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17 linked to terror said to gain US status through marriage
Report details sham unions
By Alan Elsner, Reuters | August 31, 2005

WASHINGTON -- At least 17 Arab men convicted or linked to terrorism obtained US citizenship or permanent residency by marrying American women in the past 15 years, according to a report yesterday that urged better enforcement of immigration laws.

The report by Janice Kephart, a former counsel to the commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said at least nine of the marriages were shams, designed solely to allow the men to ''embed themselves" and to operate freely in the United States.

One individual, Khalid Abu Al-Dahab, married three American women in quick succession before he was able to acquire legal, permanent residency.

''During his 12 years in the United States, he provided money and fraudulent travel documents to terrorists around the globe. These activities linked him to numerous attacks, including the 1998 East Africa bombings," Kephart said.

More than 200 people were killed in the almost simultaneous bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in August 1998.

The report said three other defendants involved in those attacks also married US citizens.

Two acquired legal, permanent residency, and the third became a citizen.

Several others connected to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group entered the country on nonimmigrant tourist visas and paid US citizens to marry them within days of their arrival -- so they could stay indefinitely.

Steve Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, which published Kephart's paper, said US immigration officials were overwhelmed by the number of people they had to deal with and could not conduct proper security checks.

The center advocates cutting legal migration to the United States.

''You can't have this level of immigration and this level of resources and still keep out the bad guys," he said.

Kephart's report, which looked at the immigration histories of 94 individuals suspected or convicted of terrorism between the early 1990s and 2004, also documented the numerous other ways in which they obtained legal status.

She said 59 committed immigration fraud before taking part in terrorist activity. There were 11 instances of passport fraud and 10 of visa fraud.

Others gained entry on religious worker visas, issued to ministers or religious professionals.

For example, Muhammad Khalil, imam of a mosque located in a Brooklyn basement, sponsored more than 200 applicants for religious visas for a fee of $5,000 to $6,000 apiece.

He also sold Social Security cards for $2,300, driver's licenses, and undergraduate degree certificates.

Khalil was caught in a sting operation and convicted of various fraud charges in 2004.