So the FBI was apparently fooled into hunting for five non-existent, Middle Eastern fugitives from Canada. It now looks like a weasel named Michael John Hamdani made the whole thing up to avoid facing old document forgery charges.
Hamdani may have pulled a fast one, but our air, land, and sea ports of entry are still sieves—and the continuing hunt for fugitive terror suspects is no joke:
- The FBI is still trying to find an Ottawa aid worker known as "al-Kanadi," (Arabic for "The Canadian"). Ahmad Said Khadr is considered by intelligence officials to be the highest-ranking Canadian within Osama bin Laden's inner circle. Khadr had previously been in custody in Pakistan for the 1995 bombing of the Egyptian Embassy in Islamabad that killed 17 people. But according to the National Post, after Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien personally appealed for Khadr to "receive due process and fair treatment," the suspected Egyptian Islamic Jihad terrorist was released.
Both Canada and the United Nations have now frozen the fugitive Khadr's assets due to suspected ties to bin Laden. His teenage son, Omar, is in U.S. custody for his alleged role in an ambush of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan last July. Omar is accused of lobbing the hand grenade that killed Sergeant 1st Class Christopher Speer, a medic with the U.S. Special Forces. Just days before his murder, Speer had courageously walked into a minefield to rescue two wounded Afghan children.
- The FBI is still searching for Habis Abdulla Al Saoub, also known as Abu Tarek, Abu Tariq, and Habisabdulla Al-Saub. The Jordan-born terror suspect is wanted in connection with a federal grand jury indictment returned last fall in Portland, Oregon, where the feds broke up an alleged al Qaeda sleeper cell. Al Saoub is charged with conspiracy to levy war against the United States, provide material support and resources to al Qaeda, contribute services to al Qaeda and the Taliban, and possessing firearms in furtherance of crimes of violence. Al Saoub, considered armed and dangerous, is believed to have fled in October 2001 and hasn't been seen since.
- U.S. intelligence officials have "occasionally" lost track of approximately 15 cargo freighters around the world believed to be controlled by al Qaeda for possible use in ferry operatives and transportation of bombs, money or commodities by sea. According to the Washington Post: "U.S. officials do not know precisely how each of these 'ships of concern' is being used, except that some are generating profits for al Qaeda. Any of them could be used in an attack anywhere in the world, officials fear."
- A little-noticed report from the Justice Department's Inspector General revealed last month that between September 2001 and March 2002, "a total of 253 ship jumpers throughout the country" disappeared and have yet to be located. Moreover, the feds are still mum on the whereabouts of 25 suspected Islamic extremists thought to have entered major seaports in California, Florida, and Georgia last year by hiding in cargo containers and walking away undetected, dressed as stevedores.
Some complacent citizens are using Hamdani's New Year's eve swindle to dismiss our national insecurity as hype. Open your eyes. Feel the hate. The continuing jihad against America is not a hoax.
Michelle Malkin is author of Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores. Click here for Peter Brimelow's review. Click here for Michelle Malkin's website.
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