Your stolen passport may be a jihadi's ticket into a Western country. "Spain Dismantles Passport Ring For Islamic Cells Abroad," by David Roman for Dow Jones Newswires, December 1 (thanks to Twostellas):
MADRID -(Dow Jones)- Spanish police arrested seven men in Barcelona, suspected of stealing passports for radical Islamic cells in Thailand and Pakistan, and collaborating with the group that carried out the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, the country's Interior ministry said Wednesday.The suspects, six Pakistanis and one Nigerian, are believed to be part of a European network that allegedly obtained passports to be forged in Thailand. The passports were later distributed to cells including Al Qaeda, Pakistan's Lashkar e Taiba--which carried out the Mumbai attacks, killing 175--and Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers, the ministry said in a statement....
According to Spanish police, the group allegedly stole large amounts of foreign passports from tourists in Spain--practically all in or around Barcelona--over the 18-month period during which the group was under surveillance. The thefts were allegedly requested by the Thailand-based head of the group, who asked for passports with specific nationalities and age brackets.
And I thought that it was the Mossad, that was busy stealing and forging passports !
Britain is far more lax. The main means of illegal entry is for a member of the Commonwealth to arrive legitimately from Pakistan for instance. They then post the passport back to Pakistan and because the UK doesn't stamp passports on exit so someone else with a beard or a burkha, and unscrutinised is waved though customs. They then have access to the European community and visa free travel to the US. British customs are too busy searching old British ladies to bother their overlords.
OT
WikiLeaks: Pakistan continues to support Mumbai terror attack group
Pakistan continues to support the militant group which carried out the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai despite its claims to have launched a crackdown on the organisation, the United States Ambassador to Islamabad wrote in a cable.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8174482/WikiLeaks-Pakistan-continues-to-support-Mumbai-terror-attack-group.html
In a review of Washington's strategy on Pakistan and Afghanistan, its ambassador to Islamabad, Anne Patterson, said Pakistan was supporting four militant groups, including the Taliban's Haqqani network and the Lashkar e Taiba (LeT) terror group, and could not be persuaded to abandon them.
The Haqqani network is based in North Waziristan, from where it launches attacks on Nato forces over the border in Afghanistan. The LeT has been nurtured by Pakistan's ISI intelligence service to carry out proxy attacks on India to put pressure on New Delhi to negotiate the future of Kashmir.
I hope everyone saw these bits of the report.
"...radical Islamic cells in *Thailand* and Pakistan"...
"...a European network that allegedly obtained passports to be forged *in Thailand*..."
"The thefts were allegedly requested by the *Thailand-based head of the group*"...
Where in Thailand was this person based, I wonder? In the majority-Muslim south, where no named jihad gang ever hangs out a shingle but, rather, anonymous jihadist terror raiders simply pop up out of, and then vanish back into, the sheltering 'sea' of the general Muslim 'community'?
The Jihad in Thailand is not peripheral to the Global Jihad, even if it doesn't get much publicity.
It matters, a lot, that the jihad should be resisted and defeated in Thailand.
... anonymous jihadist terror raiders simply pop up out of, and then vanish back into, the sheltering 'sea' of the general Muslim 'community'
I'm gonna memorize that statement and recite it to myself as Krauthammer launches into his spiel about "tiny minority" and "moderate Moslems" and such rot.
You are right, sir, Moslem Activists could not run their respective mass murder operations w/o the Ummah.
Every single terrorist act or planned act finds connection to porkistan, yet America keeps calling the porkies "ally"? Can't figure that one out. Someone please clarify this for me.
This is a bit OT, but some here were at my blog asking if I'd put something together on a particular topic and I've finished and posted it there...
http://freemendo.typepad.com/undaunted/2010/12/you-cant-smoke-me.html
Thanks.
Read: "We know you have nukes so we will pretend to be allies so you don't cause the end of the world."
Re. Pakistan and their nukes, and for that matter, N Korea and their nukes.
We know that Pakistan and Iran and N Korea are all playing nuclear footsie together.
And we know that Iran caught a very bad case of stuxnet.
I wonder whether the infection has spread to their partners-in-crime?
Now that *would* be interesting.
Airport security risks seem to be mounting these days. It was only the other day that the ink cartridge bombs were intercepted.
Although it may be a touchy subject to some people, the most logical and effective approach to dealing with terror and fraud suspects is ethnic profiling. Other commuters still have to go through security checks but it is different if you, lets say a Muslim from Yemon entering the UK or a palestinnian entering Isreal.
Discussed here:
http://waeshael.wordpress.com/2010/11/27/common-sense-wheres-it-gone/
Robert:
Just to follow up. Today's editon of the Strait Times of Singapore reports that Thai cops have busted that passport forgery ring. They arrested 2 Pakistanis and 1 Thai woman.
These actions merely reinforce a bit what the Wiklileaks expose: Pakistan and Pakistanis are dangerous and the most prudent act we can do to protect ourselves is to ban all future Pakistani immigraion (unles they're Christians and other opressed minorites) and to put the Pakistani communities throughout the West under close police scrutiny.
xavier