text: Al-Qaeda getting SA passports - AnabolicMinds.com
  AnabolicMinds.com > Forum > General Conversation > General Chat > Al-Qaeda getting SA passports
  28/07/2004 07:17 - (SA)
  Harlingen, Texas - Federal authorities are investigating a South African woman they say tried to board a flight near the US-Mexico border with an altered passport, amid reports that South African passports have ended up in the hands of terrorists.
  Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed, 48, was arrested July 19 at the McAllen airport and charged four days later with illegal entry into the US, falsifying information and falsifying a passport. She was denied bail on Tuesday by a federal magistrate.
  A senior federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Tuesday that investigators were trying to determine whether the woman had ties to terrorist groups. So far nothing has been substantiated, the source said.
  South African officials have acknowledged that al-Qaeda militants and other terrorists travelling through Europe have obtained South African passports. Authorities believe they got them from crime syndicates operating inside the government agency that issues the documents.
  Ahmed was arrested as she tried to board a flight for New York and couldn't provide a visa to prove her legal travel within the United States, FBI Special Agent Daniel Delgado said in an affidavit.
  Ahmed provided an SA passport that was missing four pages, according to the affidavit. Authorities said she said that her visa was in New York.
  Authorities searched Ahmed's bags and found a pair of wet and muddy pants in one and plane tickets and flight schedules in another. Authorities said she later told them she was smuggled into the United States from Mexico by crossing the Rio Grande.
  "I did come here illegally, I came through the bush," Ahmed told FBI agents in a voluntary interview on July 21, the affidavit said.
  According to the flight itineraries, on July 8 Ahmed travelled from Johannesburg through Dubai and United Arab Emirates and then to London. A July 14 British Airways itinerary showed a trip from London to Mexico City.
  FBI Agent Gary Simmons testified at Ahmed's court hearing that she was carrying about $6 350, along with British currency, one Krugerrand gold coin worth about $400 and Mexican pesos.
  Barry Gilder, director general of the department of home affairs, said in Johannesburg he has come across a number of instances in which South African passports were found in the hands of al-Qaeda suspects or their associates in Europe - both in his current capacity and as a former deputy director in the National Intelligence Agency.
  Gilder gave no specifics, and he described these as "isolated" cases. South African officials say the crime syndicates are selling the country's identity documents and passports for as little as R500. They sell mostly to economic migrants, who find it easier to enter Europe or the United States on a South African passport than ones from their own countries. But terrorists now appear to be tapping into these networks, Gilder acknowledged.
  Good read bro. Lust for money corrupts everything. Texas is like a big open door on the border. It's just a matter of time.
  08-03-2004, 01:16 AM
  I've worked all over the AZ-Mexico border..it's a freakin joke. Without adequate border security none of the other aspects of the war on terror make any sense.
  I agree with you guys. I keep reading stories of frustrated boarder agents who say nothing is being done. In we are attacked again and they came in over the boarder we need to start prosecuting the politicians.
  Seriously we do. They send billions of our dollars overseas to make the AQ cockroaches scatter then we leave our back door wide open. Frickin brilliant.
  The RNC will probably get hit, maybe they'll get the message then.
  They'll only 'get the message' if money can be made or lost. That's the system. It can be very frustrating can't it?! That's why I gotta go w/ the rep's this time. Bush is just an old coke-head from Texas. He knows the border situation well, no doubt, and the oil game too.
  08-04-2004, 12:29 AM
  If Bush changed( or were less vocal about) a few ofhis ideaologies I might be convinced to go that route. I don't feel he has even come close to addressing the border situation..hell he basically said "Come on up!" with that amnesty offer..but no real steps have been taken along the border.
  After 9/11 they decreased the border patrol force until just recently where they brought it back up to pre-9/11 levels proclaiming to "increase border security". That's claled one step backward, one step forward..you're still in the same spot. lol
  Bad border security may lead to evil things on the terrorist front, but it's good for our gear
  08-04-2004, 12:55 AM
  one step backward, one step forward..you're still in the same spot. lol
  I hear ya bio, it's the same issue as always. In the end, you just vote for the lesser of two weeny-heads. Although I've never gone rep before this election. I guess it hinges on Bush's Christian faith. I too believe that Christ is the one, and also recognize that all these mid-east conflicts have already been defined and predicted in the Bible. It's gonna get real ugly one day no matter who is elected. But in America, it'll happen like this: 2 or 3 nuc's set off in LA, NYC, or places like that and simultaneous release of a bioagent like anthrax. The damage sounds small, but who will buy food and goods from a radioactive country, and tourism will die when anthrax is found and quickly spread to most major cities. The economy will never recover and **** will unfold in the mid-east while we sit by unable to get our own **** together. Frankly, I'm glad Bush is hitting them while we still can, but that's just my opinion. The bombs are probably already planted or just over the border, waiting to go.
  Usual, your right! This is good news for gear though. (I'm trying to see the glass half full now)
  True, the gear flow can keep coming,lol. I can grow into a radioactive anabolic hulk during the post-apocolyptic era so there is an upswing.
  Time will tell but I've been predicting a detonation on US soil for over 7 years. I will happily be wrong as wrong can be.