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  1. #1
    Senior Member Dixie's Avatar
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    Terror plot puts focus on student visas

    Terror plot puts focus on student visas

    12:12 AM CDT on Saturday, September 26, 2009

    By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV

    Student Visas
    September 25th, 2009

    Video

    DALLAS β€” News 8 has learned that federal authorities have begun a nationwide investigation of the foreign student visa process as a result of Thursday's attempted bombing in Dallas.

    The suspect in that case β€” 19-year-old Hosam Maher Husein Smadi β€” was in the United States under an expired student visa.

    Two weeks ago, Smadi was cited for driving without a license in Ellis County. Police do not routinely ask suspected traffic offenders about their immigration status. If they had in his case, they would have found the Jordanian national was in the United States on an expired student visa.

    It's another example of an immigration policy that some say is best described by two words: "Weak" and "weaker."

    "Overstays on student visas is a tremendous problem," said Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), a member of the House Immigration Subcommittee. "Now approximately 60 percent of the people in the United States are here illegally. They overstayed. They never went home. And some of the 9/11 hijackers were people who did that very thing."

    Smadi took a full-time job at a barbecue restaurant in Italy, Texas last year. His friends said he never attended school in Texas, meaning he was in the country illegally.

    Smadi was originally admitted to the U.S. to attend high school in Santa Clara, California.

    "When you give people visas, unfortunately it's very, very difficult to ferret out who's there to get an education versus who's there to do a crime," said former U.S. Attorney Richard Roper.

    Corrupt immigration is an increasing concern for the FBI. An undercover video provided by the agency shows a corrupt law enforcement official at the U.S.-Mexico border. He's seen bribing a man he believes to be an immigrant to enter the country illegally.

    The border official in the video was paid $5 million by drug cartels to help them smuggle narcotics.

    Over the last five years, 94 federal customs officials have been charged with corruption related to their jobs, all the more reason to tighten the focus on immigration.

    "We must continue to have border security; to make sure that border security remains a national security issue; that we control people coming into the United States; and we know who they are," Poe said.

    Foreign students spend money on their schooling in the United States. Education is, in fact, one of America's biggest exports.

    The question is: Which is more important? Income from foreign students or national security?

    E-mail bharris@wfaa.com

    http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/w ... e84f0.html
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  2. #2
    Senior Member Dixie's Avatar
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    Dallas police kept Smadi probe top secret

    10:57 PM CDT on Friday, September 25, 2009

    By REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA-TV

    Smadi Investigation
    September 25th, 2009
    Rebecca Lopez reports

    DALLAS β€” Thursday's arrest of Hosam Maher Husein Smadi for allegedly attempting to detonate a weapon of mass destruction under a downtown skyscraper was the best kept secret in the Dallas Police Department.

    Only three top-level commanders knew about the FBI's ongoing investigation into Smadi, and they were sworn to secrecy after they were briefed back in March.

    The commanders were basically made to take an oath of secrecy, because wheat they had learned was classified information. The FBI threatened to arrest any of the commanders if the information leaked out.

    On Thursday, when Smadi was arrested, only a few Dallas police supervisors had been told what was going on.

    The Dallas SWAT team was also kept in the dark. In fact, they were never told what was going on as they were bundled into two vans and posted near the scene of the arrest for at least one hour.

    Commanders confiscated their cell phones and told them not to make any calls. They were never told about their assignment, even as the arrest was taking place.

    In the end, the Joint Terrorism Task Force swooped in and made the arrest around noon. Dallas SWAT personnel were not needed.

    Dallas police say they are just glad the top-secret information didn't get out and the operation concluded without any problems.

    E-mail rlopez@wfaa.com
    http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/w ... 2e240.html
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  3. #3
    Senior Member Dixie's Avatar
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    Bombing suspect Samadi lived in Santa Clara

    TALY, TEXAS -- To his friends in this small Texas town, 19-year-old Hosam Maher Husein Smadi was known as "Sam" -- a kind, fun-loving guy who enjoyed dancing to techno music.

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    So his neighbors in Italy (IHT-lee), a town of about 2,000 about 45 miles south of Dallas, said they were stunned Friday after learning he'd been charged with plotting to blow up a Dallas skyscraper.

    "It's crazy because I still can't believe the Sam that I know doing anything like that," said Tabatha Rogers, 19, who lives in the same complex of dome-shaped economy homes near Interstate 35. "He was just a real good guy."

    Smadi, a Jordanian national, was arrested Thursday after federal officials said he placed what he believed to be an explosives-laden truck in a parking garage beneath the 60-story Fountain Place tower in Dallas. He was charges with trying to detonate a weapon of mass destruction and faces up to life in prison if convicted.

    Smadi made his first court appearance Friday in Dallas, where he was appointed a public defender and Arabic translator. He remained in jail on Friday and will next appear in court on Oct. 5. Defense attorney Richard Anderson said he has "little to say" on the case, other than his client was scared, far from family and dealing with a language barrier.

    Rogers said Smadi had a thick accent but spoke English well. He worked as a cashier at a large gas station that also houses a barbecue joint, a fast-food restaurant and a convenience store not far from the home he rented for about $100 a week.

    Neighbors said Smadi, who is Muslim, often let them know he was fasting but also would occasionally drink alcohol and smoke. He didn't talk about political or religious issues, they said.

    "He was a mixture between wannabe gangster and wannabe rock star," said Rogers. "Everybody loved Sam. He liked to hang out and have fun."

    But a former co-worker had a different impression of Smadi. Megan Whitney, 23, who grew up in Italy and now lives in Albany, N.Y., recalled getting upset in one conversation she had with him after Smadi said what happened to the U.S. on Sept. 11 "was OK."

    "You could see the evil in him," said Whitney, who said she worked with Smadi for a couple months about a year ago at a convenience store.

    In Jordan, Smadi's father insisted his son is innocent. He said Smadi and his brother, Hussein, 18, came to the United States in 2007 on a student visa. U.S. immigration authorities did not comment on Smadi's status, citing confidentiality.

    "The issue is completely fabricated and in our family we never condoned terrorism," Maher Hussein Smadi said from his home in Jordan.

    He said Hussein Smadi also was arrested in California. He would not elaborate, but a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County District Attorney's office said Hussein Smadi pleaded not guilty to possession of a controlled substance at a Sept. 8 arraignment.

    A manager of a California apartment complex said Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, his brother, and another relative lived in the Santa Clara building for a few months until February 2008 when a fire damaged the apartment. Joe Redzovic said Smadi told him he had a job lined up in Dallas and his brother was moving to another Silicon Valley neighborhood.

    Redzovic said even before the fire there had been complaints about noise, including loud music, and the brothers had been asked to move out.

    David South, who owns the housing complex in the Texas town of Italy, said Smadi had been a tenant since April 2008. He had a California driver's license when he signed the lease and passed background checks, South said. Though he never had any complaints about Smadi, South said the 19-year-old recently had fallen six weeks behind on rent and was in the process of moving out when he was arrested.

    "It's just something we'd rather not had happened in Italy," said Jeff Jaynes, a 70-year-old barber who was waiting downtown for the Italy High School homecoming parade to start. "This is a good place to hide -- a little, dead town."

    http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?sectio ... id=7034098
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  4. #4
    Senior Member Dixie's Avatar
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    At the end of the wfaa video, it states that Hosam Maher Husein Smadi's brother was picked up in California on immigration charges.

    Both of them had been stopped by police were under arrest prior to 9/11 both were let go by local police and both were here in the country illegally.

    Dixie
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  5. #5
    Senior Member butterbean's Avatar
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    The question is: Which is more important? Income from foreign students or national security?
    STUPID QUESTION. Too many people come into the U.S. on student visas only to mesh into the crowd and disappear. If no one can keep track of foreigners who visit here then they shouldnt be allowed to enter our country in the first place.
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  6. #6
    Senior Member laughinglynx's Avatar
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    After 9/11 they said the student visa program was an avenue to get into this country. Student visa holders disappear once they are accepted and enrolled.

    When 9/11 happened I was enrolled in a real estate class at a community college in California. I looked around me to note who was in the class. I was shocked to see that about 75% of the students, in a class of about 200, were of middle-Eastern descent. 9/11 occurred and I heard a news broadcast talking about the student visa issue. At the end of the class I looked around to note who was left in the class. Almost all of the middle-Easterners were gone. There were about 2 - 3% of the original crew of 75%. Most of the whites, African-Americans and Asians were still there.

    So, we haven't learned a damned thing, have we? Let me clarify that statement. Our idiot politicians haven't learned a damned thing. We are just sacrifices for their power plays.

  7. #7
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    Why in the world would anyone give a visa to some punks to attend an American high school? These schools, unless they are private, are subsidized by American tax dollars. Is this just another way to take over the rest of the world and force us to all become Muslims?
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  8. #8
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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  9. #9
    Senior Member Rebelrouser's Avatar
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    I agree with you butterbean ! they should END THE STUDENT VISA PROGRAM !

  10. #10
    Senior Member Ratbstard's Avatar
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    Is there no end to the stupidity of non enforcement of our immigration laws? Just how many examples of the danger to America need to be documented?
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