The woman was caught, but only just. Apparently, she was in a disheveled state that suggested she had entered McAllen in the time-honored way - by wading the Rio Grand. And she was traveling on a South African passport - perhaps one of the hundreds, or thousands of passports reported stolen? And, her name is on a terrorist watch list, but she was arrested because she had no U.S. entry stamp in her passport, it was only later that they found out she was on the watch list. If nine get through for every one caught (very optimistic estimates, some say ninety-nine to one, ask any drug mule), how many of her traveling partners are out there right now, renting a U-Haul in Lawrenceville, Kansas, or renting a safe house in Arlington?
Naturally, her U.S. lawyer is "concerned" that his client hasn't been released on own recognition yet. She's got business to do so she needs to be out and about it, right?
McAllen is one of dozens of small-town border crossing points where the main attention is on drug smugglers and illegal Mexican immigrants. I think it is telling that this woman was not arrested trying to enter the country, she had already successfully done that. She was arrested trying to board a flight at the airport before she tidied up enough to look less suspicious. Perhaps she was in a hurry, and didn't get her fake ID before trying to board, and was left trying to talk her way onto the flight using her South African passport that had no evidence of her entry to the U.S. Are the terrorists that stupid, or do they assume we are that stupid? Or both?
Posted on August 3, 2004 10:47 AM