Passport Forgeries

Thomas Jocelyn is carrying the story of the Columbian forgery ring that was making fake passports for Hamas/Al Quaeda. He is taking the news directly from a CNN report, and raises an interesting question. Here are some of the highlights of the article:

Colombian has dismantled a false passport ring with links to al Qaeda and Hamas militants, the acting attorney general said Thursday after authorities led dozens of simultaneous raids across five cities in collaboration with U.S. officials…

…An undisclosed number of those arrested are wanted for working with the al Qaeda terror network and the militant Palestinian group Hamas, said acting Attorney General Jorge Armando Otalora.

The counterfeit Colombian, Spanish, Portuguese and German passports were used to enter the United States and Europe, he said.
But Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra said an indictment unsealed Wednesday in Miami charges 10 foreign nationals with smuggling "people that they thought were members of FARC into the United States."

"We are not alleging any connections to any terror organization other than the FARC," said Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra.
He said the U.S. will seek to extradite the 10 alleged smugglers, of whom eight have been arrested.

I guess it remains to be seen if there is any connection to Al Quaeda or Hamas. But the big question is, how did the US authorities pick up on the fact this was going on at all? Wish I knew the answer to that.

Stay Tuned for further developments.