More than two years before the September 11 attacks, a seasoned federal immigration officer named Mary Schneider vehemently complained that Islamic visitors who were possibly terrorists were moving into the Orlando area. She told Immigration and Naturalization Service officials that hundreds of aliens, some of whom she suspected were tied…
On a windy, overcast day at the end of October, the leaves rustle, and the dust kicks up a little. There’s a nip in the air — it’s not cold, but the wind, coupled with the humidity, is enough to put a chill in your bones. Football weather. As dusk…
Watch out for that client: I read “A Potemkin Lawyer” (Jim Gaines, October 25) with shock. During my recent divorce proceedings, my ex-husband’s lawyer gave me the number for Legal Aid because I couldn’t afford to pay an expensive retainer and she insisted I needed an attorney. I called what…
Twilight came in time for the finale. Key West clouds were cloaked in velvety blue. The crowd swelled to 100 people. After dousing a metal hoop with a bottle of Publix lighter fluid, the Catman asked the audience for a match. “Hurry up! Take your time!” he called as a…
Joe Minicozzi perches on a curb, facing what should be oncoming traffic on Federal Highway in downtown West Palm Beach. He checks his Swatch. At rush hour the only sound is the patter of rain on the street. Finally a lone car sloshes past. “How do you feel right now?”…
Five years ago Walter “Dan” Cadman left South Florida in disgrace. The former director of Florida operations for the Immigration and Naturalization Service had been caught deceiving a Congressional task force and then trying to cover up his actions. The Justice Department, after an investigation into what became known as…
Jorge’s surrogate strikes back: In regard to Jim Gaines’ October 25 article “Potemkin Lawyer,” I feel that there was a total lack of accurate information and valid sources in his attempt to defame Jorge Fernandez. Trying to be a hero in “uncovering” something that has already been resolved is, in…
When State Farm Insurance dubbed the crossroads of Pines Boulevard and Flamingo Road in Pembroke Pines “The Most Dangerous Intersection in America,” the company was referring to traffic accidents. But at 7 p.m. on a recent Monday, a shopping-center storefront at that same intersection reverberates with a different kind of…
Back in February, Marcileen Bernard was near the end of her rope. “I work for $8 an hour. There’s no way I can support two kids and my mom and maintain a decent standard of living,” the 33-year-old Miramar resident says. For three months she had been trying to squeeze…
If the Immigration and Naturalization Service had its way, we’d all just shut up about Mohamed Atta’s January 10 entry into the United States through Miami International Airport. In response to last week’s New Times story about Atta’s questionable return to the country, the INS issued a statement on October…
Sold out: As a former immigration inspector at Miami International Airport, I agree with Jose Touron’s assessment of the persistent problems that plague the INS (“Admitting Terror,” Bob Norman, October 18). The INS is an agency that is doomed to fail. The organizational structure of the service is rife with…
Imam Ibrahim Dremali finished evening prayers on September 26 at Boca Raton’s Islamic Center in front of a sparse congregation. The mosque, which he had helped establish three years ago, would normally have been packed with worshipers, but the events of September 11 and the subsequent backlash against Muslims in…
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) had terror ringleader Mohamed Atta in its grasp before the September 11 attacks. Then the agency, which stands on the domestic frontline in the war on terrorism, let him go. The 34-year-old Egyptian arrived at Miami International Airport earlier this year on a flight…
Florida’s Hate Man is elbow-deep in battle in the bowels of his girlfriend’s 1995 Chevy Astro van. The brakes are mucked up, and he has decided to fix them. But as balmy, breezy morning turns to sunny afternoon, Hate Man has to admit defeat. And he is pissed. After removing…
It’s high noon, and the TV-news folk are gathered across the street from the American Media, Inc. offices, which swarm with agents from the FBI and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in search of anthrax. More accurately the 40-or-so reporters, photographers, and cameramen assume agents are swarming inside the…
But can Stratton put a cork in it? Can Jeff Stratton write one article without mentioning Pank Shovel (Bandwidth, October 11, September 27, and August 16 and “Can You Dig It?” September 6)? It’s insulting with all the musical talent we have in our area that you continue to give…
Dark-suited attorneys clog the antechamber to bankruptcy courtroom 308. Six days after the World Trade Center towers in New York City and the Pentagon in northern Virginia were attacked, a jittery mood permeates the third floor of the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale. Snippets of conversations about terrorism and imminent…
For her curatorial debut as director and CEO of the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, Kathleen Harleman chose a show about lawns — lawns as nature, lawns as artifice, lawns as refuge, lawns as rebellion. “I remember being excited to see “American Lawn’ in a city like Fort Lauderdale,”…
Terror is nothing new to Walid Phares. The 43-year-old Florida Atlantic University associate professor grew up in Beirut and survived the Lebanese civil war of 1975 to 1990. A Maronite Christian, he recalls witnessing the detonation of the first car bomb in his hometown in 1977. Indeed he’s lucky to…
Smoking Susan: What was Susan Orwell — er, ah, Eastman — smoking when she penned “1984 and Counting” (September 27)? First, Katie Couric and others had the correct and not Orwellian responses to the terrorist tragedies in New York and Washington, D.C. What was Orwellian about them or the various…
Downtown Miami is nearly deserted on this steaming summer Friday night, but the Wallflower Gallery emits a quiet hum. Following the scent of fresh-brewed espresso, patrons walk through the various rooms of the gallery or sit in the darkened space where guitarist-singer Alex Diaz ekes a pained whisper from his…
A few minutes after 2 p.m. on September 22, eight figures filed through the staff area of the Imperial Point public library. Librarians glanced up at the parade as it wound back to a meeting room half-filled with plastic chairs. Four of the eight wore T-shirt mementos from science-fiction conventions…
