Posted on 08/03/2011 1:55:28 PM PDT by jazusamo
While the nation’s Homeland Security secretary repeatedly assures Americans that the southern border is more secure than ever, a separate U.S. government agency has quietly issued an alarming report warning of “recent violent attacks and persistent security concerns” in the area.
It’s like the Abbot and Costello version of government, where one agency can’t even coordinate with another to provide the country with a consistent story. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano claims the Mexican border region is “as secure as it has ever been.” In fact, she embarked on a publicity tour to the area, using sound-bite opportunities to specifically deny that it’s infested with drug-cartel violence that often spills into the U.S.
It’s all a mistaken “perception” because the area is in fact a “secure and prosperous” region, according to Napolitano. During a trip to El Paso Texas a few months ago, she claimed that “misinformation about safety” is negatively impacting border communities by driving visitors away and hurting local business. She proceeded to say that “some of America’s safest communities are in the southwest border region.” The media was invited to tag along and Madame Secretary’s proclamations appeared in newscasts worldwide.
No such promotion of what appears to be a more accurate assessment, issued this week by the State Department, of the situation along the U.S.-Mexico border. Unlike Napolitano’s rose-colored glasses version, it mentions a “dramatic increase in violence”pdf and nearly 30,000 narcotics-related murders in the last few years. The State Department report bluntly says that “the security situation along the Texas border has changed markedly from a year ago.”
The culprits are sophisticated and heavily armed drug cartels competing with each other for trafficking routes into the U.S. In fact, a war between two notorious cartels has led to a “dramatic increase in violence” in two northern border regions, according to the State Department report issued this week by the agency’s Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC). Large-scale gun battles often occur in broad daylight on streets and other public venues and U.S. citizens have been trapped and temporarily prevented from leaving the area, according to the OSAC assessment.
Using the term “narcoterrorism,” it goes on to say that “continued concerns regarding road safety along the Mexican border have prompted the U.S. Mission in Mexico to impose certain restrictions on U.S. government employees transiting the area.” Local authorities aren’t helping because “police corruption and police involvement in criminal activity continue to be a problem in Mexico.”
As a result the violence is increasingly flowing north, even as the nation’s top Homeland Security official denies it. Just last summer a myriad of bullets fired into El Paso, striking City Hall and a public university building. The local sheriff said the gun battles are breaking out everywhere but his hands are tied because he’s legally forbidden from intervening in another country’s war. The disturbing incident inspired Texas’s Attorney General to send President Obama a letter saying his state is under constant assault from illegal activity threatening a porous border.
And the Sun also rises in the east! The Bull Dyke is a Liar.
“sophisticated and heavily armed drug cartels “
Now how in the world did they become “heavily armed”? /s
Napolitano either lied or was ignorant of the fact. Either way she needs to step down. (I know she lied though).
Prayers for our citizens living/working near the border. I have the feeling that it is going to get a lot worse before it ever gets better. At this point, whether jaded or not... I don’t know if it will ever get better.
Rick Perry wants them to have welfare and in-state tuition, that should bring peace, right?
Ping!
She must have been there during a lull in bullets coming across the border and hitting the buildings on the University of Texas El Paso campus. Then there were the four humvees and some 30 Mexican army troops who crossed the international bridge into south Texas the other day. When they were caught, they claimed they'd gotten lost. Lost??? Really? Didn't see that brand new big international bridge and the river, huh? Well, we believed them and sent them on their merry way. Yep, the border is just as secure as it ever was. Nothing to see. Move along.
There's no wanting. It's been a done deal for years. Yes, you and I know that but too many here refuse to see the truth.
Yep, Nappy has missed a lot or at least she’s not telling what she’s seen, I believe the latter.
What is curious is that the border is heavily democrat.
The US reps from that area are all dims.
NONE of them are raising a stink about the war on the border. I guess they can live with their constituents living in a war zone.
But if Bush was president.......
Rick Perry also wanted a Trans-Texas Corridor that was to import more from Mexico which was temporarily defeated. He’s a Mexican appeaser.
We also should have been defending our own borders instead of rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan. We’ll never know the hundreds of billions that these illegals have cost us. It could have been ended and reversed immediately by simply having a round up and prosecuting and imprisoning the 50 CEOs of the biggest illegal employers. Then repeat it in another week.
It makes me ill when I think of thousands of KIA and wounded service men that these wars have cost us not to mention the trillions they cost while the borders are open. We should have been focusing the War on Terror on the growing violent gangs in the USA. It’s time to pay attention to the USA and quit playing policemen of the world. Let these other countries and NATO either contribute their share to our defense budget or do it on their own.
The list, ping
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We had a young friend killed there on Memorial Day. Such a shame. It’s long past time to start looking after our own citizens, our own borders, and our own way of life.
Perry was pandering to La Raza just a few days ago but apparently that was all well and good for many here.
Yeah, I guess an important part of keeping our southern border secure involves many US agencies cooperating for years to distribute THOUSANDS of military weapons.
And not just handing them out to random Mexicans, no:
No, it was to give them to known narco-traffickers, and in case there were electronic hitches, US agencies called one anotherto MAKE SURE an existing system was completely subverted.
Oh! And, uh....250 Mexican cops got killed. So far.
And 2 US officers also.
So far. Yeah.
So yeah, basically we’re using tax-payer funded machine-gun sales to drug-dealers to secure the border.
Undoubtedly caused by the Tea Party.
Yep, Plugs will fill in Zer0 and Zer0 will break out the teleprompter and give the Tea Partiers what for.
Just the fact that Janet Napolitano is our Homeland Security Secretary tells me and every American that Obama HATES our country with a burning passion.
Absolutely!
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