Islamic State has at least one specialized printing machine used to print authentic Syrian passports and plenty of blanks, US law enforcement agencies warned. Fraudulent passports would help terrorist infiltrators pose as refugees from Syria.
The concern that Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) can print authentic-looking passports was made public by FBI Director James Comey, who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
“The intelligence community is concerned that they [IS] have the ability, the capability to manufacture fraudulent passports, which is a concern in any setting,” Comey told the legislators.
The threat was highlighted last week in a 17-page security bulletin sent by the Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) to law enforcement, which said IS procured at least one passport printing machine during a raid on the city of Deir ez-Zour last summer, reported ABC News, which obtained the document.
“Since more than 17 months [have] passed since Raqqa and Deir ez-Zour fell to ISIS, it is possible that individuals from Syria with passports ‘issued’ in these ISIS controlled cities or who had passport blanks, may have traveled to the US,” the report warned.
The concern that Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) can print authentic-looking passports was made public by FBI Director James Comey, who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
“The intelligence community is concerned that they [IS] have the ability, the capability to manufacture fraudulent passports, which is a concern in any setting,” Comey told the legislators.
The threat was highlighted last week in a 17-page security bulletin sent by the Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) to law enforcement, which said IS procured at least one passport printing machine during a raid on the city of Deir ez-Zour last summer, reported ABC News, which obtained the document.
“Since more than 17 months [have] passed since Raqqa and Deir ez-Zour fell to ISIS, it is possible that individuals from Syria with passports ‘issued’ in these ISIS controlled cities or who had passport blanks, may have traveled to the US,” the report warned.
In his testimony Comey said the FBI didn’t “have reason to believe” IS infiltrators were already on US soil, adding the bureau was constantly on the lookout for such agents.
The report mentions an example, in which a Syrian passport discovered in Turkey was printed with a designator number indicating it had been printed in an IS-controlled territory this year.
Fraudulent Syrian passports were used by two suicide bombers involved in the Paris attacks last month. They are believed to have traveled to Europe among the refugees and migrants from Syria, of whom hundreds of thousands have flooded into the continent this year.
Previously, European media covering the refugee crisis reported that obtaining a passport illegally in Syria is very easy. Dutch journalist Harald Doornbos showed in September how he bought a passport with the photo of Prime Minister Mark Rutten. It cost him $825 and took just 40 hours to complete the exchange, he said.
The HIS report said “boxes of blank passports” were captured during the Deir ez-Zour raid.
“If ISIS ability to produce passports is not controlled, their operations will continue to increase and expand outside of their operational controlled areas,” the report said.
The report mentions an example, in which a Syrian passport discovered in Turkey was printed with a designator number indicating it had been printed in an IS-controlled territory this year.
Fraudulent Syrian passports were used by two suicide bombers involved in the Paris attacks last month. They are believed to have traveled to Europe among the refugees and migrants from Syria, of whom hundreds of thousands have flooded into the continent this year.
Previously, European media covering the refugee crisis reported that obtaining a passport illegally in Syria is very easy. Dutch journalist Harald Doornbos showed in September how he bought a passport with the photo of Prime Minister Mark Rutten. It cost him $825 and took just 40 hours to complete the exchange, he said.
The HIS report said “boxes of blank passports” were captured during the Deir ez-Zour raid.
“If ISIS ability to produce passports is not controlled, their operations will continue to increase and expand outside of their operational controlled areas,” the report said.
Report: Jihadi Bride Passed 3 Visa Background Checks Despite Online Posts About Violent Jihad
http://dailycaller.com/2015/12/12/r...line-posts-about-violent-jihad/#ixzz3uAwORd7e
The government can vet them!
http://dailycaller.com/2015/12/12/r...line-posts-about-violent-jihad/#ixzz3uAwORd7e
The government can vet them!
In a brief telephone interview on Saturday, the sister, Fehda Malik, said Tashfeen Malik was not an extremist, and she rejected the allegations against her sister.
“I am the one who spent most of the time with my sister,” she said. “No one knows her more than me. She had no contact with any militant organization or person, male or female.”
She said her sister was religious, studied the Quran and prayed five times a day. “She knew what was right and what was wrong,” Fehda Malik said. She added that the family was “very worried and tense,” before hanging up the phone.
On social media, Fehda Malik has made provocative comments of her own. In 2011, on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, she posted a remark on Facebook beside a photo of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center that could be interpreted as anti-American.
Social media comments, by themselves, however, are not always definitive evidence. In Pakistan — as in the United States — there is no shortage of crass and inflammatory language. And it is often difficult to distinguish Islamist sentiments and those driven by political
hostility toward the United States. At the time Fehda Malik’s comment was posted, anti-American sentiment in Pakistan was particularly high; four months earlier, American commandos had secretly entered Pakistan and killed Osama bin Laden.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/u...nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0
“I am the one who spent most of the time with my sister,” she said. “No one knows her more than me. She had no contact with any militant organization or person, male or female.”
She said her sister was religious, studied the Quran and prayed five times a day. “She knew what was right and what was wrong,” Fehda Malik said. She added that the family was “very worried and tense,” before hanging up the phone.
On social media, Fehda Malik has made provocative comments of her own. In 2011, on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, she posted a remark on Facebook beside a photo of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center that could be interpreted as anti-American.
Social media comments, by themselves, however, are not always definitive evidence. In Pakistan — as in the United States — there is no shortage of crass and inflammatory language. And it is often difficult to distinguish Islamist sentiments and those driven by political
hostility toward the United States. At the time Fehda Malik’s comment was posted, anti-American sentiment in Pakistan was particularly high; four months earlier, American commandos had secretly entered Pakistan and killed Osama bin Laden.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/u...nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0
