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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Chicago immigration business subject of terror investigation

    Chicago immigration business subject of terror investigation

    Officials are reportedly looking into First World Immigration Services.

    Prosecutors say it was part of a plot to bomb a Danish newspaper, and that its owner knew about plans to attack Mumbai, India.

    By Tony Olivo
    January 6, 2010

    Reporting from Chicago - Nestled among the restaurants and sari shops that anchor Chicago's South Asian community, First World Immigration Services Inc. has operated as a welcoming walk-in center for recently arrived immigrants, helping with visas, citizenship applications and other matters, its proprietors say.

    But as part of a widening investigation into an alleged international terrorist plot rooted in the city, U.S. authorities are sharpening their sights on the agency in search of possible acts of immigration fraud, according to sources familiar with the inquiry.

    Federal prosecutors charge that the company served as a front in a Chicago-based terrorist plot to bomb a Danish newspaper. The newspaper had outraged Muslims worldwide in 2005 when it published unflattering caricatures of the prophet Muhammad.

    Federal prosecutors allege that First World's owner, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, also knew in advance of plans for the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, which killed about 170 people. Randall Samborn, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago, said last week that federal authorities were working to determine the immigration status of people who entered the U.S. with the agency's help.

    Rana, who also owns a grocery store in Chicago and a halal meat plant in Kinsman, Ill., is in federal custody. He was arrested in October, along with another Chicagoan, David Coleman Headley, an alleged scout in the Denmark and Mumbai plots.

    Both men have denied the charges. Federal prosecutors allege that Rana, 48, helped Headley scout the newspaper's offices in Copenhagen and several other potential targets for terrorism by arranging to secure travel visas for Headley.

    Headley, 49, then allegedly posed as an agent of First World who was seeking to place an ad at the newspaper. According to court filings, Rana also conspired to bring foreigners to the U.S. under false pretenses.

    In e-mail conversations, Rana advised an alleged member of the militant Pakistani organization Lashkar-e-Taiba about loopholes to get individuals into the U.S., court filings say. The group is believed to have carried out the Mumbai attacks.

    "Whenever you find easy way to come to U.S., immediately think there is a catch to it," Rana allegedly wrote in one e-mail, warning against using student visas. In another message, Rana allegedly suggested that one individual be brought in under a false occupation. "Make him a cook," the e-mail reportedly said.

    Prosecutors say that in another correspondence, Rana suggested that a typewriter be used for an application that would include a false employer letter from 1983, noting that laser printers did not exist back then.

    Rana's lawyers have denied all of the charges, and characterize the Canadian citizen as an upstanding businessman.

    Since the federal investigation began, Rana's businesses have been effectively destroyed, his lawyers said. Last week, the scene inside First World was quiet, with Rana's business partner, attorney Raymond Sanders, nonchalantly munching peanuts while a female co-worker advised a client over the phone.

    "We do all forms of American immigration," Sanders said. He referred all other questions to his attorney, who did not return a telephone call.

    However, others in Chicago's growing Pakistani community were eager to defend Rana, a man they know as a thoughtful former physician in his homeland who always has been willing to help people here in need. Rana, whose primary residence is in Chicago, arrived in the city in 1997.

    Friends say First World is popular among Pakistani and Indian immigrants. Rana "is a very kind-hearted person," said Raja Muhammad Yaqub.

    Yaqub, who knows Rana through their mosque, said that Rana had helped fund a health clinic that serves uninsured patients and had assisted non-Muslims as well as Muslims at his immigration agency.

    "Mostly, those people who are poor, they come to him," Yaqub said. "If he was any kind of negative person, how can he help those who aren't part of his community?"

    aolivo@tribune.com

    http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and- ... 2286.story
    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


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  2. #2
    Senior Member Ratbstard's Avatar
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    This kind of crap is going on in every single "Immigrant Nation/American Association" offices here in NYC and I believe all over America.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

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