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May the Shutdown Go On Forever

BY ROGER L SIMON A snowman holds a sign in front of the Capitol on Monday, Jan. 14, 2018, that reads "Gov't Snowdown" after the Washington area had its first big snow storm of the year. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

It's hard to read the anonymous posting on the Daily Caller from a "senior Trump official" without coming to the conclusion that the current partial government shutdown should remain shut essentially forever. (It won't.  I know. But hear me out.) Putting aside whatever pro-administration bias the author might have, the article confirms everything one suspects or knows about bureaucracies, especially government ones.

They do nothing that warrants punishment and nothing of external value. That is their workday: errands for the sake of errands — administering, refining, following and collaborating on process. “Process is your friend” is what delusional civil servants tell themselves. Even senior officials must gain approval from every rank across their department, other agencies and work units for basic administrative chores.

Well, it's not as bad as what one former Justice Department attorney told me about life inside the DOJ -- that under-utilized $200K/yr lawyers sit there all day looking at porn on their computers -- but it's bad enough.  This is the civil service from time immemorial. Eventually most government agencies, federal and state, resemble the Department of Motor Vehicles. You sit down and wait your turn until some bored, often self-loathing bureaucrat deigns to speak with you about your license renewal or whatever.  And all your papers had better be in order or go to the end of the line. It's the way of the bureaucrat--spiteful and depressed. What incentive do they have to be different? You don't have to be a Trump supporter or even a libertarian to know that. You just have to exist in the world.

Yes, yes, I know National Park rangers are great guys and gals, Smokey, and it's not all like that.  And, yes, I'd prefer it if some museums were opened. (The Johnny Cash Museum here in Nashville seems to be operating at a profit.  Maybe they should try that.) And, yes, it may seem callous to advocate continuing the shutdown in the face of a fair number of people going without salaries (temporarily -- they always get them in the end), but, with unemployment numbers at an all-time low, this might be a time to examine alternatives. Being on the government payroll isn't the be all and the end all of life.  It may in fact be a dead end, not just for the country and its taxpayers, but for the workers themselves.

These days,  private businesses large and small are actively looking for new employees, not, as is often the case, the other way around. Former government workers might not always be the best prospects but many had strong enough resumés to get their Washington jobs in the first place.  All they really need is to be weaned of the bad habits gleaned by working in a bureaucracy. It's a chance for them to contribute to society, rather than sit in a government office waiting for the next coffee break or elongating the one they're already on.  It's a much more psychologically sound way to live. "Change/Opportunity" as they say in the I Ching.

That mysterious Trump official is also correct in saying that the shutdown should be about much more than the wall and border security.  Serious as they may be, they are what the shrinks call the "presenting complaint." The real issue is the function of government itself -- what's important and what's not. A shutdown can serve as a living laboratory for examining the question of what is actually worthwhile that is missing because of that event.  I daresay that most outside the Beltway would be hard pressed to find anything. (A fair number of these people can get around the National Parks by themselves, especially in the days of GPS.)

Both sides fear shutdowns not just because of that nauseatingly tedious inter-party blame game, but more importantly because it exposes this bloat and who caused it (i.e., who paid for what).  This is the Deep State in action, in the off-chance anyone hasn't noticed. What has been created by our government over decades is a self-preservation machine immune to the normal capitalist processes of creative destruction that have largely improved society over centuries, enriching almost everyone and extending life expectancy.

Now, in the midst of this shutdown, our country is again at that perpetual road fork between capitalism and socialism.  This is ironic in that socialism, as evidenced by Venezuela, is suffering one of its most drastic defeats ever in what was once the wealthiest country on its continent.  It's hard to see how anyone could believe in that system anymore and yet, due in great part to our abysmally biased educational system, a whole generation seems bent on reinventing not the wheel but the sinkhole.

Keeping the shutdown shut for a while might help us rethink this. The question is will it do any good.  In the short run, probably not. But we can hope for the long run.

Roger L. Simon - Co-founder and CEO Emeritus of PJ Media - is an author and screenwriter.

New Book Refutes Official Story About Thai Cave Rescue. The Truth Is More Disturbing

By Liam Cochrane

The story behind the effort to rescue children stuck in Thai cave in 2018 is more disturbing than the tale government officials told the parents of the kids, according to a new book discussing the mission.

Members of the Wild Boars soccer team were not trained to dive and swim in a buddy system out of the cave, ABC Australia Southeast Asia reporter Liam Cochrane claims in his new book, “The Cave.” Instead, they were drugged, handcuffed, and carried out of the winding tunnel.

“To calm nerves, the parents were told the boys were being taught how to dive and the media reported that each of them would be tethered to an air hose and then swim out with one rescue diver in front and another behind,” Cochrane writes in his book. “This was untrue.”

Media shared images demonstrating how the 12 boys dressed in wetsuits and flippers would swim through the labyrinth tethered to expert divers. But the divers responsible for rescuing the children knew that such a plan would not work given the level of expertise required for the trip.

“Those who’d been inside the flooded tunnels knew there was no way a child who had never dived before could make it through the muddy and treacherous obstacle course,” Cochrane writes. “The only hope was to sedate them, put oxygen-fed masks with silicone seals over their faces and let the expert cave divers carry them out.”

One boy Cochrane called Note was one of the first members of the soccer team to be extracted. He was given a sedative, then injected in each leg with ketamine, an anesthesia, by Australian cave diver, Dr. Richard Harris, until the 14-year-old boy fell into unconsciousness.

Note was then put into a diving suit, had an air tank strapped to his chest, and a small full-face mask fitted. He began breathing normally within a half a minute, after which the divers handcuffed the boy to prevent him from ripping at his mask.

The boys were later treated for dehydration, malnutrition, oxygen deprivation and other conditions. Doctors at the hospital in Chiang Rai, where the boys were treated, monitored the kids for symptoms of diseases caused by animals and fungi in the cave.

The cave rescue itself became a source of controversy after tech entrepreneur Elon Musk called British diver Vernon Unsworth, who assisted in the rescue, a pedophile. Musk was upset after the veteran diver called a submarine Silicon Valley billionaire’s team developed a “PR stunt.”

Musk tweeted on July 6 that he was sending engineers from his companies SpaceX and The Boring Co. to assist in the rescue in any way that they could. The Tesla CEO later apologized.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org

Tantrums: Democrats Are Refusing to End the Shutdown by Boycotting Meetings at the White House

Katie Pavlich @KatiePavlich

President Trump hosted a border security meeting at the White House Tuesday afternoon.

In an effort to make progress on the government shutdown, Trump invited Republican and Democrat lawmakers to attend with ideas. Not a single Democrat showed up. Their leaders, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, were also missing.

“As Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi refuse to negotiate, President Donald J. Trump and his team are working hard to find solutions to solve the humanitarian and national security crisis at the border and reopen the government. The President has a proposal on the table that includes additional technology at ports of entry, allows minors from Central America to seek asylum in their home country, and physical barriers between ports of entry made of steel instead of concrete," Press Secretary Sarah Sanders released in a statement. "Today, the President offered both Democrats and Republicans the chance to meet for lunch at the White House. Unfortunately, no Democrats will attend. The President looks forward to having a working lunch with House Republicans to solve the border crisis and reopen the government.  It’s time for the Democrats to come to the table and make a deal.”

Here's a list of House Republicans who attended:

1. Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IN)
2. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL)
3. Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA)
4. Rep. John Katko (R-NY)
5. Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH)
6. Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX)
7. Rep. Van Taylor (R-TX)
8. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH)
9. Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA)

On Tuesday morning, President Trump went after Pelosi and Schumer on Twitter. He also warned of another caravan headed to the U.S. from Honduras.

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
Why is Nancy Pelosi getting paid when people who are working are not.

143K

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
A big new Caravan is heading up to our Southern Border from Honduras. Tell Nancy and Chuck that a drone flying around will not stop them. Only a Wall will work. Only a Wall, or Steel Barrier, will keep our Country safe! Stop playing political games and end the Shutdown!

83.9K

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump

Polls are now showing that people are beginning to understand the Humanitarian Crisis and Crime at the Border. Numbers are going up fast, over 50%. Democrats will soon be known as the Party of Crime. Ridiculous that they don’t want Border Security!

81.3K

NY Post Writer: Our Wall in El Paso Works
Cortney O'Brien @obrienc2

Source: AP Photo/Juan Carlos Llorca

KUSI News reporter Dan Plante's stellar storytelling in San Diego wasn't quite what CNN was looking for last week when they called the local affiliate. They were hoping the station would tell them how ineffective walls are and prove President Trump wrong in his quest for border security, but KUSI had come to the opposite conclusion. According to the border patrol agents they'd talked to, the wall was largely doing its job.

"Knowing this, CNN declined to have us on their programs, which often present the wall as not required," the KUSI anchors explained. "They didn’t like what they heard from us.”

It turns out walls work in San Diego too, according to NY Post opinion writer Paul Sperry. In his latest piece, Sperry explains that since the border fence was built during the Bush administration, drug trafficking and crime have plummeted.

Federal data illustrates just how remarkable the turnaround in crime has been since the fence was built. According to FBI tables, property crimes in El Paso have plunged more than 37 percent to 12,357 from their pre-fence peak of 19,702 a year, while violent crimes have dropped more than 6 percent to 2,682 from a peak of 2,861 a year.

The overall crime rate in El Paso continued to fall last year, prompting city leaders to trumpet the good news in a press release that noted, “Because El Paso is a border town, its low crime rate may surprise you.” (NY Post)

Additionally, the marijuana and cocaine coming in through the city has been "cut in half."

"All told, a legion of empirical evidence supports the idea a southern border wall could, in fact, work," Sperry says as he nears his conclusion.

It's safe to say CNN won't be doing a segment on Sperry's piece either.

HUGE! Clinton / Lynch Tarmac Meeting Just Got Shadier, Claims New Report
TpcadminQAnon, a whistleblower very close to Trump, just released a batch of messages outlining the leaked documents and timeline he’s pieced together implicating the collusion between the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign to escape prosecution over the back of deceased Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia certainly raised a lot of suspicions.  Allegations of foul play immediately surfaced and, looking at the sheer number of oddities surrounding his death, it’s easy to see why.

The release of an email by Wikileaks from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta strongly suggests that Scalia was, in fact, assassinated.

Now, it appears that Wikileaks may drop another bombshell related to the late Supreme Court Justice.

The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia remains shroud in mystery. But, we do know according to QAnon (more about this source on the final page), 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was conniving to bride corrupt officials in the Obama justice department with his suddenly vacant seat.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tuesday morning QAnon dropped two posts that suggest in their famous tarmac meeting, former President Bill Clinton offered to then-Attorney General Lynch the Supreme Court seat of murdered Antonin Scalia, in exchange for Lynch making sure the FBI investigation into former Secretary Hillary Clinton’s email server be stopped, exonerating Clinton of any criminal charges.

We have the posts here for you to examine.

The first QAnon post was timestamped at 01:34:50, approximately 1:35 am ET on Tuesday, appearing as follows:

Pay attention to the 4th line where QAnon notes the alleged sordid details surrounding that infamous Tarmac meeting between Bill Clinton and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch during the 2016 presidential election: Tarmac meeting [SC/LL deal > AS 187]

Decoded, QAnon is suggesting that when Clinton met with Lynch on the tarmac, he offered her the Supreme Court seat of former Judge Antonin Scalia in return for Lynch intervening with the FBI to end their criminal investigation into Clinton’s email server, exonerating Clinton from any criminal charges.

Clinton reasoned Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to replace Scalia would go nowhere with Republicans in the Senate wanting to reserve the nomination for the next president. With Scalia’s seat still open, Hillary as president could nominate Lynch.

QAnon is also suggesting former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was murdered.

That Scalia was murdered is suggested by the initials “AS,” standing for Antonin Scalia, and the number 187 which the urban dictionary associates with “murder, death, kill.”

QAnon then posted another message in reply to another internet user asking for more details on this alleged “deal” between the Clintons and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

The second QAnon post was timestamped 01:41:04, approximately 1:41 am ET on Tuesday, written in response to an anonymous member asking if Lynch was offered a Supreme Court position if all charges were dropped in the criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server at the State Department.

We have the timeline available on these chains of events conducted by the Hillary campaign to ensure she got off the hook for her crimes in time to become President.

The evidence of collusion between the Obama administration and the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign has never looked clearer.

Further adding to the mix is the sudden death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia under circumstances many consider to be highly suspect.

According to QAnon, the death of Antonin Scalia fit perfectly into the plans of the Clintons.

They had the perfect bribe in place for convincing then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch to help them escape prosecution.

QAnon built a timeline of these reported happening ascertained from his hacking of personal computers and systems.

QAnon responds by encouraging us to build the timeline, repeating his assertion that Scalia was murdered.

Key dates in the timeline include the following:

• Feb. 2, 2016: Podesta email re: “Wet-works,” slang for “murder”
• Feb. 13, 2016: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
• Feb. 13, 2016: Podesta email regarding Scalia replacement
• June 27, 2016: Bill Clinton’s tarmac meeting with Loretta Lynch
• July 1, 2016: Loretta Lynch announces she will accept FBI findings
• July 2, 2016: FBI interviews Hillary Clinton
• July 5, 2016: James Comey dismisses Clinton email investigation

Other names included in this bid to rob the American people of justice also includes recently ousted Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.

Which comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with the corruption dominating the government intelligence agencies.

Decoding the QAnon post, we are directed to the Scalia murder (“AS 187”), the key “HRC investigation pivot points” leading to Comey’s final letter dismissing Clinton of criminal charges, read to the public on July 5, 2016.

QAnon also directs our attention to “#2,” namely, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and to “PS,” namely FBI Peter Strzok, both of whom played roles in making sure the language of Comey’s letter dismissing the Clinton criminal indictment was “toned down” so as not to include the precise statutory language defining a national security crime involving the handling of classified information.

The biggest bombshell of them all is that QAnon is claiming that Wikileaks has a transcript from the meeting and is preparing to release to the general public soon.

Finally, by “WL comms,” QAnon suggests WikiLeaks is prepared to confirm either by a transcript and/or an audio tape of the Clinton-Loretta Lynch tarmac meeting that the key move necessary to make sure Hillary Clinton would be exonerated was the offer to Loretta Lynch of Scalia’s Supreme Court seat.

Such a release by Wikileaks would be revolutionary.

Central American Countries Are Helping Middle Easterners Illegally Enter The United States

Panama and Costa Rica are choke points on the migrant trail followed by people from other continents seeking easier U.S. entry through our porous border with Mexico.

By Todd Bensman

In December 2018, the Center for Immigration Studies dispatched Senior National Security Fellow Todd Bensman to Panama and Costa Rica to investigate President Donald Trump’s widely ridiculed assertions that suspected terrorists had been apprehended among Middle East migrants through Latin America. Panama is a geographic chokepoint, or bottleneck, through which migrants from countries of the Middle East, who are moving out of South America, must push on their way to the U.S. border.

The following article is based on Bensman’s on-the-ground research over two weeks. His video reports, photos, and writings from the trip can be found here.

Golfito, Costa Rica — It was here in March 2017, at the main aluminum structure of a government migrant camp, that federal Costa Rican police arrested Ibrahim Qoordheen of Somalia as a suspected al Shabaab terrorist operative on his way to the U.S. southern border.

Qoordheen had been smuggled from Zambia to Brazil, passed through Panama, and was making his way north through Costa Rica when the Americans had him arrested here, 20 miles inside Costa Rica, according to an American intelligence official with knowledge of the case who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Golfito camp, with a capacity of 250, was set up as a two-day rest station for South America-exiting migrants whom the governments of Panama and Costa Rica register and help move through northward to Nicaragua.

Golfito migrant camp, Costa Rica where Ibrahim Quoordheen was arrested in 2017. Photos by Todd Bensman.

Golfito migrant camp, Costa Rica.

Luckily, the Somali stayed long enough for an American intelligence analyst working with the name he had provided in Panama to unscramble it and match it to a pre-existing intelligence file that identified him as intertwined with an al Shabaab cell and smuggling network in Zambia, the U.S. intelligence official said.

The Americans interviewed Qoordheen at length, but the Somali gave up nothing, the U.S. officer said. The Americans then arranged to have him deported to Zambia, the officer said. It turns out the Qoordheen case was only one of other such episodes about which the American public was never told, where terrorist suspects were discovered migrating through Latin America to the U.S. border.

Terrrorists Know the U.S. Border Is Not Secure

A Costa Rican immigration service official whose jurisdiction includes the Golfito camp disclosed that at least several other U.S.-bound suspected terrorists also were pulled from this camp since Qoordheen’s March 2017 arrest, likewise based on significant derogatory U.S. counterterrorism intelligence. The Costa Rican official declined to provide specifics of the intelligence beyond that it involved terrorism, offering only that: “Most are good, but some are bad.”

The American public was never told that Qoordheen and other suspected terrorists were pulled off U.S.-bound migrant routes in distant Costa Rica and Panama because such information is usually classified or not disclosable, in line with standard practice to protect ongoing investigations and operations.

That necessary opacity, unfortunately, seems to have given life to denialism about President Trump’s claims that terrorists are among migrants from countries of terror concern, like the Middle East. The skeptics have demanded proof then cited Trump perfidy when protected intelligence wasn’t provided. Trump’s assertions were thus ridiculed and dismissed as unsupported fear-mongering.

But the rejectionists, many of whom obviously do not know that a central homeland security practice is threat preemption, are wrong. Down here, on the southern-most leg of migrant routes to the American border, it is they who invite ridicule and eye rolls.

American, Panamanian, and Costa Rican law enforcement and intelligence officials are engaged in actual programs here to hunt, investigate, and deport real terrorist suspects who are, in fact, discovered among the thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Horn of Africa, and South Asia funneling through this section of Latin America—as President Trump said and as I saw and heard on the ground.

Migrants from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka processing through Costa Ricans customs at Paso Canoas on the Panama border.

They are working at it here because sheer geography pushes tens of thousands of U.S.-bound migrants from all over the world who pass from South America landing zones through these two countries as they push north. Panama and Costa Rica are chokepoints on the migrant trail where “extra-continental” travelers, as they are sometimes called at the American embassies, can become known in the greatest concentrations.

Terror Migrants Pulled From U.S. Border Routes

Some acknowledgements of terror travel through these countries—and of the American efforts  to mitigate it—are in public evidence, even if the underlying reporting remains confidential.

A December 19 Immigration and Customs Enforcement statement, for instance, announced the deportation of U.S.-convicted Brazil-based smuggler Sharafat Ali Khan after time served for transporting at least 100 aliens from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh through South and Central America to the United States. The statement offered this nugget, with the usual lack of elaboration: “Several of the individuals smuggled by Khan’s organization had suspected ties to terrorist organizations.”

The new statement seems to comport with earlier reporting by The Washington Times that one of these individuals was an Afghan involved in a plot to attack in the United States or Canada and had family ties to members of the Taliban.

Also in December 2018, an INTERPOL statement announcing the arrests of 49 human smugglers in the multi-nation “Operation Andes,” networks that funneled migrants from places like the Middle East into Panama and out of Costa Rica en route to the U.S. border, said four arrestees were linked to fraud, homicide, “and terrorism.”

Clearly, even if we can’t know all the details, something has been happening in this part of the world involving migrants who show up in terrorism intelligence reporting databases.

Dozens of migrants suspected of terrorism involvements are also reaching the U.S. border. As reported for CIS in a paper titled “Have Terrorists Crossed?” intelligence community sources said more than 100 migrants caught at the American southern border, or caught en route, were on U.S. terror watch lists between 2012 and 2017. More than half were first noticed at the American border; many of the rest were caught en route, like Qoordheen.

Fifteen terrorists are listed and described in the CIS report, including a Somali migrant who passed unnoticed through Panama in 2011, crossed the Mexico-California border, and went on to commit two 2017 vehicle ramming attacks in Alberta, Canada while carrying an ISIS flag.

Governments Assist in Human Smuggling

The terrorist travel threat associated with migration through this area (from the Middle East, Horn of Africa, and South Asia) is regarded as a primary American law enforcement and intelligence preoccupation in Panama, intelligence officials say. The U.S. effort is purposefully centered on the migration through Panama and Costa Rica because homeland security professionals, some of whom agreed to talk anonymously, regard the migration danger as real, present, and most visible here.

One reason migration from countries of terror concern is visible here is that Panama and Costa Rica follow a catch, rest, and release policy, virtually unknown to the American public, locally called “Controlled Flow.” The 2016 policy has Panama’s military collecting special interest migrants hiking in from Colombia’s wilderness borderlands. These migrants number about 700 per week these days, according to one Panamanian military official.

The military’s Central Battalion's Oriental Brigade based in Yaviza, the last town on Panama’s Highway 1, places them in camps where they are fed and medically treated. The military then provides them with temporary legal status and commercially buses them north to the Costa Ricans, who likewise provide the means and resources for the migrants to pass north again on through to Nicaragua, where smugglers often take things in hand again. (See video report about Controlled Flow here).

“There is a thing the world does not see, and it is the work we do,” said a ranking Panamanian military commander who spoke on condition of anonymity. “No other country, or, I believe, any country in all of Latin America, does what Panama does. And that is to receive [foreign citizens], to aid them, give them medication and to organize them” for transport to Costa Rica. Asked if terrorists may be placed on this human conveyor belt, the officer offered, with a knowing chuckle, “Maybe!”

The Panamanian central government declined repeated interview requests and decided not to reply to a list of CIS questions about its this policy, saying only that “We can assure you that Panama and the U.S. are strong partners in ensuring we have secure migration flows and in promoting regional security.”

Several Panamanian national Assembly members explained how the policy works in the interests of both Panama and most of the migrants. For Panama, they said, the policy removes the cost burdens of interdicting, detaining, processing legal asylum claims, and deportation. It also protects migrants from smugglers while exploiting what most want: to reach America.

“Panama is like a bridge or a passway to another country,”  said Juan Carlos Arrango, of the ruling coalition Panamanian Popular Party. “Wherever they come from, by boat, plane, or walking through the Darien jungle, they’re very vocal in saying, ‘We don’t want to stay in Panama. We want to pass through, to the north.” So, Arrango said, the government is happy to see to that.

Middle East Migrants and Terrorist Suspects in Panama

American law enforcement has taken some advantage of controlled flow to filter the migrants for terrorism history or connections, even though unknown numbers of migrants choose illicit smuggling through the region instead. American officials declined requests to discuss these efforts on the record. Others, however, did speak anonymously.

Panama and Costa Rica follow a catch, rest, and release policy.

“This is national security,” the American officer said of the programs filtering terrorists from the migrant flows through in Panama. “We’ve extended our border.”

The publicly available annual U.S. State Department Country Reports on Terrorism, released most recently in September 2018, provided one confirming peek at the American counterterrorism partnership with Panama. It said one program objective there now was “to detain and repatriate individuals for whom there were elevated suspicions of links to terrorism.” This is significant because it means America has intercepted terror suspects flown to their home countries from Panama, as was done with Qoordheen, rather than to gamble with a U.S. border entry and an attack on the homeland.

An illustrative August 2016 case involved six Pakistanis who entered Panama from Colombia on their way to the American border and were pulled off the route then deported home. The deportations of the six were publicly reported but not the reasons why, so it attracted almost no notice. But Juan Carlos Vargas, political editor for La Prensa newspaper in Panama City, said his paper was told the Pakistanis were arrested on suspicions that they were associated with al Qaeda and after they were seen taking photos of sensitive sites around the city, including the Panama Canal.

“The government closed out all information about that news,” the journalist said, adding that this wasn’t the only such case. “Other (terrorism suspect) cases were shut down too. So officially, we have no news to report.”

Terror List Hits Trigger ‘Deep Dive’ Investigations

The American intelligence officer quoted earlier in this report also described processes that launch in Panama when migrants hit on terror watch list databases or otherwise come to U.S. attention. Such hits are fairly common, and when they occur, trigger in-country “deep dive,” investigations and analyses that might involve foreign intelligence services and agencies, as well as interviews with the suspected migrants, the U.S. official said.

Of course, there’s no publicly reportable metric for something that doesn’t go boom.

Some of these investigations clear things up pretty quickly with no terrorism finding, or maybe just a distant association to someone that wouldn’t warrant deportation. But enough other cases surface that warrant hard effort, vigilance, and deportations from Panama that reduce terror attack risks the American public would never know about.

For example, the deep dive process had to be applied to one Pakistani pulled off the route in Panama when he was found to have a long history with a terrorist organization, the American security official said. The Pakistani remained in Panamanian custody, at the behest of the Americans, for about a full year during the investigation. The investigation turned up no specific terrorism plot, but because of his confirmed history as a terrorist, the Pakistani was deported by plane anyway to reduce risk, the officer said.

The Costa Rica immigration official also cited earlier in this report explained that American counterterrorism officers in the region pay close attention to the migrant traffic coming through the camp in Golfito and maintain “close contact” about the Costa Rica services.

The Americans, the Costa Rican official said, are mainly interested in interviews of migrants from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Pakistan, and countries like those, because of the elevated chance those migrants are terrorists. The Americans sometimes call the Golfito migrant camp and have immigration officers interview such migrants—in an interview room I saw—and ask that the intelligence reports be forwarded to the U.S. embassy where the Americans work. That’s how other suspected terrorists were caught here, the Costa Rican official said.

“It’s important if they suspect there is a person traveling to the U.S. for terrorism, they need to know where they are staying and to know who they are,” the Costa Rican official said.

Author with Costa Rica’s Policia de Frontera border guard.

One way migrants with terrorism intelligence records are getting noticed is through another major American-backed counterterrorism program here known by the shorthand “BitMap.” Americans supplied equipment and trained the Panamanians and Costa Ricans to collect retinal eye scans, fingerprints and facial photography of migrants moving through the countries, the State Department country reports on terrorism document said. I watched as U.S.-trained Costa Rican immigration officials collected biometrics on Iranians, Pakistanis, Eritreans, and Iraqis. This allows homeland security to run the information against international terrorism databases where perhaps the migrant’s biometrics had been entered somewhere else previously.

An African migrant in Costa Rica submits to providing fingerprints that will end up in American databases. Costa Rican immigration officers were trained to administer the collections, 12/18.

None of this, of course, is communicated to the American public, for reasons of operational security that enable skeptics to mock the dearth of “evidence.” And, of course, there’s no publicly reportable metric for something that doesn’t go boom.

Foreigners Pour Through the Darien Gap

Let no one ever again say that migrants from countries of terror concern, to include the Middle East, aren’t moving in significant numbers through Latin America to the U.S. border, or that the risk of terrorists or those predisposed toward terrorism would mix with this traffic. American homeland security certainly believes so, due in no small part to the discovery of terrorist suspects in this flow.

In both Panama and Costa Rica, I observed hundreds of mostly young male migrants from countries of terrorism concern, of often unverifiable identity and backgrounds, traveling toward the U.S. border. I photographed and spoke to them. Some told me they were from Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Eritrea. I interviewed an Iranian, an Iraqi, a Pakistani, and a Bangladeshi. Some of their interviews are posted here for all to see.

At issue is that American authorities don’t know who many of them are and can’t verify their stories. All of those I interviewed said they had no identification with them. At the main bus station in Panama, one day, I met two travelers who initially identified themselves to me as Indonesian, a nation riven with violent Islamist groups, then rushed away from me when I identified myself as an American. Thousands like them are on the move through here, heading for the southern border every year, where they will show up as complete strangers.

The La Prensa editor’s name has been corrected in this article.

Todd Bensman is a Texas-based senior national security fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies and a writing fellow for the Middle East Forum. For nearly a decade, Bensman led counterterrorism-related intelligence efforts for the Texas Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division. Follow him on Twitter @BensmanTodd. Bensman also worked for The Dallas Morning News, CBS, and Hearst Newspapers. He reported extensively on national security and border issues after 9/11 and worked from more than 25 countries in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.

Photos Gémes Sándor/SzomSzed

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