More Iraqis cross Southwest border seeking asylum
By Chris Roberts / ©El Paso Times
El Paso Times
Article Launched:08/22/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT

Intelligence chief sees border as terrorist entryway

View a transcript of the Q&A session with National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell

The number of Iraqis seeking asylum as they enter the United States over the nation's Southwest border has nearly tripled this year compared with last, and the year isn't even over, said Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, a member of the president's Cabinet who oversees the nation's 16 intelligence agencies.

In the 2006 calendar year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection intercepted 60 asylum seekers, whereas so far in 2007, there have been 178, according to information provided by McConnell's office. Many more Iraqis want to immigrate to the United States than have been allowed in recent years, according to media reports, a situation that probably explains some of the activity.

None of the Iraqis have been linked to terrorist activities, but McConnell said the crossings show that more attention is being paid to the Southwest border, including by terrorist groups searching to find entry routes -- legal and illegal -- with the goal of causing "mass casualties" after they arrive.

They're coming in because they figured out how to get over the border illegally, McConnell said in an exclusive interview with the El Paso Times last week after speaking at the University of Texas at El Paso's Border Security Conference.

Illegal entries

In fiscal year 2006, which ended in September of that year, 14 Iraqi nationals were caught trying to enter illegally, according to McConnell's office. So far in fiscal 2007, 16 have been caught.

"Now some we caught, some we didn't," he said. "The ones that get in -- what are they going to do? They're going to write home. So it's not rocket science; word will move around."

A U.S. intelligence analyst interviewed for this story, who would speak only on the condition of anonymity, said evidence exists that the human smugglers, or coyotes, are telling Iraqis to ask for amnesty if they are caught -- a status that puts their cases into a politically sensitive category -- regardless of their situations or intentions.

The Iraqi immigrants entered a country in South or Central America using forged documents, McConnell said. By taking advantage of a program that allows people to travel from country to country in Latin America without visas, they worked their way north, where they tried to cross into the United States, he said.

And although the numbers are classified, McConnell said, a relatively small number of people with known links to terrorist organizations have been caught crossing the Southwest border.

'Keeping them at bay'

"Coming up through the Mexican border is a path," McConnell said. "Now, are they doing it in great numbers? No, because we're finding them and we're identifying them and we've got watch lists and we're keeping them at bay. There are numerous situations where people are alive today because we caught them (terrorists)."

A recent Associated Press investigation found that "thousands" of people from countries "identified by the U.S. government as sponsors or supporters of terrorism" have been smuggled into the United States over the northern and southern borders. Many of those, it stated, were not associated with extremist groups and came for work or to escape oppressive conditions.

The report also stated that U.S. homeland security officials said they "knew of no cases of al-Qaida operatives using (human) smuggling operations to enter."

A few cases have become public after they entered the legal system.

Agent of Hezbollah

As an example, McConnell points to Mahmoud Youssef Kourani, who was indicted in 2003 as a trained counterintelligence agent of Hezbollah, which has claimed responsibility for attacks that killed Israelis and Americans and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States. Kourani entered the country in 2001, reportedly through Tijuana, Mexico. Kourani's brother, who allegedly directed his actions from abroad while Kourani was in the United States, was the organization's chief of military security for southern Lebanon, according to court documents.

Kourani paid a Mexican Consulate official in Lebanon $3,000 for a Mexican visa and was smuggled into the United States in the trunk of a car, officials said. In 2005, he was sentenced to 4Ã¥ years in prison after admitting that he helped raise money for Hezbollah while living in Dearborn, Mich.

When asked about terrorists crossing the Southwest border, U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, chairman of House Intelligence Committee, said, "It's not something we would talk about."

"We have had intelligence about al-Qaida identifying Latin America as a potential or prospective area where they could come through, but frankly, I'm surprised that the director would make definitive statements like that because, even if it were true, you wouldn't want to publicize that," Reyes said.

McConnell himself warned about the open congressional hearings on the government's foreign surveillance program and the media coverage of those hearings. Debate has centered on the appropriate balance between collecting intelligence and protecting privacy and civil rights.

Foreign surveillance is crucial in catching terrorists planning attacks inside the United States, McConnell said.

"The fact we're doing it this way (discussing it in open hearings) means that some Americans are going to die, because we do this mission unknown to the bad guys. They're using a process that we can exploit, and the more we talk about it, the more they will go with an alternative means," McConnell said.

Revealing sources and methods gives the enemy valuable information, he said.

"All of my briefs, initially, were very classified," McConnell said. "But it became apparent that we were not going to be able to carry the day if we didn't talk to more people É it's a democratic process and sunshine's a good thing. We need to have the debate."

Congressional debate

The debate over the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, was politically bruising for McConnell, who walked into the controversy after he was confirmed by the Senate in February. He has been hailed by Democrats and Republicans alike as the consummate intelligence professional.

Although McConnell said he had no marching orders from the Bush administration and made judgments on the proposed legislation based solely on what is necessary to protect the country, some ultimately accused him of making a deal with congressional leaders and then backing out when the administration disapproved.

"The president's guidance to me early in the process was, 'You've got the experience. I trust your judgment. You make the right call. There's no pressure from anybody here to tell you how to do it,' " said McConnell, describing himself as an "apolitical figure" who has voted for both Republicans and Demo crats.

"I think he negotiated in good faith. I think he got caught up in the politics," Reyes said, adding that he respects McConnell's 40 years of experience in the field. "I think he's doing the only thing that he could do in that situation and that is, accept responsibility. He'd be the last one I'd expect to say, 'Well yeah, I negotiated, we had a deal and then it got overruled by my boss, or bosses.'"

McConnell said some of the versions presented to him after the discussions with lawmakers had "offending language" he had already rejected. Congress ultimately passed a version of the bill essentially written by the White House, according to Reyes, who soon thereafter received a letter from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., urging him to revisit the law before it comes up for renewal in about six months.

Communication routes

McConnell said the problems were related to technological changes in the way people communicate that were not accounted for in the previous version of the law, which has been revised numerous times since its 1978 introduction. In the past, warrants were needed only for communications involving someone -- who does not have to be a U.S. citizen -- inside the country. But because new communication networks sometimes route foreign-to-foreign calls through the United States, a judge on the secretive FISA court that rules on such matters determined a warrant was required for any call that used a U.S. circuit.

Provisions in the law allow agents to conduct surveillance first and get warrants later, but McConnell said the process of preparing court documents was tying up analysts with language skills who should have been collecting intelligence.

Reyes said he generally agreed with McConnell's criticisms of the old law, but he added that internal administration policies created some of the problems. And the current law, he said, "gives them (the administration) too much latitude to do things in a overly broad manner. The key to the FISA law has been that there's a responsible judge that looks at the government applications and makes a determination. This (current law) basically takes it out of the hands of the judge."

Reyes said the House expected to produce a new bill by the end of September.

McConnell bristles at the suggestions that U.S. intelligence agencies have been "data mining," collecting large amounts of data to search for information they can use against targeted individuals, or wantonly encroaching on U.S. citizens' civil rights.

"We've got a lot of territory to make up with people believing that we're doing things we're not doing," he said.


http://origin.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_6684100