From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Mariane Angela

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa deflected responsibility for the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks during a Fox News interview on Monday.

Nearly 3,000 people died across New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa. during the 9/11 attacks, according to the Pew Research Center. When asked directly on “Special Report with Bret Baier” if he regrets the attack, al-Sharaa distanced himself entirely from the event.

“I was only 19 years old, so I was a very young person, and I didn’t have any decision-making power at that time, and I don’t have anything to do with it,” al-Sharaa said. “And al-Qaeda was not present right then in my area. So you’re speaking to the wrong person about this subject.”

The Syrian leader then shifted the conversation.

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“We mourn for every civilian that got killed, and we know that people suffer from the war, especially civilians who pay the price, a hefty price for the war,” al-Sharaa said.

President Donald Trump hosted al-Sharaa at the White House on Monday, welcoming the former al-Qaeda member who once fought U.S. forces in Iraq and served time in Abu Ghraib prison. The U.S. government removed al-Sharaa from its terror list just days before his meeting with Trump, according to CBS News.

Al-Sharaa, who led a rebel coalition that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024 while heading the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has since recast himself as a pro-Western reformer. Legacy media outlets have described his government as “moderate” compared to Assad’s rule.

The visit marks the first time a Syrian head of state has entered the White House since Syria gained independence in 1946, NPR reported. Trump, during a speech in Saudi Arabia, said in May that he would lift U.S. sanctions on Syria.

A court document cited by La Presse in prior reporting on the case.

A major figure in an alleged Mexican cartel human-trafficking network pleaded guilty in a Montreal courthouse last week and now faces removal from Canada for conspiring to organize and facilitate the illegal entry of migrants into the United States.

The conviction targets Edgar Gonzalez de Paz, 37, a Mexican national identified in court evidence as a key organizer in a Montreal-based smuggling network that La Presse documented in March through numerous legal filings.

According to the Canada Border Services Agency, Gonzalez de Paz’s guilty plea acknowledges that he arranged a clandestine crossing for seven migrants on January 27–28, 2024, in exchange for money. He had earlier been arrested and charged with avoiding examination and returning to Canada without authorization.

Breaking the story in March, La Presse reported: “A Mexican criminal organization has established itself in Montreal, where it is making a fortune by illegally smuggling hundreds of migrants across the Canada-U.S. border. Thanks to the seizure of two accounting ledgers, Canadian authorities have gained unprecedented access to the group’s secrets, which they hope to dismantle in the coming months.”

La Presse said the Mexico-based organization ran crossings in both directions — Quebec to the United States and vice versa — through roughly ten collaborators, some family-linked, charging $5,000 to $6,000 per trip and generating at least $1 million in seven months.

The notebooks seized by CBSA listed clients, guarantors, recruiters in Mexico, and accomplices on the U.S. side. In one April 20, 2024 interception near the border, police stopped a vehicle registered to Gonzalez de Paz and, according to evidence cited by La Presse, identified him as one of the “main organizers,” operating without legal status from a René-Lévesque Boulevard condo that served as headquarters.

Seizures included cellphones, a black notebook, and cocaine. A roommate’s second notebook helped authorities tally about 200 migrants and more than $1 million in receipts.

“This type of criminal organization is ruthless and often threatens customers if they do not pay, or places them in a vulnerable situation,” a CBSA report filed as evidence stated, according to La Presse.

The Montreal-based organization first appeared on the radar in a rural community of about 400 inhabitants in the southern Montérégie region bordering New York State, La Presse reported, citing court documents.

On the U.S. side of the line, in the Swanton Sector (Vermont and adjoining northern New York and New Hampshire), authorities reported an exceptional surge in 2022–2023 — driven largely by Mexican nationals rerouting via Canada — foreshadowing the Mexican-cartel smuggling described in the CBSA case.

Gonzalez de Paz had entered Canada illegally in 2023, according to La Presse. When officers arrested him, CBSA agents seized 30 grams of cocaine, two cellphones, and a black notebook filled with handwritten notes. In his apartment, they found clothing by Balenciaga, a luxury brand whose T-shirts retail for roughly $1,000 each.

Investigators have linked this case to another incident at the same address involving a man named Mario Alberto Perez Gutierrez, a resident of the same condo as early as 2023.

Perez Gutierrez was accompanied by several men known to Canadian authorities for cocaine trafficking, receiving stolen goods, armed robbery, or loitering in the woods near the American border, according to a Montreal Police Service (SPVM) report filed as evidence.

The CBSA argued before the immigration tribunal that Gonzalez de Paz belonged to a group active in human and drug trafficking — “activities usually orchestrated by Mexican cartels.”

As The Bureau has previously reported, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Cabinet was warned in 2016 that lifting visa requirements for Mexican visitors would “facilitate travel to Canada by Mexicans with criminal records,” potentially including “drug smugglers, human smugglers, recruiters, money launderers and foot soldiers.”

CBSA “serious-crime” flags tied to Mexican nationals rose sharply after the December 2016 visa change. Former CBSA officer Luc Sabourin, in a sworn affidavit cited by The Bureau, alleged that hundreds of cartel-linked operatives entered Canada following the visa lift.

The closure of Roxham Road in 2023 altered migrant flows and increased reliance on organized smugglers — a shift reflected in the ledger-mapped Montreal network and a spike in U.S. northern-border encounters.