Al-Qaida evidence along U.S. border?

Senator views Arab personal effects, concerned about possible infiltration

A U.S. senator says he's been shown "anecdotal evidence" suggesting an Arabic presence along the U.S.-Mexico border, noting the Bush administration has not publicly released the information because it is "a matter of intelligence."

Human Events reported that Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, head of the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship, has seen beverage boxes with Arabic language and other items, including the image of a commercial airliner striking a building.

Cornyn, who is working with other senators to craft legislation that supports President Bush's proposed guest-worker program but adds stricter border and worksite enforcement measures, also told the magazine he thought it plausible that terrorists could easily find their way into the United States because of large, isolated and rural gaps in America's southwest border region.

"The message that America wants to hear, and the message that America needs, is security," Cornyn told the magazine. "We're seeing that now, not just in places like Texas and border states, but also across the nation. People realize instinctively in a post-9/11 world that we have to know who is coming into our country and why they are here. We have no confidence of that now."

Saying he had "no information" as to whether members of the al Qaida terrorist organization, or other similar groups, had already infiltrated through the U.S.-Mexico border, Cornyn said such an undertaking would be "easy to do."