Who's guarding our military equipment? - Michelle Malkin

townhall.com ^ | 10/29/03 | Michelle Malkin

[kattracks]

On Oct. 3, an illegal alien truck driver from Canada was caught hauling a shipment of Humvees into northern Maine. They weren't just any Humvees. They were U.S. military Humvees scheduled for delivery from the Texas Army National Guard in Houston to the Maine National Guard facility in Limestone.

Well, why not? If we're going to allow "undocumented" workers into the U.S. military, we might as well let "unauthorized" foreign truckers deliver our Army vehicles, ammunition, and other vital equipment, too.

According to a Department of Homeland Security intelligence report I obtained, Raymond Levesque was driving northbound along the I-95 near Houlton, Maine, when he was stopped by U.S. Border Patrol agents. Thank heavens they're doing their jobs. The agents arrested Levesque for working illegally in the U.S. Levesque said he has been operating as a truck driver in the U.S. for 15 years. He was freed on his own recognizance from the Fort Fairfield Border Patrol station in Maine pending an immigration hearing. (Catch and release is still the order of the day.)

The investigative agents keenly noted that, "taken as an isolated incident, the violation concerning Levesque could be of minor interest, however, a possible terrorism nexus here is clear. . . . There are at any given time several hundred military vehicles on site, and security is non-existent. The fact that undocumented foreign nationals are illegally transporting this equipment throughout the U.S. with access to the Limestone facility and other military facilities also would seem to pose a threat."

Alain Normand Transport, the Quebec-based firm that contracted out to Levesque, is not even bonded for U.S. military shipments. Rachel Gagnon, a company dispatcher, explained that she learned about the military load from an American freight broker who put out a bid on the Internet. "Nobody said we couldn't do this," Gagnon told me.

The U.S. Army's Military Traffic Management Command (MTMC), which is responsible for contracting out surface transportation of military arms, ammunition, explosives, vehicles, and other motorized equipment, refuses to comment on what steps it takes to screen out frauds, felons, or potential terrorists. "We work very closely with commercial carriers and all defense transportation partners to ensure the safety and security of all of our shipments," MTMC public affairs officer Corenthia Libby informed me last week. "To safeguard these operational security measures I will not elaborate on the details."

One person who did talk openly about lax security measures involving the shipment of motorized U.S. military equipment is Gary Cleaves, general manager of the Maine National Guard maintenance center. The facility refurbishes and ships military Humvees and M109 mobile howitzers. Those howitzers, resembling large tanks, are capable of delivering nerve gas rounds and nuclear munitions.

Cleaves told investigators that no identification is required from drivers dropping off shipments at the National Guard site. The trucking company name and truck numbers on government bills of lading often do not match the trucks actually delivering loads. And no records are kept on who actually delivers shipments.

This is not the first time suspicious foreign nationals have been caught around the Maine National Guard site. In June, according to the Border Patrol, a Humvee was stolen from the Limestone facility. While searching for the missing vehicle, agents apprehended a Russian illegal alien nearby. He had a valid New York State commercial driver's license allowing him to haul hazardous materials and a pass that granted him access to sea ports along the East Coast -- including high-level security bonded customs areas. Also this summer, two other Russian nationals, dressed in military battle dress uniforms, were stopped by Canadian authorities as they attempted to enter the U.S. at an unguarded crossing approximately 20 miles south of Limestone.

The open-borders crowd will shrug this off as another case of an innocent "undocumented worker" just doing a job that "no one else will do." Why bother going after Levesque? He was just trying to "put food on the table." According to House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, we shouldn't have our immigration law enforcement officers "terrorizing" and "terrifying" illegal alien workers.

Yeah, that's the ticket. Lock up the Border Patrol "terrorists," let the immigration outlaws loose, and hand over our Army Humvees and howitzers to whoever trucks across the border first. Homeland security, here we come.

©2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

Contact Michelle Malkin | Read Malkin's biography

[sheik yerbouty]

I went to a business across the street from a National Guard facility. the gates were wide open, ther were no personnel, and it was chock full of Hummers and what appeared to be mobile missile launchers. Hasn't anyone learned the lessons of 9/11?

[Choose Ye This Day]

Scary read by Malkin (and dead-on target, as usual).

Here's a corollary piece by Laura Ingraham on the open-border elites:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1010173/posts

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[Don W]

I find it especially amusing that this twit is from Quebec, where an anglophone Canadian has to live there 6 months before he/she can get a job legally. In addition, any children that move in MUST go to french only schools, unless they're...... you know.

[Clock King]

Nope, we haven't learned a damn thing from 9/11 because is happened to "those people", you know those NY people. People we don't know, people who are far away, etc. I hate to say this and hope I don't get in trouble, but the only way we WILL listen is when a terrorist plants a nuke in a city and sets it off. Only then will the masses have the anger and drive to tell the leftist freaks and power-grabbers to go jump off a cliff.

[HiJinx]

Bump-Ping!!!
The (Northern) Border List ^TM

Freepmail me if you wish to be removed from or added to this list!

[harpseal]

I hate to say this and hope I don't get in trouble, but the only way we WILL listen is when a terrorist plants a nuke in a city and sets it off. Only then will the masses have the anger and drive to tell the leftist freaks and power-grabbers to go jump off a cliff.

I doubt we will listen even then I would guess it will take at least 10,000,000 dead Americans to get our attention. abd the power grabbers and leftists will try to climb over teh dead bodies to cause even more harm.

[junta]

It will take the collapse of our government before anything is done about the borders. As Americans we suffer from the wicked combination of our politician's greed and delusion.

[JustPiper]

On Oct. 3, an illegal alien truck driver from Canada was caught hauling a shipment of Humvees into northern Maine. They weren't just any Humvees. They were U.S. military Humvees scheduled for delivery from the Texas Army National Guard in Houston to the Maine National Guard facility in Limestone.

Well, why not? If we're going to allow "undocumented" workers into the U.S. military, we might as well let "unauthorized" foreign truckers deliver our Army vehicles, ammunition, and other vital equipment, too.

[OXENinFLA]

rickin*frackin*muffin*flufflin

[PoorMuttly]

BTTT.

-PM

[Pro-Bush]

Good grief, thanks for the heads up "M"!

[Klickitat]

bump

[joesnuffy]

This is par for the freeekin course....the bureaucrats havent changed one bit ..from Vietnam days.

They did the same thing in Vietnam...using local VC agents..as workers and giving them access to equipment and sensitive areas...cheap outsourced labor...even back then gave the enemy all kinds of access....

This is almost as big a disgrace as wounded troops languishing without proper care right here in the USA and wide open borders enabling terrorists unprecedented access to America....
This is insane...and stupid...

Next thing ya know Pres Bush will invite Muslims to the White House for a dang Ramalamadingdong Dinner...

[cgk]

Malkin ping!

(this ping list is back in action, as am I. If you want off {or on}, please let me know asap. And apologies to anyone who is already on the thread and are being pinged back to it... I'm late to the party!) ;) Thanks! Mrs K

[Dante3]

I wish Malkin would run for Senate. She has brilliant mind, lots of common sense (so lacking in our political leaders), and does not hesitate to speak out. What a contrast to traitors such as Sandra Day O'Conner who wants to base rulings on interantional law, not our consitituion, in order to "make a good impression among people from other countries."

[Marysecretary]

I know. Can you imagine her and Ann Coulter as senators? They can be MY senators any time.

[VOA]

(somewhat facetious comment follows)
Talk about mixed emotions...
it seems like just about every Malkin thread gets this photo...
to remind me that
1. Beauty and brains can coincide
2. That she's already married...

[swarthyguy]

Does anyone remember an hourlong on MSNBC Summer 2001 on the weapons storage and transport snafus so prevalent out there. Never a word on it again.