U.S.
lawmakers heard reports about Venezuela's passport fraud during
congressional hearings as far back as 2006. In fact, a congressional
report warned that ``Venezuela is providing support, including identity
documents that could prove useful to radical Islamic groups.''
A State Department report at that time concluded that ``Venezuelan
travel and identification documents are extremely easy to obtain by
persons not entitled to them.''
Roger Noriega, the former U.S. Ambassador to the OAS, a former
Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, said in
prepared remarks before Congress in 2012 that ``Venezuela has provided
thousands of phony IDs, passports and visas to persons of Middle
Eastern origin.''
In 2013, confidential intelligence reports from a group of Latin
American countries obtained by CNN said that from 2008 to 2012--I
already outlined this earlier--173 individuals from the Middle East
were issued Venezuelan passports and IDs. Among them were people
connected to the terrorist group Hezbollah. The official who ordered
the issuing of those passports, the report said, is Tareck El Aissami,
who just a few months ago was appointed and is now the Vice President
of Venezuela. Back then, he was the Minister in charge of immigration,
as well as a Governor. He personally took charge of issuing granting
visas and nationalizing citizens from different countries, especially
Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanians, Iranians, and Iraqis, the report said. So what we have now is an unbelievable situation in which a country
in this hemisphere, according to both the whistleblower, independent
reports, and now CNN's own investigation--Venezuela--has been providing
passports to people from the Middle East under false pretenses,
basically fraudulent documents that allow them to travel all over the
world. Among them, Hakim Mohamed Ali Diab Fattah, a Palestinian and
suspected Hezbollah member, was given national ID No. 16.105.824,
issued on July 12, 2012. He was deported from the United States in 2002
for his possible connection to the 9/11 hijackers via aviation school
in the United States. He was detained and arrested by Jordanian
authorities on May 3, 2015, for suspicion of financing terror. This
individual has that national ID number from Venezuela and a passport
that was allowing him to travel.
Keywords matched
immigration deported visas