Archive for the ‘Drug War’ Category
Thursday, January 6th, 2011
Bean bags vs. AK-47s
Posted: December 18, 2010
1:00 am Eastern
© 2010
Another Border Patrol agent on the Arizona border was shot and killed by Mexican drug smugglers last Tuesday. Of the eight attackers, four are in custody and a fifth is under
surveillance by Border Patrol Blackhawk helicopters as he tries to make his way back to the Mexican border.
BP Agent Brian Terry was part of a BORTAC team (for border tactical unit) tracking armed drug smugglers 15 miles northwest of Nogales, Ariz., (and only three miles west of Interstate 19) when they were attacked with automatic weapons fire. The area is well-known as a major drug-smuggling corridor, and the smugglers are known to frequently be armed with AK-47s and other long rifles.
Here’s the part Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Border Patrol management are trying to hide: Border Patrol Agent Terry and the BORTAC team were under standing orders to always use (“non-lethal”) bean-bag rounds first before using live ammunition. When the smugglers heard the first rounds, they returned fire with real bullets, and Agent Terry was killed in that exchange. Real bullets outperform bean bags every time.
The larger, ugly truth Napolitano and senior managers in the Border Patrol want to hide is that the rules of engagement and inadequate weaponry of the Border Patrol place the lives of all agents at grave risk. The National Border Patrol Council, which represents over 15,000 field agents, believes the border is too dangerous for officers to patrol without body armor, armored vehicles and automatic weapons. (more…)
Posted in Border Security, Corruption/Crime, Democrats, Demographics, Drug War, Illegal Immigration, Legal Issues, Mexico, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Terrorism | No Comments »
Thursday, December 23rd, 2010
MEXICO CITY A mother campaigning to bring the confessed killer of her 16-year-old daughter to justice was herself gunned down Thursday night in view of a closed-circuit camera, leaving images that shocked Mexicans over the impunity of the killers.
The killing of Marisela Escobedo unfolded on the sidewalk in front of the governor’s palace in the capital of Chihuahua state.
Escobedo was at a protest booth in the main plaza across the street demanding that the man who confessed to killing her daughter and dismembering her body in 2008 be hunted down.
A closed-circuit camera captured the 20 seconds or so at 8:10 p.m. when a man got out of a white Volkswagen Jetta and approached Escobedo in the square. Frightened by him, Escobedo ran across the street, dodging busy traffic, the assailant only footsteps behind her. He shot her with a 9mm pistol in the head at the entrance to the governor’s palace. (more…)
Posted in Corruption/Crime, Drug War, Mexico | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
WASHINGTON TIMES
GAO: Border fence lagging, over
budget
Home Security mismanaged project, report says
The Department of Homeland Security has “largely defined but has not adequately implemented” controls over a “virtual fence” along the U.S.-Mexico border promised for completion in 2009 and, as a result, the multibillion-dollar project is behind schedule and over budget, a government report says.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), in a 63-page report released last week, said the department had failed to effectively manage the project, known as the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet), or give sufficient oversight to its prime contractor — resulting in costly rework and contributing to SBInets “well-chronicled history of not delivering promised capabilities and benefits on time and within budget.” (more…)
Posted in Big Government, Border Security, Drug War, National Defense, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Technology | No Comments »
Monday, October 4th, 2010
Colombia drug trade knows no borders
Ecuador a ‘victim of geography’
(Photo: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration) A submarine, seized on July 2 in a shallow river inlet close to the Ecuador–Colombia border, was thought to be intended for smugglers to transport tons of cocaine.
By Kelly Hearn – The Washington Times
September 16, 2010
SAN MIGUEL RIVER, Ecuador | Some say it is a river with eyes: A swimming child bolts from the water and disappears into the jungle. A boatman revs his outboard engine. A chain saw grinds to an ear-splitting whine – all potential warnings of illegally armed groups operating in this dense jungle, where a sizable portion of the world’s cocaine is produced and shipped.
On the north side of the San Miguel River, hundreds of millions of U.S. tax dollars have gone to fumigating Colombia‘s coca farms and destroying its cocaine-producing labs.
But it is the south side, in Ecuador, that has escaped the calamity of large-scale coca production only to emerge as a major cocaine-shipping hub, where drug traffickers have taken their billion-dollar smuggling operations to new technological heights.
According to the U.N. World Drug Report 2010, drug traffickers are turning Ecuador into a key transit point for cocaine, largely because the Colombian government has taken greater control of its territory. (more…)
Posted in Drug War, Intelligence, South America | No Comments »
Thursday, August 19th, 2010
a video of Professor Terry J. Lovell speaking regarding the federal lawsuit against the Arizona illegal immigration bill
Posted in Border Security, Constitution, Drug War, Illegal Immigration, Legal Issues, Obama Administraiton and Policy | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
It’s official…National Guard will
not be allowed to stop illegal aliens
During a Friday press conference, U.S. National Guard Bureau of Communications Jack Harrison announced that the 1,200 National Guard troops that are supposed to be sent to the U.S./Mexican border “will not be doing direct law enforcement.”
Harrison described their duty along the dangerous border to a reporter with CNS News, saying: “The two mission sets are criminal analysts and enter-identification teams.” He continued: “I can tell you that guardsmen will not be doing direct law enforcement on the southwest border.” (more…)
Posted in Border Security, Drug War, Illegal Immigration, Obama Administraiton and Policy | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
Perry Calls Troops to Border a
“Fraud” After Visit With Obama
Gov. Rick Perry on Monday called the recent deployment of 286 National Guard troops to Texas a “fraud” and said Texans should look to history to fully appreciate the extent of the danger lurking south of the border.
“Do we think about looking back to the 1930s in Europe, the South Pacific in late 1941 or even the United States in early September of 2001? There were early warning signs in all of those time frames that were ignored. Too many lives were needlessly lost,” he said in a speech he delivered as part of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Lone Star Issues series. “We ignore the current warning signs along our international border at our own peril.” (more…)
Posted in Border Security, Drug War, Illegal Immigration, Obama, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Rick Perry, Terrorism | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
FEDERAL OBSERVER
July 25, 2010
A letter from Ed Ashurst, a southern Arizona rancher regarding the impact of illegal immigration on Arizona
I believe story telling to be an art form, certainly verbal record is the oldest form of recording history and recognized by historians worldwide. There is an old adage among those who love to tell a good tale, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” And yet there are times when the truth is even more fantastic than exaggeration. What I write here is the truth, plain and simple.
I reside on, and manage a large cattle ranch in the far southeastern corner of Arizona. I’ve been here for 13 years and in that time frame have become far too familiar with the illegal trafficking in human beings, marijuana and other illicit drugs. Some have called it “the wetback culture” or “America’s border problem”. Lately it’s been taking steroids.
The recent murder of Robert Krentz by an illegal alien has received massive amounts of publicity worldwide. I live on the ranch bordering the Krentz ranch to the east and north. I can see the Krentz home looking out of my front door approximately 10 miles away. The day after Rob’s death I was involved in tracking the outlaw into Mexico. I saw the outlaw’s footprints where he crossed the border fence. I mention this to say I feel that I’m qualified to speak about current border issues. (more…)
Posted in Border Security, Drug War, Illegal Immigration, Legal Issues, Obama Administraiton and Policy | No Comments »
Monday, June 21st, 2010
Turn up the volume on your computer for the second video
www.redstate.com/coldwarrior/2010/06/20/obama-tells-kyl-in-private-oval-office-meeting-i-wont-secure-border-bc-then-republicans-will-have-no-reason-to-support-comprehensive-immigration-reform/
promoted from the diaries because duplicity should be publicized
On June 18, 2010, Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl told the audience at a North Tempe Tea Party town hall meeting that during a private, one-on-one meeting with President Obama in the Oval Office, the President told him, regarding securing the southern border with Mexico, “The problem is, . . . if we secure the border, then you all won’t have any reason to support ‘comprehensive immigration reform.’” [Audible gasps were heard throughout the audience.] Sen. Kyl continued, “In other words, they’re holding it hostage. They don’t want to secure the border unless and until it is combined with ‘comprehensive immigration reform.’”
Sen. Kyl also said he reminded President Obama that the President and the Congress has an obligation, a duty, to secure the border.
(This part of Sen. Kyl’s remarks begins at the 3:17 mark of the video below.)
Video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpyrlX52TwA&feature=player_embedded
Posted in Border Security, Drug War, Illegal Immigration, Obama, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Videos | No Comments »
