Posted on 04/10/2008 3:46:05 AM PDT by T.L.Sink
Rep. Tom Tancredo today asked Gen. David Petraeus about infiltration of American gangs into the U.S. military. "The fact that gang members are being trained in our military is a growing cause for concern," said Tancredo. "Our local law enforcement officers and gang units are now facing criminals who have obtained advanced weapons and training courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer." News reports indicate that the growing level of gang activity, driven largely by the growing problem of illegal immigration, has begun spilling over into the military. A number of gang members have returned to their communities only to commit crimes made easier by extensive training. Stars and Stripes, a military publication, has documented the foothold gangs have gained in the U.S. Armed Forces as a tool to spresd their organizations.
(Excerpt) Read more at tancredo.house.gov ...
That’s because the liberals and the media hate our country and would rather have it destroyed. If they alerted people to it, someone would put a stop to it.
“The Pentagon has been recruiting—RECRUITING illegal alien gang members for at least 2 years, now and some of them are over in Iraq now. For agreeing to join the Army, they’re given amnesty for being illegal and are given citizenship after serving.”
Really? Under what program? I thought you had to have at least residence status to enlist.
Ping!
Sometimes people slip through the cracks.
A Stunning Disclosure on Illegals in the Military
March 2004
Excerpts from a Feb. 24, 2004 article in the Denver Post:
"[T]he citizenship of 16,031 members of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines is listed as 'unknown.' That's about one in 100 active-duty military members who might be U.S. citizens, legal immigrants - or just about anybody else."
"U.S. military officials say they are shoring up defenses against illegal immigrants and others who may misrepresent themselves and join the armed services."
"The Army has the highest number of unknowns - 9,055. The Navy has 6,531, the Air Force 444, the Marines one. Overall, 1,366,032 U.S. citizens and 35,662 legal immigrants serve in the U.S. military."
"Military officials check birth certificates, green cards or Social Security numbers to verify whether new recruits are legally in the country, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a U.S. Defense Department spokeswoman ... 'We hope to enhance those in the future, and are looking to do that in coordination with other government agencies,' she said. 'We want to make the process better.' Among new military initiatives: Start checking Social Security numbers given by recruits - as diligent employers sometimes do."
"Data on citizenship in the military, provided by the Army, comes from September 2003. Military officials were unable to explain why the citizenship of so many is hazy. 'Of the number we have that are unknowns, I'm sure that some are citizens and some may not be citizens,' said Lt. Col. Stan Heath, spokesman for the U.S. Army Human Resources Command ... 'We just don't know' how many may be illegal, Heath said. 'We're trying to clean up the database to make sure we have a good accountability. We are working on it.'
SNIP
(Latino)Gangs claim their turf in Iraq
May 03, 2006
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=+%28Latino%29Gangs+claim+their+turf+in+Iraq
The Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings and Vice Lords were born decades ago in Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods. Now, their gang graffiti is showing up 6,400 miles away in one of the world’s most dangerous neighborhoods — Iraq.
Armored vehicles, concrete barricades and bathroom walls all have served as canvasses for their spray-painted gang art. At Camp Cedar II, about 185 miles southeast of Baghdad, a guard shack was recently defaced with “GDN” for Gangster Disciple Nation, along with the gang’s six-pointed star and the word “Chitown,” a soldier who photographed it said.
The graffiti, captured on film by an Army Reservist and provided to the Chicago Sun-Times, highlights increasing gang activity in the Army in the United States and overseas, some experts say.
Jeffrey Stoleson, an Army Reserve sergeant in Iraq, is seen in front of a barricade tagged with gang graffiti in March in Iraq. Stoleson, who has been in Iraq for almost a year, says he has taken hundreds of photos of gang graffiti there.
Click here for photo gallery »
Military and civilian police investigators familiar with three major Army bases in the United States — Fort Lewis, Fort Hood and Fort Bragg — said they have been focusing recently on soldiers with gang affiliations. These bases ship out many of the soldiers fighting in Iraq.
“I have identified 320 soldiers as gang members from April 2002 to present,” said Scott Barfield, a Defense Department gang detective at Fort Lewis in Washington state. “I think that’s the tip of the iceberg.”
Of paramount concern is whether gang-affiliated soldiers’ training will make them deadly urban warriors when they return to civilian life and if some are using their access to military equipment to supply gangs at home, said Barfield and other experts.
‘They don’t try to hide it’
Jeffrey Stoleson, an Army Reserve sergeant in Iraq for almost a year, said he has taken hundreds of photos of gang graffiti there.
In a storage yard in Taji, about 18 miles north of Baghdad, dozens of tanks were vandalized with painted gang symbols, Stoleson said in a phone interview from Iraq. He said he also took pictures of graffiti at Camp Scania, about 108 miles southeast of Baghdad, and Camp Anaconda, about 40 miles north of Baghdad. Much of the graffiti was by Chicago-based gangs, he said.
In civilian life, Stoleson is a correctional officer and co-founder of the gang interdiction team at a Wisconsin maximum-security prison. Now he is a truck commander for security escorts in Iraq. He said he watched two fellow soldiers in the Wisconsin Army National Guard 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry, die Sept. 26 when a roadside bomb exploded. Five of Stoleson’s friends have been wounded.
Because of the extreme danger of his mission in Iraq, Stoleson said he does not relish the idea of working alongside gang members, whom he does not trust. Stoleson said he once reported to a supervisor that he suspected a company of soldiers in Iraq was rife with gang members.
“My E-8 [supervising sergeant] told me not to ruffle their feathers because they were doing a good job,” he said.
Stoleson said he has spotted soldiers in Iraq with tattoos signifying their allegiance to the Vice Lords and the Simon City Royals, another street gang spawned in Chicago.
“They don’t try to hide it,” Stoleson said.[snip]
Don’t they read FreeRepublic?
“”U.S. military officials say they are shoring up defenses against illegal immigrants and others who may misrepresent themselves and join the armed services.”
Thanks for the further information. It appears that at least residency is still a requirement, and those illegals currently in enlisted fraudulently. That’s a lot different than “the government is recruiting illegals.”
McCain is the worst possible candidate - he did the worst in the debates and might have serious mental issues. He is stupid and uninformed and lacking in moral character. He abandoned our POWs and is not fit to be Commander in Chief.
GOOD GOD WHAT A POST!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn’t have said it better myself. It makes me sick that our voters did NO HOMEWORK before deciding whom to support.
BUMP
Gee.....wouldn’t that be called racial profiling?
Just kidding!
Apparently our security expert McAmnesty doesn't care about all the threats from allowing illegal aliens into our country never mind the military. When we are fighting an internal insurgency for the control of Aztlan (I see it as inevitable), I guess we can be proud of the fact that not only did we import a revolution but we also provide the necessary training they needed as well. Truly a more generous people has never lived.
More photos here: The Battle of Los Angeles - MAY 1, 2008
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