US Claim Canada Harbouring Terrorists

[Journeyman]

Reproduced from InsideDefense.com under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act
Article link

DOD Officials See Terrorist Threat to America Brewing in Canada

InsideDefense.com, February 20, 2009 -- Military officials believe Canadian immigration policies are creating a "favorable" environment for what the U.S. government deems to be potential terrorists seeking entry into the United States from the north, according to an internal briefing crafted by a U.S. Northern Command joint task force.

Officials at the Joint Task Force-North believe a “large population” of so-called special-interest aliens, or SIAs, in Eastern Canada presents the “greatest potential for foreign terrorists' access to the homeland,” according to a Jan. 15 briefing available on the organization's Web site until recently.

Specifically, U.S. military officials worry about “special-interest aliens” from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Egypt who could find a “favorable” environment in the Canadian immigration system, the briefing slides indicate.

In the eastern area of the Great Lakes, including the stretch of Canada north of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, JTF-North officials see the “largest presence” of “support networks and extremist organizations,” thus creating “foreign terrorist opportunities,” or FTOs.
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Complete article at link

This is hardly a new claim. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich spent several years repeating the lie that "far more of the 9/11 terrorists came across from Canada than from Mexico." (None entered through Canada or Mexico, and they all held legal, US Immigration Dept-issued student or tourist visas). This "myth" was then taken up by Montana Senator Conrad Burns, in an attempt to restrict Canadian access to US beef markets.

I guess it's just the periodical recycling of the musical, "Blame Canada"

 

[Kat Stevens]

This one has always cracked me up.  Who gives a flying rodents rectum where they came FROM?  US Immigration are the ones that let them in, clean up your own yard before looking in mine for problems.

 

[ModlrMike]

Granted, it's our problem if we let them into our country... it's your problem if you let them into yours.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Granted, it's our problem if we let them into our country... it's your problem if you let them into yours.

And then we scream bloody murder when Homeland Security screws us over at the border : Sorry, you can't have it both ways.

 

[njwoods]

Granted, it's our problem if we let them into our country... it's your problem if you let them into yours.

hello all,
We do seem to get the blame for lack of security along our borders. But it is a very convenient complaint, and has been going on for many years. Maybe we will have to revert to the barbed wire that is electrified----and make it look like a war zone?

I don't imagine it will do much for the tourist trade, or whatever. I do not know how to stop the leaks, but I hate that Canada is getting a reputation for harboring terrorists!

when you need assistance....Nancy, no advertising without the site owners permission


edited to remove link

 

[Kat Stevens]

Granted, it's our problem if we let them into our country... it's your problem if you let them into yours.

  So you agree then, cool.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Granted, it's our problem if we let them into our country... it's your problem if you let them into yours.

Too true...

And, since the original presentation doesn't seem to be available online anymore (not even using Google's cache), here's a .zip file of a scan of the Google cache html version before it, too, disappeared.

 

[Journeyman]

And, since the original presentation doesn't seem to be available online anymore ....

Sorry it doesn't appear available to all. Here's the complete article my post was based upon:
http://defensenewsstand.com/insider.asp?issue=02202009sp (same link, and copyright privileges acknowledged)


DOD Officials See Terrorist Threat to America Brewing in Canada
InsideDefense.com, February 20, 2009 -- Military officials believe Canadian immigration policies are creating a "favorable" environment for what the U.S. government deems to be potential terrorists seeking entry into the United States from the north, according to an internal briefing crafted by a U.S. Northern Command joint task force.

Officials at the Joint Task Force-North believe a “large population” of so-called special-interest aliens, or SIAs, in Eastern Canada presents the “greatest potential for foreign terrorists' access to the homeland,” according to a Jan. 15 briefing available on the organization's Web site until recently.

Specifically, U.S. military officials worry about “special-interest aliens” from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Egypt who could find a “favorable” environment in the Canadian immigration system, the briefing slides indicate.

Task force employees removed a link to the briefing file from the Web site's “reading room” section on Wednesday, arguing the document had been published inadvertently. The briefing is unclassified. Some portions are marked “for official use only” (FOUO) and “law enforcement sensitive” (LES).

Joint Task Force-North, headquartered at Ft. Bliss, TX, is charged with supporting federal law enforcement agencies in counterterrorism and anti-smuggling operations.

The task force's assertions could present a point of friction between Washington and Ottawa, although it is unclear whether Canadian security officials would contest the JTF-North findings.

A spokeswoman for the Canadian Embassy in Washington referred a reporter's request for comment on JTF-North's assessments to the defense ministry in Ottawa. A spokeswoman there initially took questions from InsideDefense.com yesterday but later referred the issue to Public Safety Canada, a federal agency comparable to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

On his first international trip, President Obama yesterday met with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Both countries' foreign and defense ministers are also scheduled to meet in the coming weeks.

Armando Carrasco, a JTF-North spokesman, declined to discuss the contents of the briefing, saying the document's FOUO and LES designations prohibited him from speaking about it. He said the briefing was available on the site “for a couple of weeks” before it was removed from the Web server.

Army Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for NORTHCOM's Army component, which oversees JTF-North, played down the briefing's significance. “It represents the view of JTF-North and was not vetted with any other commands,” he said.

Task force officials crafted the briefing to present an overview of their operations to Rear Adm. Janice Hamby, NORTHCOM's director for command and control systems, when she visited the organization last month, according to Johnson. It details what taks force officials believe to be drug smuggling routes in Mexico and Central America -- complete with maps, figures and descriptions of drug cartels operating in the area.

Asked how the document ended up on a public Web site, Johnson said, “I would like to know that myself.”

There is no recent, publicly available definition of the “special-interest alien” label used by various U.S. homeland security authorities. A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, whose chief, David Aguilar, has testified before Congress on the issue of SIAs, did not return a reporter's request for information by press time.

Public records suggest individuals from certain countries believed to be involved somehow in terrorist activity are automatically considered SIAs by U.S. authorities. They are subject to special scrutiny, and U.S. officials cross-check their personal information with a number of law enforcement and intelligence databases.

“We have a listing of the special interest countries where people coming from those special interest countries of course are designated as such, and automatically there's a higher level of scrutiny,” Aguilar told lawmakers on June 7, 2005, during a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security and the Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship subcommittees.

Officials also consider all non-U.S. citizens traveling through a special-interest country on their way to the United States to be SIAs, Aguilar said then, citing a hypothetical case of an Italian citizen flying to a U.S. airport from a special-interest country.

When apprehended at the border, special-interest aliens cause U.S. agents to engage in a “certain level of questioning . . . where the enforcement officers would take that posture to the degree possible, absent any findings on databases, to make sure that we are doing anything we can to identify any potential ties” with terrorist activitiy, Aguilar told lawmakers.

At the time of the 2005 hearing, Aguilar confirmed Saudi Arabia was on the list of special-interest countries.

The JTF-North briefing slides state U.S. authorities had apprehended a total of 433 SIAs from Lebanon, Iran and Somalia at the Mexican border in the Southwestern United States. The document also describes a “Hezbollah presence” in Mexico.

In the eastern area of the Great Lakes, including the stretch of Canada north of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, JTF-North officials see the “largest presence” of “support networks and extremist organizations,” thus creating “foreign terrorist opportunities,” or FTOs. -- Sebastian Sprenger

© Copyright 2000-2009 Inside Washington Publishers.
1919 South Eads Street, Suite 201, Arlington, VA 22202

 

[The Bread Guy]

Sorry it doesn't appear available to all.

For a while after this article came out, doing a Google Search brought it up only in the cache as an .html, but a few days after that, it disappeared completely even on the cache.

 

[Teeps74]

And then we scream bloody murder when Homeland Security screws us over at the border : Sorry, you can't have it both ways.

Homeland security are a bunch of incompetant asshats. They do allow the groups they describe into their own country. Frankly, I have far more time and faith in our own immigration and border services.

 

[logairoff]

"Joint Task Force-North, headquartered at Ft. Bliss, TX, is charged with supporting federal law enforcement agencies in counterterrorism and anti-smuggling operations."

JTF-north is headquartered in Texas?? really? you would think they would base it in the north or atleast somewhere where it wouldnt be considered south hahah

what a bunch of BS this report is...just a mickey mouse operation being run there or so it seems. I mean you want to be alert and vigilant but at the cost of alientating your neighbour is  not the best way to go. This is esbecially true after the PM made an impassioned speech to say to the Americans a threat to the US is a threat to Canada and that we share common goals when it comes to security and enforcement.

if a terrorist wanted to get into the US it is already easy, they dont need to go through Canada. For the love of god there is a lottery they can apply for and be granted access to the US even if they are as they call it "special-interest aliens"

heres a link to the lottery, check out how many from those special interest countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Egypt : http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_4317.html