Reuters reports: “U.S. authorities are preparing to search for thousands of men in the United States from countries with active al Qaeda cells who have ignored orders to leave the country, a Justice Department official said on Tuesday.”

The men are from nations viewed by the United States as harboring active members of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network. Washington has blamed bin Laden and al Qaeda for the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which killed nearly 3,300 people [oh, c‘mon already, Reuters: bin Laden “has blamed bin Laden and al Qaeda for the Sept. 11 attacks”…! — ed.]

The official would not specify the names of the countries. The Justice Department has already implemented a program to question more than 5,000 young men, aged 18 to 33, who entered the United States on non-immigrant visas since Jan. 1, 2000, with passports issued from certain countries defined only as those with active al Qaeda cells. The questioning would focus on the Sept. 11 attacks […]

[…] There are about 300,000 `absconders’ in the United States — foreign nationals who have remained in the country despite having been ordered deported.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has vowed to crack down on the huge number of absconders living in the United States.

Authorities will focus first on absconders from nations with active al Qaeda cells.

Sigh… Ready? On three… One, Two, Three…”Profiling!”

There. Now let’s move on…

—–