Author: Paul Sperry
Publication: WorldNetDaily.com
Date: September 21, 2002
URL: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29019
Nations among 15 mostly Muslim states
that fall under secret criteria
Beginning Oct. 1, U.S. immigration
inspectors will be allowed to fingerprint, photograph and track visiting
aliens who have traveled to Indonesia or Malaysia and can't credibly explain
their trips there, authorizes a confidential Justice Department memo, a
copy of which was obtained by WorldNetDaily.
It's the first time Asian nations
have been singled out for immigration restrictions in the war on terrorism.
Both Indonesia and Malaysia have heavy Muslim populations and harbor al-Qaida
cells.
They are among 15 terrorist-risk
countries, nearly all of them Muslim, cited for special concern in the
highly sensitive four-page department memo (page 1, page 2, page 3, page
4).
The internal document, dated Sept.
5, reveals that immigration inspectors have been given much wider latitude
in screening and monitoring foreign visitors than has been reported.
"Any nonimmigrant alien, regardless
of nationality, must be specially registered when the inspecting officer
has determined or [has] reason to believe that a nonimmigrant meets pre-existing
criteria, as determined by the Attorney General [John Ashcroft], that would
indicate that such alien's presence in the United States warrants monitoring
in the interest of national security," states the memo, written by Johnny
N. Williams, INS executive associate commissioner, and sent to INS regional
directors under strict orders not to discuss or share it with the media
or public.
Under seven new criteria, which
have not been made public, inspectors have the "discretion" to specially
register aliens if:
"The nonimmigrant alien has made
unexplained trips to Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Syria, North Korea, Cuba,
Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, Somalia, Pakistan, Indonesia or
Malaysia, or the alien's explanation of such trips lacks credibility."
"The nonimmigrant alien has engaged
in other travel, not well explained by the alien's job or other legitimate
circumstances."
"The nonimmigrant alien has previously
overstayed in the United States on a nonimmigrant visa, and monitoring
is now appropriate in the interest of national security."
"The nonimmigrant alien meets characteristics
established by current intelligence updates and advisories."
"The nonimmigrant alien is identified
by local, state or federal law enforcement as requiring monitoring in the
interest of national security."
"The nonimmigrant alien's behavior,
demeanor or answers indicate that [the] alien should be monitored in the
interest of national security."
"The nonimmigrant alien provides
information that causes the immigration officer to reasonably determine
that the individual requires monitoring in the interest of national security."
The memo requires INS officers to first seek the OK of their supervisors
before referring such visiting aliens to special registration based on
the criteria.
Previously, INS inspectors were
limited to singling out for special screening visitors from Iran, Iraq,
Sudan, Libya and Syria - and Syria was only recently added to their list
of special-interest countries.
As WND reported Thursday, Justice
has added Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen to the official special-interest
list, to the shock of putative allies Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
U.S. intelligence officials say
there is growing evidence that Muslim extremists in Malaysia and Indonesia
pose a terrorist threat to the U.S.
Malaysia
Fewer than half of Malaysians are
Muslim, but Islam is still the official religion there, says Ph.D. historian
Serge Trifkovic, author of "The Sword of the Prophet: Islam History, Theology,
Impact on the World." Import and sale of the Bible in Malay is banned,
he says, and it's against the law for a Muslim to convert to Christianity
or other religions.
Much of the population there is
sympathetic to al-Qaida's brand of militant Islamic supremacy and is radically
anti-American. During the bombing campaign in Afghanistan, for example,
tens of thousands of protestors in Malaysia chanted: "Go to Hell, America"
and "Destroy America," notes Mideast scholar Daniel Pipes, author of "Militant
Islam Reaches America."
Two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, Khalid
al-Mihdhar and Nawaz al-Hazmi, were among al-Qaida operatives who met in
Malaysia in January 2000. They were joined at the meeting by Tawfiq Attash
Khallad, an al-Qaida leader accused of masterminding the bombing of the
USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000.
Indonesia
Trifkovic says Indonesian Muslims
have waged "murderous terror" on Christians, slaughtering hundreds of thousands
of them in East Timor.
He says Washington, until now, has
looked away because of a covert program sponsored by the Clinton administration.
Codenamed "Iron Balance," Indonesian militants linked to the carnage in
East Timor were trained in the U.S.
Trifkovic suggests Clinton tolerated
the Islamic jihad against Christian "infidels" there to appease ex-President
Suharto, who was in bed with major Clinton-Gore fund-raisers Mochtar Riady
and his son James Riady, who was convicted of campaign-finance violations
along with John Huang, the U.S. representative for their Jakarta-based
Lippo Group conglomerate. (Chinese-born Mochtar Riady allegedly changed
his Chinese name to get along in predominantly Muslim Indonesia.)
Pipes says large numbers of Indonesians
also last year protested the U.S. counterattacks in Afghanistan by chanting,
"U.S., go to Hell!"
Indonesia authorities only recently
acknowledged that al-Qaida members have operated in the country after denying
it for months after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Omar al-Faruq, another al-Qaida
leader in Southeast Asia, was arrested by Indonesian authorities in June.
Al-Faruq reportedly was behind a series of church bombings in Jakarta in
2000. He's now in custody at the U.S. base in Bagram, Afghanistan.
A Justice official, speaking on
condition he not be named, told WorldNetDaily that Ashcroft has added to
the INS registration list "any country where there is significant terrorist
activity," and Indonesia and Malaysia are no exception.
The policy goes into effect Oct.
1 at all U.S. land, sea and air ports.
