| FrontPageMag.com | By Robert Spencer | By Hugh Fitzgerald | Books | Dhimmi Watch | Islam 101 | Qur'an Blog | Raymond Ibrahim | Robert Spencer |  |
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|
He denies it all now. It is unclear why he would have asserted it all in this phone call, however, if it were not true. Of course, there could be any number of reasons. But this case bears monitoring. "Infiltration from the south feared: Terrorist smuggling denied by admitted drug runner," from The Brownsville Herald, with thanks to Richard:
Officials are pointing to records in a South Texas drug case with alleged terrorist ties that they say underscores the lack of preparedness here.The attorney for a jailed Gulf Cartel member cited in the incident, however, says his client was falsely accused of trying to smuggle Iraqi terrorists into this country. He maintains the claims were brought to increase the punishment for a drug offense against the accused.
The allegations are debated but the danger is real, warns U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz who believes federal lawmakers do not realize the exposure that exists on this porous international boundary.
“There is a huge disconnect between Washington and the border,” Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, said and called the security issue “alarming.”
‘Gente de Osama’
The January 2005 arrest of Noel Exinia and Cesario Nuñez appeared to be just another Drug Enforcement Administration bust on the border, until court documents in the case are examined more closely.
A few days before their arrest on federal cocaine trafficking charges, Exinia and Nuñez moved more than a quarter-ton of cocaine from Mexico through the Rio Grande Valley and on to New York City, the men told officials.
Nuñez, 33, pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge in September. His sentencing is set for Thursday.
Exinia, 35, eventually pleaded guilty to the same charge. His sentencing is expected in March.
Court documents filed in Exinia’s case make frequent references to his position in the notorious Gulf Cartel. The paperwork also contains details of a December 2004 incident in which he tried to secure transportation for 20 Middle Eastern “terrorists” waiting to enter the United States from Monterrey, Chiapas and Puebla in Mexico.
Recorded telephone conversations authorized under the U.S. Patriot Act and a court order captured the La Feria truck driver referring to the 20 men as “gente de Osama” or “Osama’s people.”
During a Jan. 5, 2005, telephone conversation, Exinia described the men as “Iraqis,” ages 25 to 33, who were willing to pay $8,000 for transportation past Border Patrol checkpoints in South Texas and into the U.S. interior.
Exinia mentioned that eight of the men were coming to Progreso, northwest of Brownsville. He said they were “dangerous” and “really bad people.” They carried guns and made the smuggler that was helping them “afraid.”
Posted by Robert at January 15, 2006 7:39 PM
Print this entry
| Email this entry
| Digg this
| del.icio.us
|
The MSM ignored the immigration status of the 19 hijackers and they will ignore this story as well.
Only poor farm workers cross the border, "undocumented workers". An open border policy has served us well for 200 years, but we ignore the new dangers at our peril.
![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 15, 2006 8:19 PM
Fox News, in spite of the Saudi stockholders, is doing the best (just about the only) coverage of this as far as I've seen, having had Sean Hannity on the border a number of times last year. It's also been a pet issue of Bill O'Reilly's, and I hope he'll get back to it. Through those two and the frequent appearances Tom Tancredo has had on their shows, I think the fact of terrorist infiltration via Mexico has just barely trickled into the MSM.
This story fits well with the recent story that people have been buying up alarmingly large amounts of untraceable, "throwaway" cell phones here in Texas. You've got to assume they're either terrorists or drug dealers, and from there, ABC News has pointed out that terrorists have already used this type of phone to detonate the bombs in the Madrid attacks:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/story?id=1499905
Posted by: Shinoliite at January 15, 2006 8:55 PM
Solomon Ortiz? Interesting that an Hispanic is raising the alarm.
Posted by: Kepha at January 15, 2006 9:16 PM
Well the don't put a high priority on the southern borders, because the MSM says the only come here to do work that most Americans won't do, like rape, murder, drug trafficking, and the smuggling and slavery of other human beings. We don't want those jobs, do we?
Posted by: Infidel One at January 15, 2006 11:38 PM
We have been screaming for closed borders for years, is anyone surprised that terrorists would cross our nearly wide-open border?
Here is an article about our leftist senators who just don't get it.
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/BurtPrelutsky/2006/01/14/182423.html
at January 15, 2006 11:54 PM
By not securing our borders after 9/11, our Federal Government has allowed untold numbers of terrorists to freely cross our borders since 9/11 and is also allowing terrorists to buy untraceable cell phones for communication and to use as activation tools to set off explosives.
It is astounding and unbelievable that the Federal Bureaucrats do not realize that Washington is a main target of the terrorists. The terrorists’ belief is to kill the head of the beast (destroy Washington) so the body dies (America ceases to be free and becomes Muslim).
In every country that Muslims have invaded, the Muslims take over the government and kill the non-believers (Christians, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus, etc).
The war for our freedom in America is coming and it is near.
at January 16, 2006 12:04 AM
This hardened drug smuggler thought that these guys were "dangerous" and "really bad people".
It is a wicked, Satanic thing about Islam, in how it does something to the mind and soul of the man in its grip, so powerful and inhuman that your vilest criminal would blush.
And rightly so. These guys would kill the drug smuggler or any ally, eventually, if they refused to submit to the Demon Lord Allah, who would have all flesh to serve him.
Posted by: Echo at January 16, 2006 12:21 AM
Somewhere in all of that is probably the Salvadoran gang Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. They're jacks of all criminal trades, smuggling weapons as well as people and drugs, and they're much more coordinated than their US counterparts.
They are making more inroads all the time in US cities (having been founded by deported Salvadoran gang members from LA) and have a presence up and down Central America as well. They would be a handy conduit for terrorists if the price was right.
They're also kindred spirits with the jihadists in their loyalty-or-death structure, misogyny, and fondness of decapitations.
http://www.policemag.com/t_cipick.cfm?rank=90876
Posted by: Shinoliite at January 16, 2006 12:53 AM
This is an issue right near to my heart but there is little I can say to the public aside from the obvious, that MUCH MORE CAN BE DONE to secure our border. Mr. Chertoff (DHS) is trying, but with budgetary problems, a soaring deficit, a war with Iraq and elements of Washington itself breathing down his neck, there is no desire to hire the numbers needed for the operations being discussed here. We have what we have. We make due. I think he is doing a good job considering the problems we face.
You must all not forget that we need Mexico in this war more than you might realize. The only real solution is the passage of President Bush's guest worker program coupled with a massive presence/wall at the border.
at January 16, 2006 2:07 AM
This isn't rocket science. The cheap-labor, even-cheaper-votes-crowd, the transnationalists, the multiculturalists and all those that want to insinuate their own ideology as well as create the situation in which most of the world's middle class now finds itself-on the downswing, needing to migrate to survive, are thrilled that political, religious and business leaders have decided to force this untenable position on the American people. The borders could be closed, migration could be stopped, immigrants could be screened, and Americans could be safer...those in power in the United States and around the world don't want this to happen.
Posted by: epg at January 16, 2006 7:52 AM
It should also be noted the millineum bomber was caught at the Canadian Border with a trunkful of explosives. He was on his wat to LAX.
Posted by: kevin at January 16, 2006 7:52 AM
Can you believe a would be terrorist quoting Dionne Warwick, Do You Know the Way to San Jose'?
Sounds to me like we need the Minute Men!!!
at January 18, 2006 11:13 AM
(Note: The Comments section is provided in the interests of free speech only. It is mostly unmoderated, but comments that are off-topic, offensive, slanderous, or otherwise annoying stand a chance of being deleted. The fact that any comment remains on the site IN NO WAY constitutes an endorsement by Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch, or by Robert Spencer or any other Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch writer, of any view expressed, fact alleged, or link provided in that comment.)