In a recent ad, Speaker Gingrich correctly asserts that “Mohammad Atta and several other 9/11 hijackers were in the United States illegally.”
ABC News’ Jennifer Parker reports the opposite, “However, according to the 9/11 Commission Report, Gingrich’s statement is incorrect.” She quotes Janice Kephart, a former counsel to the 9/11 Commission and co-author of the commission’s report on 9/11 and Terrorist Travel who said, “Atta was in the country legally on 9/11.”
But what Jennifer did not report is that the commission’s report unambiguously backs up the statement in the ad as fact.
Here is what the report actually says:
Pages 138-139 under the section:
“Immigration Violations Committed by the Hijackers in the United States”
“Mohamed Atta failed to present a proper M-1 (vocational school) visa when he entered the United States in January 2001. He had previously overstayed his tourist visa and therefore was inadmissible under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(7)(B).”
“Ziad Jarrah attended flight school in June 2000 without properly adjusting his immigration status, thereby violating his immigration status and rendering him inadmissible under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(7)(B) each of the subsequent six times he reentered the United States between June 2000 and August 5, 2001.”
“Hani Hanjour did not attend school after entering on a student visa in December 2000, thereby violating his immigration status and making him deportable under 8 U.S.C. §1227(a)(1)(B).”
“Nawaf al Hazmi and Satam Al Suqami overstayed the terms of their admission, a violation of immigration laws rendering them both deportable under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(1)(B).”
Furthermore, Janice Kephart,the co-author of the report issued another report in September 2005 which reasserts these facts.
Here is what it says on page 9:
“Five hijackers from 9/11 had clear immigration violations, while one (Marwan Al-Shehhi), had a possible violation.”
On the same page, Ms. Kephart’s report has a table in which the five 9/11 hijackers with immigration violations are listed:
Mohammed Atta
Ziad Jarrah
Hani Janjour
Satam Al Suqami
Nawaf Al Hazmi
(CITATION: “Immigration and Terrorism: Moving Beyond the 9/11 Staff Report on Terrorist Travel,” Janice L. Kephart, Center for Immigration Studies, September 2005, http://downloads.heartland.org/17865.pdf
How is it that ABC News reports that Gingrich is incorrect when the report that Parker read clearly states that at various times these 5 highjackers were in violation of immigration law, and therefore in the country illegally?
This story by Kris Kobach, Counsel to the U.S. Attorney General and chief advisor on immigration law, 2001-2003 documents the fact that all 5 violated US immigration law and were therefore illegal as the ad assert:
“Five of the nineteen hijackers had violated federal immigration laws while they were in the United States. Amazingly, four of the five had actually been stopped by local police for speeding. All four terrorists could have been arrested if the police officers had asked the right questions and realized that they were illegal aliens.”
“Lebanese terrorist Ziad Jarrah was at the flight controls of United Airlines Flight 93 when it crashed in rural Pennsylvania. Jarrah first entered the United States in June 2000 on a tourist visa. He immediately violated federal immigration law by taking classes at the Florida Flight Training Center in Venice, Florida—a violation because he never applied to change his immigration status from tourist to student. Jarrah was therefore detainable and removable from the United States almost from the moment he entered the country. Six months later, Jarrah committed his second immigration violation when he overstayed the period he was authorized to remain in the United States on his tourist visa.
Jarrah successfully avoided contact with state and local police for more than fourteen months. However, at 12:09 A.M. on September 9, 2001, just two days before the attack, he was clocked driving at 90 miles-per-hour in a 65-miles-per-hour zone on Highway 95 in Maryland, 12 miles south of the Delaware state line. He was traveling from Baltimore to Newark in order to rendezvous with the other members of his team.
The Maryland trooper did not know about Jarrah’s immigration violations. Had the officer asked a few questions or simply made a phone call to the federal government’s Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC), which operates around the clock from Williston, Vermont, he could have arrested Jarrah. Instead, the trooper issued Jarrah a $270 speeding ticket and let him go. The ticket would be found in the car’s glove compartment at Newark Airport two days later, left behind when Jarrah boarded Flight 93.
Saudi Arabian terrorist Nawaf al Hazmi was the second-in-command of the 9/11 attackers and a back-up pilot. He entered the United States on a tourist visa in January 2000 and rented an apartment, where he lived for more than a year, with fellow hijacker Khalid Almihdhar in San Diego. As with Jarrah, Hazmi’s period of authorized stay expired after six months—after July 14, 2000, Hazmi was in the United States illegally. In early 2001, Hazmi moved to Phoenix, Arizona, to join another 9/11 hijacker, Hani Hanjour.
On April 1, 2001, Hazmi was stopped for speeding in Oklahoma while traveling cross country with Hanjour. Had the officer asked Hazmi a few basic questions or asked to see Hazmi’s visa, he might have discovered that Hazmi was in violation of U.S. immigration law. Once again, the officer could have detained him but did not. The officer also had the authority to detain Hanjour, who had entered the country on a student visa but never showed up for classes.
All of the 9/11 hijackers’ encounters with local law enforcement were missed opportunities of tragic dimensions. If even one of the police officers had made an arrest, the terrorist plot might have been unraveled.”
It was also reported that after Mohammed Atta had overstayed his visa, and thus became an illegal alien, he was stopped in the spring of 2001 in Broward County Florida for driving without a license — but police had no way of knowing that he was in the country illegally.
Five of the 9/11 highjackers were in the country illegally, those are the facts, that is what the ad says.
Best regards,
Rick Tyler
Spokesperson for Newt Gingrich
9/11 and Terrorist Travel: Staff Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States,” Thomas R. Eldridge, Susan Ginsburg, Walter T. Hempel II, Janice L. Kephart, Kelly Moore, August 21, 2004
Immigration and Terrorism: Moving Beyond the 9/11 Staff Report on Terrorist Travel,” Janice L. Kephart, Center for Immigration Studies, September 2005
Terrorist Loophole: Senate Bill Disarms Law Enforcement,”
Kris Kobach, Heritage Foundation Web Memo, May 24, 2006