Thread: Ho-hum: Just another illegal alien jihadi suspect

This guy might be a terrorist, but he's certainly into the hip-hop look. Just picture for yourself a group of terrorists with this guy in the middle wearing his extra long gold chain, baseball cap, and baggy jeans standing there...The sad thing is IF the investigators really were watching him, why would they let him leave jail without knowing what he might do -on Sept 11th no less. I'm simply just not convinced this guy is the real thing, and neither do I believe the investigators were/are convinced.

Illegal Alien Charged With Attempting to Use WMD in Dallas Was Imprisoned in Jordan Five Years Ago, Says Jordanian Government

Friday, September 25, 2009
By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief

(CNSNews.com) - Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, an illegal alien from Jordan who was charged yesterday with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in Dallas, Texas, was imprisoned in Jordan in 2004 three years before he left that country for the United States in 2007, according to the Jordanian government.

“What we know is that he is a 19 year old. He was put in a correctional facility in 2004 in Jordan after being arrested for basically theft and street begging,â€

Suspect in Dallas terror plot makes first court appearance
Posted Saturday, Sep. 26, 2009


Neighbors of suspect in Dallas terror plot say he was 'like your average teenager’

Local Muslims angry that plot tarnishes their faith

Timeline of an alleged terror plot

Teen planned to blow up Dallas skyscraper in terror attack, federal agents say

By BILL MILLER

wmiller@star-telegram.com

DALLAS — As a Jordanian teenager was arraigned Friday in connection with a plot to blow up a downtown skyscraper, workers at the 60-story tower said they couldn’t help thinking about what-ifs.

"I will admit, I was crying at home last night," said Jennifer Wingfield of Forney, who has worked for two years at an insurance company in Fountain Place, a signature building in the Dallas skyline.

She had heard about something happening downtown Thursday afternoon but didn’t know until later that it involved her building.

"I was really scared," Wingfield said. "I have 4-year-old triplets. To hear about that and then to think, 'Oh, I could’ve died today.’ "

Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, 19, was arrested Thursday after he planted a device in the basement of Fountain Place, according to FBI documents. Agents posing as members of a sleeper terrorist cell had tricked Smadi into believing the device was a bomb, but it was inert, and they arrested him when he tried to detonate it with a cellphone, they said.

Smadi made a brief appearance Friday morning before U.S. Magistrate Irma C. Ramirez. The short, slightly-built defendant was dressed all in black for the hearing at the Earle Cabell Federal Building in downtown Dallas. At one point, he bowed to the judge and nodded yes when she asked him to speak up.

Speaking in heavily accented English, he said he understood that he was being charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. He waived his right to a detention hearing, although he has the right to request one later, and was returned to the custody of U.S. marshals. He will not be required to enter a plea until a later hearing.

The FBI has said that he is in the country illegally and has been placed under an immigration hold by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He is scheduled to return to court Oct. 5.

Attorney Richard Anderson of Dallas, who was appointed to represent Smadi, said he had just been assigned the case and knew little more than what he had read in the news. Anderson represented one of the defendants in the 2004 trial of a Richardson family accused of illegally shipping computer equipment to Libya and Syria, deemed state sponsors of terrorism, through their company, Infocom Corp.

Anderson described Smadi as a frightened 19-year-old who has almost no family in the country. Anderson also said Smadi faced a language barrier. Smadi spoke with an obvious accent in court, and his communications with undercover FBI agents were all in Arabic, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. Anderson told the judge that lawyers had summarized the contents of the complaint for Smadi.

However, co-workers and friends in the small town of Italy, south of Dallas, where Smadi lived, said he spoke English without trouble.

An FBI affidavit states that Smadi hatched a plot to commit jihad and chose Fountain Place after considering the "Dallas" airport and the National Guard Armory.

The FBI documents said Smadi wanted to bring down the building, which he saw as a symbol of America’s credit-card economy, just as hijacked airplanes crumpled the World Trade Center’s twin towers on 9-11.


http://www.star-telegram.com/crime/story/1637307.html

Originally Posted by TheOstrich

Why did Ellis County let him go when he was arrested on Sept 11th? Didn't they think to phone his name in to see if he was wanted as a felon or terrorist suspect?
A major thumbs down to the Ellis County Sheriff's Department!!!

Ostrich

Saw on the local news last night that Ellis County only notifies ICE if its a Class B Misdemeanor or above.

An affidavit in the case filed by Thomas D. Petrowski, FBI supervisory special agent in Dallas, said that Smadi had an Alien Registration Number issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Spokesmen at DHS would not discuss Smadi’s case. However, DHS issues Alien Registration Numbers both to aliens who originally enter the U.S. legally and to aliens who originally enter the U.S. illegally and are later encountered by DHS.

So DHS issues a "Regristration Number" which allows illegal aliens to work in our country? I wonder how many illegal aliens have these numbers.

Strange article coming from a RAG that not long ago named these ILLEGAL ALIENS TEXAN OF THE YEAR ...

Jordanian in downtown Dallas bomb plot stayed on expired visa

12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, September 30, 2009
By TODD J. GILLMAN
tgillman@dallasnews.com
Dianne SolÃ*s in Dallas contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON – Like millions of others classified by the government as illegal immigrants, the Jordanian teen accused of plotting to blow up a Dallas office tower last week arrived in the United States legally and stayed long after his visa expired.

Federal immigration officials said Tuesday that Hosam Smadi, 19, arrived on a visitor visa, not a student visa as initially believed, in spring 2007.

The difference is crucial: For foreign students, dropping out of school triggers a report to a central database and, often, a follow-up by immigration authorities. For those who arrive as tourists or workers, it's almost certain authorities won't take notice unless they apply for a driver's license, get pulled over or arrested or call attention to themselves.

Officials in several federal agencies were reluctant to say much more about Smadi on Tuesday, citing the ongoing investigation. It's unclear when Smadi or his parents obtained the visa – Jordanians can receive visas that expire in five years, so he could have been as young as 11 or 12.

Once a visa-holder arrives with a "B2" visitor visa – the sort Smadi apparently received – he has six months to seek an extension or leave the United States.

Jordanian authorities say he spent time in detention when he was 14 or so, for a theft his father says he had reported to teach his son a lesson. It's unclear if U.S. authorities knew about that case, nor whether it would have held up his visa if they did.

However he got here and however long he stayed, Smadi came under scrutiny because, the FBI alleges, he expressed jihadist views on a monitored Web site.

"Unfortunately, a lot of people are coming in for the wrong reasons – to harm Americans or kill Americans, rather than as an innocent tourist," said Rep. Lamar Smith of San Antonio, the senior Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. "Once you come into the country on a tourist visa, you've passed 'Go.' People know they're home free and there's no effort made to keep track of them."

In 1996, Smith wrote a bill – signed into law by President Bill Clinton – requiring the federal government to create a system to track both the entry and exit of foreign visitors. Thirteen years later, it's still a work in progress.

The Homeland Security Department has been building a system called U.S.-VISIT for several years.

The system compares biometric data with security databases, mostly to ensure that a foreigner arriving at a U.S. airport or land crossing isn't using someone else's passport. The data is stored. But, since most ports of entry don't identify departing foreigners, it's almost useless for tracking how many people – let alone which individuals – stayed longer than they were supposed to.

Officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, don't dispute that.

Four of the hijackers involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had overstayed their visas, and that issue has vexed policymakers and informed the nation's immigration debate for years.

Immigrant advocates agree that relatively little effort is expended to track down people who overstay their visas – though, unlike Smith and others, they say that's fine.

"The government doesn't monitor computers and say: 'Aha.' Quite honestly, we don't have the resources for that," said Crystal Williams, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "Mostly what you'll pick up are people who are just trying to earn a living. I would rather see those resources spent on people who really mean us harm."

The immigration department has a National Fugitive Operations Program that tracks down foreigners who arrived without permission, and also those who arrived legally but stayed longer than their visas allowed. The top priority is to find people who pose a threat to public safety – people with known terrorist links or criminal records, or active arrest warrants.

A teenager with no known criminal record would not rise to the top of such a list.

The immigration agency posts a list of 15 "most-wanted criminal aliens." Not one is wanted for an act of terrorism. Most are accused of human smuggling or lewd acts involving children.

After Sept. 11, the government required males age 16 to 70 from a number of countries, most of them predominantly Muslim, to report their whereabouts. The backlash was intense, and the program was largely abandoned.

Washington is spending about $300 million per year implementing US-VISIT (the acronym stands for Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology).

The issue of visa overstays, and other elements of the Dallas case, may come up today at a Senate hearing featuring Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and FBI Director Robert Mueller, focused on the domestic terrorism threat since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Napolitano's predecessor in the Bush administration, Michael Chertoff, estimated that up to 40 percent of the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants had earned that status by overstaying their visas.

"We are at the same place we were before 9/11," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates immigration restriction. "There's been some but not much progress."





http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 2111d.html

Visitor’s visa not to be used for work, school
Posted Wednesday, Sep. 30, 2009
By MELODY McDONALD

mjmcdonald@star-telegram.com

The visitor’s visa that Hosam Smadi used to enter the United States basically authorized him to visit friends and relatives and see the sights, likely for no more than six months. It did not permit him to work, go to school-- or stay for two years.

Smadi’s father told The Associated Press last week that his son was in the country on a student visa.

Immigration officials corrected that Tuesday, but have declined to discuss specifics about the case.

But federal officials did offer general information about visas, immigration and citizenship:

The visitor visa (known at the B-2 Tourist Visa) is a type of non-immigrant visa for people who want to enter the United States temporarily for tourism or personal reasons. The visa is typically valid for up to six months, but can be extended by asking for permission from the Department of Homeland Security’s Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.

A student visa is issued to foreign citizens who come to the United States to study. The student can generally stay as long as he or she remains in school with valid documentation.

A work visa is for those wishing to work temporarily in the country.

Immigrant visas are for those seeking permanent residence.

Although Smadi married a Texas woman in July 2008, the union did not automatically make him a lawful, permanent resident. Officials said foreigners with a visitor’s visa who marry still must apply for an adjustment of status with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which requires filling out additional paperwork, an interview and a background check. Only then would the foreigner be eligible for a green card, which identifies the holder as a lawful permanent resident.

"If you come in on a visitor’s visa and your intention is to marry a U.S. citizen, you are circumventing the law," said Maria Elena Upson, a spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Because Smadi was here on a visitor’s visa, he would not have been authorized to work at Texas Best Smokehouse in Italy, where friends said he worked the counter. It is unclear whether the business will face penalties for hiring him. The business owners issued a short statement after Smadi’s arrest but has otherwise declined to comment.

Generally speaking, all U.S. employers and employees must fill out a Form I-9 to verify the authorization of all workers. The employee must attest that he or she is a permanent resident or is authorized to work in the United States and must show documentation, such as a birth certificate or Social Security card. The employer is obligated to physically review the documents.

"All I can tell you is that an I-9 form must be completed before anybody can be hired," said Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "The I-9 form requires documentation that proves you’re eligible to work in the United States.

"If an employer knowingly hires illegal aliens, there are administrative fines that are involved. Depending on the circumstances, there may also be criminal prosecution."


http://www.star-telegram.com/855/story/1648064.html