check the activities of fraudsters have started yielding results, as it has intercepted 2,500 fake passports meant for shipment overseas. Similarly, NIPOST also intercepted 4,000 scam letters and parcels meant for shipment abroad between October and December last year. Postmaster-general of federation (PMG), Mallam Ibrahim Mori Baba, disclosed this at the weekend while speaking on the occasion to mark this year's Pan African Postal Union (PAPU). Explaining further, Mori Baba said the intercepted letters and...

April 24, 2007 (CHICAGO) - A federal raid led to a community protest Tuesday in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood. The protest came after federal agents shut down a discount mall during an investigation into the making and selling of phony identification documents. Federal agents raided the mall to search for records and evidence. The feds may be investigating a phony documents scheme at the Discount Mall at 26th and Albany, however, it is the anti-immigration activists who have taken center stage. The street around the Discount Mall was blocked off once the protest began to grow when the feds first...

Sheriff's deputies are searching for the man who killed a deputy, his canine partner and shot another deputy following a traffic stop. Deputy Matthew Williams and his canine partner Dioji were killed. Williams has been with the department for 12 years. Deputy Doug Speirs was hit in the leg and is expected to be fine. He has been released from the hospital. It all started just after noon, when a deputy stopped the suspect for speeding. The suspect, described as a dark-skinned man with dreadlocks, then reportedly gave the deputy a fake identification. He then asked if he was going...

Fire and security personnel surrounded an Air Canada jet at the Rochester Airport this morning. 13 WHAM News reports the FBI has been called in. Passengers were removed from the plane and are being detained in the terminal area. A couple was reportedly prevented from boarding the flight for Toronto just before it was scheduled to take off. Luggage has been left on the plane. No one is yet saying why Air Canada Flight 7405 was prevented from taking off.

A woman was sentenced to three to six years in prison for helping run an identity-fraud ring that supplied fake driver's licenses, Social Security cards and resident-alien IDs to thousands of people. Maricruz Chavez, 31, of Queens, pleaded guilty last month to attempted enterprise corruption. The investigation has led to 17 other convictions. More than 5,000 forged government-ID documents were seized, including 700 driver's licenses from 11 states......

One day in the winter of 1996, while 12-year-old Suad Leija was getting ready for school, more than a dozen armed FBI agents raided her family's Chicago-area home. They were looking for her stepfather, Manuel Leija-Sanchez, who federal authorities believe runs a document-fraud network -- producing fake passports, Social Security cards, driver's licenses and a variety of other official papers -- with cells throughout the United States. That cold morning, the agents were too late. Manuel Leija-Sanchez had fled during the night to Mexico after he was tipped off to the impending raid, his stepdaughter recalled. The business continued to...

COSTA MESA -- Like many teenagers, Ivan Hernandez wants to buy a car someday. On Sunday, he went to get a wallet-size laminated card that may help. It's not a driver's license or a credit card. Hernandez, 16, is a Mexican citizen, so he applied to his country's consulate for a matricula consular, a photo ID card much like a U.S. state ID. To get the card, applicants must show legal documents such as birth certificates or passports, and they give their fingerprints and signature. Organizers from the Orange County Congregation Community Organization worked with the Laguna Niguel-based Unico Foundation...

The Department of Homeland Security allowed a man to enter its headquarters last week using a fake Matricula Consular card as identification, despite federal rules that say the Mexican-issued card is not valid ID at government buildings. Bruce DeCell, a retired New York City police officer, used his phony card -- which lists his place of birth as "Tijuana, B.C." and his address as "123 Fraud Blvd." on an incorrectly spelled "Staton Island, N.Y." -- to enter the building Wednesday for a meeting with DHS officials. Mr. DeCell said he has had the card for four years and has used...

A former worker at a DMV office in Bridgeport, Conn., has pleaded guilty to charges of issuing hundreds of phony licenses.......and to charges of receiving bribes, forgery and racketeering. She and two female colleagues had begun selling a few licenses to illegal aliens working locally........The operation soon grew to dozens of licenses and IDs being sold every day by the women......... By the summer of 2004, police said, the trio had sold 1,579 driver's licenses and 930 ID's, at an average of $100 per card.

A college student from Long Island was arrested in Westchester today and charged with making hundreds of fake driver's licenses and selling them to students who used them to drink in local bars. Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore said 20-year-old Edward Henselder, of Melville, Long Island, was charged with one count of Forgery and one count of Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument, both felonies. Henselder, a freshman at Pace University, who resided at Dow Hall in Briarcliff Manor, allegedly made and sold hundreds of high-quality fake New Jersey drivers licenses and sold them for $25 dollars a license....

AUSTIN, Minn. — In Minnesota towns where hogs and turkeys meet their ends at the hands of workers from foreign lands, local officials often find themselves asking newcomers a simple question.Who are you?A worker with questionable immigration status may be carrying equally questionable identification. In Austin, where immigrants are lured by pork processing jobs, Mower County Attorney Patrick Flanagan has seen enough bad-ID cases to worry about a sizable "ghost'' population of misidentified residents."If you're a ghost, how can we help you? How can anyone help you?" he asked.Imagine a small, rural community where people are used to knowing one...

Law enforcement officials yesterday announced the dismantling of a major fake identity-document ring - exposed in The New York Sun on Monday. But hours after the press conference, dealers were back selling fake green cards and driver's licenses on the same Queens avenue that had been targeted in the bust. A 19-month undercover investigation by federal and local officials concluded this week with the seizure of more than 5,000 forged documents and the indictment of 21 individuals. Among those arrested was the dealer who last week sold this reporter a fake green card signifying permanent resident status. The Queens district...

Even though Los Angeles is considered the epicenter of the fake ID trade, for years the problem didn't register as a high priority for an already burdened police force. The lack of consistent enforcement allowed the underground industry to build up until it was "out of control," said LAPD Officer Fernando Flores. [snip] "When you first get here, you don't know where to go," said Flores, 25, who lives in Huntington Park. "The people who have been here a long time tell you. Everybody knows you can buy papers in MacArthur Park." [snip] Mica [slang for laminated ID cards] mills...

By TIM MCGLONE, The Virginian-Pilot © August 5, 2005 Last updated: 11:01 PM NORFOLK — A federal judge Thursday ordered a Central American man jailed on charges of producing phony immigration documents after learning that he had been convicted of manslaughter 15 years ago but had never been deported.Margarito Diaz is one of two men charged in an investigation of mass-produced phony identifications used by illegal immigrants to remain in the country and obtain employment.Federal authorities arrested Diaz this week after executing a search warrant at his residence in Accomac in Accomack County . Another suspect, Perfecto Perez, was arrested...

Senator Gil Cedillo's bill to give California driver's licenses to illegal aliens is set to be heard in the Senate Transportation & Housing Committee this Thursday. Please take time today to contact the committee members and ask them to oppose this bill. more information available at www.saveourlicense.com email all of the committee members (except for Maldonado, Runner & Simitian who don't use public email addresses. Use our website to contact them.)

"If we went down to the Camelback Inn today in Phoenix and arrested everyone who’s working there illegally, the place would probably shut down," McCain was quoted as saying in The Hill, a nonpartisan newspaper covering politics in the nation’s capitol.

On May 12, Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Representatives Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) introduced companion guestworker amnesty bills, S. 1033 and H.R. 2330. The text of this legislation is not yet available, but here's what we've learned this legislation entails. Millions of currently resident illegal aliens would be permitted to buy guestworker status for a fee of $1,000. After the first three year term they could apply for three year extensions (for another $1000), and in the meantime, apply for green cards. After six years they would be eligible for permanent residency, which...

-- “Illegal Aliens should be rounded up and deported.” LONEGAN NEWS CONFERENCE TO PROTEST “DRIVING PRIVILEGE” LICENSES FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS LODI -- Bogota Mayor and GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Steve Lonegan will hold a news conference at 12 noon, Monday, May 16, 2005 to protest proposed “driving privilege” licenses so illegal aliens can drive cars “legally.” WHERE? Outside Lodi DMV, 8 Mill Street (off Garibaldi Ave.), Lodi WHEN? Noon, TODAY, Monday, May 16, 2005. WHAT? Lonegan will also urge State Republican Chairman Tom Wilson to withdraw his support for the “driving privilege” driver’s license for illegal aliens as expressed in a...

According to the FBI, every 14.6 seconds one burglary is committed in America. The primary reason behind this disturbing fact is that it remains illegal to take other people’s stuff. Even if you really, really need other people’s stuff to enjoy a better life for you and your children, you are not “supposed” to take it under current rules. But what choice do tens of thousands of Americans have? Likewise, there are millions of items that –when new and un-stolen-- have prices that most Americans are simply not willing to pay. We all benefit from theft, yet it remains illegal....

Taking illegals for a spin I got a press release the other day from one of those liberal interest groups. The release called for New Jersey to start issuing driver's licenses to illegal aliens.......Following is the release. Notice how the writer artfully makes a radical idea seem acceptable to mainstream Americans. I am an expert in decoding political spin, so I have put in brackets my explanations of just how the spin doctor operates. Here goes: "The REAL ID Act of 2005 has now been passed by both houses of Congress and is poised for the President's signature. New Jersey...

A woman whose brother was killed in the September 11 attacks yesterday surprised top members of the House Homeland Security Committee with counterfeit Mexican matricula consular cards bearing the members' identities and showcasing how easy it is to get valid identification to board an airplane. Debra Burlingame, who was testifying on the Transportation Security Administration's screening procedures for pilots and flight crews, wouldn't reveal who made the cards, which appeared to bear the security marks of a valid card, but emphasized that they can be used to carry on daily business. "They look exactly like what I've seen. The back...

WASHINGTON -- Thousands of illegal immigrants have obtained driver's licenses in three states, federal authorities said Thursday, highlighting a security hole that the Sept. 11 hijackers exploited. Three employees of Florida's motor vehicles agency were among 52 people arrested in a bribery scam that put driver's licenses in the hands of at least 2,000 illegal immigrants, officials said. The case, announced Thursday, follows similar arrests in Michigan and Maryland over the past week. "With a valid driver's license, you establish an identity," said Michael Garcia, assistant secretary of the Homeland Security Department. "There's no way to identify whether that identity...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Thousands of illegal immigrants have obtained driver's licenses in three states, federal authorities said Thursday, highlighting a security hole that the Sept. 11 hijackers exploited. Three employees of Florida's motor vehicles agency were among 52 people arrested in a bribery scam that put driver's licenses in the hands of at least 2,000 illegal immigrants, officials said. The case, announced Thursday, follows similar arrests in Michigan and Maryland over the past week. "With a valid driver's license, you establish an identity," said Michael Garcia, assistant secretary of the Homeland Security Department. "There's no way to identify whether that...

A Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration employee conspired with the owner of a driving school and a third person to sell state identification cards, many to illegal immigrants, for as much as $2,000 each, federal authorities alleged yesterday.

The United States is currently undergoing the largest wave of immigration in over a century, reports CBS news on April 20. But what makes this wave like no other is that so much of it is illegal. There are approximately 11 million illegal immigrants now in the United States. That equals the population of Ohio. These immigrants are coming for jobs, of course. But to be hired by an American factory, they need documents. So a black market of identities for sale has sprung up and has spread from the Southwest, where Hispanic immigrants used to settle, to places in...

Three admit trying to sell documents to Iranians Ring broken up by undercover agents By SERGIO CHAPA The Brownsville Herald February 24, 2005 — Three members of an alleged ring accused of attempting to sell fake immigration documents to Iranian nationals pleaded guilty in federal court to various counts of fraud and identity theft. Port Isabel residents Roberto Aburto, his wife Azalia Gaona, Miriam Palestina and Rutilio Marquez are accused taking $1,050 to make fake Social Security cards and green cards in August for three Iranian men. Aburto, 31, Gaona, 27, and Palestina, 26, were arrested during two Sept. 9...

Illegal license holders had 26 accidents By Alicia Caldwell and Michael Riley Denver Post Staff Writers More than two dozen students of a Weld County truck- driving school illegally obtained commercial driver's licenses and were later blamed for nearly 200 traffic and regulatory violations, including 26 accidents, investigators say. Twenty-seven students who attended the school, Careers World Wide, used false personal information to get training permits and other documents from the state Division of Motor Vehicles, a federal agent says in court documents. All dealt with Janet Gonzalez, a license examiner in Northglenn who has been arrested and accused of...

01-26-05 By Taft Wireback, Staff Writer News & Record North Carolina examiners should not aggressively investigate illegal immigrants who might be seeking fraudulent driver's licenses, a top state executive suggested in a memo nearly two years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In fact, Wayne Hurder, who supervises the state's driver-license section for the state Division of Motor Vehicles in Raleigh, sent an e-mail message in August 2003 criticizing some of his DMV officials for being too aggressive with immigrants who presented identification and other documents that examiners thought suspicious. "As I stated for the last nine years, the fact...

By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN Associated Press Writer January 15, 2005, 5:30 PM EST BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- Tracy Lucas-Stevenson earned $40,000 as a state motor vehicle employee, so she raised investiators' eyebrows when an acquaintance said she bragged about buying a Lincoln Navigator, a pool and a new kitchen within a year. What authorities uncovered was a web of illegal immigrants, shady middlemen with names like "Chile" and "El Gordo" and motor vehicle examiners like Lucas-Stevenson who are accused of issuing illegal driver's licenses. Connecticut had developed a reputation from as far away as Florida as a place where people could buy...

ARIS, May 29 — Italian and German investigators have disclosed fresh information suggesting that hints of an attack involving aircraft and the United States were more widespread among European law enforcement agencies before Sept. 11 than previously suspected.The disclosures come after weeks in which the Bush administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which announced a shake-up today, have come under sharp criticism that they did not pay sufficient heed to signs of Al Qaeda plots in the United States that may have alerted them to the Sept. 11 attacks.A Central Intelligence Agency spokesman said today that before Sept....

CANDOR — To all appearances, Cecil P. Saffle ran a legitimate business as a translator and intermediary for Montgomery County's growing Latino population. (Randy Jones shows a handful of the fake IDs being held as evidence in the Alamance County Sheriff's Department in Graham. Law enforcement officials have made several busts recently.) But authorities allege that in a back room of the Main Street Shopping Center, where his offices were, the 60-year-old Saffle carried out the real, money-making end of his operation: making counterfeit IDs for illegal aliens and others who wanted to create false, separate identities. "Our whole business...

Six charged with supplying fake ids to immigrants This story ran on nwitimes.com on Wednesday, October 20, 2004 12:44 PM CDT CHICAGO (AP) -- Six men of Middle Eastern descent from the Chicago area were charged with helping illegal immigrants trying to conceal their legal status obtain fraudulent Social Security cards and Illinois driver's licenses, prosecutors said. Hundreds of people used addresses associated with the defendants to secure the fake documents, according to a criminal complaint made public Tuesday in U.S. District Court. Naser Kawash, 38, allegedly made thousands of dollars for helping as many as 900 foreign nationals from...

ROME (AP) — Italian police are trying to learn if a document-forging operation in Turin served as a logistical base for al-Qaida, authorities said Monday. The document center, an apartment in a Turin neighborhood populated by many illegal immigrants, was raided in December, said Luciano Nigro, a Turin police precinct chief, and investigation into its operations have been going on since. On Monday, La Stampa, a Turin daily, reported that police believe the place furnished documents for recruits for al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. ``I don't have proof,'' Nigro told The Associated Press, but ``we are investigating.'' Nigro said...

The US House Aviation Subcommittee yesterday heard how congressional investigators used false IDs to gain access to a series of federal buildings and two commercial airports, and how a copy of the report detailing their success was later found in an al-Qaida cave in Afghanistan. The investigators were 100 per cent successful in getting past security, but apparently less so in the case of their own report's security. Subcommittee Chairman John Mica told a hearing on biometric ID in aviation that the deployment of more secure ID needed to be accelerated, given that terrorists are interested in gaining access to...

13 Arrested In Port Canaveral Security Breach Illegal Immigrants Allegedly Use Fake Ids To Get Badges Federal agents in Central Florida arrested 13 illegal immigrants for allegedly using fake IDs to gain access to highly sensitive and secure areas of Port Canaveral, according to Local 6 News. A 2-month long investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found that the men apparently used false social security numbers to get security badges. They then used the badges to gain access certain areas of Port Canaveral, according to authorities. "Did they have unlimted access? No, they did not," Florida Department of...

Local abortion lawsuit may change policies at clinics ABC13 Eyewitness News (3/31/04 - HOUSTON) — A lawsuit that could bring some big policy changes to abortion clinics across the nation will soon go to trial in Houston. Cherise Hughes is now a mother of two. She admits to using a fake ID to get an abortion when she was just 17. She is now suing the clinic that performed it, claiming no-one questioned her age beyond taking a look at that fake ID. "I was scared and not thinking straight and I wish I would have had someone to...

<p>March 14, 2004 -- Psst: Wanna buy an NYPD or FBI badge that could fool authorities?</p> <p>The eBay online auction site had at least three realistic-looking badges for sale last week, complete with official-looking leather holders and identification cards.</p> <p>One seller, who called himself "M-itch," offered a gold FBI badge with a black leather FBI holder wallet embossed with the fabled agency's insignia. It also boasted an authenic-looking identification card. In six days, it received 21 bids and was up to $115 on Friday.</p>

<p>PATERSON, N.J. — A man who allegedly sold fake IDs to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers apparently fled the country for Egypt just before authorities came to arrest him in a raid on his home and businesses Wednesday, investigators said.</p>

<p>If Osama bin Laden sneaked into our country illegally, bought fake immigration papers and changed his name to Osmundo Ben Ladeno, could he join the U.S. military?</p> <p>You betcha.</p> <p>Last week, the Army announced that Pvt. Juan Escalante, a 19-year-old illegal alien from Mexico who had used a $50 bogus green card to enlist, would be allowed to remain in the armed forces.</p>

False ID documents bring prison sentence By MICHELLE WASHINGTON, The Virginian-Pilot © July 15, 2003 | Last updated 9:33 PM Jul. 14 NORFOLK -- A Chesapeake resident who had been investigated by federal agents for having several false identification documents was sentenced Monday to 15 months in prison on a weapon charge and for using a fake Social Security number. Mohammed A. Samarah, originally from Jordan, came to the attention of the region's Joint Terrorism Task Force after an auto mechanic found identifications with different names but the same photograph in March 2002. The mechanic called the FBI. Samarah was...

PATERSON, N.J. (AP) - Secret evidence presented in a closed court session alleged that a man who sold fake IDs to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers had closer ties to terrorism than previously revealed, according to transcripts released Tuesday. In the end, authorities found no evidence to bring terrorism charges against Mohamad El-Atriss, and U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie said Tuesday that El-Atriss "is not considered a threat to national security by us." In a plea bargain, El-Atriss was sentenced in March to five years' probation and fined $15,000 for selling phony documents. El-Atriss and his lawyer on Tuesday...

Sources: Suspect Bought Used Car With False ID Just Before Arrest LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Accused double murderer Scott Peterson used an alias to purchase a used car in San Diego shortly before he was arrested, raising the possibility that he may have been trying to cover his tracks before fleeing, KNSD, the NBC affiliate in San Diego, learned. Three independent sources confirmed that Scott Peterson bought a car under suspicious circumstances less than two weeks ago, NBC's Steve Walker reported. None of the sources would appear on camera, but all of them agreed that the revelation is more evidence...

<p>Two former coworkers testified Wednesday that a defendant in the Detroit terrorism trial asked whether they could help him obtain fraudulent visas and other identification documents for friends.</p> <p>"He asked if I could get ahold of ID -- Social Security cards, birth certificates," Keith Reid, 37, a former sanitation employee of LSG Sky Chefs, said of Karim Koubriti, 24, of Detroit. "I took it to mean illegal ID"</p>

2 men arrested in Roanoke; suspected of false identity The FBI had been searching for the men after they were seen taking pictures of a dam in Tennessee. By SHAWNA MORRISON THE ROANOKE TIMES Two men who were wanted by the FBI for allegedly using false information to obtain Virginia driver's licenses were arrested in Roanoke on Monday. One of the brothers had been seen taking pictures of a Tennessee dam early Sunday morning, raising the suspicion of authorities. Ahmed Helmy Mostafa, also known as Ahmed Mohammed Elsakaan or Ahmed Mohammed Helmy Elsakaan, and an unidentified woman were spotted taking...

If you think identification checks at airports are helping to protect against another 9/11, think again. In a matter of days, NewsChannel 4 ordered a phony New York driver's license from a Web site. A NewsChannel 4 producer purchased the fake, submitting a picture of a man she called "John Walker," adding: "He doesn't have a driver's license number (please make one up), and also make up an address." However, the picture the producer sent is no ordinary man looking for a license. He's Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, from the FBI's "22 Most Wanted Terrorists List." Right now, there's a $25...

Australian school boys seeking an under-age drink in pubs made a crucial mistake when they forged proof-of-age documents. The photographs used in their faked driving licences showed the boys wearing school uniforms. The schoolboys from Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, had used a computer and printer to forge the driving licences. These were to be shown as proof that the 16 and 17 year olds were old enough to be drinking in pubs. But the flaw in their plan was uncovered by pub bouncers who spotted that the identity pictures showed them dressed for school. "With the person's photograph on the...

Nab 2 Queens MenIn Phony ID Sales A counterfeit driver's license mill was busted in the East Village, leading to the arrest of two Queens men who were turning out fake licenses from various states.Police said they developed information that led them to the East Village Photo Shop at 35 Third Ave., where they seized a digital camera, a digital printer and $1,677 in cash.Arkadry Asezbakiyev of Yellowstone Blvd., Rego Park, and Aleksand Rubinov of 57th Ave., Flushing Meadows, were both charged late Friday with forgery.Police did not say how long the shop had been turning out fake licenses or...