Very interesting. First post is from WorldNetDaily, and now this one.
I wonder if any big name papers (LA Times, Washington Post) are going to pick up this story and run with it? /rhet.
Posted on 01/16/2006 8:45:16 AM PST by Smogger
The Mexican military has crossed into the United States 216 times in the past nine years, according to a Department of Homeland Security document and a map of incursions obtained by The Sun's sister newspaper, the Ontario-based Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. U.S. officials claim the incursions are made to help foreign drug and human smugglers get into the United States. The 2001 map, which shows 34 of the incursions, bears the seal of the president's Office of National Drug Control Policy.
The document states that since 1996, Mexican military personnel have crossed into the following Border Patrol sectors:
San Diego County, 17 times
El Centro, 58
Yuma, Ariz., 24
Tucson, Ariz., 39
El Paso, Texas, 33
Marfa, Texas, eight
Del Rio, Texas, three
Laredo, Texas, six
Rio Grande Valley, Texas, 28. Kristi Clemens, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, would not confirm the number of incursions, but said Saturday the department is in ongoing discussions with the Mexican government about them.
"We - the Department of Homeland Security and the CBP - are determined to gain control of the border and will continue to collaborate with our partners on the border," Clemens said.
Border Patrol agents say for several years they have reported sightings and confrontations with Mexican military inside the United States.
"We've had armed showdowns with the Mexican army," said a border agent who spoke on condition of anonymity. "These aren't just ex-military guys. These are Mexican army officials assisting drug smugglers."
In one 2000 incident, more than 16 Mexican soldiers were arrested by border agents in a small town west of El Paso, in Santa Teresa, N.M., after Mexican soldiers fired on the agents, said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council.
None of the agents were injured in the gun battle, and State Department officials forced the border agents to release the soldiers and return them to Mexico with their weapons, Bonner added.
"If (Mexico) is going to put military across our border to threaten our guys, and if their own government can't control it, then we should be treating this as an act of war," he said.
Mexican government officials said that at no time in recent years have military personnel crossed the border into the United States.
"I strongly deny any incursion by the Mexican military on United States soil," said Rafael Laveaga, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C.
"When it comes to Mexican military on the southern side, I have no reports of them crossing into the United States. That would mean that the patrol got lost or lack of expertise and orientation. This could be smugglers with fake uniforms as a tactic to confuse the authorities."
Laveaga added that Mexico's law-enforcement agencies work closely with the FBI, the Office of National Drug Control Policy and other U.S. agencies to assist in the capture of drug cartel members.
"Some incursions do occur by smugglers both on the northbound and southbound sides of the border," Laveaga said. "Whenever these incidents occur, both governments have a mechanism to communicate with each other to let each other know what's going on."
In the Tucson sector - where many border agents reported run-ins with the Mexican military - the U.S. Department of Customs and Border Protection formally issued a card to agents with tips on how to deal with incursions by Mexican soldiers.
The "Military Incursion" card asks agents who come across Mexican soldiers to keep a low profile and use shadows to camouflage and hide.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said the numbers show that suggestions for increasing Border Patrol resources or building a fence along the border won't do enough to secure it.
"It is a military problem," said Tancredo, who supports immigration reform. "We should commit the military to the border - tomorrow. I mean with armor and weapons."
Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minuteman Project, a civilian volunteer group that has monitored the border since April, said Congress must address the serious nature of the military incursions.
"That number is 20 times larger than even the Minuteman Project organizers are aware of," Gilchrist said, referring to the 216 documented incursions. "But our Congress has turned a blind eye to it because what the American people don't know won't bother them - that's how our representatives think."
We need a General 'Black Jack' Pershing.
Time to engage the enemy with extreme prejudice.
Very interesting. First post is from WorldNetDaily, and now this one.
I wonder if any big name papers (LA Times, Washington Post) are going to pick up this story and run with it? /rhet.
...Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minuteman Project, a civilian volunteer group that has monitored the border since April, said Congress must address the serious nature of the military incursions....
Well, Jim, considering they just put Murdering Jackboot John Magaw in Homeland Insecurity, I'd say they are about to get serious...with you.
Pray tell, what "force" was this?
How precious, but aren't they jumping the gun? Hillary isn't even in office yet.
Maybe they don't think they can afford to wait.
I live in Kentucky and we having so so many Mexicans they are working everywhere. I have had two families live above me in the apartments where I live. Both had emergencies and came to me to help and did not know English. One in particular the woman had a baby who was sick so we took her to the hospital and I stayed with her so someone could tell the people at the hospital what was going on. They had to get someone on the phone who spoke spanish to ask the mother what was going on. I was there for hours and a couple of times the doctors gave me dirty looks because I did not know what was going on. I finally told one doctor I don't even know this woman and said it was a nice shrill in my voice. They finally had to take the baby to Childrens hospital and she went on her way. She had no money so I gave her a little money for at least coffee or a sandwich or whatever. Now just this past week my husband was painting an empty apartment where a bunch of Mexicans were busted for being illegal and were a ring making false I.D.'s.While moving around in a closet he kept stepping on something and lifted the carpet and found a folder filled with I.D.'s passport and a Social Security card and other papers. That was after he saw a string hanging from under the cabinets and pulled on it and out came an I.D. and some weird kind of social security card. Last night he went back looking for amything else he might find. He said he was going to give the stuff to the FBI who was part of the bust. Now if we have this kind of problem here I can't imagine what it is like in Texas and other border states. And how many terroists have come across the border with false I.D.'s for when they get in to work. I heard or read somewhere that Cincinnati could be a target but then any city can be a target.
The feds are being dragged kicking and screaming to face this threat. They won't go into crisis mode until something large goes BOOM out in the west, at which time the dems will make a case that the Bush admin. didn't do enough for national security. And it's Hello Hillary!
self ping
Is a sarcasm tag even necessary?
BTTT
When you think about it, in the past couple of years we've given Mexico everything but the kitchen sink and it looks like they've decided to send in the military for that.
...And it's Hello Hillary!...
Some folks are going to say to adjust your tin foil hat, but I'm inclined to agree. If you can find a copy read "Compromised, Bush-Clinton," by Terrence Reed.
Any one else remember Bush I's lousy campaign in '92?
""We - the Department of Homeland Security and the CBP - are determined to gain control of the border and will continue to collaborate with our partners on the border," Clemens said."
Collaborate?
What an unfortunate choice of words.
Hey the Mexican Army is only protecting the Narco Terrorists,Communists terrorist,and muslim terrorists, US citizens are too lazy to protect.
I think once on our side by a few hundred yards that we could help adjust their attitude by sending some rockets at their convoy to blow it to heck so they can visit their 72 virgin tacos.
Big time papers pick this story up? Not until they figure an angle to hurt Pres. Bush.
Mexican soldiers ignore U.S. border . . . so does the President.
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