Al Qaeda seeks tie to local illegal alien gangs

A top al Qaeda lieutenant has met with leaders of a violent Salvadoran criminal gang with roots in Mexico and the United States -- including a stronghold in the Washington area -- in an effort by the terrorist network to seek help infiltrating the U.S.-Mexico border, law enforcement authorities said. Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a key al Qaeda cell leader for whom the U.S. government has offered a $5 million reward, was spotted in July in Honduras meeting with leaders of El Salvador's notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang, which immigration officials said has smuggled hundreds of Central and South Americans -- mostly gang members -- into the United States. Although they are actively involved in alien, drug and weapons smuggling, Mara Salvatrucha members in America also have been tied to numerous killings, robberies, burglaries, carjackings, extortions, rapes and aggravated assaults -- including at least seven killings in Virginia and a machete attack on a 16-year-old in Alexandria that severely mutilated his hands. The Salvadoran gang, known to law enforcement authorities as MS-13 because many members identify themselves with tattoos of the number 13, is thought to have established a major smuggling center in Matamoros, Mexico, just south of Brownsville, Texas, from where it has arranged to bring illegal aliens from countries other than Mexico into the United States. Authorities said al Qaeda terrorists hope to take advantage of a lack of detention space within the Department of Homeland Security that has forced immigration officials to release non-Mexican illegal aliens back into the United States, rather than return them to their home countries. Less than 15 percent of those released appear for immigration hearings. Nearly 60,000 illegal aliens designated as other-than-Mexican, or OTMs, were detained last year along the U.S.-Mexico border. El Shukrijumah, born in Saudi Arabia but thought to be a Yemen national, was spotted in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in July, having crossed the border illegally from Nicaragua after a stay in Panama. U.S. authorities said al Qaeda operatives have been in Tegucigalpa planning attacks against British, Spanish and U.S. embassies. Known to carry passports from Saudi Arabia, Trinidad, Guyana and Canada, El Shukrijumah had sought meetings with the Mara Salvatrucha gang leaders who control alien-smuggling routes through Mexico and into the United States. El Shukrijumah, 29, who authorities said was in Canada last year looking for nuclear material for a so-called "dirty bomb" and reportedly has family members in Guyana, was named in a March 2003 material-witness arrest warrant by federal prosecutors in Northern Virginia, where U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said he is sought in connection with potential terrorist threats against the United States. A former southern Florida resident and pilot thought to have helped plan the September 11 attacks, El Shukrijumah was among seven suspected al Qaeda operatives identified in May by Attorney General John Ashcroft as being involved in plans to strike new targets in the United States. Citing "credible intelligence from multiple sources," Mr. Ashcroft said at the time that El Shukrijumah posed "a clear and present danger to America." In August, an FBI alert described him as "armed and dangerous" and a major threat to homeland security. Earlier this month, Mr. Ashcroft confirmed that U.S. border agents and inspectors had ramped up efforts to find El Shukrijumah amid reports that the al Qaeda leader was thought to be seeking entry routes into the United States along the U.S.-Mexico border. Mr. Ashcroft noted that increased enforcement efforts were under way in the wake of a rise of arrests of border jumpers from Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Authorities said Mara Salvatrucha gang members moved into the Los Angeles area in the 1980s and developed a reputation for being organized and extremely violent. The gang since has expanded into the Washington area, including Virginia and Maryland, and into Oregon, Alaska, Texas, Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Georgia and Florida. More than 3,000 Mara Salvatrucha gang members are thought to be in the Washington area, with a major operation in Northern Virginia. Other gang centers, authorities said, include Montgomery and Prince George's counties and the Hispanic neighborhoods of Washington. Mr. McNulty, whose office has prosecuted Mara Salvatrucha gang members, has described the organization as the "gang of greatest interest" to law enforcement authorities. He said gang members are recruited predominantly from Hispanic communities and typically among juveniles, some as young as 13. Recruits are "jumped" into the gang by being beaten by members while others count to 13, he said. Gang rules, he said, are indoctrinated into new recruits and ruthlessly enforced. Those who cooperate with law enforcement are given the "green light," he said, meaning that the gang had approved their killing. In March, the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office filed an injunction against Mara Salvatrucha, charging that the gang's criminal activity constituted a "public nuisance" based on the number of killings, robberies and drug crimes. The injunction requires gang members, under public nuisance statutes, to follow curfew rules and regulations and prohibits them from associating, driving or appearing together in designated areas of the city.

Source - http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/sep/28/20040928-123346-3928r/

Little to stop illegal aliens from voting

U.S. citizens who go to the polls Nov. 2 to decide local, state and national elections are likely to get more help from noncitizens this year than ever before.

Beyond requiring applicants to sign a pledge on voter-registration forms affirming that they are U.S. citizens, there is no way to prevent the nation's estimated 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens from casting ballots in November, area elections officials said.

Locally, only Virginia requires voters to provide their Social Security numbers, but the state does not require voters to show their Social Security cards.

"There is no way of checking," said Maryland State Board of Elections Administrator Linda H. Lamone. "We have no way of doing that. We have no access to any information about who is in the United States legally or otherwise."

Nationally, immigration experts said it is likely that illegal immigrants vote, but that only a small percentage does so.

"Evidence suggests very few illegal aliens vote, but it's certainly not zero," said Steven Camarota, director of research at the D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies. "Illegal aliens don't come to America to vote, and would generally try to avoid doing so."

Today, there are roughly 8 million illegal aliens in the United States who are of voting age, he said.

Mr. Camarota said more legal immigrants who are not citizens might be voting illegally.

"The whole system isn't well-guarded," he said. "There's no system in place to really prevent illegal aliens from voting or even to deter them from voting."

Six Maryland municipalities -- Chevy Chase, Takoma Park, Garrett Park, Barnesville, Martin's Additions and Somerset -- allow noncitizens to vote only in local elections. However, in state and national elections, voters must meet the state standards for voter registration.

Given the predicted close election this year and the 2000 election that was decided by a small number of votes, Mr. Camarota said even the few aliens who do vote could make a difference in the results.

Only first-time voters are required to provide photo identification in Virginia and the District. No jurisdiction requires voters to show proof of citizenship at the polls.

No federal agency keeps records of which undocumented immigrants are in the country, Mrs. Lamone said.

Maryland does ensure, through an extensive process of cross-database checks and balances, that there are no deceased persons or felons on its voter rolls.

Barbara Cockrell, assistant secretary of the Virginia State Board of Elections, said the state has a computerized voter-registration system that uses Social Security numbers as unique identifiers. The state constitution requires that voters provide their numbers, which she said are kept private.

Miss Cockrell said asking on the registration forms whether applicants are citizens provides the needed safeguards.

"They take an oath under penalty of perjury," she said. "After the first time, we don't ask them to bring ID."

Bill O'Field, a spokesman for the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, said the penalty for lying on the voter-registration form is a maximum five-year prison sentence or a $10,000 fine.

Other than for first-time voters who registered by mail, "there's no checking of ID," he said.

Dan Stein, president of the D.C.-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, said relaxed voting regulations and the ability to register to vote through the Department of Motor Vehicles allows illegal immigrants to get a form of legitimate identification.

"There are huge fraud problems out there," he said. "There's no safeguards on it."

He also said those groups pushing voter-registration efforts this year don't check to see if registrants are citizens. This flaw has the potential to "corrupt" the political system, he said.

"Aliens have already shown they are willing to break U.S. law to come here. Why should we expect them to not vote?" Mr. Stein asked. "In a system where virtually no effort is made to ensure integrity, we'd be naive to say it isn't going on. You only need one vote to swing an election."

Peter Rubin, professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, said many groups are "interested in suppressing the votes of minorities and using illegal tactics as a way of scaring people from coming out to the polls."

"That has happened in many elections," he said. "These tactics are real, continue to be used, and are underreported. It should be of concern to everyone, especially now, when everyone's vote matters."

Source - http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/sep/23/20040923-104542-8488r/

Illegal aliens used false IDs at fort

Federal authorities investigated an incident Tuesday morning in which officials said two illegal aliens attempted to come onto Fort Gordon with false identification and gave false names.

No arrests were made, said Marla Jones, a deputy public affairs officer at the post.

Ms. Jones said men with false identification attempted to come onto Fort Gordon via Gate 3 in an Atlanta Gas Light Co. truck Tuesday morning.

Post security stopped them and held them for the FBI to interview. She said the individuals in question, who were released at about 11:30 a.m., were denied access to the post because they did not have valid identification.

Ed Reinhold, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Augusta office said that information about the incident was forwarded to the Bureau of Immigration and Citizenship Enforcement.

He said the FBI couldn't make any arrests for immigration violations based on this particular incident.

"If there was a terrorism nexus, we could do an immigration violation arrest, but we saw no indications of that," Mr. Reinhold said.

Robert Chaplin, the Augusta regional manager for Atlanta Gas Light, said his company also is investigating the incident.

He said the men were employed by Benton-Georgia and were under contract with Atlanta Gas Light to replace pipes for the company.

U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga., has proposed legislation that would give local and other law enforcement greater powers to enforce federal immigration law.

The legislation, the Clear Law Enforcement for Criminal Alien Removal Act, was introduced into Congress last year but has not made it to the floor for a vote.

Source - http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2004/09/01/met_427149.shtml