But Obama’s too busy fighting Arizona’s immigration law.
For the Afghan soldiers who have gone AWOL from an Air Force base in Texas, there’s no place like Canada.
Since 2002, 46 Afghans have deserted their armed forces while in the U.S. for language and military training. Of those 46, roughly half–at least 22–have found their way north of the border.
They made the trip with the help of a network of people, including Afghans who left Lackland Air Force Base before them; a group of naturalized and undocumented Mexican women in Texas; relatives of current and former Afghan military students living in the West; and at least one Iranian taxi driver who runs a human smuggling business at the Canadian border.
The Afghans who have made it to Canada appear to be living comfortably there — and many have put themselves on Facebook, where they connect with other Afghan dissenters and active U.S. and Afghan military personnel, including members of the Afghan military currently attending the Defense Language Institute at Lackland or receiving training at other military bases in the U.S.
Based on interviews with U.S. and Afghan military personnel, civilian and military sources at the Defense Language Institute, interviews with some of the AWOL Afghans and information gleaned from their online profiles, FoxNews.com has exclusively uncovered details of a pipeline that runs from San Antonio to Toronto.
The first leg of the pipeline involves a group of women, some of whom are believed to be Mexicans illegally in the U.S., who pick up the men outside Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and drive them to their next stop. Often, that’s a bus station or airport, but sometimes the women drive them farther. In at least two instances, they accompanied the Afghans all the way to Canada.
At least six Afghans flew from Texas to Buffalo, N.Y., multiple sources say, and then traveled the short distance to Niagara Falls, where they posed as bumbling, lost tourists who crossed into Canada and kept on going.
At least three of the AWOL men now living in Toronto have profile pictures on Facebook that feature them standing in front of Niagara Falls, including. Mohammad Nasim Fatehzada, whose Facebook profile picture, timestamped June 21, 2008, shows him posing at the Falls.
Two others, Sardar Ahmadi and Mohammad Zaher Aetimady, traveled to Canada by way of a long cross-country bus trip, Ahmadi told FoxNews.com. He posted photos online of his DLI graduation and of his sightseeing trip to Washington D.C., where he posed in front of the Capitol. There are also photos on Facebook of Ahmadi at a Quality Inn in Philadelphia. Aetimady, who belongs to the Facebook group “We Love Roadtrips,” posted photos of himself inside the Toronto subway system.
……At least 26 of the Afghan deserters are linked directly or through friends to one another on Facebook. Many of their online profiles feature group photos featuring other AWOL Afghans who deserted from DLI over the course of five years — men who did not attend DLI at the same time but who appear to have become friends after settling in Canada.
……citizens from Afghanistan who arrived at the Canada-U.S. border were eligible to make a refugee claim in Canada, based on an exception to the 2004 Safe Third Country Agreement, which compelled refugee claimants arriving in North America to seek refugee status in the “first” safe country — either the U.S. or Canada — they reached.
……Many of the Afghans who deserted from DLI entered Canada while the exception was in effect. But on July 23, 2009, the exception was revoked, and now any Afghan who tries to claim refugee status in Canada after leaving the U.S. is supposed to be turned back.
Since then, sources with knowledge of the process told FoxNews.com, some of the Afghan deserters have relied on the help of a Iranian cabdriver who shuttles across the Canadian border at a specific checkpoint and will sneak someone across the border in his trunk for $400. Sources say the network of former AWOL Afghans and their supporters know how to get in contact with this taxi driver. Those sources also believe he makes round-trips and smuggles people into the U.S. as well.
An FBI spokesman, when asked to comment on the Iranian taxi driver, told FoxNews.com, “I don’t have any particular knowledge of this and have nothing further at this time.”
……And there could be more. While Sardar Ahmadi said he was in Toronto, his secondary Facebook profile — the one to which he posted photos of his DLI graduation ceremony — lists his current location as “Davenport, Iowa.”
When FoxNews.com asked him why, in a Facebook message, Ahmadi abruptly “defriended” the reporter.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/07/29/exclusive-awol-afghans-enabled-sophisticated-network/
How do they know they aren’t Al Qaeda/Taliban operatives? The fact that they weren’t scrutinized enough while under the auspices of the government training environment is bad enough. Even worse, they were aided by a network of ILLEGAL ALIENS into Canada. That speaks volumes about our security, and theirs.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement declined to comment.
The Department of Defense and U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not return requests for comment.
Of course they didn’t. The incompetent fucksticks.
Related post:
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/afghan-military-personnel-disappeared-from-air/