Texas Homeland Security Chief: 'Terrorists Crossed Border' -- MSM Ignores News

September 19th, 2007 3:53 AM

On Sept. 13th, Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw announced in a speech to the North Texas Crime Commission that Texas authorities had apprehended terrorist suspects who were sneaking across the Mexico/U.S. border. Shouldn't such a report be running through the MSM like wildfire? Yet, the MSM seems to be ignoring this explosive report with only local Texas news sources, a few Jihad watchers and bloggers having picked up the Director's statements.

The AP did have a report, shockingly enough, but few other MSM services seem to have found it as of yet... even though the story is about a week old.

DALLAS - Texas' top homeland security official said Wednesday that terrorists with ties to Hezbollah, Hamas and al-Qaida have been arrested crossing the Texas border with Mexico in recent years.

"Has there ever been anyone linked to terrorism arrested?" Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw said in a speech to the North Texas Crime Commission. "Yes, there was."

The Director went on to name at least one name and make the clam that some 300 people possibly linked to terror or from countries where terrorism is endemic have been apprehended at the Texas border.

Here is the meat of the Director's comments:

McCraw identified the most notable figure captured as Farida Goolam Mahomed Ahmed, who was arrested in July 2004 at the McAllen airport. She carried $7,300 in various currencies and a South African passport with pages missing. Federal officials later learned she waded across the Rio Grande.

(O)n Wednesday, McCraw described Ahmed as having ties to an insurgent group in Pakistan and whose specialty was smuggling Afghanis and other foreign nationals across the border.

McCraw also said that since March 2006, 347 people from what he called "terrorism-related countries" have been arrested crossing the border in Texas. The number of Iraqis captured at the border has tripled since last year, he said.

"A porous border without question is a national security threat," he said.

Have the MSM simply decided that Director McCraw is just employing bombast to justify his government job? Have they decided his words are unimportant, without a national debate of his comments? Have the MSM collectively decided that the country doesn't need to hear this news?

Since most in the media are against the border fence, are they ignoring this story because it might strengthen public support for the fence being built?

It sure might seem so. A Google search of Director McCraw reveals quite a few Texas papers and TV stations reporting this week old news, but few national sources.

So why the news black out on this shocking story?