[Vision2020] Iraqis Target Presidents Ranch in Texas

[John Harrell]

Iraqis targeted W ranch - Terror team tried to sneak into Texas through Mexico

New York Daily News 
3/29/03
JAMES GORDON MEEK
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/71009p-65986c.html


     WASHINGTON - An Iraqi terror team armed with millions of dollars tried to get
smuggled into the U.S. through Mexico
     to Crawford, Tex. - the site of President Bush's ranch, a law enforcement source
said yesterday. The alarming attempt
     to infiltrate the country occurred this month, the source said. 

     It is not known what the Iraqis planned to do in Crawford, but Iraqi dictator Saddam
Hussein tried to assassinate Bush's
     father, the former President George Bush, in 1993. 

     The unidentified Iraqis wanted to hire smugglers to sneak them into the U.S. because
they "wanted to get to the
     Crawford ranch," according to the well-placed law enforcement source. They also
asked a Mexican doctor and a lawyer
     named Claudio to change about $100 million in Iraqi dinars into U.S. currency -
about $325 million. 

     Secret Service officials would not comment yesterday about the possible threat or
the suspects' whereabouts. 

     The President and First Lady Laura Bush spend most of their downtime on the
1,600-acre Prairie Chapel Ranch, nestled
     in the central Texas scrubland. Bush used the Texas White House to woo world leaders
into his "coalition of the willing"
     against Saddam. 

     The assassination attempt on Bush's father came as the former President attended
ceremonies in Kuwait celebrating the
     success of the Gulf War, which ousted Saddam's troops from Kuwait. Because of the
failed assassination,
     then-President Bill Clinton ordered a Tomahawk missile barrage on Iraq. 

     The current President has not forgotten the attempt to kill his father. A red-faced
Bush recently reminded a visitor of the
     1993 plot by Saddam, and said, "The SOB tried to kill my dad." 

     Other plots thwarted 

     Iraq's attempt to infiltrate the U.S. came to light as U.S. officials announced they
had thwarted Iraqi-sponsored terrorism
     in two foreign countries, as well as plots directed at U.S. targets. 

     "There are two countries where operations have been compromised, and we have
information on plots in other
     countries," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said. 

     Department officials declined to say whether the Mexico report had any connection to
those Iraqi terrorist plots. 

     In both foreign cases, the operatives were arrested, terrorist material was
confiscated and the attacks were not carried
     out, said another State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher. 

     The U.S. has asked a number of countries to expel suspected Iraqi intelligence
officers, based on "the significant threat
     posed by their presence," Boucher said. 

     With Thomas M. DeFrank 

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