Free Republic

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Tis the season for finding cross-border drug tunnels. The latest secret passage - equipped with a hydraulic lift, electric rail cars, wooden staircase and end-to-end wood floors - was discovered Tuesday on the U.S.-Mexico border, highlighting an emerging seasonal trend. For three years, authorities have found the most sophisticated tunnels shortly before the winter holidays in what officials speculate is an attempt by drug smugglers to take advantage of Mexico's fall marijuana harvest. The discovery of the 600-yard tunnel resulted in seizures of 32 tons of marijuana, one of the largest pot busts in U.S. history,...

Federal authorities have discovered another cross-border tunnel in rental house in downtown Nogales. Agents served a search warrant Tuesday at a house on West International Street and discovered the exit underneath a wooden front porch, said Kevin Kelly, assistant special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations in Nogales. U.S. Border Patrol agents and Mexican federal police crawled into the tunnel and tracked 70 feet into Mexico where it began in the underground drainage system that runs east to west below the city, Kelly said. The tunnel was three feet wide by two feet tall...

Drug smugglers are endlessly creative when it comes to inventing ways to move marijuana, cocaine and other contraband from Mexico into the United States. In the latest innovation uncovered by law enforcement, smugglers in the border town of Nogales, Arizona were bringing drugs into the U.S. for the cost of a quarter. The parking meters on International Street, which hugs the border fence in Nogales, cost 25 cents. Smugglers in Mexico tunneled under the fence and under the metered parking spaces, and then carefully cut neat rectangles out of the pavement. Their confederates on the U.S. side would park false-bottomed...

An “out of place” flatbed truck left under a tunnel near Van Nuys Airport raised enough concern for the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad to deploy investigators Thursday evening. In addition, police said the suspicious truck also had three containers. Police noticed the flatbed truck just after 6 p.m. parked under a tunnel on Sherman Way at Hayvenhurst Avenue, said Officer Sara Faden of the Los Angeles Police Department. “It was an unintended truck parked under a tunnel…and runways from the Van Nuys airport run over that tunnel,” Faden said. “The truck just looked out of place, so we...

A tunnel running 250 feet beneath the U.S.-Mexican border has been discovered fully kitted out with electricity, water pumps and ventilation. Authorities in Arizona said although they've found dozens of tunnels in Nogales, a city in Santa Cruz County since the 1990s, this one is by far the most sophisticated. Chief border patrol agent Randy Hill said those who were building it had chiselled through solid rock and installed lighting and other equipment.

Tunnels Built to Massacre Political Prisoners By Cho Jong Ik [2011-04-25 17:07 ] A claim has been made that the North Korean authorities have built tunnels in political prison camps in order to massacre prisoners if needed. Song Yun Bok from the Japanese NGO No Fence revealed today that, “The North’s regime has been preparing a massacre in the event there is a situation unfavorable for them,” and added, “They have built tunnels everywhere in camps to slaughter some 200,000 prisoners.” The claim came during North Korean Freedom Week in an event held by the Democracy Network against the North...

State transportation officials say they have discovered some corrosion in the lighting for the Big Dig tunnels in Boston. Secretary of Transportation Jeffrey Mullan said Wednesday one of the 110-pound fixtures fell but did not hit any cars. Mullan said there are about 23,000 light fixtures in the tunnels, and corrosion has been found in fewer than two percent. He said there’s no danger to the public.

Amtrak is about to announce a new New Jersey - New York tunnel that will replace the project Governor Chris Christie killed just months ago, according to NJ.com. The tunnel will be exactly the same as the previously proposed tunnel, except that it will end at Penn Station instead of Manhattan's shores. New Jersey Democratic Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez are pushing the project. The tunnel has yet to be funded, and will likely cost $10 billion.

Sen. Chuck Schumer last week lit into New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for pulling the plug on that $8.7 billion trans-Hudson rail tunnel. “A terrible, terrible decision,” Schumer told a Crain’s breakfast. Schumer being Schumer, of course, he sees in Christie’s decision the coming of a national apocalypse — a “turning point,” he said, that historians will one day look back on as the day when we “stopped looking toward the future.” Hyperbole, thy name is Chuck Schumer. Fortunately, Chris Christie is not one to be intimidated, even by so formidable a presence as Chuck Schumer’s — and, even more...

A sophisticated cross-border tunnel equipped with a rail system, ventilation and fluorescent lighting has been shut down by U.S. and Mexican officials — the second discovery of a major underground drug passage in San Diego this month, authorities said Friday. The tunnel found Thursday is 2,200 feet long — more than seven football fields — and runs from the kitchen of a home in Tijuana, Mexico, to two warehouses in San Diego...

A sophisticated cross-border tunnel equipped with a rail system, ventilation and fluorescent lighting has been shut down by U.S. and Mexican officials — the second discovery of a major underground drug passage in San Diego this month, authorities said Friday. The tunnel found Thursday is 2,200 feet long — more than seven football fields — and runs from the kitchen of a home in Tijuana, Mexico, to two warehouses in San Diego...

WEEHAWKEN, N.J. (AP) -- A dance troupe from Florida caused a rush-hour terror scare when they ditched their cars in the Lincoln Tunnel and tried to run to a TV appearance in Manhattan while wearing their camouflage costumes. The dancers drove about 1,000 miles so they could appear Wednesday on BET's live "106 & Park" show. But they hit traffic at the tunnel, which connects New Jersey and New York City and is just two miles from the TV studio. The five young women and three young men decided to sprint the rest of the way. They left their adult...

A camouflage-clad Florida dance troupe desperate to make it to a live TV talent show set off a rush-hour terror scare when they ditched their cars in merciless Lincoln Tunnel traffic and tried to sprint through the tube.The FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force was called in -- and a massive contingent of heavily armed cops surrounded the harmless performers, who stood teary-eyed in their showy costumes as hundreds of angry drivers were stuck in the snarl."They drew their guns on us at first," said Landon Burse, 24, the group's executive director who arranged the appearance on BET's "106 & Park"...

It could give a sense of superior American organisation, or be an indicator of a deep-set persecution complex. It could also be a manifestation of Uncle Sam’s penchant for a show of strength. ....................................................... Since it is difficult to monitor such a congested area, they came up with a quick solution which left the Indians accompanying them amazed: A bomb-proof over-ground tunnel — to be installed by US military engineers in just an hour. The tunnel would be a kilometre long and measure 12ft by 12ft — enough to let Obama’s cavalcade pass through. The tunnel would be centrally air-conditioned,...

It could give a sense of superior American organisation, or be an indicator of a deep-set persecution complex. It could also be a manifestation of Uncle Sam’s penchant for a show of strength. The matter pertains to US president Barack Obama’s planned visit to Mani Bhavan —the Gandhi museum — on November 6, soon after he reaches Mumbai. On Monday, US secret agents visited the museum to plan Obama’s security detail. They were accompanied by officers of Mumbai Police and civic officials of the D ward (where Mani Bhavan is located). While inspecting the route and the buildings lining up...

EXCERPT Since it is difficult to monitor such a congested area, they came up with a quick solution which left the Indians accompanying them amazed: A bomb-proof over-ground tunnel — to be installed by US military engineers in just an hour. The tunnel would be a kilometre long and measure 12ft by 12ft — enough to let Obama’s cavalcade pass through. The tunnel would be centrally air-conditioned, fitted with close-circuit television cameras, and will be heavily guarded at every point, including, of course, its entry and exit. Details about when exactly the tunnel would be made were not forthcoming. But...

A phony track worker triggered a terror scare inside a lower Manhattan subway tunnel Friday morning - but he turned out to be a despondent college student who wanted to kill himself by ingesting sodium cyanide, police said. A 20-year-old Pace University student who has been on the school's Dean's List told police he wanted to find a discreet alcove, mix the cyanide pellets with water and ingest it. "He did not want to be found," said Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, the NYPD's top spokesman. "He had no ID on him. He was looking for some isolated place in the...

Bomb-proof tunnel with air conditioning: Obama's security go to extraordinary measures for his tour of the Gandhi museum President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle arrived in India's commercial hub of Mumbai on Saturday, days after voters punished his Democrats in mid-term elections. Probably not since the days of the Pharaohs or the more ludicrous Roman Emperors has a head of state travelled in such pomp and expensive grandeur as the President of the United States of America.

Students have vowed to protest or block North Carolina State University's Free Expression Tunnel until the university's chancellor gives guarantees that no hate speech will be allowed there. About 40 students painted the tunnel black overnight to protest racist and homophobic graffiti involving President Barack Obama painted there Sunday night. Slurs and the name "Obama" were painted over the picture of a black man. "It's not about the N-word. It's not about Obama. It's about racism, period,"

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Under pressure from the Obama administration, Republican Gov. Chris Christie agreed Friday to rethink his decision to cancel construction of a $9 billion rail tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York City. Christie, a rising star in the GOP with a reputation as a fearless protector of the taxpayers' money, announced on Thursday that he was pulling the plug on the project because of runaway costs - a decision that led to an outcry from Democrats who said it would cost the state thousands of badly needed construction jobs and cripple New Jersey's long-term economy.