Michael Cutler -- How Rotten Apples in Government Endanger America

A new report was forwarded to me by a now retired former high-ranking INS official who is also a close friend.

This news report appeared this past Friday in the Detroit News and while it is a disturbing story as it stands, what was left out of the story was an even bigger story- how a corrupt INS official enabled a once illegal alien to become an FBI special agent and then an employee of the CIA!

As you read this commentary and the news report, I want you to put it into proper perspective. There are, even as you read this, members of Congress and the current administration who are intent on foisting a massive amnesty program on our country to permit millions of illegal aliens to be rewarded for their having violated our nation' borders and various immigration and other laws, with United States citizenship!

Here is what we don't know and most likely will never find out about these millions of illegal aliens:

We don't (and won't) know their true identities (including their nationalities).

We don't (and won't) know about their possible criminal histories in other countries.

We don't (and won't) know how, where or when they entered the United States. (This means that if an amnesty is enacted that would require that the illegal alien applicant have resided in the United States for a minimum amount of time, there would be no reliable way to determine how long the alien has actually been here.)

We don't (and won't) know about their possible affiliation with criminal or terrorist organizations. (The Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill that was narrowly defeated in the United States Senate last year actually contained a provision that would have enabled members of violent gangs such as MS-13 so qualify for amnesty if they promised they would not go back to their former gangs!)

We don't (and won't) know anything about their true intentions.

Now lets go back to the news report. You will notice that there was a simple sentence that stated, rather innocuously:

Among those who gave Bailey gifts and received favors from Bailey were immigration attorney Namir Daman, who was earlier sentenced to three years' probation; LaShish Restaurants owner Talal Chahine, a fugitive believed to be living in Lebanon; and Leon's Family Dining restaurants owner Samir Leon, who has not been charged with a crime, according to court records filed Friday.

Talal Chahine is indeed a fugitive. He was the person who arranged the marriage fraud than enabled a woman by the name of Nada Nadim Prouty to acquire resident alien status by engaging in a marriage fraud after her student visa under which she had been admitted to the United States in 1988 expired. Having acquired lawful immigrant status as a result of that marriage fraud, she ultimately became a United States citizen and then went on to secure a job with the FBI as a special agent! She had a gun, a badge and a security clearance that she apparently put to good use, accessing databases on informants and investigations into Hezbollah, a pernicious terrorist organization. She similarly accessed databases at the CIA when she left the FBI for a job with the CIA. The problem is that in government, it is not enough that you possess the requisite security clearance before you access sensitive files and databases, you must also have the "need to know."

So, while Ms Prouty had the necessary clearance to access those databases, she had no justification for accessing those databases.

As for Mr. Chahine, he is indeed a fugitive. He is accused of skimming millions of dollars from his restaurant chain and sending that money directly to Hezbollah!

You can read the New York Post's news report about this sordid case.

I have also provided you with a copy of Roy M. Bailey's indictment and the relating press release that was issued by the Office of the United States Attorney that prosecuted that case.

The terrorists who have operated in our country have always understood that they needed to gain access to our nation and then embed themselves in various communities in the United States to hide in plain sight as they carried out operations related to terrorism and espionage. In addition to physically attacking our nation, terrorists operate in the United States to gather intelligence, establish "safe houses" and engage in various activities to generate money to enable their terrorist organizations to conduct operations around the world.

When an alien is able to acquire lawful immigrant status and especially United States citizenship, that alien is able to move freely among us and also travel easily in and out of the United States.

When such aliens are involved with terrorism or espionage, they are able to acquire jobs that provide them with access to critical infrastructure. Examples of critical infrastructure might well be nuclear power plants, military bases, federal agencies or airports and seaports. It may mean getting a job for a contractor that performs many jobs for the federal government or the United States military. It may even mean getting a job at a food processing plant where it would be relatively easy to contaminate our food supply. (Incredibly the administration is seemingly oblivious to this potential risk!)

There have been ever so many reports issued by various oversight agencies of the federal government that detailed the multitude of failings of USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to weed out fraud in the immigration benefits program that provides aliens with a wide spectrum of immigration benefits.

As I have noted on a number of occasions, two years ago the GAO reported on how USCIS claimed to have lost 111,000 immigration alien files relating to aliens seeking all sorts of immigration benefits including some 30,000 who applied for naturalization to acquire United States citizenship. Each and every one of those 111,000 applications including those involving naturalization were adjudicated without providing the adjudicator with those critically important files!

It seems as though the government provided immigration benefits with as much thought being given to the process as did so many banks provide sub-prime mortgages and credit cards to illegal aliens whose identities were unknown and unknowable.

My concerns about the lack of integrity to the immigration benefits program prompted me to write a commentary last year for the Washington Times as Comprehensive Immigration Reform was being debated at the United States Senate.

I have attached a copy of that commentary below the news article.

The large scale apathy demonstrated by citizens of this nation has emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups. There is much that we cannot do but there is one thing that We the People absolutely must do- we must stop sitting on the sidelines!

The collective failure of We the People to get involved in make our concerns known to our politicians have nearly made the concerns of the great majority of the citizens of this nation all but irrelevant to the politicians.

I implore you to get involved!

Attorney General Eric Holder accused Americans of being cowards where race was concerned. Perhaps we have indeed become a nation of cowards, not on the issue of race but rather on the issue of immigration.

Lawful immigration, when effectively administered can and does have a positive impact on our nation. When the integrity of the system fails, the results can be nothing short of catastrophic!

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Immigration impacts everything from national security and criminal justice to the economy, the environment, healthcare and education.

We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance.

This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue!

Michael W. Cutler graduated from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York in 1971 with a B.A. in Communications Arts and Sciences. Mr. Cutler began working for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in October 1971 when he entered on duty as an Immigration Inspector assigned to John F. Kennedy International Airport. In August 1975 he became a Criminal Investigator (Special Agent) for the INS at NYC.

He rotated through virtually every squad in the Investigations Branch. From 1988 until 1991 he was assigned as the INS representative to the Unified Intelligence Division (UID) of the DEA in New York. In 1991 he was promoted to the position of Senior Special Agent and was assigned to the Organized Crime, Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) which required that he work with members of other law enforcement agencies including the FBI, DEA, ATF, U.S. Customs and local and state police as well as law enforcement organizations of other countries including Israel, Canada, Great Britain and Japan, to conduct investigations of aliens involved in major drug trafficking organizations. He retired from the INS in February 2002, after a career that spanned some 30 years.

Finally, Michael Cutler has appeared on numerous television and radio programs including Lou Dobbs, Fox News, MSNBC and many other television and radio news-oriented programs to discuss the enforcement of immigration laws.