Jul 19 2007

Peruvian Underground Railroad For Smuggling Iraqis Into America

Published by at 1:25 pm under All General Discussions,Bin Laden/GWOT,Iraq

It seems Iraqis have been attempting to set up an underground railroad to sneak themselves into the US – clearly for nefarious reasons:

A criminal ring attempting to smuggle Iraqis into the United States has been busted in Lima, Peru, U.S. law enforcement officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

At least 10 Iraqis have been arrested over the last month there, some as they prepared to board flights to Los Angeles.

U.S. officials said the Iraqis were found with stolen Dutch and German passports which had been altered.

There are only a few reasons to try and get into the US right now, and that is to attack us so that we finally wilt and run from Iraq. It is amazing we have had success in detecting these kinds of activities and able to stop them well outside our borders. But for those who think al-Qaeda and Iraq will not become a bigger threat to us if we leave, think of what kind of mischief these people could make if Iraq was a sanctuary instead of a battlefield. No mistake about, this is a small example of what we would see if we gave al-Qaeda both the PR win and the win of a base of operations like Iraq.

13 responses so far

13 Responses to “Peruvian Underground Railroad For Smuggling Iraqis Into America”

  1. Soothsayer says:

    Aw – come off it:

    this is a small example of what we would see if we gave al-Qaeda both the PR win and the win of a base of operations like Iraq

    As usual – no documentation whatsoever for this theory. The story references Iraqi Chaldean Christians who frequently try to enter the U.S., claiming they face persecution in Iraq and that California is home to a sizable Chaldean community.

    Maybe these folks were just like the majority of illegals – seeking a better life in the US. As a result of the devastated s***hole we have made out of their country – Iraqis are fleeing the wasteland and levels unprecendented during the reign of Saddam Hussein. Maybe they have “nefarious reasons” – maybe they don’t. Maybe their part of the non-existent al-Qaeda Iraq. Who knows what the Fox News party line is today?

    As far as anyone knows right now, – including AJ – this is simply a story about illegal immigrants and coyotes who make money off of them, and it in no way props up any lame arguments about: if we don’t fight them over there we’ll have to fight them over here.

  2. The Macker says:

    Sooth,
    “The devestation we have created out of their country”-
    If I didn’t know better, I’d think you pined for the golden era of Saddam and his sons.

    “Non existant al-Qaeda,” “Non existant WMD,” “US created wasteland”- You are not entitled to your own facts.

    Islamic fascism is the reason for Iraqi Christians fleeing. The stories of their persecution are well known.

  3. momdear1 says:

    Sooth, You can take a chance on speculating that they aren’t terrorists if you want to but the rest of us have the right to assume they are terrorists or have nefarious resons for sneaking into our country. We are at war. These terrorists declared war on us,not the other way around. They are the ones who have vowed to convert or kill all infidels, starting with us who they consider “the Great Satan.” . . Sorry if some innocent people get caught while trying to get themselves smuggled into this country but we have the right to protect ourselves by assuming that anyone entering illegally is not coming here for any reason other than inflicting harm on us. It’s better to be safe than sorry. And sorry about those S–t holes around the world, but they were there before the US ever appeared on the scene and they will continue to exist long after we are gone. Slavery, genocide, animal sacrifice, mutilations, forced marriages, stonings, honor killings, and other barbaric practices were not invented by the US. Since all of these things are considered acceptable and normal in the middle east, I can’t see where our presence could possibly have made it any worse than it was before. However, if you are so enamoured with thoughts of how good it was over there, maybe you should make a trip over and see for yourself. Check out the uneducated sexually mutilated women covered from head to toe in black rags , if you can find one who dares talk to a man who is not her husband. Check out the mothers who proudly produce suicide killer sons who blow them selves up so they can become martyrs. Check out the crazed zealots who behead little girls because they are going to school to get an education. Maybe if you see for yourself and stop fantacising about everything being Bush’s fault you might get your head screwed on straight so you can think rantionally.

  4. MerlinOS2 says:

    Sooth

    If you would look this has been going on since before 2003.

     

    Located where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet, the area is home to roughly 20,000 Middle Eastern immigrants—mostly from Lebanon and Syria—and has long been a hotbed for terrorist fund raising, arms and drug trafficking, counterfeiting and money laundering. By moving freely through the region’s porous borders, operatives from the terrorist organizations Hizbollah, Hamas, and according to some reports, al-Qaeda, are able to conduct arms-for-drugs deals with secular Latin American terrorist groups like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Peru’s Sendero Luminosos (Shining Path). All told, U.S. officials believe that between $10 and $12 billion is funneled through the tri-border region each year, with Hizbollah among the prime beneficiaries.

    Paraguayan Interior Minister Julio Cesar Fanego has said the group received between $50 and $500 million from the area from 1999 to 2001 alone. Although Hizbollah seeks to create Iranian-style Islamic “republics”—which punish narcotics offenses with flogging, imprisonment and in some cases, death—a large chunk of its tri-border funds are earned in the drug trade. Intelligence officials believe that Hizbollah’s drug profits help pay for “social welfare” programs that have enabled the group to gain popular support in its home base of Lebanon

  5. MerlinOS2 says:

    Even the Rand Corporation has documented the history since the 1980’s

     Of the groups in this category, Lebanese Hezbollah is perhaps the
    best known and the most capable. This group was responsible for the
    1983 suicide attack against the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, which
    inaugurated the era of mass-casualty terrorism, and for two terrorist
    attacks in the Western hemisphere, both in Buenos Aires: the 1992
    bombing of the Israeli embassy and the 1994 bombing of the Jewish
    Community Center. In addition, since the early 1980s, Hezbollah has
    established a far-flung financial network, stretching from the tri-border
    area of South America (where the borders of Brazil, Argentina, and
    Paraguay intersect), to North America, to West Africa, and Southeast
    Asia. So Hezbollah has the potential to inflict damage on U.S. interests
    and allies across the globe. Yet this group remains relatively detached
    from the al-Qaeda network and has not directly threatened the United
    States since the 1983 attack. Today, Hezbollah projects an image of
    political legitimacy in Lebanon. At the same time, the group maintains
    its terrorist network of 20,000–25,000 members, conducting
    some limited attacks on Israeli forces and supplying military aid to
    Palestinian groups.

  6. Terrye says:

    The one and only person who participated in the WTC attack in 1993 who got away went to Iraq, where he was protected by Saddam. His name was Yasin and he was Iraqi, although his parents went to school in this country.

    And sooth, considering what Saddam did to that country, I think it is really stupid of you to be talking about what a shithole the place is. Saddam destroyed the ecosystem, shut down sewage systems and refused to even keep up the infrastructure. Go ask the Marsh Arabs what kind of care he took of Iraq.

  7. crosspatch says:

    Apparently they were flying these people in to LAX. Is the far right now going to demand a 50,000 foot fence at the border?

  8. MerlinOS2 says:

    CP

    Don’t pull a Sooth on me buds.

    The fence is designed to address one access method. Another part of the puzzle is Port of Entry control based on input from intel and data verification.

    One weakness of the current system is that the source of flight manifests is the airlines themselves and they discard them after a short period of time. Even at current flight levels, international flight manifests need to be archived somewhere for long term analysis in case they need to be referred back to trace entry points to examine access patterns or specific case histories.

    Many times a known suspect was confirmed to have come into the country by a certain airline and the manifest had already been deleted. This eliminated developing potential leads of a second or third accomplice traveling on the same flight or another within a couple of days on other flights.

  9. MerlinOS2 says:

    The press likes to point out the two or three times a year something comes up which points to errors in the no fly lists.

    My position is the threshold for putting someone on the no fly list should be lower than periodic reviews to examine the entries in the no fly list and remove those wrongly placed on it.

    I would rather have more initially included since the numbers compared to total passenger loadings are a small percentage, but then subject to a more intense review to maintain the status.

    Also just a name match should not be the only rejection reason presented at the end user point at a TSA control point.

    I mean a 6 month old kid with a name collision to a 25 year old excluded person should not be a sole exclusion criteria.

  10. crosspatch says:

    “Don’t pull a Sooth on me buds.”

    My point was to show that the ones we really need to worry about don’t walk across the border from Mexico. They probably drive across from Manitoba.

  11. MerlinOS2 says:

    Agreed, but we have such good co operation with Canada that home growns are the worry from that side.

    The greater danger is through the southern border via South American countries where documentation is much less and people are following the same path as drugs and other stuff.

  12. MerlinOS2 says:

    CP

    I don’t really worry about Canada a lot since they get it just like we do.

    My concern is about the south american pathway.

    This isn’t about the “Boys from Brazil” retired out and having their visions of grandeur looking to their new rebirth, this is about the false image that somehow we will have the magic solution of “Die Hard” saving the day or the crew from 24 pulling our butts out of the fire to eliminate the threat.

    The sieve at the south is a much more clear and present danger than any thing from the northern end since they perceive the danger as much as we do.

    Remember that after the last election there south of us they had a popular shadow government forming in the plazas for weeks on end.

    That is not a stable environment that really gives rise to a lot of confidence.

  13. MerlinOS2 says:

    So many for too long have had the habit of doing the right thing and connecting the dots, but still fell down on fully following the dots beyond the first generation of dots.

    The world as we know it seems all new with new threats from present sources but if you really examine it , it is still the same old players like geriatric WWF guys being put into a cage match.

    You can take Iran and North Korea and they still fall under the hands of Russia and China.

    Regan did Russia in by putting them into a money race to build defense systems that exceeded their ability to support.

    But what we have today is Russia playing the old cold war balance by proxy party through Iran and all the puppets they support the same old game.

    The south american gambit through Chevez is such an old soviet play it is like looking at fourth time reruns of your least favorite tv show.

    It is still about all the same world players.

    Russia may have been put down for a while and the bear took a siesta, but they were not killed.

    Do you think for a minute that if Russia withdrew their support from Iran they could have the reactors that Russia is building?

    It’s still mostly a bipolar universe out there and Russia is rebuilding and using pawns to enhance their power.

    It does not bode well into the future.