Roman police discover Afghan children living in sewers beneath train stations

Roman police discover 24 Afghan children living in sewers beneath train stations

BBC | Apr 5, 2009

Police in Rome have discovered more than 100 illegal immigrants, including 24 children, living in the sewers beneath railway stations in the city.

The children, who are all of Afghan origin, are aged between 10 and 15, and are now being looked after by social services.

Police, who have revealed that the children do not speak Italian, say that they broke into the sewers via manhole covers.

They are believed to have arrived in the city as stowaways aboard trucks from Greece and Turkey, and started sleeping in the sewers in order to shelter from the cold.

Railway police had been following up on reports that groups of homeless immigrants had been living near the city’s three main railway stations.

Groups of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and China were also discovered in the city recently, living in cramped conditions of over 20 to a room.

Save the Children Italy reported that up to 1,000 unaccompanied children arrived in Rome last year.

The charity said that the figure has risen substantially since 2004, with foreign minors coming from countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Obama Refuses Perry’s Request for 1,000 Troops on Border

MSNBC | Mar 14, 2009

By Holly LaFon

A displeased Gov. Rick Perry spoke out Thursday against Barack Obama’s rejection of his request last month for 1,000 more “boots on the ground” (meaning 1,000 troops, since 1,000 boots only equals 500 people) to be sent to the Texas-Mexico border.

He requested the aid to help keep the growing drug cartel violence in Mexico from spilling into the United States.

Obama told a group of reporters that he did not feel troops were necessary, but would consider in what cases National Guard deployments would be effective.

Perry, on the same day that he rejected stimulus unemployment funds from the federal government, saying that “[Texas] can take care of itself,” told Fox News that, “Washington has been an abject failure at defending our border.”

At a House panel meeting on Thursday to decide what measures Homeland Security Department should take to secure the border, Homeland Security official Roger Rufe agreed with President Obama’s assertion that deploying troops should only come as a last resort, in the off chance that other resources such as DoD and the National Guard were expended.

Many officials in border cities have applauded Obama’s decision not to use extreme measures such as sending troops. Patricio Ahumeda, mayor of Brownsville, Texas, openly criticized Perry’s plan, calling him out of touch with what is really going on.

“I appreciate and support Obama’s decision not to militarize the border because troops aren’t trained for this sort of thing. There was an incident where a national guard killed a shepherd in the El Paso area. It doesn’t work. The training is not the same. We’re not at war, and the violence and incidents that are occurring over there are not daily and are not spilling over here yet.”

He also pointed out that the crime rates in Brownsville and El Paso are significantly less than many other large cities. While El Paso had 418 violent crimes in 2007, Austin, Texas, had 540, and Washington D. C. had 1,347.

Meanwhile, just across the border, bodies are piling up in Mexico as the violent situation in places such as Ciudad Juarez has grown dire. The drug-related death toll reached 6,290 people last year, and has already hit 1,000 in the first two months of 2009.

The morgue and crime lab in Juarez has seven doctors, and two were hired in the last two weeks, to help with the onslaught of cases. Other morgues have been attacked at gunpoint, drug traffickers knowing investigators use the cadavers to help track the perpetrators.

Mayor Ahumeda believes the best thing Texas can do is work with Mexico and President Calderon to stop the violence.

“Texas needs to work with Mexico to prevent guns and ammunition from crossing the border and reduce the demand for drugs,” he said. “They’re not doing enough in that respect. I don’t mean pick them up and throw away the key. I mean going after those people in the United States, the criminals who are preying on young people who are hooked, and get them treatment, and teach our kids to stay off of drugs.”

Maybe he secretly wants the troops so Texas can secede from the union.

Mexican soldiers arrested for alleged drug ties

Reuter | Mar 6, 2009

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A dozen Mexican soldiers were arrested on suspicion of working with the violent Gulf Cartel, the Mexican army said on Thursday, a blow to President Felipe Calderon’s military-backed campaign against drug gangs.

The troops are accused of collaborating with four municipal policemen in the central state of Aguascalientes who provided protection for Gulf cartel capos, the army said in a statement.

The arrests come as Calderon sent thousands more troops to the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez in an attempt to curb spiraling drug violence that killed more than 6,000 people last year.

Calderon deployed the army to fight organized crime since taking office in 2006 partly because soldiers have traditionally been seen as less corrupt than police.

But several recent high-profile arrests — including a presidential guardsmen who allegedly received $100,000 a month to track Calderon for drug traffickers — reveal infiltration in the highest levels of Mexico’s security forces.

The Gulf cartel is fighting a turf war for control of smuggling routes with its main rival the Sinaloa federation, led by Mexico’s most wanted man Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman.

The Gulf cartel’s feared hitmen known as the Zetas, infamous for torturing and beheading their enemies, were founded by a group of military deserters.

(Reporting by Mica Rosenberg; Editing by Bill Trott)

U.S. to open military to temporary immigrants

Reuters | Feb 14, 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military will begin recruiting immigrants with special skills who are in the United States on temporary visas, offering a chance to become citizens in as little as six months, The New York Times reported.

A report on the newspaper’s website on Saturday said it would be the first time since the Vietnam War that the armed forces would be open to temporary immigrants, provided they have lived in the United States for at least two years.

Immigrants with permanent resident status, or “green cards,” are eligible to enlist in the U.S. military.

A Pentagon spokesman said he knew of the program but had no details.

The Times said the program could help the military fill shortages in medical care, language interpretation and field intelligence analysis. It will be limited to 1,000 enlistees in its first year, most for the Army and some for other services.

Temporary immigrants who want to enlist would have to prove they had lived in the United States for two years and had not been out of the country for more than 90 days during that time. They would also have to pass an English test.

US military may be “forced to intervene” if Mexico collapses into civil war

Mexico drugs bust: Mexico lies astride the crucial smuggling routes linking the US with the drug-growing areas of South America Photo: AP

America may be forced to intervene in Mexico to prevent the country’s “rapid and sudden collapse” at the hands of organised crime and drug cartels, according to the US army.

Telegraph | Jan 16, 2009

Mexico in danger of collapse, says US army

By David Blair, Diplomatic Editor

A report on the “Joint Operating Environment”, compiled by the army’s high command, places Mexico alongside Pakistan as a possible failed state of the future. America, which shares a 2,000 mile border with Mexico, would be the obvious destination for massive refugee flows if its neighbour descended into civil war.

President Felipe Calderon has deployed Mexico’s army in a new offensive against organised crime. This battle against four major drug cartels, along with a myriad of local syndicates, claimed the lives of 5,367 members of the security forces or suspected criminals last year alone.

“Two large and important states bear consideration for rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico,” reads the US army’s report.

“The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state.”

Mexico, with a population of 110 million, provides America with more migrants than any other country. It also lies astride the crucial smuggling routes linking the US with the drug-growing areas of South America, notably Colombia, which remains the world’s biggest source of cocaine.

If Mexico became a failed state, millions would flee across the northern border and organised crime gangs would have a secure base from which to penetrate America. This could leave Washington with little choice but to intervene, possibly by military means.

“Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone,” says the report.

Mexico’s crime gangs have retaliated for Mr Calderon’s offensive by targeting members of the security forces for murder. Dozens of soldiers have been beheaded. Many ordinary police officers and security officials accept bribes from the drug rings. This corruption, which may reach into the highest levels of the government itself, is a crucial factor obstructing Mr Calderon’s campaign. Ultimately, it may also have the effect of destroying the state itself.

The US army’s report stresses that countries can collapse very quickly, pointing to the example of Yugoslavia which broke up during the civil wars of 1991 – 95. “The collapse of Yugoslavia into a chaotic tangle of warring nationalities suggests how suddenly and catastrophically state collapse can happen – in this case a state which had hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics at Sarajevo, and which then quickly became the epicentre of the ensuing civil war.”

Mr Calderon won Mexico’s presidency by a tiny margin of less than one per cent during a controversial election held in July 2006. Despite this slender mandate, he has made the fight against organised crime the central goal of his leadership.

Britain “must set population limit to safeguard national security” say experts

Experts are demanding a Royal Commission to establish ‘an environmentally sustainable level of population’

Daily Mail | Jan 5, 2009

Britain must set a maximum population level if it is to avoid destroying the environment and putting national security at risk, say experts.

The Optimum Population Trust has written to ministers calling for a policy of ‘zero net migration’ – matching numbers allowed into Britain each year to numbers leaving.

The UK’s population is projected to increase from 60 to 70million over the next 20 years, and to 85million by 2081.

Experts are demanding a Royal Commission to establish ‘an environmentally sustainable level of population’

The trust, a panel of academics and environmentalists, says achieving zero net migration would cut Britain’s population in 2081 to 57million.

Mass immigration ‘feeds through into rising greenhouse gas emissions’ and more congestion, the experts say.

The trust warns that because Britain can produce only 30 per cent of the food, energy and other goods that it needs, it will become increasingly vulnerable to ‘resource nationalism’ as foreign powers hoard their own scarce resources.

‘This imperils future national security as well as destroying the environment,’ it says.

The trust is demanding a Royal Commission to establish ‘an environmentally sustainable level of population’.

The Home Office said its new points-based immigration system would help manage immigration, ‘which will contribute to future population projections and control’.

Gov. Bill Richardson lets slip that “Obama is an immigrant”

“Obama es un inmigrante.”

“Barack Obama is the best candidate for the Hispanic community because our community wants a united country. Obama is an immigrant. When he speaks to Latinos, he doesn’t just speak about immigration and civil rights. . . .”

Obama’s own Cabinet member: He’s ‘an immigrant’

WorldNet Daily | Dec 9, 2008

By Janet Porter

Don’t believe Barack Obama’s grandmother? Don’t believe the ambassador to Kenya? How about Barack Obama’s own Cabinet member?

That’s right – former presidential candidate and Obama’s choice for secretary of commerce, Gov. Bill Richardson, slipped up. In an effort to reach out to the Hispanic community, he admitted what Barack Obama has been trying to hide all these months: “Barack Obama is an immigrant.” See it for yourself:

You don’t need a translator to understand what Richardson admitted: Barack Obama is NOT a natural born citizen. That means we have a guy who’s planning to take over the White House who is in direct violation of the Constitution. And his own Cabinet member says so. That’s pretty big news, one would think. But the media has refused to cover it with anything more than a blurb laced with a “this is ridiculous” tone. It is ridiculous – ridiculous that the Constitution means so little that we can’t even ensure that it’s being followed. It’s ridiculous that the story of the century is being ignored by those whose job it is to report it.

But now there’s something even more ridiculous: Not only will Fox not report the news regarding Obama’s citizenship, now we can’t even buy an ad on Fox to allow others to hear about the constitutional crisis we’re facing.

Full Story

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Police state Britain: This MP’s crime was to reveal truths Labour didn’t want you to know

A police officer removes items from Damian Green’s constituency office in Bethersden, Kent, after his arrest

The tactics of Scotland Yard investigating a series of leaks that had no bearing on national security and served only to embarrass Labour were compared to those used in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.

Telegraph | Nov 28, 2008

By Benedict Brogan, James Chapman and Stephen Wright

MPs demanded protection from a ‘police state’ last night after the heavy-handed arrest of a Tory frontbencher shocked Westminster.

Extraordinary details of four simultaneous raids on immigration spokesman Damian Green’s homes and offices raised urgent questions about the independence of Parliament.

The Oxford-educated father of two girls, who denies any wrongdoing, was fingerprinted and required to give a DNA sample before being released on bail after nine hours.

Police seized his mobile phone, his Black-Berry, bank statements, computers containing confidential details of constituents, and were only prevented from carrying off legal documents by his wife, a barrister. Officers even leafed through the couple’s love letters.

The tactics of Scotland Yard investigating a series of leaks that had no bearing on national security and served only to embarrass Labour were compared to those used in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.

Last night the row between police and Parliament was turning into a political crisis for Gordon Brown, who faced accusations of standing by while the rights of MPs were being trampled.

Ministers struggled to dispel suspicions that they knew in advance about the plan to arrest Mr Green, amid MPs’ fears that the case marked another step towards the politicisation of the police.

The Tories issued a series of questions about the role of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said there were huge question marks over the claim that Mr Brown and Miss Smith had not been informed the arrest was about to take place.

He said: ‘It would be an astounding breakdown in the system of governance, and the linchpin doctrine of Ministerial responsibility, if Ministers were not, at the bare minimum, kept informed.’

MPs also demanded assurances from Speaker Michael Martin that he would defend their interests after it emerged that he authorised an unprecedented police search of Mr Green’s office on Commons property. One called on Mr Martin to quit.

Publicly the Prime Minister said only that his chief objective was to uphold the independence of the police.

But his supporters accused the Tories of ‘playing politics’ with a routine police matter, and even suggested the Yard had undisclosed reasons to seize Mr Green.

Thursday’s raids, involving some 20 officers, were carried out on Mr Green’s homes in west London and Kent, and his Commons and constituency offices.

The MP was detained in Kent on suspicion of ‘conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office’ and taken to London by Yard detectives ten days after a Home Office official was arrested on suspicion of leaking sensitive documents.

Police are investigating Mr Green’s role in four leaks to the media over the past year  -  two of them to the Mail  -  that embarrassed the Home Office.

The operation was authorised by Met Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, Britain’s most senior counter-terrorism officer.

The Crown Prosecution Service was also consulted.

Sources said Mr Green is suspected of actively seeking leaked information, not just receiving it.

Met Deputy Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson, who has effectively being running the Met since Sir Ian Blair announced his resignation two months ago, was briefed by Mr Quick in advance.

Sir Ian, who officially stepped down yesterday, was not aware of the operation.

In the 30 minutes leading up to the raids, Sir Paul rang London Mayor Boris Johnson and Tory leader David Cameron.

He also notified Sir David Normington, the Home Office permanent secretary, who claimed he deliberately did not tell Home Secretary Jacqui Smith until after the arrest. The news was relayed to Mr Brown about an hour later.

By last night Mr Green’s ordeal had provoked outrage across the political spectrum, with all parties rallying to his defence.

Tory MPs threatened to disrupt Wednesday’s Queen’s Speech debate. Veteran former Labour MP Tony Benn said the arrest of an MP amounted to a contempt of Parliament. ‘Once the police can interfere with Parliament, we are into the police state,’ he said.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said: ‘This is something you might expect from a tin-pot dictatorship, not in a modern democracy.’

Tory MPs contrasted the case with that of leaks of sensitive information to BBC business editor Robert Peston.

They raised suspicions that a ‘mole’ inside Downing Street or the Treasury had passed Mr Peston a string of market-moving banking ’scoops’.

Former Tory leader Michael Howard pointed to Mr Brown’s reputation for obtaining Government leaks when he was an Opposition MP.

‘If this approach had been in place when Gordon Brown was in opposition, he’d have spent half his time under arrest,’ he said.

Miss Smith denied that ministers had been involved in any way in the arrest of Mr Green.

‘Economic benefits of mass immigration are close to zero’, Lords told

‘Serious flaws’: The benefits of immigration have been ‘wildly overstated by the Government, according to a damning Lords’ report

Lord Wakeham: No evidence that large-scale immigration has widespread economic benefits

Daily Mail | Nov 15, 2008

By  Ian Drury

Claims that mass immigration has benefited the economy have been ‘wildly overstated’ by the Government, experts said yesterday.

Record levels of migration have brought virtually no economic benefit to Britain, the House of Lords was told.

Ministers have repeatedly insisted that newcomers contribute £6billion a year to the country’s balance sheet.

But an authoritative report by the Lords Economic Affairs Committee, debated yesterday, blew apart Labour’s claims that the wave of  immigration from Eastern

Europe had enormous benefits.

Instead, it was worth just 58p each week on the living standards of the native population – about the price of a Mars bar.

Last night the authors of the report – including former Chancellors Nigel Lawson and Norman Lamont, Bank of England directors and captains of industry – were embroiled in a race row.

Labour peers said it hinted at ‘racist views’ and did not recognise the contribution of immigrants to the UK. More than 700,000 have arrived since 2004, when former Soviet Bloc countries joined the European Union.

Critics have warned that public services, including schools, hospitals and transport, have struggled to cope with the influx.

But the Government has insisted the immigrants had filled jobs that British people were unwilling to do and paid more taxes than native workers – because they earned more on average. It was also claimed that the extra workers would defuse the pensions timebomb.

Lord Wakeham, the Tory former Cabinet minister who chaired the inquiry, said: ‘We found no evidence of these large economic benefits.

‘What we did find was serious flaws in the Government’s arguments and we concluded that on average the economic benefits of immigration were small and close to zero.’

Any benefits had been ‘wildly overstated’ by ministers, he said in a highly-charged debate. He also reiterated the report’s finding that those on low pay, some ethnic minorities and young people looking for employment had lost out. Some had seen incomes fall because immigrants forced down wage levels.

Lord Wakeham stressed that Britain ‘as a whole’ was not worse off because of immigration.

But academics have calculated that almost £8.8billion has had to be found to bolster the asylum system, teach English to new arrivals and treat illnesses. The report urged ministers to set an ‘explicit target range’ for immigration – and stick to it.

It called on ministers to cut the number of family members allowed to settle in Britain with a relative. Peers also warned the much-trumpeted points-based system carried a ‘clear danger of inconsistencies and overlap’.

Last month the Tories said the Government’s policy was in ‘chaos’ after Immigration Minister Phil Woolas suggested a population cap of 70million.

He was later forced into a humiliating climbdown.

A Commons cross-party group on balanced migration has also said immigration rules should be tightened during the economic downturn.

Liberal Democrat Lord Vallance, the former BT chairman, said the economic ’shoe will begin to pinch’ when large numbers of immigrants arrived in the same location.

Labour’s Lord Haskel said ‘racist views’ could be detected in the report.

‘While I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, the impression is that the politics of the committee is antiimmigration,’ he said. ‘And, if they want, a reader can detect racist views in the paper.’

Home Office minister Lord West said the report had been ‘flawed’.

He said the Government believed the benefits of immigration had made a positive contribution to economic growth, with no ’significant evidence of negative employment effects’.

1,350 ILLEGALS CLEARED TO WORK

Another 1,350 illegal immigrants have been cleared for sensitive jobs by a Home Office agency.

Last week the Security Industry Authority, which licenses security guards, was found to be employing staff who were not properly vetted.

Now it has emerged that thousands of three-year licences have been issued to applicants – even though their right to work was due to expire within months.

The oversight is likely to have misled businesses over the status of employees, allowing them to hold on to jobs by showing valid licences.

Previously, the Authority cleared 7,000 illegal immigrants for security jobs – including one man charged with guarding the Prime Minister’s car. The Authority’s systems were meant to have been overhauled last year after it was disclosed that applicants’ right to work was not being checked.

But last week its chief executive was forced to quit after confirming that his own staff had not been properly vetted.

The latest loophole was identified by officials last month. A spokesman said 2,000 licences currently in force, where the right to work may have expired, had been identified. Some 1,350 have had their licences revoked. The Tories said it was more evidence of ’systematic incompetence’.

U.S. border police arrest Mexican troops

Reuters | Oct 31, 2008

PHOENIX (Reuters) – U.S. border police arrested seven Mexican soldiers after they accidentally strayed over the international boundary into Arizona, authorities said.

The U.S. Border Patrol said agents encountered the troops in a Humvee a short distance north of the border near Yuma, in far west Arizona, early on Friday.

“The Border Patrol agents on scene established a dialogue with the subjects, who identified themselves as members of the Mexican military,” the Border Patrol said in a news release.

“The … agents informed them of their presence within the United States. Upon notification, the subjects were peaceably taken into custody,” it added.

The soldiers, who were assigned to the 23rd Regiment Motorized Cavalry of the Mexican Army, said they had become disoriented while on patrol and had accidentally crossed the international boundary, the Border Patrol said.

After relieving them of their arms, agents took the soldiers to the San Luis, Arizona, port of entry where they were processed and repatriated to Mexico, along with their weapons and vehicle.

The incursion was the second by Mexican troops in recent months.

In August, a group of four Mexican soldiers briefly held a U.S. Border Patrol agent at gunpoint in a remote stretch of the Arizona desert after they mistakenly strayed north across the border.