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2005-02-02 Home Front: WoT
Iraqis With Fake Passports Detained In Mexico
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Posted by Frank G 2005-02-02 3:09:58 PM|| || Front Page|| [5 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 I wish I was in Tijuana,
eating barbecued iguana...
Posted by Wall of Voodoo 2005-02-02 4:03:57 PM||   2005-02-02 4:03:57 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 Huh? Iraqi's with with Greek passports...ok. Being led into the US by an American with an expired passport?

Something missing from this story.
Posted by 2b 2005-02-02 4:28:21 PM||   2005-02-02 4:28:21 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 *tap tap tap*

Mr. President, are you paying attention??
Posted by Bomb-a-rama 2005-02-02 4:31:53 PM||   2005-02-02 4:31:53 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 In a way, it is strange that Mexico has arrested these two Iraqis for immigration violations. Mexicans flood across the border to the U.S and the Mexican Government does little to stop it. Indeed, it was mentioned in a Rantburg posting that Mexico published a "How to Do It comicbook" for border crossings.
Posted by John Q. Citizen 2005-02-02 4:32:57 PM||   2005-02-02 4:32:57 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 It is in the Mexican interest to stop middle eastern alien smuggling. If a terrorist attack, via the Mexican border, is successful, then the American people will force the US gov to vastly tighten or close the border.
Posted by ed 2005-02-02 4:38:27 PM||   2005-02-02 4:38:27 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 True, John Q, but every now and then they like to make a show of doing something.
Besides, it's not like these guys were going to send any money back to la patria....
Posted by Desert Blondie 2005-02-02 4:38:38 PM|| [http://azjetsetchick.blogspot.com/]  2005-02-02 4:38:38 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 CNN's reporting that one of the passports was in the name "Aris Katsaris"....but the real Aris was quoted as saying, "America? I already know all about that place. Why do I need to go there??"
Posted by Aris #1 fan..... 2005-02-02 4:41:15 PM||   2005-02-02 4:41:15 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 I share your sentiment, WoV.

The names are rather odd. Steven Yohanan Kurkis does sound like typical Iraqi name. Not! Kurkis is an Iraqi surname, though, beside being also Latvian and South Slavic surnames.
Kaml (!) Meti Bashar, Meti Bashar is a name of the priest of Chaldean (Catholic) Church in Baghdad. Kaml may be misspelled Kamal/Gamal.

Perhaps Iraqi christians, trying to get to US for greener pastures. Maybe these names were, though, as phony as the other ones on their passports. They may, as well, be Mohammed and Khaleed. (If someone introduces himself as Khaleed, chances are pretty good --95%-- that he is a jihadi).

Oraha/Orhora dude, ahm... if one wants to smuggle someone across the border, at least should have a valid passport.
Posted by Sobiesky 2005-02-02 4:51:07 PM||   2005-02-02 4:51:07 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 i hope they like mexican prison
Posted by Thraing Hupoluper1864 2005-02-02 5:21:47 PM||   2005-02-02 5:21:47 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 All three of these guys have Christian names. Steven Yohanan Kurkis (Steven John Kurkis), Kaml Meti Bashar (not an Islamic name), Samer Toma Oraha (Samer Thomas Oraha). Perhaps recent converts to Islam trying to prove their sincerity, or fake names as suggested by Sobiesky.
Posted by Glitle Crigum6999 2005-02-02 5:49:42 PM||   2005-02-02 5:49:42 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 Mexican prison if fitting for them. "Just send my bail to the Tijuan jail, ta ta, tum..." Er, like that is going to happen. Going to be a lot of time with the cockroaches.
Posted by John Q. Citizen 2005-02-02 5:58:24 PM||   2005-02-02 5:58:24 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 Ed. #5--- it is more than just the Mexican government's interest. One of the contributors at Chicago Boyz made the point last month (can't find, immediatly!)that a lot depends on cross-border traffic. The drug smuggling gangs depend on being able to move the product North, and a hell of a lot of the economy depends on Mexican workers moving back and forth over the border. It would not be in the best interests of either the narcotraffickers, or Mexican civil authorities to have this flexible and profitable state of affairs messed up up by terrorists. Everyone south of the border is seriously economically screwed, if the border close. The CB contributor's theory was that knowing this, both the Mexican goverment and the smugglers would be quite brutally effecient about policing their side of it. An ambitions jihadi crossing our southern border might make it no farther than the Tijuana jug... or an unmarked grave in the high desert someplace.
Posted by Sgt. Mom  2005-02-02 6:13:22 PM|| [http://www.sgtstryker.com]  2005-02-02 6:13:22 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 Sgt.Mom

Like the help the Mafia gave to the Allies in Sicily during WWII
Posted by SwissTex  2005-02-02 8:15:54 PM||   2005-02-02 8:15:54 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 Exactly, SwissTex. Economic self-interest will always and ultimatly rule. Given a threat to that, our southern border is as safe as if our mother were policing it. Kind of an unsettling thought, if you really think about it...
Posted by Sgt. Mom  2005-02-02 10:41:34 PM|| [http://www.sgtstryker.com]  2005-02-02 10:41:34 PM|| Front Page Top

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