AP Impact: US-Mexico border isn't so dangerous

I would definitely be inclined to listen to your roommate!

The border is a "combat zone," says T.J. Bonner, head of the Border patrol agents' union, too dangerous even for Border Patrol. You read that correctly. Without armored vehicles to protect them, Bonner opposes putting Border Patrol agents on the border itself.

This is rapidly changing and the assults on Border Patrol will get far more serious than rocks. Smugglers are now armed military style- even the ones backpacking drugs in afoot. Armed smugglers are the result of the Cartel War in Mexico that we are told is not crossing the border. Funny, Rob Krentz was murdered by an armed smuggler. Border Patrol in Arizona and in my area are catching armed smugglers- a cowboy near us was checking water last week and saw several backpack smugglers that were all armed.

It used to be true that the violence was not really at the border, mostly in the cities, no longer. Now smugglers are heavily armed and the border is beginning to get violent. Due to the Cartel War the smugglers are getting more desperate to get their product through and are leery of another group ambushing them or getting stopped by the Border Patrol, or local ranchers and what not reporting their activities.

The US Mexico border is not that dangerous- Say What? These articles have just been posted here in the last few days- one could go back further and fill pages and pages...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2527275/posts
Mexican and U.S. authorities were “secretly scrambling” last month to thwart a Mexican drug cartel’s plot to blow up a Texas dam that would have flooded an area with about 4 million inhabitants, according to the Houston Chronicle’s Dane Schiller and James Pinkerton.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2527274/posts
A large cache of assault rifles, guns, grenades, ammunition and fake uniforms are off the streets south of the border in Matamoros.

The Mexican Army reported seizing weapons, uniforms and police insignias at a home in the Colonia Solidaridad.

Soldiers allegedly spotted an armed man outside the building prompting an investigation.

The man fled out the backdoor but authorities found the following:

92 Assault rifles (mostly AK-47 and AR-15) 12 Handguns 151 Grenades 18 Fragmentation grenades 23 Gas grenades 5 Grenade launchers 8 Grenades for grenade launchers 2 Smoke grenades 580 rounds of ammunition 264 Artillery primers Ammunition cartridges 66 Camouflage military uniforms 15 Black uniforms 8 Overalls with AFI insignias 5 Shirts with PFP insignias

The items remain in the custody of federal authorities.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2527055/posts
A few years ago, Congresswoman Giffords began arranging meetings between the Border Patrol and southern Arizona ranchers. The Border Patrol also began regularly attending meetings of the Malpai Borderlands Group, an organization that was formed by the ranchers and some conservationists 16 years ago to support the beautiful open-space landscape of the area against subdivision and has become a model for cooperation in public and private land management. It was at one of these meetings, when the discussion turned to the fact that some crossers were now armed with automatic rifles, and were becoming increasingly brazen, that Rob Krentz, whose family has also ranched here for 103 years, made the observation that if things continued as they were, it was inevitable that someone would be killed. On March 27, Rob went out on his All-Terrain Vehicle to check the waters in one of his pastures. He never came back. His body was found late that night. The tracks of the killer were followed to the Mexican border.

Since his death, things have hardly slowed down. Recently, a bird watcher trying to enter Horseshoe Canyon in the Chiricahua Mountains, across the valley from the Peloncillos, was turned back by an armed drug smuggler who warned him to stay out. It’s public land, but it’s dangerous for the public to use. The number of such incidents and the actual crimes per capita are enormous considering the small population that resides here. Forest Service employees and many others who work for government agencies now can only go out on the land in pairs.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2525012/posts
The Department of Homeland Security is alerting Texas authorities to be on the lookout for a suspected member of the Somalia-based Al Shabaab terrorist group who might be attempting to travel to the U.S. through Mexico, a security expert who has seen the memo tells FOXNews.com.

The warning follows an indictment unsealed this month in Texas federal court that accuses a Somali man in Texas of running a “large-scale smuggling enterprise” responsible for bringing hundreds of Somalis from Brazil through South America and eventually across the Mexican border. Many of the illegal immigrants, who court records say were given fake IDs, are alleged to have ties to other now-defunct Somalian terror organizations that have merged with active organizations like Al Shabaab, al-Barakat and Al-Ittihad Al-Islami.

In 2008, the U.S. government designated Al Shabaab a terrorist organization. Al Shabaab has said its priority is to impose Sharia, or Islamic law, on Somalia; the group has aligned itself with Al Qaeda and has made statements about its intent to harm the United States.