About Those 11 Iranian Migrants Captured at Mexico-Arizona Frontier
What Homeland Security is doing
Many Americans might have felt surprised by recent news that the U.S. Border Patrol in Arizona caught 11 Iranian migrants who crossed the southern border from Mexico.
But this crossing is not surprising in one insular quarter: an international cadre of intelligence and law enforcement officers who work on this chronically misunderstood threat for the American homeland security establishment. For them, southern border crossings by Iranians, as well as by migrant travelers from other countries of terrorism concern, like Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, trigger an almost routine response the public never sees.
My new book, America's Covert Border War: The Untold Story of the Nation's Battle to Prevent Jihadist Infiltration, reveals these responses as part of a hidden American counterterror effort that has long regarded this human traffic as a distinct national security border threat and which has worked to neutralize individuals who might show up to the border seeking to eventually attack. The book also shows Americans step-by-step how thousands of Iranians and travelers from all of the world's many other countries of terrorism concern reach the southern border every year and what the United States is doing throughout the Americas to stop it.
The mission was always and still is to stop border crossings of travelers from countries of terrorism concern like Iran, or to at least make sure arrivals are not malevolent spies or terrorists.
What's Happening with the Iranians
Take the Iranian travelers just caught in Arizona. One main prong of America's covert border war flags border-crossing migrants from Iran for intense examination. Once the arrival flag goes up, federal officers interrogate the migrants in person for true hearts, minds, and intent while collecting intelligence necessary to hunt down their smugglers in Latin America. It's an imperfect system when it comes to trained or good liars, but, as the book shows, has caught jihadist travelers.
Almost certainly, American officers are working over each and every one of the Iranians who just got caught, especially amid recent Iranian vows to retaliate for the January 2020 U.S. drone-strike assassination of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force General Qasem Soleimani.
Muslim Who Attempted to Murder Christian Doctor Goes Unpunished, Victim Gets Death Threats
Inside the haunting world of the Palestinian intelligence apparatus.
After Jihad Watch recently published the article “Palestinian Authority: Muslim with long record of terrorizing Christians tried to kill noted Christian physician,” there have been significant developments regarding this heinous crime, which has terrorized Christians living under the Palestinian Authority.
Several sources close to Dr. Salameh Qumsieh (pictured above), who is recuperating from the murder attempt in Bethlehem, indicated that he was threatened with death after leaving the hospital, in order to prevent him from escalating the situation.
On the other hand, Kamel Hmeid, the Bethlehem Governor, was quoted as saying that since the first attack against Dr. Qumsieh last February, which went unpunished, the assailant, Khader Odeh, committed at least four serious crimes in Bethlehem. Governor, why was he not held accountable for his actions?
During his brief detention last year in Jericho, Odeh was socializing with the head of the prison while smoking a water pipe, which was part of “his 5-star service inside the jail,” as it was described in an email sent to this writer. Odeh has likely been protected by the Palestinian intelligence apparatus.
In addition, a senior Palestinian activist explained that several shooting incidents have been reported inside Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank, with the intention of undermining the Palestinian Authority government in Ramallah. These shooting sprees were reported to be carried out by supporters of Fatah strongman Mohammad Dahlan, who has been living in the United Arab Emirates since 2010 and is a strong opponent of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
“The unexplained targeting of Christians in Bethlehem could be regarded as an effort by Dahlan to destabilize the Palestinian Authority and undermine its presence in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ,” the activist stated.
Furthermore, a Christian Palestinian who works for the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah indicated that “the Sharia-style attempt to cut off the doctor’s hands” has alarmed Mahmoud Abbas personally. “He fears that Palestinian zealotry could be a big deterrent to his desperate attempts to portray Palestinian society in the West Bank as secular and tolerant, as opposed to religious extremists seen in the Gaza Strip under Hamas.”
The social media activist Johnny Jildeh, quoted in the previous article, was kidnapped by Palestinian police and jailed for eight hours before he was let go after signing a written pledge not to criticize the Palestinian Authority on Facebook or other social media forums again.
After his release, he sought medical attention after experiencing high blood pressure symptoms and reported the incident to the Israeli police, which subsequently requested clarification about the incident from the Palestinian liaison officer Hussein Sheikh. It is a violation of Oslo agreements for the Palestinian Authority to detain Israeli citizens — as Jildeh is — without coordination with the Israeli side.
He detailed his recent ordeal with the Palestinian Authority in a phone conversation yesterday.
While some Palestinian Muslims sympathized with the attacker on the doctor, who is accused of intentionally committing medical malpractice on the attacker’s wife, some Palestinian Christians living in the United States and Canada called for international intervention to protect Palestinian Christians.
“Honest and faithful Christians must demand international protection, because the Palestinian Authority does not provide us with protection, but on the contrary, stands with the criminals against us. Every Christian who denies the presence of terrorism and persecution against Christians in the Palestinian Authority areas is a hypocrite, obscene, and a liar.” Heraklios Jameel Byzantios, an expatriate Palestinian Christian, made this statement in a lengthy Facebook post regarding the recent crime against the gynecologist.
One has to mention that Khader Odeh also continues to be the primary suspect behind the theft of the remains of deceased Christians from the Greek Orthodox cemetery in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem; the remains were recovered last September.
Up to this moment, the Palestinian Authority has refused to identify the perpetrator of this despicable crime, which has led to the belief that there is an ongoing cover-up for the crimes that Odeh has so far perpetrated against Christians.
When this writer criticized the inaction of some Palestinian Christian clergy on his Facebook page, calling them dhimmis, he received a number of death threats against himself and his family.
The FBI investigated these threats, seeking screenshots of them and links to the profiles of those who posted them.
It was this posting that sparked the death threats:
Watch the difference between this Armenian priest, who took up arms to defend his land and his country, and the terrified Dhimmi priests in the Palestinian Authority region who do not dare to question the authority about the identity of the one who desecrated Christian graves.
Yesterday, the Palestinian Authority handed over the remains that were stolen more than a month ago to the relatives of the deceased, and they were reburied under extreme secrecy.
If the people of Beit Jala are unable to protect the graves of their dead, how will they be able to protect the honor of their women?
The fear that is currently prevalent among Christians in Bethlehem is another reason why the prosecution of crimes against them so often stalls in a long and futile legal process, during which the perpetrators are likely to return quickly to their terrorist activities.
Samir A. Zedan is a former Senior Counter-Terrorism Analyst at the US Department of State, and a former Development Outreach and Communication Specialist at USAID/Iraq. He has contributed to hundreds of articles published in major media outlets with assignments in the Palestinian Areas, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and Europe.
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