Sleepers To Wake For New Year?
Vol: 15 Issue: 30 Monday, December 30, 2002
The FBI is looking for five men it says entered the US illegally from Canada sometime around Christmas Eve.
The five men are: Abid Noraiz Ali, Iftikhar Khozmai Ali, Mustafa Khan Owasi, Adil Pervez and Akbar Jamal, all born between 1969 and 1983. The FBI warned that the names and birth dates may be false.
The photographs can be found at http://www.fbi.gov/
In examining the public alert, it doesn’t exactly have the clear ring of truth, either.
The public statement and the bulletin to law enforcement agencies said, “Although the F.B.I. has no specific information that these individuals are connected to any potential terrorist activities, based upon information developed in the course of ongoing investigations, the F.B.I. would like to locate and question these persons.”
CLUE: The Bureau says it has ‘no specific information’ about these men. Let’s stop there a minute.
The alert was issued on a Sunday afternoon. Not Monday morning during a press conference, which is the way it would be done if the DoJ had CAUGHT five Islamic guys trying to sneak into the country.
The timing of the alert carries with it a built in sense of urgency. And what ‘ongoing investigations’ apart from the war on terror, would involve the FBI in the search for five Middle Eastern guys on suspicion they used false passports?
Overall, then, the question is this. How often is it that the FBI issues Sunday afternoon alerts to look for 5 men of Middle Eastern origin between the ages of 19 and 33 who may have sneaked into the country when it is NOT connected with terrorism?
Although most reports say the men are of Middle Eastern ancestry, four of the five have Pakistani or Persian names and do not look like Arabs.
Mansour Ijaz (who is usually right on these things) told FoxNews last night that he believes only Adil Pervez is likely to be an Arab.
Ijaz is a Pakistani-American with some amazing connections in the region.
The FBI said they believed the men crossed from Canada sometime around Christmas Eve. The Canadians are denying it, saying they have ‘no reason’ to believe it.
Under the banner headline, “RCMP skeptical of illegal border crossing” the Toronto Globe and Mail reported,
“The RCMP had been made aware of this situation before yesterday and have been co-operating with the FBI, said RCMP Staff Sergeant Andr Guertin. “I can state at this time that there is no reason for us to believe that [they came through Canada].””
Assessment:
It’s a curious denial. I’ve crossed the Canadian border into the US hundreds of times, most recently last week.
Canada does NOT conduct border exit checks. As the pieces come together, it appears the US knows what Canada doesn’t because the five used false passports on the American side.
US officials aparently let them in before the document fraud was discovered. The five evidently entered Canada from Britain. In both those cases, the forged documents passed inspection.
I find it noteworthy that Canada remains in a state of denial — to the peril of us all.
There are additional reports in the New York Post to the effect the FBI is quietly looking for fourteen other men of similar background that are believed to be already in place in a number of US cities, including New York.
The Washington Post said on Dec 26 that Canadian intelligence experts developed information that sleeper cells in Canada and in the United States had suddenly stepped up communications between them.
The Canadians nabbed an Ottawa area pizza-delivery man named Mohamed Harkat. Harkat is a major player in al-Qaeda, as it turns out.
Harkat was busted shortly after he made calls to suspected al Qaeda members in the US, quoting Reid Morden, former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, who has been in contact with the Canadian spy agency on the matter.
Osama’s network has already tried a major strike against an American target on New Year’s Eve 2000.
All the available intelligence points to the possibility that he will try again, most probably on New Year’s Eve. I am NOT trying to be alarmist and I hope that I am misreading the signals.
But what good is a Christian intelligence digest that holds back information because it is scary?
On New Year’s Eve, I’ll post a link to our “Send an email to God” New Year’s Eve public prayer forum.
Among my New Year’s prayers this year will be a prayer that I am wrong about this.
But be alert during the New Year’s season. And may our God bless us all.
Omegaletter 