Check out this story from worldnetdaily.com at:
[url]http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24955[/url]
[size=4][b]Syrians flood flight schools[/b][/size=4]
[b]14 enter at Dallas/Fort Worth; INS gives passport info to FBI[/b]
WASHINGTON – In just the past two days, 14 Syrian men entered the U.S. through Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on student visas to attend flight schools at Fort Worth Meacham International Airport, WorldNetDaily has learned exclusively.
The State Department lists Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism.
The Syrian men, whose M-1 visas expire April 2002, flew in from London aboard two British Airways flights, with one group of seven arriving Sunday and the rest on Monday – the day before the Federal Aviation Administration lifted its post-attack ban on novice pilots flying private planes solo in airspace around major metropolitan areas.
"Seems that they knew the private plane ban was going to be lifted today," said an Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector at DFW.
After the second wave of Syrians deplaned, INS inspectors called the FBI, which asked inspectors to photocopy their passports and other papers, according to the INS source.
The men, all clean-shaven and in their early 30s, were not detained, however, and the FBI did not interview them – although agents have recently questioned Middle Eastern students enrolled at Meacham field schools.
The Syrians told immigration inspectors they came here to train to be pilots for their country's national airline.
[b]Four of the eight schools at Meacham field are run by Middle Eastern men, airport records reviewed by WorldNetDaily show[/b].
Delta-Qualiflight Aeronautics, owned by Khaled Miloud, enrolls the largest share of Middle Eastern students, according to airport sources, who say Arabic is the main language spoken at the school. Miloud did not return phone calls.
The schools, using Meacham field's two runways and flight simulators, train students to fly primarily single and twin-engine aircraft.
The FBI would not comment on the Syrian students. But a spokeswoman for the bureau's Dallas office said agents have been "working very closely" with INS inspectors at DFW to monitor Middle Easterners coming into the U.S. on flight-school visas.
* * *
INS inspectors at DFW have detained "numerous" Middle Easterners who are in violation of immigration laws, she said. But the FBI has not arrested any in connection with the PENTTBOM investigation of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
* * *
Indeed, foreigners applying for a student visa have to fill out a federal application, called an I-20 form, and submit it to the American embassy in their country for approval. The form includes the name and address of the U.S. flight school.
"I don't know why the feds are surprised" by the number of Middle Easterners enrolled at U.S. flight schools, he said. "The information is available in advance. They know these guys' names and where they're enrolled long before they arrive here."
Read the rest of the story at the addy, above.
I would think that the United States would suspend any visas for any foreigners coming to the US for flight instruction, simply as a precaution against training any future suicide pilots! Check 'em out a little more carefully NOW!
Maybe not!
Eric The(DidWeTrainAnyKamikazePilotsPriorToWWII?)Hun[>]:)]