Free Republic

An Islamic spiritual leader scheduled for arraignment today on charges of counseling others to engage in a holy war against America told followers that he was "overjoyed" by the crash of the space shuttle Columbia, which killed six U.S. astronauts and one Israeli.     According to court records, Ali Al-Timimi, 40, of Fairfax, a primary lecturer at the Dar al Arqam Islamic Center in Falls Church, also known as the Center for Islamic Information and Education, said the Feb. 1, 2003, disintegration of the Columbia as it entered the Earth's atmospere brought welcome adversity to the United States. "This morning,...

Mexican official seeks open border By Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES Mexico's newest border czar wants to begin building additional travel lanes at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border and to increase the number of border crossings into the United States — the first steps, he hopes, toward an open border with no checkpoints. Arturo Gonzalez Cruz, a Tijuana businessman named in April by President Vicente Fox as the Mexican Foreign Ministry's institutional liaison for northern border affairs, said access changes along the 1,940-mile U.S.-Mexico border were "necessary" to facilitate increased travel and trade between his country and the...

The chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus yesterday questioned the commitment of the nation's border czar to track down and deport the 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens in the United States, asking whether he had "any real interest" in getting the job done.Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican, said he planned to talk with Department of Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson "in the near future" to find out what the department plans to do to alleviate what the congressman calls an "illegal immigration crisis."Mr. Tancredo's comments came during a Capitol Hill press conference by the Federation for American...

The nation's border czar yesterday said it is "not realistic" to think that law-enforcement authorities can arrest or deport the millions of illegal aliens now in the United States and does not think the American public has the "will ... to uproot" those aliens.

As the most visible face of the newly formed Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Mr. O'Neill has led the charge to counter what he and his fellow members have called "the false war crimes charges John Kerry repeatedly made against Vietnam veterans who served in our units and elsewhere, and to accurately portray Kerry's brief tour in Vietnam as a junior grade lieutenant." "It was important for me to be involved in this because everything is not just politics," Mr. O'Neill said yesterday in a telephone interview. "All of us spent a year of our lives in Vietnam and the...

The Department of Homeland Security wants to restrict the U.S. Border Patrol's arrest of illegal aliens in the nation's interior, concerned that the recent apprehension of 450 illegals by agents in inland areas of Southern California failed to consider the "sensitivities" of those detained. According to department sources, a formal written policy under review would limit Border Patrol arrests to areas along the nation's 7,000 miles of international border and give U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the responsibility for enforcing immigration laws in the nation's interior. But ICE officials have acknowledged that it has neither the manpower nor the...

The Department of Homeland Security wants to restrict the U.S. Border Patrol's arrest of illegal aliens in the nation's interior, concerned that the recent apprehension of 450 illegals by agents in inland areas of Southern California failed to consider the "sensitivities" of those detained.     According to department sources, a formal written policy under review would limit Border Patrol arrests to areas along the nation's 7,000 miles of international border and give U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the responsibility for enforcing immigration laws in the nation's interior.     But ICE officials have acknowledged that it has neither the manpower nor the...

The Department of Homeland Security yesterday said it will expedite the removal of non-Mexican illegal aliens from the United States, while allowing "legitimate" Mexican visitors to stay in the country for up to 30 days instead of the current 72-hour limit. "We want to send a clear message that those individuals who follow legal immigration procedures will benefit while those who choose to break our nation's immigration laws will be promptly removed," Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson said in announcing the border plan

The Washington Times www.washingtontimes.com Illegals acted on rumors of amnestyBy Jerry SeperTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished August 2, 2004 Nearly 35 percent of the illegal aliens captured trying to enter the United States in the 19 days after President Bush proposed a still-pending guest-worker program say they were trying to take advantage of what many saw as amnesty.     According to a confidential Border Patrol report to a Senate committee, 1,000 of 2,881 foreign nationals interviewed by agents after their capture at the U.S.-Mexico border between Jan. 7 and Jan. 26 acknowledged that rumors of an amnesty program -- outlined in Mexican...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Prisons tighten Muslim chaplain criteriaBy Jerry SeperTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished July 16, 2004 The U.S. Bureau of Prisons, criticized in May for allowing a shortage of Muslim chaplains to threaten prison security and increase the potential for terrorism, has taken "important steps" in correcting the problems, a report said yesterday.     Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said the bureau had either closed or resolved all but three of 16 recommendations made to correct problems in the selection, screening and supervision of Muslim chaplains, contractors and volunteers who work with 9,000 Muslim inmates.     Two months ago, Mr. Fine...

The USA Patriot Act has helped federal, state and local terrorism investigators arrest 310 persons since the September 11 attacks, 179 of whom have been convicted, and has proved to be "al Qaeda's worst nightmare," the Justice Department said yesterday in a report.     Attorney General John Ashcroft, attempting to dissuade Congress from weakening the act, key provisions of which will expire next year, delivered the 29-page document to the House Judiciary Committee, saying it gave authorities access to new legal tools and technology to "hunt down al Qaeda, destroy their safe haven and save American lives."     "We are a nation...

A top Department of Homeland Security official, who criticized the Border Patrol's arrest last month of 420 illegal aliens in several inland Southern California communities, will meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill today to deliver what he has called a "thoroughly written response" to the incident.     Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson told members of the California congressional delegation at a June 25 meeting the arrest of the aliens by a 12-member Border Patrol team had not been authorized or approved in advance by officials at headquarters in the District, and he would personally review the matter.     Mr. Hutchinson, according to...

<p>Bill Clinton calls his sexual encounters with White House intern Monica Lewinsky "immoral and foolish" and said his "relationship" with Gennifer Flowers was one he "should not have had." But in his autobiography flying out of bookstores, he doesn't mention several other women whose names were linked in scandal with his.</p>

<p>There is "no credible evidence" that Saddam Hussein had any connection to the September 11 attacks by the al Qaeda terrorist network, a federal commission said yesterday.</p> <p>The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, during a Capitol Hill hearing, said while a senior Iraqi intelligence officer met with al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden in 1994 and there were later meetings between Iraqi and al Qaeda officials in Afghanistan, "they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship."</p>

<p>Al Qaeda militants in Saudi Arabia have warned of new terrorist attacks on U.S. and other Western air carriers and at major transportation centers, according to a statement posted yesterday on an Islamic Web site that has been supportive of the al Qaeda network.</p>

<p>Two naturalized U.S. citizens who pleaded guilty this month in a scheme that cost an elderly California woman more than $1 million returned to their native country of Jordan after renouncing their citizenship at the U.S. consulate in Tijuana, Mexico.</p>

<p>Federal authorities have what one U.S. official described as "credible and disturbing" new information suggesting that a terrorist attack on the United States is planned for this summer, and government officials already are upgrading their efforts to respond.</p> <p>Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III were scheduled to hold a press conference today to describe the intelligence data.</p>

<p>A lawsuit many called frivolous because it sought more than $41 million from the U.S. government for the relatives of 11 Mexican nationals who died trying to cross illegally into the United States has proven to have more staying power than predicted.</p>

<p>A shortage of Muslim chaplains at U.S. Bureau of Prisons facilities nationwide threatens prison security and is a terrorist threat, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said yesterday.</p> <p>"Without a sufficient number of Muslim chaplains on staff, inmates are much more likely to lead their own religious services, distort Islam and espouse extremist beliefs," Mr. Fine said.</p>

<p>A Brooklyn man has been arrested by federal agents on charges of illegally shipping missile components, radar equipment and F-4 fighter parts through a company in Israel for later transfer to buyers in the Middle East.</p> <p>U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesman Dean Boyd yesterday said Leib Kohn, 70, was arrested Friday on charges of violating the Arms Export Control Act and the International Trafficking in Arms Regulations. He was named last week in a criminal complaint in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Conn.</p>

<p>The terrorist organization Hamas invested millions of dollars during the past decade in real-estate projects nationwide, including in suburban Maryland, as part of a scheme to raise cash to fund acts of terrorism, records show.</p> <p>The investments — involving the construction of hundreds of new homes, including many in Oxon Hill — were handled through BMI Inc., a defunct Secaucus, N.J., investment firm founded by Soliman S. Biheiri, an Egyptian and Hamas supporter, according to a newly released sentencing declaration by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).</p>

<p>Three Virginia men, two of them licensed gun dealers, were arrested yesterday on charges of illegal firearms trafficking, said U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty.</p> <p>James E. Rice III, 41, of Manassas, Philip J. Bailey, 32, of Cross Junction and Charles S. Hyink, 47, of Falls Church, were named on separate criminal complaints filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.</p>

<p>The Bush administration is "rolling out the welcome mat for terrorists and illegal aliens" in seeking to legalize millions of foreign nationals illegally in the United States and in proposing budget cuts "thinning the ranks" of America's border force, says the head of the Border Patrol's 10,000-member union.</p>

<p>Doctors at George Washington University Hospital removed Attorney General John Ashcroft's gallbladder yesterday in an operation designed to treat a severe bout of pancreatitis that sent the nation's top prosecutor to the emergency room last week.</p> <p>"Everything went as planned. He's in guarded condition, which is normal after such a procedure," said Dr. Bruce Abell, who performed the two-hour surgery, known as a cholecystectomy.</p>

<p>FBI agents have been banned from taking any items from crime scenes or evidence sites in response to a report by the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General that 13 agents removed items from the rubble of the World Trade Center towers.</p>

<p>A refugee camp at Guantanamo Naval Station in Cuba to hold as many as 20,000 people could be readied quickly for any massive influx of Haitians who flee escalating political unrest in that island nation, congressional and State Department officials said.</p>

<p>The FBI, which fired, disciplined and prosecuted dozens of agents between 1986 and 1999 for crimes ranging from rape and attempted murder to bribery and extortion, said yesterday it has gone to "great lengths" to improve its internal disciplinary process and bolster confidence in its effectiveness and impartiality.</p>

<p>The number of illegal aliens caught crossing into the United States increased dramatically just days after President Bush proposed a guest-worker program that would give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants now in this country, according to the union that represents the Border Patrol's 9,000 field agents.</p>

<p>Dozens of FBI agents were fired, disciplined and even prosecuted between 1986 and 1999 over their involvement in crimes ranging from rape, child abuse and attempted murder to bribery, extortion and drug trafficking, according to a report made public yesterday.</p>

<p>The administration rolled out its top immigration officials and several senior Republican senators yesterday to endorse publicly a guest-worker program offered by President Bush that could give legal status to the 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens now in the United States.</p>

Islamic radicals are being trained at terrorist camps in Pakistan and Kashmir as part of a conspiracy to send hundreds of operatives to "sleeper cells" in the United States, according to U.S. and foreign officials. The intelligence and law-enforcement officials say dozens of Islamic extremists have already been routed through Europe to Muslim communities in the United States, based on secret intelligence data and information from terrorists and others detained by U.S. authorities. A high-ranking foreign intelligence chief told The Washington Times in an interview last week that this clandestine but aggressive network of training camps "represents a serious threat...

<p>Al Qaeda terrorists, operating through "sleeper cells" scattered throughout the United States, continue to recruit new members, assist in the acquisition of safe houses and equipment, conduct pre-attack surveillance and relay messages from terrorist leaders and planners, U.S. law-enforcement authorities said yesterday.</p>

<p>A leading Republican senator yesterday said President Bush needs to do a better job of explaining his proposed guest-worker program to a public overwhelmingly opposed to the legalization of millions of illegal aliens in this country.</p> <p>Sen. Jon Kyl, chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on terrorism, technology and homeland security, and a member of the subcommittee on immigration, border security and citizenship, said the Bush proposal was "subject to misinterpretation" and, as a result, "needed further clarification."</p>

<p>Islamic radicals are being trained at terrorist camps in Pakistan and Kashmir as part of a conspiracy to send hundreds of operatives to "sleeper cells" in the United States, according to U.S. and foreign officials.</p> <p>The intelligence and law-enforcement officials say dozens of Islamic extremists have already been routed through Europe to Muslim communities in the United States, based on secret intelligence data and information from terrorists and others detained by U.S. authorities.</p>

<p>The Florida Attorney General's Office has challenged the motives of prosecutors in Palm Beach County who released confidential plea negotiations in the Rush Limbaugh investigation, saying the prosecutors misrepresented advice received in order to make the information public.</p> <p>Assistant Attorney General Patricia R. Gleason, in a letter dated Wednesday, questioned the motives of prosecutor Kenneth Selvig when he consulted her about what records could be released to the public, but did not advise her that he was talking about the Limbaugh case.</p>

<p>A 92-count federal grand jury indictment was unsealed yesterday in Texas, naming a ring of suspected smugglers who schemed to transport more than $37 million in bootleg cigarettes throughout the United States.</p> <p>Ten persons were arrested by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during raids yesterday in Texas, New Mexico, New York, Florida and California. The ongoing undercover investigation has resulted, so far, in the seizure of $18 million in counterfeit and genuine cigarettes smuggled into the country.</p>

<p>A veteran agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has been named to head the ATF's Office of Field Operations, where he will oversee regulatory and criminal enforcement for 23 field divisions throughout the country.</p> <p>Michael R. Bouchard, who supervised the ATF's investigation and apprehension of Washington snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, will also be responsible for oversight of ATF personnel who inspect federally licensed firearms and explosives dealers and manufacturers, and for all criminal investigators focusing on illegal firearms and explosives matters, arson, violent gangs, and alcohol and tobacco diversion.</p>

<p>The Supreme Court yesterday agreed to consider whether a constitutional ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" prohibits the execution of murderers convicted of crimes committed before their 18th birthday.</p> <p>The high court agreed, without comment, to hear the case of Christopher Simmons, a Missouri man convicted 10 years ago -- when he was 17 -- in the death of a 46-year-old woman abducted from her home during a burglary, hogtied with electrical wire and duct tape, and thrown off a railroad trestle.</p>

<p>The U.S. government has embarked on a massive training program aimed at putting 35,000 Iraqi police officers on the streets of Baghdad and other major cities over the next two years as part of a White House reconstruction plan to restore law and order.</p>

<p>Congress should make sure that President Bush's guest-worker proposal does not grant amnesty or U.S. citizenship to those now in the country illegally, says Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican, who has vigorously sought upgraded security along the nation's southern border.</p>

<p>A reputed leader of a Colombian drug cartel was flown to the United States yesterday to face charges of smuggling tens of thousands of pounds of cocaine to this country and laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in drug proceeds.</p>

<p>The Supreme Court yesterday refused to hear an appeal challenging the government's right to keep secret the names of hundreds of mostly Muslim and Arab-American detainees held by federal authorities in the wake of the September 11 attacks.</p> <p>The justices, without comment, declined to hear an appeal by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for National Security Studies, which sought through a lawsuit against the Justice Department to force the government to release the names and other information about those being detained, including where they were being held.</p>

<p>The National Border Patrol Council, which represents all 9,000 of the Border Patrol´s nonsupervisory agents, has told its members to challenge President Bush´s proposed guest-worker program, calling it a "slap in the face to anyone who has ever tried to enforce the immigration laws of the United States."</p>

The nation was put on high alert after officials intercepted phone calls and e-mail between al Qaeda and associates along with newly evaluated intelligence from sources suggesting multiple attacks are imminent, federal law-enforcement officials said yesterday. Los Angeles and San Francisco are mentioned as potential targets, along with Washington and New York, authorities said. General targets include bridges, tunnels, nuclear power plants and dams. The communication intercepts originated in several foreign countries and suggest that al Qaeda is seeking to repeat the attacks of September 11, using passenger or cargo jets hijacked from foreign airports to strike unidentified U.S. targets,...

Two federal courts yesterday rebuked the Bush administration, ruling that prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base should have access to attorneys and U.S. courts, and separately deciding that President Bush had no authority to detain an American citizen arrested on U.S. soil as an enemy combatant.     A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco described the administration's detention of 660 terrorism suspects at Guantanamo, arrested by U.S. military authorities in Afghanistan, as "running roughshod over the rights of citizens and aliens alike."     In a 2-1 decision, on a petition filed by a relative of...

<p>Attorney General John Ashcroft says he regrets making comments about a pending terrorism case a federal judge said could have compromised the rights of those accused to a fair trial, and promised to "make every effort" in the future to avoid making similar statements.</p>

<p>The White House yesterday said a new immigration review is under way that could lead to amnesty for millions of illegal aliens living and working in the United States.</p> <p>Confirmation of the review came during a White House briefing, just two days after Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said during a town hall meeting in Miami that the government had to "afford some kind of legal status" to the 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens in the country.</p>

<p>Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge's suggestion that 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens now in the United States be "legalized" drew harsh criticism yesterday from congressional and other opponents of such legalization.</p> <p>Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican and chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, said Mr. Ridge should resign if he is unable or unwilling to enforce immigration laws enacted by Congress.</p>

<p>BUFFALO, N.Y. - They're hiding in plain sight, just north of here -- a short striking distance away from some of America's most-vulnerable targets. This silent army of terrorists, including members of al Qaeda, has the "capability and conviction" to support devastating attacks across North America, operating out of "sleeper cells" from Montreal to Vancouver, according to U.S. and Canadian law-enforcement authorities. Attorney General John Ashcroft has called the 4,121-mile U.S.-Canada border a "soft spot" for terrorism, and law-enforcement authorities in both countries think that cell members in Canada -- and others who have relocated to the United States -- are awaiting orders, financing and a window of opportunity to strike again. And the authorities said the large and growing population of illegal aliens now in the United States gives the would-be terrorists, mostly Islamist extremists, the necessary cover to operate in this country. "Our mission here is very clear," said Peter J. Smith, who heads the Office of Investigations for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in New York. "We need to develop the necessary intelligence to harden our border with Canada, to make sure we can protect this country against terrorists -- whatever their source." Since the September 11 attacks on America, transforming the northern border from a vulnerability into a hardened line of defense has become the mission of both ICE and the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), two new agencies within the Department of Homeland Security. But it is a complicated task, confounded not only by the region's immensity but by a long-standing lack of manpower and technology along the border; the absence of effective efforts to track down illegal aliens in the United States; a lax immigration policy in Canada; and the necessity by ICE and CBP to devise an effective border-enforcement strategy. "As the guardian of our nation's borders, CBP's priority mission is to prevent terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the United States," said CBP Commissioner Robert C. Bonner. "To do this, we are for the first time revising and refocusing our border-enforcement efforts both in the north and the south as part of an aggressive strategy of protection. "Despite the fact we have almost doubled our staff on the northern border, we are doing more than just adding people. We are adding new techniques and technology, new thinking and a new commitment I believe will significantly enhance our ability to detect, identify and respond to border intrusions," Mr. Bonner said. Although terrorists have assumed the major attention of CBP and ICE, the two agencies are still responsible for the detection and apprehension of illegal aliens. Although stemming their flow has been a major concern along the 1,940-mile U.S.-Mexico border, where thousands daily cross into the United States and disappear, it never has been a priority along the northern border. That fact exacerbates concerns that terrorists will use America's porous back door to gain access from Canada and hide among the millions of illegal aliens who have found refuge in the United States, such as those from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Algeria and 60 other countries who annually sneak into this country across the Canadian border. Nearly 300,000 immigrants are admitted each year to Canada, some of whom have been identified by authorities as terrorists looking for safe haven. But because Canada does not detain refugee claimants, even those with questionable backgrounds, more than 10,000 disappear each year into Canada's ethnic communities. Mr. Bonner thinks Canada's existing political-asylum program is a "security threat," but he said efforts are being made to address the problem -- and to fix it. "We are working with Canadian customs and are seeing some progress," Mr. Bonner said. "It is, however, a problem we need to continue to address." The Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Resource Center (CCIRC) in Montreal, a private watchdog agency, agreed that a proper response to the September 11 attacks necessitated a re-examination of the manner in which foreign nationals -- including would-be terrorists -- are permitted entry to and through Canada's borders. But Montreal lawyer Colin R. Singer, who represents CCIRC, said new immigration laws alone would not solve "deep-rooted policy related problems" that have surfaced in that country and impacted the United States. He said other pressing needs also have to be addressed, including the failure of U.S. law enforcement to detect a "network of terrorists who undertook sophisticated and prolonged efforts to unleash such devastation and destruction on American soil." Mr. Singer said Canadian immigration policy, which authorizes nearly three times the per capita numbers of immigrants annually as the United States does, was designed to help ensure that Canada's dwindling labor market had a sufficient work force. He said efforts to curb immigration simply to appease the United States would impact negatively on Canada's labor market. But Mr. Singer said the two countries have begun to work together, particularly in the area of shared intelligence, and he is optimistic that agreements that reflect the needs of each country will be made to better guarantee the safety of both. "Great strides have been made because both sides have not ignored the fact that each has its own problems and needs," he said. A textbook case of a terrorist who used Canada as a staging area was Ahmed Ressam, arrested in December 1999 as he tried to cross into the United States at Port Angeles, Wash. An Algerian national who lived in Montreal and trained as a terrorist in Afghanistan, he intended to blow up Los Angeles International Airport during the millennium celebrations. Some U.S. officials have speculated that September 11 planner Mohamed Atta, who piloted American Airlines Flight 11 as it crashed into the World Trade Center, traveled, to Canada through Portland, Maine, on the eve of the attacks to meet with his "handler." There has been no other explanation for his Sept. 10, 2001, trip to Portland, from which he could have taken unchallenged the Quoddy Loop ferry line into Canada. Sleeper cells With both financial and logistical bases of operation, the Canada-based sleeper cells have been described by U.S. and Canadian authorities as "secretive, operational and loyal" to al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Most members, such as Ressam, are thought to have trained in terrorist camps in Afghanistan funded by Osama bin Laden. Although none of the 19 September 11 hijackers entered the United States through Canada, several unsuccessful plots to attack targets in America have been planned by terrorists operating in that country, including members of al Qaeda. Fifteen known terrorists have been arrested entering the United States from Canada since 1995. In December, the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) confirmed that al Qaeda had established sleeper cells throughout Canada to support terrorist activities across North America. CSIS said the cells represented a significant threat to both Canada and the United States. U.S. authorities said sleeper cells also operate in at least 40 states from Florida and New York to California and Washington state -- living low-profile lives, often in ethnic communities. The September 2002 arrest of seven members of a terrorist cell in Lackawanna, N.Y., just south of Buffalo, was a first major clue to their existence. Between 2,000 and 5,000 terrorist operatives are said to be in the United States, many of whom are hiding in ethnic communities throughout the country, populated by millions of foreign immigrants, including illegal aliens for which the U.S. government cannot account. In fact, no one knows how many illegal aliens are in America today or how many more are on the way. Not one single government agency or elected or appointed federal official can say with certainty where they live, work or play. "And, quite frankly, it doesn't appear that anyone really cares," said a senior Border Patrol agent here, reflecting the concern of dozens of CBP and ICE agents assigned along the northern border as part of the new Department of Homeland Security. "One man's illegal alien certainly could be someone else's terrorist." Stretching from here to Port Angeles, agents and inspectors along the border said once illegal aliens cross through the so-called "border region" -- an area extending about 60 miles into the United States -- little effort is made to identify who they are, to check where they've gone or to round them up. The agents are concerned, even angry, over what they described as a long-standing lack of any significant effort to locate, detain and remove those who have avoided detection -- which could include would-be terrorists. They said millions of undocumented immigrants are in this country, including thousands of criminal aliens -- those convicted of crimes in this country but released after serving their sentences. "The uncertainties concerning interior enforcement, detention and removal, and who's going to do these important jobs are a major concern to those of us assigned to guard America's borders," said Deputy Chief Edward Duda at the Border Patrol's Buffalo sector. "While we protect the borders, someone else has got to take up the slack in the country's interior," he said. "No one knows who these people are or what they're doing, and the price of not finding out is just too high." Michael W. Cutler, a 31-year Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) veteran who spent most of his career as a criminal investigator and intelligence specialist, said effective interior enforcement demands adequate staffing to ensure that undesirable persons -- including illegal aliens, drug smugglers and terrorists -- are denied unfettered access to the United States. But, he said, the country's interior-enforcement program historically has been understaffed and neglected. "The proof of this, of course, is the fact that anywhere from 9 million to 12 million illegal aliens live in the United States, but fewer than 2,000 agents have been assigned nationwide to interior enforcement," he said. "With this kind of commitment, you don't have the manpower to get the job done. Not now, not ever." Illegal aliens A major question being asked along the U.S.-Canada border is: Whose job is it to find illegal aliens now in the country's interior? "That would be me," said ICE boss Michael J. Garcia. "We are committed to reducing the undocumented immigrant population in the United States, and we are developing a comprehensive, clear-cut interior-enforcement strategy to attack the problem. "We have new tools to work with, a newly reorganized border force on which we can rely, and the support of the White House, Congress and the American people. I am confident we will succeed," he said. But some veteran border agents, inspectors and others are not as confident, expressing concern that ICE's management is in disarray, that major issues -- including an effective interior-enforcement plan -- have yet to be resolved and that many of the bureau's key executives lack management experience. "It's like an immigration enforcement tripod, standing on three legs: immigration inspectors at the ports of entry, the Border Patrol between ports and special agents backing up those two operations," Mr. Cutler said. "All three legs have to be of equal strength to stand. If one is less than the others, like a tripod, the whole ... thing will fall over." Mr. Garcia acknowledged that it will "take time to determine what resources we have and what we need," but ICE has the ability to "make significant progress in putting together an effective detention and removal program." Still, Border Patrol Senior Agent Larry D. Shields, who works in the Havre, Mont., sector, said most agents think no one actively is seeking illegal aliens in the country, and the longer they remain -- with no concern about being caught -- the bolder they will become. "Once they get by the nation's thin green line of Border Patrol agents or through the country's ports of entry, they've got nothing to worry about," Mr. Shields said. "And we're talking about intruders who could have come here to find a job, commit a crime or carry out an act of terrorism." Last year, the General Accounting Office said an effective interior-enforcement strategy was "an essential complement" to gaining control of the border, but INS faced "significant challenges" in properly staffing its enforcement program and in "establishing clear and consistent guidance" to those assigned to do the job. The GAO said that the potential pool of removable criminal aliens numbered in the hundreds of thousands; that the number of people smuggled into the country had increased dramatically; that alien smuggling had become more "sophisticated, complex, organized and flexible;" and that thousands of illegal aliens had sought immigration benefits, some of which were used to conduct criminal activities. The watchdog agency also concluded that hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens not authorized to work in the United States had used fraudulent documents to gain employment and that many employers were "complicit in this activity." Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican and chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, vigorously has called for increased interior enforcement, noting that 300,000 aliens in the United States -- 6,000 from countries that support terrorism -- have been ordered deported but have yet to be processed or located. Dan Stein, executive director of the Washington-based Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), consistently has argued -- and testified before Congress -- that a "glaring failure" leading to the September 11 attacks was the lack of an effective interior-enforcement program. Mr. Stein said because 2,000 agents have been assigned to look for as many as 12 million illegal aliens, there is "virtually no possibility" that foreigners residing illegally in this country will be detected, apprehended or removed. Further hampering the interior-enforcement effort, he said, are a series of legislative proposals that encourage illegal aliens to remain in the country, including efforts to extend an immigration loophole allowing illegal aliens to become permanent legal residents without undergoing a thorough background check and efforts by Republicans and Democrats to implement a sweeping amnesty program for illegal aliens. Four years ago, Congress -- upset over what it called a "lack of visible results" in the INS' interior-enforcement strategy despite a $3.9 billion budget -- said that the lure of jobs was the single most compelling incentive for illegal migration and that a forward-deployment enforcement strategy along the Canadian and Mexican borders would only be effective if there was a "corresponding reduction in employment opportunities." The original INS interior-enforcement strategy sought to create what the agency called "a seamless web of enforcement extending from the border to the work site." Plagued by mismanagement, policy failures and administrative boondoggles, INS never was able to implement the strategy. INS since has been absorbed into Homeland Security. Mr. Garcia said the key elements of any successful effort by ICE to disrupt and dismantle terrorist organizations globally would be the aggressive pursuit of intelligence data and increased cooperation among international law-enforcement authorities -- particularly those in the United States and Canada. That desired cooperative effort took a giant step within an hour of the second hijacked airplane hitting the World Trade Center, when James H. Johnston, director of intelligence and contraband for Canada customs in Windsor, called his U.S. counterparts in Detroit offering "every bit of intelligence information" he had to help find those responsible. "It went without question that every file we had in our office was available to them," he said. "If we had any information that was pertinent, we wanted to make sure it got to the appropriate agency. I believe they expected we would be there for them, and I'm glad we were." After the September 11 attacks, Mr. Johnston ordered that records of all border crossings be checked and forwarded to U.S. authorities. His offer later was repeated all along the U.S.-Canada border, as authorities in both countries worked to identify the September 11 terrorists. "This is the longest undefended border in the world, with the longest history of cooperation and friendship among those assigned to protect its integrity," Mr. Johnston said. "Before September 11, we mainly were looking at goods. Now we're looking at goods and people. If anything, the attacks in New York and against the Pentagon have enhanced both the operation and our cooperation." Although it is not possible to shut down the often-remote U.S.-Canada border to every real or potential threat, Mark MacVittie, the CBP's chief inspector in Buffalo, said it is not unrealistic to expect the men and woman on the line to try. "We continually are re-emphasizing the importance of our mission and how the decisions the inspectors make on a daily basis could impact on innocent people all across the United States," Mr. MacVittie said. "We are focused on one goal: Making sure the person being cleared at the border today isn't headed down the road to hurt someone tomorrow."</p>

<p>An FBI-led task force yesterday meticulously tracked the last moments of slain federal prosecutor Jonathan Luna, including the late-night journey from his office in Baltimore to the creek bed in Pennsylvania where he was found dead.</p> <p>Law enforcement authorities said Mr. Luna's car, a silver-colored 2003 Honda Accord, left the U.S. Attorney's Office in Baltimore about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday and traveled toward Philadelphia, passing through at least three EZ toll booths.</p>