A Syrian jihadess (jihadette?) used a fake passport and bribed customs officials at the airport in Bogota in order to be able to catch a flight to France just before the massacre in Paris. According to the following news report from Colombia, the case of Seham Al Salkhadi is just one of many instances in which Syrian mujahideen have used fake or stolen documents to travel from Latin America to destinations in the United States or Europe.
Many thanks to Fausta for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Below are excerpts from an article on the same topic from The Times of India:
Colombia Probing Syrian Islamist Who Traveled to Paris
BOGOTA: Colombia is investigating a Syrian woman with ties to radical Islam, who traveled to Paris ahead of the attacks on a stolen Israeli passport, sources at the state prosecutor’s office said Thursday.
Seham Al Salkhadi left ahead of Friday’s attacks on a direct flight from Bogota to the French capital’s Charles de Gaulle airport, traveling under the name of Ashira Krieger, the sources said.
Al Salkhadi is suspected of paying off customs officials at the El Dorado international airport in Bogota to be able to travel using a stolen passport, which had been tampered with to modify some details.
She was briefly detained upon her arrival in Paris but was released after a few hours.
“The prosecutor’s services are working together with French authorities to establish her relationship with Islamist groups, but there is no proof that she is linked to the Paris attacks,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
The official said the prosecutor was investigating the case in relation to a wider probe into corruption by airport officials, who have been letting criminals travel with forged documents.
Five officials with the Colombian migration services are facing charges in connection with the scandal which broke in September.
A statement issued by the prosecutor’s services at the time said they were investigating whether corrupt airport officials had facilitated the departure for France of a female Syrian terror suspect.
Video transcript:
| 0:00 | Colombian authorities alerted France to a Syrian woman | |
| 0:06 | who traveled from Bogota to Paris under a fake passport. | |
| 0:12 | The case also was evidence in a customs corruption investigation. | |
| 0:18 | [Reporter] The Syrian woman, Al Salkhadi Seham, presented a fake passport | |
| 0:24 | to a customs officer at Bogota airport, | |
| 0:29 | who was arrested the next day with four other customs officers | |
| 0:33 | on immigrant trafficking charges. | |
| 0:38 | After checking her passport, he OK’d her trip to France. | |
| 0:41 | [C. Krueger, Colombian Immigration Director] There were | |
| 0:49 | no arrest warrants for her in our country. | |
| 0:56 | [Reporter] The passport was in the name of Israeli citizen | |
| 1:01 | Baruch Krieger, who had lost it in Colombia. | |
| 1:05 | Air France stated a the prosecutor’s inquiry | |
| 1:08 | that the woman traveled to Paris on a ticket to Stockholm, but did not complete the last stage. | |
| 1:14 | In Honduras, five Syrians trying to reach the US | |
| 1:20 | were detained carrying fake Greek passports. | |
| 1:25 | Likewise, a Syrian woman was stopped | |
| 1:28 | in Costa Rica with fake documents. |
Hat tip for the article: C. Cantoni.
Not surprising, given Colombia’s reputation for endemic corruption. Just this afternoon one of our dinner guests was talking about how Islam has affected Latin America since the Spanish Conquest, given that Spanish Culture and even language was deeply affected by 800 years of being under or trying to get and stay loose from muslim rule. Remember that most of the conquistadors’ bad habits were acquired from their muslim oponents, as Emmet Scott points out. No more muslims after 1492, so off they went to the New World. ¡Ojala! ( a common Spanish expression for, if only!, or more literally, would to Allah!), that things were different. We have lived in and around Bogota for a number of years now, so the setting of the video is quite familiar.
Don’t forget that there is a pattern emerging:
http://www.elheraldo.hn/inicio/903391-465/sirios-compraron-los-pasaportes-falsos-en-brasil
“que se trataba de ciudadanos sirios que visitaron Turquía, Líbano, Brasil, Argentina y Costa Rica antes de llegar a Honduras.”
deals with Syrian citizens that visited Turkey, Lebanon, Brasil, Argentina, Costa Rica before arriving in Honduras” on falsified Greek passports originating in Brasil.
If we were that our Colombian friend, to care more about the talks of President Juan Manuel Santos, than with the jihadists caught with passports in Bogota. In a while the members of the terrorist organization FARC, will be able to enter politics, and when they get a win, will destroy Colombia and all Colombians opponents. A force much worse than Islam is acting in politics in Colombia today. Those who follow the step by step of the negotiations in Havana will understand what I’m talking about.
Islam is no more dangerous to Latin America than Communism. I attest that, because I’m a Latin American. Believe me: Islam is negligible, and it is the least of our problems.
However, the socialists are bringing in the muslims, allying themselves to Iran, etc. Venezuela is a prime example, Argentina’s election of a non-Socialist is being billed as a set-back for Iran. Though there is less publicity, Brasil is bringing in muslims, likewise Cuba, though their main anti Christian push is favoring indigenous religions such as Santaria and Vudu derivatives. Not that I meant to trivialize the FARC problem, at least one Colombian friend is having nightmares on that subject.
In respect of Brazil and Venezuela, you’re right. But I do not consider a conservative Mauricio Macri in fact, because conservative is a very elastic term, and can fit a variety of interpretations of it there. Cameron is called conservative, but it’s an anti-Christian pro-homosexual and pro-Muslim. The same I can say of his party, I do not see inside his party any that go really represent conservatism, and help Christians who are already blacklisted by British laws against hate speech. Before inventing “Islamophobia” invented “homophobia” that virtually criminalize and blame Christians in the UK. Now, back to the subject of the Argentina you said, I want to see what the Macri will do with that Chinese space base in Patagonia, because that there is operational, and hardly those clowns China will not use that base to attack defense systems of North Americans. Now about Brazil, my country: good, I do not think Islam or such refugees are a problem; you remember those refugees who went to Uruguay? They took passage and some have been to Mexico, hoping to reach the United States. I’m already hearing here in my country that some refugees are not enjoying it, and are willing to go.
Even if they come here, I doubt they will want to stay long.
After all that is said, the point that our dinner guest was making was that the culture brought over to Latin America by the Spaniards was Islam. One example is that of the macho male, and all that is connected with that mind set. Some years ago, I was reading N. Sennels on this site, and his descriptions of trying as a psychologist to get muslim delinquents in his Scandanavian country to take some responsibility for their actions. They simply couldn’t/wouldn’t see it. “It was his fault he got beat up, he insulted me!”, and so forth. I was particularly impressed with his connecting this necessity to always be right with emotional fragility. In fact, applying his insights and recommendations actually seemed to help with handling some chronic interpersonal problems in our little church down here.
Above, I meant to say Islam-influenced.