Porous border, Iran make 'ticking time bomb' for U.S.

Texas lawmaker Debbie Riddle and a former Reagan administration official are sounding alarms over the flood of illegal immigrants arriving in the United States – saying the dangers go far beyond the costs and impact of the children who are newcomers and are catching the media and political spotlights.

Riddle, a member of the Texas House of Representatives, said, "The old metaphor that robbers use to start a fire at one end of the block in order to rob a bank at the other end of the block is true in our current crisis with illegal aliens pouring cross the southern border."

She said, "Unsavory criminal and Islamic elements invading Texas are creating distractions in order to undermine our defenses. The child refugees are merely a distraction. The real issue here is the very real risk of Islamic invasion in partnership with dangerous cartels.

"This is in addition to other issues, including health care, violent crime and a complete blind eye turned toward the citizens and taxpayers in regard to the rule of law," she said.

The controversy is over the flood of illegal aliens who are arriving on the U.S.-Mexican border and turning themselves in to U.S. authorities.

Tens of thousands of them are children, reportedly responding from mostly Central America to messages from the Obama administration that there are benefits for those who make the trip.

Riddle's comments were echoed by a former federal official, Frank Gaffney, who was undersecretary of defense for intelligence under President Ronald Reagan. He said the threat might even be bigger.

He told WND, "I think what's been going on south of our border in regard to the infiltration of hostile powers is not confined to just Islamists. We've got the Chinese, we've got the Russians. What is particularly concerning is the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRC) and its proxy Hezbollah and Hamas and assorted other jihadists – combine that with the patron in Venezuela and infrastructure that has been building for some time, plus our very porous border, it's a ticking time bomb."

The comments come just as Barack Obama was on schedule to make a trip to Texas, although a visit to the border was not on his announced agenda.

Riddle said the U.S. simply cannot pay for all the services everyone who comes wants.

"With hospitals closing and basic services being pushed to capacity, we cannot afford the deluge of illegal invaders anymore. It is a simple question of arithmetic," she said.

There are other impacts too, including a border that's less secure because of what the Border Patrol officers are being asked to do.

"The drug cartel is driving the train in this massive invasion across the border. They are overloading our system in such a way that our Border Patrol [officers] are less able to patrol our border and more involved with inspecting people, changing diapers and handing out water. We all have a tender heart for these children, but they are pawns of the drug cartel and the coyotes working with the drug cartel, as well as this administration, which is doing little or nothing to take care of the crisis.

"I do not think it too extreme to say that this administration is complicit with those creating the problem," she said.

But her biggest fear was reserved for those who are coming to the border illegally with an eye on doing major damage to the U.S.

"I do not understand anyone turning a blind eye to the border after 9/11," she said, pointing out that Congress already is aware of members of various feared groups entering the U.S. illegally.

Gaffney noted that the left-leaning government in Venezuela could be part of the problem.

"I am not sure we know the full extent to which Venezuela is enabling threats to emerge from various Islamist corridors. There's been talk for some time of Iranian ballistic missiles being deployed on Venezuelan soil. It could give rise to a whole new Cuban missile crisis scenario," he explained.

"We know the Iranians have been sending in sealed flights four or more times a week. Nobody knows for sure what's going in on those flights. There's been talk of uranium exports. There clearly is a substantial presence in Venezuela of Iranian operatives, intelligence personnel, IRC and the like. The symptoms are very worrying," he said.

"When Reagan left office, every nation in our hemisphere but one was strongly pro-Western. That's changed dramatically. It is very dangerous for America to have nations that are hostile and indigenous to our hemisphere," stated Gaffney.

There are financial influences as well as ideological, he said.

"What the Chinese are doing is investing substantially in building bases, port facilities, the Panama Canal for example, cultivating space launch capabilities with the Brazilians, building another canal in Nicaragua – building a colonial type sphere of influence in America's front yard," he said.

And, he said, Russia may be stirring up waves on America's doorstep in retaliation to American involvement in Ukraine.

"The Russians are up to no good, and are interested in demonstrating that they are still powerful enough to operate in our front yard. It wouldn't altogether surprise me if Russia was involved in a strategic gambit that takes advantage of the preoccupation of our border patrol personnel with this influx of unaccompanied minors to create openings through which other contraband and weapons of mass destruction could pass. It would certainly fit the strategic 'chess-playing' modus operandi of Vladimir Putin," he said.

"Obama has created conditions that can be exploited by these people. It is unquestionably an opportunity for very dangerous things to happen in this country," he said. "I think that what Robert Pastor and Jimmy Carter were doing in the seventies is the same basic mold as what is being done today by Obama, except that the environment is vastly more dangerous today than it was then. We could manage the Soviet Union. But now we've got an environment where the enemies of this country have metastasized and they're in a position to exploit vulnerabilities confronting the United States."

He said Obama, and others, are engaged in "national security fraud" against the American people, "and I can only hope that in time they'll be held accountable."

Regarding those illegal aliens who originate in nations hostile to the U.S., a report from Congress notes that, "During 2005, Border Patrol apprehended approximately 1.2 million illegal aliens; of those 165,000 were from countries other than Mexico. Of the non-Mexican aliens, approximately 650 were from special interest countries.

"Special interest countries are those 'designated by the intelligence community as countries that could export individuals that could bring harm to our country in the way of terrorism.'"

The report, from the House of Representatives Homeland Security Subcommittee on Investigations, said "Members of Hezbollah … have already entered to the United States across our southwest border. On March 1, 2005, Mahmoud Youssef Kourani pleaded guilty to providing material support to Hezbollah. Kourani is an illegal alien who had been smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border after bribing a Mexican consular official in Beirut for a visa to travel to Mexico. Kourani and a Middle Eastern traveling partner then paid 'coyotes' in Mexico to guide them into the United States. Kourani established residence among the Lebanese expatriate community in Dearborn, Michigan, and began soliciting funds for Hezbollah terrorists back home in Lebanon. He is the brother of the Hezbollah chief of military operations in southern Lebanon."

The report also said, "In December 2002, Salim Boughader Mucharrafille, a café owner in Tijuana, Mexico, was arrested for illegally smuggling more than two hundred Lebanese illegally into the United States, including several believed to have terrorist ties to Hezbollah."