List of Terrorists granted US Visas

[Guest guest]

>From 1/25/2000

The list of major international terrorists and militants allowed to

enter the United States in recent years or actually granted green

cards and citizenship is nothing less than staggering.

 

· Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, head of the Egyptian Al Gamat Al

Islamiya, and convicted leader of an interdicted plot to bomb US

landmarks, bridges and tunnels in New York

 

· Musa Abu Marzook, one of the top three officials of Hamas (who

founded and operated a "think tank" in Chicago and Virginia

 

· Ali Mohammed, a top lieutenant to Osama bin Laden (and not

insignificantly, enrolled as a SPECIAL FORCES SERGEANT at Fort Bragg)

 

· Wagdi Ghuniem, a militant Islamic cleric from Egypt, who has called

for jihad against Jews and other "enemies of Islam." (Curiously, on

one of his recent visits to the United States, Ghuniem was barred

from entering Canada because of his terrorist affiliations and sent

back to the United States, where he continued his tour exhorting

Islamic groups to carry out violence.)

 

 

 

· Wadih el Hage, secretary to Osama bin Laden

 

· Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad

(who served as a professor at the University of South Florida in

Tampa)

 

· Sheikh Abdel Aziz Odeh, spiritual leader of the Palestinian Islamic

Jihad and unindicted co-conspirator in the World Trade Center bombing

(who visited the United States multiple times for fundraising and

political recruitment without any knowledge of the INS)

 

· Ayman Zawahiri, leader of the Egyptian Al-Gihad organization,

lieutenant to Osama bin Laden and conspirator in the assassination of

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat

 

· Rashhid Ghannoushi, head of the Tunisian Al-Nahdah

 

· Anwar Haddam, a leader of the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front (FIS)

 

· Leith Shbeilat, a militant Islamic leader implicated in an

assassination plot against Jordan's King Hussein

 

· Khalid Mishal, a top leader of Hamas, who, in his speeches in the

United States, has called for stabbings

 

· Kamal Hilbawi, a spokesperson for the Muslim Brotherhood, who has

called for attacks on American targets and who has encouraged

carrying out of suicide bombings

 

· Yusef Al Qaradawi, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and active

supporter of Hamas and other violent groups, who has called for

suicide bombings and taking over the United States

 

· Qazi Hussein Ahmed, leader of Pakistani Jamaat-e-Islami, a militant

group that supports violent "jihad" or holy war

 

· Ramzi Yousef, the top organizer of the World Trade Center bombing

 

· Sheikh Abdulmunem Abu Zant, a militant Jordanian Islamic cleric,

who has routinely called for violence

 

· Ishaq Al-Farhan, a leader of the militant Islamic Jordan Action

Front who has issued numerous exhortations to carry out violence

 

>From Wall St Journal 5/2001

Perhaps the most disconcerting revelations from the trial of the 1993 WTC

bombing concern Al-Qaeda's entrenchment in the West. For example, its

procurement network for such materiel as night vision goggles, construction

equipment, cell phones, and satellite telephones was based mostly in the U.S.,

Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Bosnia and Croatia. The chemicals purchased

for use in the manufacture of chemical weapons came from the Czech Republic.

 

In the often long waits between terrorist attacks, Al-Qaeda's member

organizations maintained operational readiness by acting under the cover of

front-company businesses and nonprofit, tax-deductible religious charities.

These non governmental groups, many of them still operating, are based mainly in

the U.S. and Britain, as well as in the Middle East. The Qatar Charitable

Society, for example, has served as one of bin Laden's de facto banks for

raising and transferring funds. Osama bin Laden also set up a tightly organized

system of cells in an array of American cities, including Brooklyn, N.Y.;

Orlando, Fla.; Dallas; Santa Clara, Calif.; Columbia, Mo., and Herndon, Va.

 

Several conclusions follow from this information.

 

First, we should think of Al-Qaeda not as an organization dominated by one man

but as a global Islamist "Internet" with gateways and access points around the

world. Second, Al-Qaeda has a world-wide operational reach. Especially

noteworthy is its success in the U.S. and Europe, where it recruits primarily

(as this trial showed) among Muslim immigrants. The legal implications of this

fact are as serious as they are delicate. Clearly, this is a major new area for

law enforcement to grapple with.

 

Larger Point

 

Finally, this trial shows that trials alone are not enough. In conceptualizing

the Al-Qaeda problem only in terms of law enforcement, the U.S. government

misses the larger point: Yes, the operatives engage in crimes, but they are

better thought of as soldiers, not criminals. To fight Al-Qaeda and other

terrorist groups requires an understanding that they (along with some states)

have silently declared war on the U.S.; in turn, we must fight them as we would

in a war.