Al-Qaeda getting SA passports

2004-07-28 07:17

Harlingen, Texas - Federal authorities are investigating a South African woman they say tried to board a flight near the US-Mexico border with an altered passport, amid reports that South African passports have ended up in the hands of terrorists.

Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed, 48, was arrested July 19 at the McAllen airport and charged four days later with illegal entry into the US, falsifying information and falsifying a passport. She was denied bail on Tuesday by a federal magistrate.

A senior federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Tuesday that investigators were trying to determine whether the woman had ties to terrorist groups. So far nothing has been substantiated, the source said.

South African officials have acknowledged that al-Qaeda militants and other terrorists travelling through Europe have obtained South African passports. Authorities believe they got them from crime syndicates operating inside the government agency that issues the documents.

Ahmed was arrested as she tried to board a flight for New York and couldn't provide a visa to prove her legal travel within the United States, FBI Special Agent Daniel Delgado said in an affidavit.

Ahmed provided an SA passport that was missing four pages, according to the affidavit. Authorities said she said that her visa was in New York.

Authorities searched Ahmed's bags and found a pair of wet and muddy pants in one and plane tickets and flight schedules in another. Authorities said she later told them she was smuggled into the United States from Mexico by crossing the Rio Grande.

"I did come here illegally, I came through the bush," Ahmed told FBI agents in a voluntary interview on July 21, the affidavit said.

According to the flight itineraries, on July 8 Ahmed travelled from Johannesburg through Dubai and United Arab Emirates and then to London. A July 14 British Airways itinerary showed a trip from London to Mexico City.

FBI Agent Gary Simmons testified at Ahmed's court hearing that she was carrying about $6 350, along with British currency, one Krugerrand gold coin worth about $400 and Mexican pesos.

Barry Gilder, director general of the department of home affairs, said in Johannesburg he has come across a number of instances in which South African passports were found in the hands of al-Qaeda suspects or their associates in Europe - both in his current capacity and as a former deputy director in the National Intelligence Agency.

Gilder gave no specifics, and he described these as "isolated" cases. South African officials say the crime syndicates are selling the country's identity documents and passports for as little as R500. They sell mostly to economic migrants, who find it easier to enter Europe or the United States on a South African passport than ones from their own countries. But terrorists now appear to be tapping into these networks, Gilder acknowledged.

- AP