By TRACY CONNOR DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

President Bush said yesterday that he personally ordered a national manhunt for five Middle Eastern men who slipped into the United States from Canada with bogus passports.

The involvement of the President suggests that officials may be far more worried about the wanted men than previously thought.

"We need to know why they've been smuggled into the country and what they're doing," Bush said at his ranch in Crawford, Tex. "We don't have any idea of what their intentions might be, but we are mindful that there are still some out there who would try to harm America and harm Americans ... we take every threat seriously, every piece of evidence seriously."

There were reports that the five are part of a larger group of 19 men who obtained phony documents and used them to cross the border on Christmas Eve.

The apparent breach led Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) to call for a new federal office dedicated to improving security on the border with Canada.

ABC News reported that investigators believe some of the 19 may be in New York City - and that a series of raids in Brooklyn and Queens on Monday night were linked to the probe.

An international smuggler and forger recently arrested in Canada told officials there that 19 men from Pakistan had offered large sums of money to get into the U.S.

The FBI has released photos, names and birth dates for the group of five, and appealed for the public's help in finding them. They were identified as Abid Noraiz Ali, Iftikhar Khozmai Ali, Mustafa Khan Owasi, Adil Pervez and Akbar Jamal - though the FBI said the names could be aliases.

-- Anonymous, January 01, 2003

Answers

probably headed for Florida. Seems Florida is being used too much by these people.

Besides, don't all people from Canada want to come here during the winter?

-- Anonymous, January 01, 2003