Posted on 10/08/2010 10:55:12 AM PDT by AuntB
Zapata County's sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez has told CBS News he has blood evidence from the lifevest of Tiffany Hartley, the wife of David Hartley, that supports her account of a pirate attack on a lake that straddles the Texas-Mexico border.
CBS News correspondent Don Teague reported on "The Early Show" this evidence is in addition to witness testimony that supports Tiffany Hartley's story that her husband was shot in the head by pirates on Mexico side of Falcon Lake.
David Hartley is presumed dead, and officials on both the U.S. and Mexican sides of the lake are searching for his body.
Gonzalez told Teague he believes the Hartleys were attacked by enforcers of the Zeta drug cartel. The Hartleys, Gonzalez says, were innocent victims of a bloody drug war.
Gonzales fears the same cartel enforcers who killed David have permanently hidden his body.
He said, "The body has been disposed of. They have it somewhere they've gotten rid of the body so there's no evidence."
But that's not something Tiffany Hartley is ready to accept, and says she's only now beginning to grieve.
Tiffany Hartley said, "At certain times there's points where you do feel like this is it. I'm never gonna see him again. He's gone. And then at other points he's gonna be walking through that door."
Doubt has been cast on Tiffany Hartley's story by Mexico officials, but she told CNN recently she would take a lie detector test if people continue to doubt her account of the attack.
On "The Early Show" Congressman Ted Poe, (R-Texas), who has been involved extensively in this case as well as ongoing border issues, said he has requested from the State Department that Americans search the Mexican side.
He said, "The Mexican government said yes, then backed off and said, 'No, we don't want the Americans over here.' We need to use the American resources that we have, because that area of the lake is controlled by the Zetas, there is an island on that lake where the Zetas really operate, the drug cartels. If we mean business about trying to recover David Hartley's body we need American involvement and the Mexican government needs to be relentless to find it. They are intimidated now, they really won't go near the area where the Zetas operate."
"Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith said, "We need to stop and pause a second because even the Mexican authorities themselves are clearly not in control. It's the drug cartel that is in control because the Mexican authorities backed away when they were threatened."
Poe agreed, saying, "That area of Falcon Lake on the Mexican side, all the way to the American edge of the water is controlled by the Zeta cartels. They bring those drugs into the United States, usually at night by high-speed boats, and they operate -- that is their operation -- and the Mexican government hasn't been able to stop them, won't stop them, refuses to or cannot, whatever the situation is, and they control that area. The government, neither government, controls that area, the drug cartels. And we're being held really hostage by the drug cartels on that area of the lake."
Smith added that while there has been some doubt cast on Tiffany Hartley's story, this is not the only reported incident of violence on this lake.
Poe replied, "American fishermen, fishing both on the American side of the lake and on the Mexican side of the lake -- you can get a permit to do that -- have been robbed by pirates on the lake, some of them have been taken to the Mexican side, stripped of all of their clothing and their valuables and their boat and left stranded there. This is the fifth time since May there's been some type of violence -- but the first homicide."
Poe said he'd like to see the United States to have more involvement in the search.
"The United States needs to use our resources, the Coast Guard. That needs to be operating on the lake at all times, not just this time," he said. "We have been very lax, in my opinion, as a nation, of protecting the entire southern border of the United States, including Falcon Lake. We don't protect it. We wait for something to happen, and then we just sit back, as a nation, and wait for someone else to react. We need to cooperate, need better cooperation with the Mexican government, but need to have really the military presence on the southern border, and that includes putting the National Guard throughout the border, including the Air National Guard, if we are serious about protecting Americans and American property, and keeping the drug cartels out of the United States."
Sheriff: Evidence supports wifes account in pirate attack By Kevin Vaughan The Denver Post
[snip]ZAPATA, TEXAS Blood, witness accounts and other unspecified evidence all corroborate the version of events laid out by a Colorado woman whose husband is missing and presumed dead after an attack on a lake straddling the Mexican border, the sheriff leading the investigation said this afternoon.
Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr. detailed some of the reasons he does not doubt that David Hartley, a 30-year-old Loveland native, was murdered a week ago by a drug gang on Falcon Lake, a 44-mile long waterway bisected by the U.S.-Mexico border.
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_16279531 Posted:10/07/2010
Eyewitness in Alleged Mexican Pirate Attack Case Comes Forward [ Mexico blocks US from search ] http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2603445/posts
A Fishing Paradise Gains a Deadly Reputation http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/us/08pirate.html?_r=2
[snips]
The shooting was the latest in a string of attacks by pirates on the lake that began on April 30. The gangs carry AK-47s and sometimes claim to be Mexican federal police or American game wardens. They have sometimes hijacked high-prowed boats favored by Mexican fishermen and used them to chase down Americans in bass boats, stealing their money at gunpoint.
But Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez of Zapata County, on the Texas side of the lake, has said that Mrs. Hartleys story is credible and that the assault is in keeping with other recent robberies, some of which happened in the same part of the lake.
On April 30, for example, two boats carrying five tourists who wanted photographs of the Guerrero church were robbed at gunpoint by four heavily tattooed men in a fishing boat who identified themselves as federales. They demanded cash and even asked, Where are the drugs?
A week later, on May 6, three fishermen were robbed at gunpoint near Salado Island. On May 16, another group of boaters was robbed, again by armed men in a fishing boat on the United States side of the reservoir.
More recently, a gang of pirates in a small boat, with Game Wardin spelled out in duct tape, tried to stop a Texas fisherman, the police said. The Texan figured the misspelled word meant they were not really game wardens and outran them, the police said.
The governor has also staunchly defended Mrs. Hartley against anyone who doubts her account, saying he finds such theories really reprehensible. Mexico Spinning Out of Control?
-Ambassador John Bolton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJtdP6s1G70
“Doubt has been cast on Tiffany Hartley’s story by Mexico officials, but she told CNN recently she would take a lie detector test if people continue to doubt her account of the attack.”
Video
Falcon Lake Texas Pirate Attacks
http://law.rightpundits.com/?p=1704
Gov. Perry needs to fire up a few Texas National Guard helicopters, arm them to the teeth, and vaporize some of these ‘zeta’ people.
I notice that they assiduously avoid using the term “Mexican pirates” in the headline and in the article.
Indeed, the early articles didn’t even mention that the lake was on the border, so my first reaction was that this was crazy. Pirates on a lake in Arizona? It needed some knowledgeable Freepers to explain what was going on.
Somali pirates. Mexican pirates. Same difference.
The traditional treatment for pirates was to defend your citizens and commerce by going out, into another country if necessary, catching them, and hanging them. This time Obama hasn’t even mentioned the subject. Hey, Hussein,k it’s your job to defend our country against terrorists, illegal invaders, and pirates.
Mexico being Mexico
Play this video
By Neal Barton - KETK News Director
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - 6:46pm
The drama continues in south Texas.
Falcon Lake, which used to be a mecca for bass fisherman, is now becoming the scene of an international incident.
A couple from Colorado was jet skiing on that lake- not a smart thing to do. But, then again they were newcomers to the area and may not have known just how dangerous it is.
A while back 5 bass fishermen were approached by a boat with “game wardin” painted on it...warden spelled “w-a-r-d-i-n”. They ran away and should have.
Mexico is now being Mexico.
After the woman’s husband was allegedly shot my Mexican pirates, there is no trace of the jet ski or the man’s body. Mexico says they don’t have the money to search. We said we do. But they still won’t let us.
Now governor Rick Perry is calling for a tough respond from the U.S.. Which probably means with this group in power, no response.
President of Mexico Felipe Calderon is happy scolding the U.S. in the House chamber because he doesn’t like our Arizona law is sitting on his hands and not doing anything. He scolds us, but his country right now is a mess and he can’t get it done. But he does find the time to come here and throw himself right in the middle of an American political fight.
Neither Mexico or America can turn their head to this border violence. Something has to be done.
While politicians worry about offending a voting block, innocent Mexicans and Americans are getting killed, or living a life of fear. And living in fear of your life isn’t like living at all.
Maybe we can install solar panels for the border patrol. That may get the current administration involved.
http://www.ketknbc.com/news/pov/mexico-being-mexico-0
Sorry, I meant Texas.
I think we need to take a “Minuteman fishing trip” down there. Time to show some resistance. My guess is we have better shooters and better rifles to reach out and touch some of these sub-humans.
“I think we need to take a Minuteman fishing trip down there. Time to show some resistance. My guess is we have better shooters and better rifles to reach out and touch some of these sub-humans.”
Well, one thing is for sure, when it comes to Mexico, this government will only cater to THEM. We’re on our own!
Mexicans commit tens of thousands of brutal crimes in the U.S., and they flee back to Mexico as a matter of routine. What's new?
BTW, the last president called Americans "vigilantes" when they'd had a belly full of the U.S. government aiding and abetting Mexico.
Ya think Obama will do the same?
Time for some Predator drones.
These criminals are not just killers, they are not just cartel members, THEY ARE TERRORISTS.
They are terrorists at and over our border, killing Americans, while Obama and his administration, refuse to do a damn thing—except to bring lawsuits against any state trying to protect it’s citizens.
I smell a Muslim in the woodbox.
Where’s Black Jack Perishing when we need him?!
I just took 1 step forward.
If anyone here wants to organize a weekend adventure, I'm in.
“Wheres Black Jack Perishing when we need him?!”
I would go with the minutemen. We really need to take this upon ourselves if the government won’t do anything.
“We have been very lax, in my opinion, as a nation, of protecting the entire southern border of the United States, including Falcon Lake. We don’t protect it. We wait for something to happen, and then we just sit back, as a nation, and wait for someone else to react. We need to cooperate, need better cooperation with the Mexican government, but need to have really the military presence on the southern border, and that includes putting the National Guard throughout the border, including the Air National Guard, if we are serious about protecting Americans and American property, and keeping the drug cartels out of the United States.”
The gov does not care who dies, only caring for illegals to add to the serfdom in the US.
It just doesn't make sense for him to be killed and for his body to disappear and she returns home without a scratch.
I’m in. I’m lacking a boat but have the other equipment. I’m sure I can get a few folks together here in Oklahoma for this.
I thought they did fire on her but she got to the US side and then they halted their effort..thought I heard that on TV.
I had some doubts about the wife at first as she seemed so controlled but when one is in shock they react in ways that don’t always fit the profile..remember that Susan Smith who cried all over the place and then it turned out she drove her kids in the car into the lake?
We need to bring our troops home from foreign places and protect our borders immediately!
.
Nope, not gonna say it...
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