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Home Front: WoT
Iraqis With Fake Passports Detained In Mexico
2005-02-02
Two Iraqis have been charged with immigration offenses in Mexico after being arrested last week in Tijuana, according to Mexican officials. The Iraqis, Steven Yohanan Kurkis and Kaml Meti Bashar, presented passports from Greece with the names Nikolaos Skarvelis and Nabil Megalli, according to a news release from the Mexican Attorney General's office obtained by the San Diego Union-Tribune. The American, Samer Toma Oraha, presented an expired U.S. passport to Mexican immigration authorities after arriving in Tijuana from Mexico City on an Aeromexico flight Jan. 26, according to Mexican authorities. The Iraqis traveled from Greece to Spain and then to Mexico and were going to be led into the United States by Orhora for a fee of $10,000 each, according to a preliminary investigation. A federal judge in Mexico will determine whether to pursue the charges against the men. They were being held in a Tijuana state prison.
Posted by:Frank G

#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  

#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  

#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  

#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  

#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  

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

#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  

#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  

#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  

#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  

#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  

#3  *tap tap tap*

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

#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  

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

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