When Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) wrote to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano, demanding to know why DHS is buying such tremendous amounts of ammunition, a DHS Assistant Secretary wrote back, in part, the following:
"DHS routinely establishes strategic sourcing contracts that combine the requirements of all its Components for commonly purchased goods and services such as ammunition, computer equipment and information technology services. These strategic sourcing contracts help leverage the purchasing power of DHS to efficiently procure equipment and supplies at significantly lower costs."
Once you get past the absurd notion that the federal government has a frugal bone in its collectively bureaucratic body, you know this excerpt from an Obama campaign speech in 2008 makes far more sense:
When it was learned that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which reports to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), released thousands of illegal alien prisoners and blamed sequestration, it was a source of outrage. That outrage was not lost on Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) who, in his role as a member of the House Judiciary Committee absolutely spanked ICE Director John Morton and DHS Under Secretary for Management, Rafael Borras.
Gowdy is one of the few members of Congress who gives one hope that all is not lost. If only we had this kind of fire from Republican leaders in both Houses.
Four Ranking members of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget - Jeff Sessions, Orrin Hatch, Pat Robers, and Charles Grassley (knows a thing or two about letters being ignored in Fast and Furious investigation) - sent a letter addressed to both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on August 6th. It contained an August 20th deadline that requested a response to five questions.
The problem? Allegedly, illegal aliens are being encouraged to apply for U.S. Government welfare programs.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano are mum on why the legal requirements that immigrants and visa applicants not be reliant on government assistance have been watered down, according to some lawmakers.
The deadline for Clinton and Napolitano to respond to a letter regarding admission of immigrants on or likely to be on assistance programs from senior Republicans on the Budget, Judiciary, Finance, and Agriculture Committees came and passed Monday.
On Tuesday Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, blasted the pair for their failure to comply.
“It is unacceptable that Secretary Napolitano and Secretary Clinton have not seen fit to respond our oversight letter,” Sessions said in a statement. “It is a sound principle of immigration law that those who come to our country should be able to take care of themselves financially, yet this legal requirement has effectively been waived. Under their agencies’ guidelines, an able-bodied, working-age immigrant could receive the bulk of his or her income in the form of federal assistance and still not be deemed welfare-reliant.”
Here is a list of the five questions posed by the four Senators that went unanswered by the August 20th deadline:
An explanation of why receipt of most welfare benefits is excluded from consideration of citizenship eligibility, and how this complies with the (Immigration and Nationality Act) INA and Congressional intent.
From 2001 to 2011, how many visa applicants and applicants for admission through the Visa Waiver Program were denied visas or admission because they were deemed likely to become a public charge?
From 2001 to 2011, how many visa applicants were found likely to become a public charge but were nevertheless granted a visa and admitted into the United States because they presented an affidavit of support?
How many aliens issued visas or otherwise admitted into the United States from 2001 to 2011 became public charges as defined by your agency after entering the United States?
If your answers to the above questions are that your agencies do not track this information, then please explain why this information is not tracked.
Again, those questions were ignored when the August 20th deadline came and went.
Gee, for some reason, I'm reminded of the Cloward-Piven strategy. Check out this first paragraph from a Discover the Networks entry:
First proposed in 1966 and named after Columbia University sociologists Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, the Cloward-Piven Strategy seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.
Rep. Louie Gohmert is one of the five signatories - including Michele Bachmann - to five letters to various Inspectors General about the stealth infiltration of the U.S. Government by Muslim Brotherhood agents. One of those June 13th letters was addressed to the IG for Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
In that letter, the name Mohamed Elibiary is identified as someone who used his security clearance to access classified information that he subsequently shopped to news reporters to be used against Texas Governor Rick Perry. This caught the attention of Gohmert last year and he is apparently still getting stonewalled by Napolitano and at this July 19th House Judiciary Committee hearing, it's clear he's had about enough of it.
A must-watch:
Here is Gohmert grilling Napolitano on the same subject last November:
In early 2009, a DHS report focused on alleged 'Rightwing Extremism' and seemed more interested in a threat that either didn't exist or was infinitesimally small, compared to the threat of Islamic extremism / Jihadist attacks. In this video exchange on Fox & Friends, Retired Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer talks about the latest literature from DHS. Also, take note of how Shaffer singles out CAIR and wants to know why there's not more concern about them since they were an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial.
A February 3, 2011 memo penned by ATF Special Agent Gary Styers out of the Lubbock, TX Field Office is getting renewed interest from Senator Charles Grassley. The memo, initially made available on Grassley's website in December of 2011, details Styers' conversation with two members of Grassley's staff on February 2, 2011.
The now infamous date of February 4, 2011 is when then DOJ Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich signed a letter addressed to Grassley; that letter denied any gun-walking within ATF took place. The letter was withdrawn - coincidentally or not - around the time that the Styers memo was made public, in December of that year.
There are now apparently two primary reasons why Grassley is bringing up this memo again, which he has sent to Attorney General Eric Holder along with a letter demanding answers to certain questions.
Though Styers was working out of the Lubbock office of the Dallas Field Division at the time he was interviewed by Grassley's staff, he had previously worked out of the Phoenix Group VII Office on Fast and Furious. Some now familiar names were brought up by Styers, who wrote the memo while referring to himself in the third person. Here is an interesting excerpt:
Special Agent Styers was asked if he was familiar with the large firearms trafficking case in Phoenix Group VII and Special AGent Styers said he was. Downey and Donovan (Grassley staffers) asked if Special Agent Styers knew the name of the case and he responded that it was "Fast and Furious". Downey and Donovan then asked if Special Agent Styers knew who the case agent was and Special Agent Styers said it was Special Agent Hope McAllister. Special Agent Styers was also asked who the supervisor of the group was and Special Agent Styers said it was Group Supervisor David Voth. Downey and Donovan also asked who helped Special Agent McAllister, Special Agent Styers said that Special Agent McAllister had a Co-Case Agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as well as an agent from Group VII. Downey and Donovan asked who was the Agent from ICE and Special Agent Styers told them it was Lane France.
NOTE: At the end of this post, I'll address the name Lane France but since Grassley's letter deals with another aspect of the memo, I'll deal with that first.
Since the documents subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee seek documents that explain how the false February 4, 2011 was created and since Holder has gone to the mat not to release any of them, Grassley appears to be using what documents he DOES have to get some of those answers. This memo is one of them. Grassley makes the charge that this Styers memo traveled pretty quickly up the chain of command within ATF and seems to have reason to believe it went to the DOJ as well.
According to ATF personnel, the memorandum was discussed by high level ATF personnel and possibly forwarded to DOJ headquarters on February 3, 2011. Specifically, it has been alleged that individuals within the Deputy Attorney Generals (DAG's) office and the Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA) at the Department were aware of or actually read the memorandum before the Department's February 4, 2011, letter was sent. Some individuals who spoke with my office claim they were "alarmed" by the substance of the memorandum and it caused such a stir that ATF planned to put a panel together to address the allegations but someone within DOJ suppressed the idea.
Moreover, in his memo, Styers relayed a surveillance operation led by McAllister that involved some sort of weapons transaction:
While positioning to observe suspects, Special Agent Styers and other detailed agents were told by Special Agent McAllister that agents were too close and would burn the operation. Special Agent McAllister told all the agents to leave the immediate area. While the agents were repositioning, the transaction between the suspects took place and the vehicle that took possession of the firearms eventually left the area without agents following it.
Based on what we already know about McAllister being personally implicated in allowing criminals to walk who were known to walk guns, we're left to conclude that Styers' account may have been one such instance. If that is the case and if Grassley can determine that this memo went to the highest levels of DOJ and was considered during the crafting of that February 4th letter, we'll be a whole lot closer to proving Holder lied again when he said the letter was not intentionally misleading.
On to Lane France... In the Styers memo, Lane France is identified as the Co-Case Agent from ICE, which rolls up under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). An Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) involves an operation that includes multiple agencies. Administration officials have done their best to play this down by insisting that Fast and Furious originated at the field level in Phoenix. OCDETF all but torpedoes that argument.
Here is an exchange from February 15, 2011 between Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-PA), who also sits on the Oversight Committee and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, who is thoroughly grilled here by Meehan, who asks her if she knows who Lane France is. She says, "no" and twists herself into knots attempting to play semantic word games about OCDETF not really being OCDETF and that Fast and Furious was all ATF.
This new development could indicate that Rep. Darrell Issa and Senator Chuck Grassley have come into possession of the best evidence yet that ICE Agent Jaime Zapata's murder was a direct result of an ATF Fast and Furious type operation. It involves a man named Manuel Barba, whom I posted about here last week. Barba had been convicted of trafficking a weapon connected to Zapata's death without the Zapata family being notified. That is noteworthy in itself.
On the heels of that astonishing news, Issa and Grassley have sent another letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and it contains information that may indicate exactly why the DOJ wanted to let Barba's prosecution fly under the radar.
To this point, there have been three other men with ties to guns that were used in Zapata's murder but they reportedly weren't under ATF surveillance at the time. Though they had plenty of reason to be. The names of those three other men are Otilio and Rafael Osorio and Kelvin Morrison. The addition of Barba to this grouping may point directly to a Fast and Furious style operation that led to Zapata's murder, which would seemingly contradict a statement made by an ATF spokesman.
Here is a portion of the letter to Holder I had sitting in my inbox from Issa Press Secretary Becca Watkins this morning:
ATF has tried to distinguish this case from Operation Fast and Furious and to justify its failure to intervene. In one news article on the Osorio brothers, ATF North Texas spokesperson Tom Crowley is quoted as saying: “[T]aking them down and arresting them at that time would have possibly jeopardized that investigation. . . . None of the tactics used in this investigation were anything similar to what was used in Arizona’s Fast and Furious, including intentionally walking firearms across the border.”[4] Yet failure to conduct surveillance of individuals known to be trafficking weapons to Mexico was a core problem with the tactics used in Fast and Furious. Lack of surveillance is what allowed such firearms to reach the border. The same irresponsible tactic appears to have been used in this matter.
Prior to what's been learned about Barba, the primary difference between Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's murder and the murder of Zapata was that the ATF was literally shown to have been holding the smoking gun in Terry's murder. The ATF had foreknowledge of the gun used in Terry's being 'walked' into Mexico after operation Fast and Furious permitted it.
To this point, Zapata's case didn't reveal the same smoking gun. Remember, the Osorio brothers, along with Morrison, hadn't been put under surveillance so the ATF had an out.
However, Barba was a different story. Again, from the letter:
Now, news reports indicate that this may have been an issue with a purchaser of another one of the weapons found at Agent Zapata’s murder scene.[5] Records indicate that ATF opened a case against Manuel Barba in June 2010,[6] approximately two months before he took possession on August 20, 2010, of the rifle which was later trafficked to Mexico and also used in the murder of Agent Zapata.[7] Additionally, the documents show that ATF had indications in October 2010 that Barba was obliterating serial numbers on weapons, the possession of which would have been a prosecutable offense.[8] At least as of December 13, 2010, ATF also was aware that Barba was still under indictment for a 2006 state case, and thus had been unlawfully receiving firearms while under indictment.[9] However, a warrant was not issued for Barba’s arrest in this case until February 14, 2011.[10]
The February 14th date is significant because Zapata was murdered one day later. It was also two months to the day, after Brian Terry had been murdered.
We could be seeing a new line of attack from Issa and Grassley here. There has been a narrative pushed by the Democrats that Issa has been on a witch hunt against Eric Holder and has had far too many hearings. This isn't the least bit true since each hearing has consisted of perjury, stonewalling, or both. Hearings should continue until they can take place without such things.
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano becomes increasingly more important as Zapata's murder is tied directly to an ATF operation similar to Fast and Furious. Border Patrol Agent Terry and ICE Agent Zapata were both agents under the purview of Napolitano's Department. She hasn't appeared the least bit outraged at the DOJ or ATF despite Terry's murder being the direct result of an ATF operation.
Now that evidence is coming out that Zapata's murder could be directly tied to the ATF in a very similar way, Napolitano's lack of outrage could be a red flag twice the size.
Here is the text of what I sent to Issa's office after receiving the joint letter to Holder:
Becca,
In a sane world, DHS Secretary would be siding with Oversight committee instead of deferring to DOJ IG.
Two of her agents confirmed dead as a result of ATF?
Where is Ms. Napolitano's outrage? She appears to be more agitated with Republican congressional investigators than with those responsible for her agents' deaths.
Thanks for sending.
I believe they call that "dishonor" in the military.
These kinds of news reports help to assuage suspicions that the Fast and Furious investigation is losing steam. In much the same way that ATF's involvement leads to Holder's Justice Department, DEA and ICE involvement leads to Janet Napolitano's DHS.
On November 2nd, Occupy Oakland's 'General strike,' which was encouraged by none other than the city's mayor, Jean 'I don't know what's going on' Quan, shut down Oakland's port and caused millions of dollars in damages. Now the Occupy Oakland website is announcing that it will attempt to shut down all ports on the west coast of the United States on 12/12/11. The interesting part, is that the group claims to be ratcheting up its behavior because of 'coordinated attacks' on their movements across the country:
In response to coordinated attacks on the occupations and attacks on workers across the nation:
Occupy Oakland calls for the blockade and disruption of the economic apparatus of the 1% with a coordinated shutdown of ports on the entire West Coast on December 12th. The 1% has disrupted the lives of longshoremen and port truckers and the workers who create their wealth, just as coordinated nationwide police attacks have turned our cities into battlegrounds in an effort to disrupt our Occupy movement.
We call on each West Coast occupation to organize a mass mobilization to shut down its local port. Our eyes are on the continued union-busting and attacks on organized labor, in particular the rupture of Longshoremen jurisdiction in Longview Washington by the EGT. Already, Occupy Los Angeles has passed a resolution to carry out a port action on the Port Of Los Angeles on December 12th, to shut down SSA terminals, which are owned by Goldman Sachs.
This is indeed very interesting because the Obama administration has been in support of these derelicts. There are some who believe that these 'coordinated' shutdowns of Occupy protests all across the nation came at the behest of the administration because the protests are becoming a political liability and public relations disaster.
According to Salem-News, these alleged 'coordinated' shutdowns served as the impetus for Occupy Oakland to call for a 'Re-Occupation' on November 19th:
(OAKLAND, Calif.) - Leading members of the Oakland Occupy movement are questioning the evictions of a dozen Occupy camps across the country, following news that they have been coordinated by conference call between mayors’ offices and police departments and a private law enforcement think tank named PERF (Police Executive Research Forum).
According to a just-published report in The San Francisco Bay Guardian, PERF, an international non-governmental organization with ties to law enforcement and homeland security, has been coordinating the conference calls to advise major metropolitan mayors and police chiefs.
Why would mayors get together and coordinate shutdowns of these protests? Who would be responsible for initiating such a coordination? Also, who is in charge of homeland security? Uh, that would be DHS, right? Obama / Napolitano, right?
To quote Van Jones, 'you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.'
If mayors acted in response to members of the Obama administration and Occupy Oakland is calling for a 'General Strike' on steroids, they apparently didn't get the memo.
To call this a double standard would be a slap in the face to double standards. In 2009, at the dawn of the Tea Party movement, a DHS document was leaked that focused on right wing extremism. It profiled (yes, profiled) individuals and groups that Janet Napolitano's Department identified as a terrorist threat. On April 15, 2009, CNN posted a story entitled, 'Napolitano defends report on right-wing extremist groups.' A photo at the top of the article showed a crowd of people in front of the Capitol holding Nazi flags. Two years later, the American Nazi Party endorsed the increasingly violent (and very left-wing) Occupy Wall Street protests.
The Department of Homeland Security will never monitor ideology or political beliefs, the head of the agency said Wednesday, responding to criticism of a recent report on right-wing extremist groups.
"Let me be very clear: We monitor the risks of violent extremism taking root here in the United States," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a written statement.
"We don't have the luxury of focusing our efforts on one group; we must protect the country from terrorism whether foreign or homegrown and regardless of the ideology that motivates its violence."
The report, "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," said right-wing extremist groups may be using the recession and the election of the nation's first African-American president to recruit members.
The report, which was prepared in coordination with the FBI, was published last week. It was distributed to federal, state and local law enforcement officials. Mainstream media picked up the story after it was reported by conservative bloggers.
Though the nine-page report said it had "no specific information that domestic right-wing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence," it said real-estate foreclosures, unemployment and tight credit "could create a fertile recruiting environment for right-wing extremists and even result in confrontations between such groups and government authorities similar to those in the past."
The report compared the current climate with that of the 1990s, saying a recession, criticism over outsourcing of jobs and a perceived threat to U.S. power at that time fueled a resurgence of right-wing extremism.
However, it said, "Despite similarities to the climate of the 1990s, the threat posed by lone wolves and small terrorist cells is more pronounced than in past years."
Two years later, the OWS movement seems to have thousands of 'lone wolves' who have been arrested all across the country. There has been significant amounts of violent crime, to include rape and murder. It's also safe to say that the movement is wrought with derelicts who, in fact, are terrorists. Yet, the entire Obama administration - including Napolitano - remains virtually silent.
That brings us to the latest incident the OWS movement has to be proud of - terrorizing small children who were trying to get to school.
Though this was a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Oversight members, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), and chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) were all present. Each had a shot at pressing DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and each did so. First up is Chaffetz, who becomes visibly frustrated at Napolitano's stonewalling. In particular, he appeared to find the contention on the part of Napolitano that she hadn't discussed Fast and Furious with Eric Holder particularly vexing.
Via Oversight Productions:
Rep. Gowdy, as a former prosecutor, is quite familiar with protocol in cases that involve gun trafficking. Take note as he gets Napolitano to agree on proper procedures for how something known as a T3 is handled. When he takes the next logical step, based on what Napolitano agreed was correct, she clams up after realizing that answering in the affirmative would implicated the Justice Department:
Then came Darrell Issa's turn. In this heated exchange, Issa asks Napolitano some very straightforward questions that the Secretary refuses to answer and says she will get the answers to him in writing:
At a recent Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee hearing, Senator John McCain pressed both DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and FBI Director Robert Mueller on their knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious. In the case of Napolitano, she denied having any knowledge of the Operation that led to the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry until after his death. Considering the fact that this was a joint operation involving DHS, some rogue supervisor should have already been fired or Napolitano herself should be for having been so ignorant.
When McCain's questioning turned to FBI Director Robert Mueller, he got the same responses that these committees have been getting from everyone else, including Napolitano; the DOJ Inspector General is investigating and there is no information available. It was obvious that McCain and others are growing quite frustrated with this response. The one thing McCain should have asked Mueller about but didn't was the breaking story from late last week that news of a third gun found at Terry's murder scene was covered up because it was put there by an FBI informant.
McCain asked Napolitano to supply the committee with the specific date when she found out that guns sold under the operation were found at the scene of Terry’s killing.
McCain has long butted heads with Napolitano, who is the former governor of Arizona, but he is a latecomer to criticism of the administration regarding Fast and Furious.
The lead congressional investigators have been Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
As Issa has continued his probe into the operation and who authorized it, he has attracted a bevy of Democratic naysayers who contend that he is jeopardizing the DOJ IG’s investigation as well as the prosecution of nearly two dozen men accused of illegally purchasing and carrying weapons sold under the operation.
If Napolitano knew about Fast and Furious before Terry's death, she committed perjury and if Mueller withheld information from McCain, he could be in the same boat.
Here is a somewhat related video from Rep. Darrell Issa's appearance on Fox News with Bret Baier. Here, Issa makes it clear that Fast and Furious goes all the way to the White House but admits to not know just how far inside the White House it goes. Very interesting.
At one level, this is not likely to go very far but on another level, state and local police officers are being called out. A libertarian group in Florida has sent a letter to the Sheriffs in each of that state's 67 counties. That letter includes the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution as well as the relevant portion of the Florida State Constitution when it comes to illegal searches and seizures. The interesting thing here is that there really is no disputing the fact that the TSA is violating the Fourth Amendment. It will be interesting to see if any of these Sheriffs act on the letters they are receiving.
The issue of invasive physical pat-downs by federal Transportation Security Administration agents at airports across the nation isn't going away anytime soon, with word that the Libertarian Party of Florida formally is demanding that sheriffs in the state's 67 counties arrest TSA agents for sexual battery.
The enhanced pat-down procedures – or the optional full body scans that essentially create a nude image of passengers – were imposed on travelers across America in recent months, prompting a wide range of reactions.
Just last week a state law proposed in Texas that would have created charges against federal agents who impose those physical pat-downs – described by critics and "groping" – failed at the end of a special legislation session when representatives couldn't assemble an enhanced quorum required during the special meetings of the lawmakers.
Texas House Speaker Joe Straus (RINO) is the individual most responsible for Texas not passing its version of the anti-groping Bill. In essence, he did exactly what any Sheriff in Florida who ignores this letter will have done. As for what the letter to the Florida Sheriffs said:
"As sheriff, you have the absolute duty to enforce the law uniformly and without prejudice. You are, at best, engaged in selective enforcement by choosing to further ignore these flagrant violations of federal and state law. At worst, you are complicit," a message to the 67 sheriffs from the party, signed by chairman Adrian Wyllie, said.
"If you have TSA agents within your county that are violating the law, then you must act. Warn the TSA agents that they are subject to arrest if they continue to violate the law. Should they continue, then you must begin making arrests," the letter said. "We urge you to remember the oath you took to support, protect and defend the Constitution of both the state of Florida and the United States of America. On behalf of all Floridians, the Libertarian Party of Florida calls on you to do exactly that.
"We turn to you, our constitutional sheriffs, to enforce the law in accordance with your sworn duty," the letter said.
These sheriffs are being called out; it will be interesting to see if any of them will stand up for those they're charged with serving and protecting and against federal oppression.
This is beyond disturbing if true. Fires are popping up along the routes illegal aliens take after they cross over the border and into our country. In an email I received from Gene Cafarelli - an extremely reliable source - he sent these pictures of wildfires along our southwestern border. Apparently, the Obama-speak terminology like 'man-caused disaster' is trickling down to local municipalities. Cafarelli includes a report from Hugh Holub in which citizens demanded to know the cause of the fire in their area. The answer they got back?
'Human caused and under investigation.'
A necessary ingredient for fires not to be cause by arson, is lightning. There has been no lightning that has preceded these fires. Holub asks the question. Why isn't the Forest Service admitting that illegal aliens and drug smugglers are starting these fires? That prompts him to ask two additional questions:
Is it because President Obama's claims everything is just wonderful on the border would look false if drug smugglers were starting fires so their drug mules could sneak thousands of pounds of marijuana into the country?
Is it because Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano would look bad if the truth were that illegal aliens that got across the border where there is no border security were burning the country down as they passed through?
Cafarelli also includes a letter from Zack Taylor of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO):
Dear Friends,
This photograph was taken today, June 3, 2011. Inside the center of smoke plume is the Atascosa Ranch, residence of David and Edith Lowell, in Rio Rico, Arizona. Ten miles north of the Mexican Border.
The Forest Service determined to allow this fire to jump Peck Canyon South and go up the North face of the Atascosa Mountains rather than attempt to control the fire, they are simply watching the fire now for four days rather than trying to fight it or control it.
The North Lowell allotment grazing pastures went up in smoke the last three days and the Forest Service is going to allow the second allotment to go up today. The Lowell’s will have to sell their cattle because there is no grass for them to graze on.
The drums along the border say that Border Patrol jumped a group of 12 marijuana backpackers who intentionally set the mountains on fire to effect their escape. Allegedly, between two and three of the illegal alien marijuana backpackers were apprehended and admitted setting the fire. Also, one of these arsonists is reported to be on life support at a local American hospital.
The beating drums also say that the Forest Service will not admit that the fire was caused by illegal aliens, only that it is human caused.
The border is not secure, America is in jeopardy as are all residents along the Arizona Border. Do not believe otherwise.
Zack Taylor, NAFBPO.org
There is zero doubt left that our leaders are failing us at best and betraying us at worst.
Please remember as you watch the latest in an increasingly long line of examples of despicable TSA behavior, that Barack Obama could end all of this today. When you see these stories, they are 100% on his authority. He could stop this today if he wanted to. The TSA reports directly to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and Napolitano reports directly to Obama. Ok, now the latest example. Drew Mandy is 29 years old but he has the mental capacity of a two-year old. As he was going through security at an airport on his way to Disney World with his parents, he was stopped for carrying a plastic toy hammer and a baseball.
I don't know what's more amazing, the fact that Janet Napolitano said focusing our efforts on Muslim males is 'not good logic' or that someone in this very liberal environment asked her a question about it. Try watching all the way through if even possible. You are watching a woman in Napolitano who is making every effort not to identify that which she is charged with protecting Americans from - the real enemy. This is beyond disgraceful.
Janet 'Baghdad Bob' Napolitano is insisting that the United States border with Mexico is safer than 'it has ever been' and that there is no significant violence spilling into the United States. In light of the fact that her Department has been implicated in the Project Gunrunner scandal in which the ATF 'allowed guns to walk' into Mexico, does she really think anyone will believe her? Since two of the guns the ATF let 'walk' showed up at the murder scene of a Border Agent, shouldn't Napolitano be more focused on getting to the bottom of that situation?
EL PASO, Texas (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said Thursday that security on the southern U.S. border "is better now than it ever has been" and that violence from neighboring Mexico hasn't spilled over in a serious way.
......
Napolitano said the Department of Homeland Security will deploy 250 more border agents and expects to have 300 more under their next budget if it's approved. She stated that Homeland Security is investing "millions of dollars in the side of commerce and trade" to improve infrastructure and technology along the border.
However, she added that there is a need to correct wrong impressions about the border region. Napolitano said border towns are safe for travel, trade and commerce. She noted that the total value of imports crossing the Southwest border was up 22 percent in fiscal year 2010, she said.
"There is a perception that the border is worse now than it ever has been. That is wrong. The border is better now than it ever has been," she said.
In this case, it depends upon what your meaning of the word 'is' is, I guess. In light of the high powered weapons that have been allowed to 'walk' into Mexico (50 caliber and AK-47), the whole 'commerce and trade' comment rings hollow at best and macabre at worst. Estimates of the number of guns ATF has let walk climb as high as 'thousands.'
Watch this short news report to see how DHS appears to be involved.
Earlier this month, ATF agent John Dodson dropped a bombshell when he admitted to CBS's Sharyl Attkisson that he was instructed by his superiors to allow guns purchased in the United States to 'walk' into Mexico. Now, another ATF agent is speaking out. His name is Rene Jacquez and he too is angry that this was ATF policy. Jacquez even has family in Mexico. What's so shocking about these reports is how shocked agents Dodson and Jacquez were that they were instructed to do this.
When the report from Attkisson about Dodson came out, the policy was said to go all the way to the Justice Department. Based on this new report, DHS, ICE, DEA, and USMS (Marshals) were all being advised by a Justice Department Assistant U.S. Attorney.
(CBS News) WASHINGTON - South of El Paso, Texas, on Mexico's side of the border, lies Juarez - the most dangerous city in the world. CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports ATF Special Agent Rene Jaquez has been stationed there for the past year, trying to keep U.S. guns from being trafficked into Mexico.
"That's what we do as an agency," Jaquez said. "ATF's primary mission is to make sure that we curtail gun trafficking."
That's why Jaquez tells CBS News he was so alarmed to hear his own agency may have done the opposite: encouraged U.S. gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexico's drug cartels. Apparently, ATF hoped that letting weapons "walk" onto the street - to see where they'd end up - would help them take down a cartel.
Notice in the video below that Eric Holder assured Americans that he has an Inspector General investigating this program. We all know what happened when this administration didn't like what a certain IG was uncovering back in 2009 (Gerald Walpin). He got fired.
Read about the first agent to come forward - John Dodson - HERE.
In December, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was clueless when asked by ABC's Diane Sawyer about multiple terrorist arrests in Great Britain. This week, he has the unmitigated gall to call the Muslim Brotherhood 'largely secular.' Extending this man grace would necessarily mean he is clueless. The statement that the Brotherhood is anything but Islamist is a bald-faced lie. Go figure; Clapper is bald.
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu is quickly becoming the heir apparent to Joe Arpaio as America's favorite sheriff. He doesn't mince words when talking about the incompetence of our federal government when it comes to securing his state's border with Mexico. He doesn't disappoint here either as he rips DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano for being in Afghanistan on a trip to ostensibly help them secure their border when she's done virtually nothing to secure her own country's border. Babeu then stresses that Napolitano's job is to secure the HOMELAND, not to help countries halfway across the world.
