Posted on 12/05/2003 11:45:09 AM PST by FlyLow
The Department of Homeland Security unexpectedly terminated an immigration program targeting men from Middle Eastern countries this week, though department officials deny the program was cut in response to criticism from numerous civil rights and Muslim activist groups. The National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) was terminated, says the DHS, as a part of implementing a more comprehensive entry-exit monitoring system known as US-VISIT -- expected to be fully operational by 2005.
Of the 177,000 Middle Eastern men registered under NSEERS, 20% were in violation of their visas, and at least 11 are suspected of terrorist connections. Of those not registered...well, you get the picture.
Meanwhile, the Census Bureau reports that the Arab population in the United States has nearly doubled in the past two decades, the result of lax U.S. immigration laws and discord in the Middle East. The Bureau says there were almost 1.2 million Arabs in the United States in 2000, compared with 860,000 in 1990 and 610,000 in 1980, most of them from Lebanon, Syria and Egypt. Of course, most of them are peace-loving folks. We are more concerned about the Islamists who did not respond to the most recent census -- you know, like the crew who hijacked four commercial aircraft on 9/11....
New warnings were issued by the FBI this week: "Recent intelligence indicates terrorists are considering the use of improvised explosive devices assembled onboard to hijack an aircraft or, alternatively, destroy it over heavily populated areas in the event of passenger or crew resistance," notes the FBI's weekly bulletin. "In many cases of suspicious passenger activity, incidents have taken place in the aircraft's forward lavatory. It is conceivable that terrorists may plan to use this private area to construct IEDs in order to facilitate access to the cockpit or position themselves in front of the passengers.''
Law-enforcement authorities are also on alert for the possibility of charter or cargo planes being used by homicide bombers to attack high-profile domestic targets. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security has issued an advisory based on unspecified intelligence indicating that al-Qa'ida operatives in the U.S. have plans to target "liquid natural gas, chemical or petrochemical sites near major population centers using multiple vehicle-born improvised explosive devices similar to those recently seen in the attacks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Istanbul, Turkey."
In other news concerning domestic threats, since pleading guilty to materially supporting al-Qa'ida, the so-called "Lackawanna Six" (the naturalized Americans of Yemeni descent recruited by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan before 9/11) have provided "substantial assistance and information deemed highly valuable" to government terrorism investigations, according to prosecutors. The information includes al-Qa'ida methods for identifying and indoctrinating American recruits and details of terrorist training at the al Farooq camp in Afghanistan. Shafal Mosed, 25; Mukhtar al-Bakri, 23; Faysal Galab, 27; Sahim Alwan, 30; Yahya Goba, 26; and Yasein Taher, 25, were arrested in September 2002, when federal agents received a tip about their training in Afghanistan in early 2001. A seventh recruit, Jaber Elbaneh, 28, remains a fugitive. The FBI has offered a $5-million reward for information leading to his arrest.
Eleven maybe terrorists out of 177,000 isn't much of a payoff. I know, I know, which of those eleven would have had the bomb, etc., but I have to wonder if the money might not have been spent more productively.
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