Tuesday, October 24, 2017

PATRICK BUCHANAN - ENDLESS WARS FOR THE BORDERS OF MUSLIM DICTATORS WHILE THE LA RAZA MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS MOW OVER AMERICA'S OPEN AND UNDEFENDED BORDERS

Patrick Buchanan: Are Our Mideast Wars Forever?

Patrick J. Buchanan
 By Patrick J. Buchanan | October 24, 2017 | 4:40 AM EDT


Kurdish Peshmerga fighters battling ISIS near Mosul, Iraq. (Photo: Screen grab/YouTube)
"The Kurds have no friends but the mountains," is an old lament. Last week, it must have been very much on Kurdish minds.
As their U.S. allies watched, the Kurdish peshmerga fighters were run out of Kirkuk and all the territory they had captured fighting ISIS alongside the Americans. The Iraqi army that ran them out was trained and armed by the United States.
The U.S. had warned the Kurds against holding the referendum on independence on Sept. 25, which carried with 92 percent. Iran and Turkey had warned against an independent Kurdistan that could be a magnet for Kurdish minorities in their own countries.
But the Iraqi Kurds went ahead. Now they have lost Kirkuk and its oil, and their dream of independence is all but dead.
More troubling for America is the new reality revealed by the rout of the peshmerga. Iraq, which George W. Bush and the neocons were going to fashion into a pro-Western democracy and American ally, appears to be as close to Iran as it is to the United States.
After 4,500 U.S. dead, scores of thousands wounded and a trillion dollars sunk, our 15-year war in Iraq could end with a Shiite-dominated Baghdad aligned with Tehran.
With that grim prospect in mind, Secretary Rex Tillerson said Sunday, "Iranian militias that are in Iraq, now that the fight against ... ISIS is coming to a close ... need to go home. Any foreign fighters in Iraq need to go home."
Tillerson meant Iran's Quds Force in Iraq should go home, and the Shiite militia in Iraq should be conscripted into the army.
But what if the Baghdad regime of Haider al-Abadi does not agree? What if the Quds Force does not go home to Iran and the Shiite militias that helped retake Kirkuk refuse to enlist in the Iraqi army?
Who then enforces Tillerson's demands?
Consider what is happening in Syria.
The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, largely Kurdish, just annihilated ISIS in Raqqa and drove 60 miles to seize Syria's largest oil field, al-Omar, from ISIS. The race is now on between the SDF and Bashar Assad's army to secure the border with Iraq.
Bottom line: The U.S. goal of crushing the ISIS caliphate is almost attained. But if our victory in the war against ISIS leaves Iran in the catbird seat in Baghdad and Damascus, and its corridor from Tehran to Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut secure, is that really a victory?
Do we accept that outcome, pack up and go home? Or do we leave our forces in Syria and Iraq and defy any demand from Assad to vacate his country?
Sunday's editorial in The Washington Post, "The Next Mideast Wars," raises the crucial questions now before us.
Would President Trump be willing to fight a new war to keep Iran from consolidating its position in Iraq and Syria? Would the American people support such a war with U.S. troops?
Would Congress, apparently clueless to the presence of 800 U.S. troops in Niger, authorize a new U.S. war in Syria or Iraq?
If Trump and his generals felt our vital interests could not allow Syria and Iraq to drift into the orbit of Iran, where would we find allies for such a fight?
If we rely on the Kurds in Syria, we lose NATO ally Turkey, which regards Syria's Kurds as collaborators of the PKK in Turkey, which even the U.S. designates a terrorist organization.
The decision as to whether this country should engage in new post-ISIS wars in the Mideast, however, may be taken out of our hands.
Saturday, Israel launched new air strikes against gun positions in Syria in retaliation for shells fired into the Golan Heights.
Damascus claims that Israel's "terrorist" allies inside Syria fired the shells, to give the IDF an excuse to attack.
Why would Israel wish to provoke a war with Syria?
Because the Israelis see the outcome of the six-year Syrian civil war as a strategic disaster.
Hezbollah, stronger than ever, was part of Assad's victorious coalition. Iran may have secured its land corridor from Tehran to Beirut. Its presence in Syria could now be permanent.
And only one force in the region has the power to reverse the present outcome of Syria's civil war — the United States.
Bibi Netanyahu knows that if war with Syria breaks out, a clamor will arise in Congress to have the U.S. rush to Israel's aid.
Closing its Sunday editorial the Post instructed the president:
"A failure by the United States to defend its allies or promote new political arrangements for (Syria and Iraq) will lead only to more war, the rise of new terrorist threats, and, ultimately, the necessity of more U.S. intervention."
The interventionist Post is saying: The situation is intolerable. Confront Assad and Iran now, or fight them later.
Trump is being led to the Rubicon. If he crosses, he joins Bush II in the history books.
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of a new book, "Nixon's White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever."


THEY INVADE OVER AND UNDER OUR BORDERS… and do so by invitation of the Democrat Party.
Lawmen are worried that the cartel tunnel builders on the Mexican border are now using their engineered concoctions to smuggle illegals, not merely drugs.


That's what the Daily Caller has found, describing the new anxiety as one was discovered over the weekend, catching about 30 illegals coming in from Mexico and China. MONICA SHOWALTER – AMERICAN THINKER.com

OPIOID ADDICTION IN AMERICA:

OBAMA AND HIS CRONIES IN BIG PHARMA AT WORK!


Pictured: The eight completed border wall prototypes in competition to fulfill Trump's campaign pledge to 'build a wall' along the US-Mexico border

  • Eight prototypes for Donald Trump's proposed wall along the US-Mexico border have been completed

  • The six companies responsible for the eight prototypes had had until October 26 to complete them

  • The prototypes form a row near the border in San Diego and are spaced 30 feet apart
  • Costs for the prototypes ranged from $320,000 to $486,411

  • Currently 654 miles of single-layer fence on 1,954-mile border and 51 miles of double- and triple-layer fence

Eight prototypes of US President Donald Trump's US-Mexico border wall have been built near San Diego. 
Following up on President Donald Trump's campaign promise to build a wall along the entire 2,000-mile Mexican frontier, the Department of Homeland Security began building prototypes for the barrier along the border in San Diego and Imperial counties, as it announced in August.
The prototypes form a tightly packed row of imposing concrete and metal panels, including one with sharp metal edges on top. Another has a surface resembling an expensive brick driveway. 
Companies had had until October 26 to finish the models. Crews installed a corrugated metal surface on the eighth model on a dirt lot just a few steps from homes in Tijuana, Mexico last week. 
A prototype of US President Donald Trump's US-Mexico border wall being built near San Diego, in the US, is seen from across the border from Tijuana, Mexico, on October 22, 2017
A prototype of US President Donald Trump's US-Mexico border wall being built near San Diego, in the US, is seen from across the border from Tijuana, Mexico, on October 22, 2017
The eight prototypes for Donald Trump's proposed wall along the US-Mexico border have been completed in a border area near San Diego. Pictured side-by-side are two of the prototypes
A prototype of US President Donald Trump's US-Mexico border wall being built near San Diego, in the US, is seen from across the border from Tijuana, Mexico, on October 22, 2017
A prototype of US President Donald Trump's US-Mexico border wall being built near San Diego, in the US, is seen from across the border from Tijuana, Mexico, on October 22, 2017
There are six companies vying for the construction job; two companies have submit two prototypes. The companies are: Cadell Construction Company; W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Company; Fisher Sand & Gravel Company; Texas Sterling Construction Company; KWR Construction Incorporated; and ELTA North America Inc
A prototype of US President Donald Trump's US-Mexico border wall being built near San Diego, in the US, is seen from across the border from Tijuana, Mexico, on October 22, 2017
A prototype of US President Donald Trump's US-Mexico border wall being built near San Diego, in the US, is seen from across the border from Tijuana, Mexico, on October 22, 2017
The walls form a row and have been spaced 30 feet apart. They range in cost from $320,000 to $486,411
A prototype of US President Donald Trump's US-Mexico border wall being built near San Diego, in the US, is seen from across the border from Tijuana, Mexico, on October 22, 2017
A prototype of US President Donald Trump's US-Mexico border wall being built near San Diego, in the US, is seen from across the border from Tijuana, Mexico, on October 22, 2017
One stipulation is that the walls must be 'aesthetically pleasing' from the US side of the border
The models, which cost the government up to $486,000 each, have been spaced 30 feet apart.
Slopes, thickness and curves vary. One has two shades of blue with white trim. The others are gray, tan or brown - in sync with the desert.
Bidding guidelines called for the prototypes to stand between 18 and 30 feet high and be able to withstand at least an hour of punishment from a sledgehammer, pickaxe, torch, chisel or battery-operated tools.
Features also should prevent the use of climbing aids such as grappling hooks, and the segments must be 'aesthetically pleasing' when viewed from the U.S. side.
The administration hasn't said how many winners it will pick or whether Trump will weigh in himself. There is a chance that none of the prototypes will be selected.
Roy Villareal, acting chief patrol agent of the San Diego border sector, told reporters: 'It may not result in a singular winner. It may be a combination of designs being implemented.'
The eight prototypes are pictured across the border from Tijuana, Mexico. There are currently 654 miles of single-layer fence on the 1,954-mile border, plus 51 miles of double- and triple-layer fence
The eight prototypes are pictured across the border from Tijuana, Mexico. There are currently 654 miles of single-layer fence on the 1,954-mile border, plus 51 miles of double- and triple-layer fence
Four of the prototypes were made from concrete while four were made were made of material other than concrete
Four of the prototypes were made from concrete while four were made were made of material other than concrete
The six companies had had until October 26 to complete the prototypes
The six companies had had until October 26 to complete the prototypes
A woman is pictured walking in Tijuana while the prototypes loom in the distance
A woman is pictured walking in Tijuana while the prototypes loom in the distance
People pass border wall prototypes as they stand near the border with Tijuana, Mexico, on October 19
People pass border wall prototypes as they stand near the border with Tijuana, Mexico, on October 19
There are currently 654 miles of single-layer fence on the 1,954-mile border, plus 51 miles of double- and triple-layer fence. 
Trump has asked Congress for $1.6bn to replace 14 miles of wall in San Diego and build 60 miles in Texas' Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for illegal crossings. Democrats have balked at the request.
Donald Trump's promise to 'build a wall' was one of the major tenets of his political campaign. He insists that Mexico will eventually pay for the wall
Donald Trump's promise to 'build a wall' was one of the major tenets of his political campaign. He insists that Mexico will eventually pay for the wall
The six companies vying for a chance to build the wall are: Cadell Construction Company based in Birmingham, Alabama; W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Company in Philadelphia, Mississippi; Fisher Sand & Gravel Company in Tempe, Arizona; Texas Sterling Construction Company based in Houston, Texas; KWR Construction Incorporated based in Sierra Vista, Arizona; and ELTA North America Inc, the US outlet of an Israeli defense contractor.
Cadell Construction Company and W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Company have submit two prototypes.
Contracts for the individual walls range from $320,000 to $486,411.
Of the eight contracts doled out in the Customs and Border Patrol search they awarded four to be made of concrete and four to be made of material other than concrete.
Trump's proposed border wall with Mexico has been a hard and fast campaign pledge. Building the eight prototypes has hit a milestone toward that pledge.
Trump still maintains that Mexicans will pay for the wall eventually, but says American taxpayers will front the cost until they do.  


OPIOID ADDICTION IN AMERICA:
OBAMA AND HIS CRONIES IN BIG PHARMA AT WORK!


 JUDICIAL WATCH:

“The greatest criminal threat to the daily lives of American citizens are the Mexican drug cartels.”



“Mexican drug cartels are the “other” terrorist threat to America. Militant Islamists have the goal of destroying the United States. Mexican drug cartels are now accomplishing that mission – from within, every day, in virtually every community across this country.” JUDICIALWATCH





October 23, 2017

The other open-borders issue: The opioid crisis


President Trump is set to declare the opioid epidemic a national public health emergency this week, with a speech Thursday, bringing to the fore a long-simmering problem that is linked to poverty in run-down rust-belt cities and social decay in the absence of jobs.
Axios writes:
The opioid crisis has hit hard in Trump country — rural areas, and economically depressed white communities. For Washington, it's been out of sight, out of mind for too long — and a reminder of the blinders we have in the bubbles, which also delayed recognition of Trump's heartland strength.
Axios notes that the opioid crisis has killed 50,000 Americans, five times the number who died during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.
But focus as the press in general is going to do on social travails, Trump probably should be highlighting that the problem started getting bad right about when President Obama opened the borders to non-enforcement in 2009. Not only did the unaccompanied children rush in, so did the drug dealers. Their wares fueled the opioid epidemic, often rolling in from the Texas Gulf Coast, to the highway arteries leading north to Chicago (that place with the Juarez-style murder rates, what a coincidence), and then spread to the depressed Midwest surrrounding it.
The website called DrugAbuse.com's Drug Trafficking Across Borders page has quite a few reputable links showing how the opioid epidemic has a lot to do with the great available supply brought on by Obama's open borders policy.
Data on drug seizures at the U.S. border indicate an alarming volume of trafficking taking place in recent years. Since 2009, heroin seizures at the southwestern border have almost tripled, while meth seizures quintupled through 2014.
The page shows that most trafficking is land-based and the traffic over the northern border, from Canada, while not as bad as Mexican border trafficking, is not insignificant either.  It notes that Arizona, which has a more aggressive seizure policy at its borders, has significantly fewer drug deaths compared to its neighbors. It also notes that as land routes shut down, drug traffickers turn to higher volume and higher risk sea and air routes. All the same, it concludes from its data that there is a significant foreign component to the opioid epidemic, one that comes explicitly from an absence of border enforcement. While Trump will probably focus on the problems of the buyers of these drugs and the need for curing them, there is also the problem of the open-border sellers.
Increased drug trafficking in the U.S. has led to an epidemic level of overdoses, surpassing car accidents and firearms as the leading cause of injury and death among Americans. Drug abuse is ending too many lives, too soon.
According to data from the DEA, the number of drug overdoses has climbed more than 50% in the last decade. Death and injury can be traced back to drug-related violence, overdoses from illicit drug use, accidental deaths as a result of drug abuse and injury or death related to smuggling.
While the production of some drugs takes place within our borders, foreign drug trade into the U.S. is largely responsible for the number of dead or injured. Drug abuse has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans, and the government allots billions of dollars each year to counter the growing epidemic.
If that isn't an argument for building the wall, what is?
WALL STREET TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE: DIE YOUNG… your company pension dies with you!


OPIOID AND ALCOHOL ADDICTION KILLS OF MIDDLE AMERICA

SOARING POVERTY AND DRUG ADDICTION UNDER OBAMA
"These figures present a scathing indictment of the social order that prevails in America, the world’s wealthiest country, whose government proclaims itself to be the globe’s leading democracy. They are just one manifestation of the human toll taken by the vast and all-pervasive inequality and mass poverty. 

MEXICO: AMERICA’S DRUG DEALER!


The same period has seen a massive growth of social inequality, with income and wealth concentrated at the very top of American society to an extent not seen since the 1920s.


“This study follows reports released over the past several months documenting rising mortality rates among US workers due to drug addiction and suicide, high rates of infant mortality, an overall leveling off of life expectancy, and a growing gap between the life expectancy of the bottom rung of income earners compared to those at the top.”



October 23, 2017

Mexico files a brief against the Texas sanctuary city law


This is about as silly as anything I have seen in years.  Mexico is now on record against SB-4
A Texas law banning sanctuary cities would harm diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Mexico, Mexico argues in a brief submitted to the appeals court reviewing the law.
The brief, filed Thursday with the Fifth District Court of Appeals in New Orleans, says whenever state or local officials act improperly in upholding the sanctuary law, the U.S. federal government would be unable to resolve the problem or prevent similar ones. Thus it runs the risk "that actions of a state or its officials regarding immigration enforcement could irreparably damage U.S. foreign policy interests with respect to a particular country."
Texas' sanctuary law, known as SB 4, may be the toughest in the country. In addition to banning sanctuary cities – jurisdictions that choose not to comply with federal immigration enforcement — it allows local law enforcement officers to question the immigration status of people they detain or arrest.
And the law seeks to punish local government department heads and elected officials who don't cooperate with federal immigration "detainers" – federal requests to turn over immigrants possibly subject to deportation. Punishment could come in the form of jail time and penalties that exceed $25,000.
Again, very silly and highly hypocritical.  I wonder if there are any sanctuary cities in Mexico for Central American immigrants.
This is the just the latest case of Mexico sticking its nose in U.S. politics.
http://www.americanthinker.com/images/bucket/2014-02/191666_5_.pngBack in 2010, President Felipe Calderón spoke in the U.S. Congress and found time to criticize the Arizona law.  Nobody asked "Sr. Presidente Calderón" about the incredible similarity between the Arizona law and Mexican laws.
As a legal resident in Mexico in the 1980s, I had firsthand experience with all of this.  I recall that my work visa (known then as FM-2) clearly stated that I had to carry identification just in case I had to prove to the authorities that I was in the country legally.  I was also quite clear about "Artículo 33" that forbids foreigners from getting involved in politics.
Don't get me wrong.  I had a wonderful time in Mexico and would recommend the experience to anyone.
However, hearing Mexico get this involved in our immigration politics confirms how dependent on remittances the country is.
We know that billions of dollars are sent south every year by Mexicans here legally and illegally.  This is not healthy for Mexico, as any honest Mexican will tell you!
Last, I have to laugh and remember a Mexican friend who told me: "Somos hipócritas, ¿verdad?" – or loosely translated, "We are hypocrites, no?"
With respect to immigration, the Mexican government is!  It loves to enforce its laws and would never allow a local jurisdiction to shelter an illegal alien from Central America or anywhere else.
PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

THE LA RAZA PLAN: California’s final surrender to fly the Mexican flag within 4 years.

"The American Southwest seems to be slowly returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single shot."  -- - EXCELSIOR --- national newspaper of Mexico



THE UNIDIOSus MAP OF LA RAZA-OCCUPIED AMERICA 

They claim all of North America for Mexico!


(WARNING! THE BELOW LINK IS GRAPHIC ON MEXICAN HATRED OF LEGALS)



MEXICO: AMERICA’S DRUG DEALER!


The same period has seen a massive growth of social inequality, with income and wealth concentrated at the very top of American society to an extent not seen since the 1920s.

“This study follows reports released over the past several months documenting rising mortality rates among US workers due to drug addiction and suicide, high rates of infant mortality, an overall leveling off of life expectancy, and a growing gap between the life expectancy of the bottom rung of income earners compared to those at the top.”

LOS ANGELES: MEXICO'S ANCHOR BABY 

BREEDING FACTORY FOR 18 YEARS OF 

WELFARE. JUMP THE BORDERS, GET 

YOUR CHECK IN THE MAIL THE NEXT 

DAY!

"La Voz de Aztlan has produced a video in honor of the millions of babies that have been born as US citizens to Mexican undocumented parents. These babies are destined to transform America. The nativist CNN reporter Lou Dobbs estimates that there are over 200,000 (dated) "Anchor Babies" born every year whereas George Putnam, a radio reporter, says the figure is closer to 300,000 (dated) . La Voz de Aztlan believes that the number is aproximately 500,000 (dated)  "Anchor Babies" born every year."

MEXICO WILL DOUBLE U.S. POPULATION
MAP OF THE LA RAZA OCCUPATION:
The LA RAZA ANCHOR BABY BREEDERS FOR WELFARE
MEXICO WILL DOUBLE AMERICA’S POPULATION
IMMIGRANT SHARE OF ADULTS QUADRUPLED IN 232 COUNTIES

JUDICIAL WATCH:

ILLEGALS VOTING IN MASSIVE NUMBERS IN MEX-OCCUPIED CA




''California is going to be a Hispanic state," said Mario Obeldo, former head of MALDEF. "Anyone who does not like it should leave."

And M.E.Ch.A's goal is even more radical: an independent ''Aztlan,'' the collective name this organization  gives to the seven states of the U.S. Southwest – Arizona,  California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Utah." 
JUDICIAL WATCH:

“The greatest criminal threat to the daily lives 

of American citizens are the Mexican drug 

cartels.”



“Mexican drug cartels are the “other” terrorist threat to America. Militant Islamists have the goal of destroying the United States. Mexican drug cartels are now accomplishing that mission – from within, every day, in virtually every community across this country.” JUDICIALWATCH

"An important factor in our long-term 
success requires securing our borders," 
Attorney General Sessions said.

Overall, in the 2017 Fiscal Year, officials revealed that a record-breaking 455,000 pounds plus of drugs had already been seized. In 2016, that number amounted to 443,000 pounds. The 2017 haul is worth an estimated $6.1 billion – BREITBART – JEFF SESSION’S DRUG BUST ON SAN DIEGO

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/09/20/ag-sessions-touts-record-breaking-drug-seizure-san-diego/



Somali Who Executed Canadian Terror Attack Entered U.S. Via Mexico



OCTOBER 20, 2017

Somali Who Executed Canadian Terror Attack Entered U.S. Via Mexico OCTOBER 2 0 , 2 0 1 7 The Somali terrorist who stabbed a Canadian police officer and ran over four pedestrians a few weeks ago entered the United States through the Mexican border and was released by Obama’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS), allowing him to continue his journey north. The ISIS operative, Abdulahi Hasan Sharif, was ordered deported, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokeswoman told various media outlets recently, but was released on an “order of supervision” and the feds never saw him again. Sharif entered the U.S. in 2011 through the San Ysidro port of entry in California without documentation and was briefly held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, a local newspaper reported. A year later he crossed the border into Canada and settled in Edmonton after being granted refugee status. On September 30 he slammed into an Edmonton police officer with his car then got out of the vehicle and repeatedly stabbed the cop with a knife. After fleeing the scene, Sharif stole a truck and deliberately mowed down four pedestrians. Canadian authorities found an ISIS flag in his car and have charged him with multiple counts of attempted murder, criminal flight causing bodily harm and possession of a weapon. Two years ago, Canadian authorities investigated the 30-year-old terrorist for espousing extremist views. It’s disturbing that Sharif’s northbound trek took him through the U.S.-Mexico border. As part of an ongoing investigation into cartels, corruption and terrorism, Judicial Watch has for years reported that Islamic extremists are entering the country through Mexico and that ISIS is operating in border towns just miles from American cities. Judicial Watch launched the project in 2014 by exposing a sophisticated narco-terror ring with strong ties to ISIS and connections running from El Paso to Chicago to New York City. Two of the FBI’s most wanted were embroiled in the operation that also had deep ties to Mexico. Less than a year later, Judicial Watch reported that ISIS is operating in a Mexican border town 10/20/2017 Somali Who Executed Canadian Terror Attack Entered U.S. Via Mexico - Judicial Watch https://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2017/10/somali-executed-canadian-terror-attack-entered-u-s-via-mexico/ 2/4 just eight miles from El Paso, the result of Islamic terrorists joining forces with drug cartels and human smugglers knowns as “coyotes.” When Judicial Watch reported that Mexican cartels were smuggling foreigners from countries with terrorist links into a small Texas rural town, federal authorities publicly denied the story was true. Never the less, high-level sources on both sides of the border confirmed to Judicial Watch that foreigners, classified as Special Interest Aliens (SIA), were being transported to stash areas in Acala, a rural crossroads located around 54 miles from El Paso on a state road – Highway 20. Once in the U.S., the SIAs waited for pick-up in the area’s sand hills just across Highway 20. At the time a Texas Department of Public Safety report leaked by the media had already confirmed that for years members of known Islamist terrorist organizations had been apprehended crossing the southern border. Last year a high-ranking DHS official told Judicial Watch that Mexican drug traffickers help Islamic terrorists stationed in Mexico cross into the United States to explore targets for future attacks. Among the jihadists that travel back and forth through the porous southern border is a Kuwaiti named Shaykh Mahmood Omar Khabir, an ISIS operative who lives in the Mexican state of Chihuahua not far from El Paso. Khabir trained hundreds of Al Qaeda fighters in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen and has lived in Mexico for more than a year, according to information provided by Judicial Watch’s government source. Now Khabir trains thousands of men—mostly Syrians and Yemenis—to fight in an ISIS base situated in the Mexico-U.S. border region near Ciudad Juárez, the intelligence gathered by Judicial Watch’s source reveals. Staking out U.S. targets is not difficult and Khabir actually bragged in an Italian newspaper article that the border region is so open that he “could get in with a handful of men, and kill thousands of people in Texas or in Arizona in the space of a few hours.” In the same article Mexico’s top diplomat, Foreign Affairs Secretary Claudia Ruiz, said “this new wave of fundamentalism could have nasty surprises in store for the United States.” While much of the American mainstream media ignores that Sharif made it to Canada via the U.S.-Mexico border, it’s hardly surprising considering Islamic extremists have been infiltrating the country through the famously unprotected region for years. Referring to the recent Canadian attack, a think-tank dedicated to investigating the operations, funding, activities and front groups of Islamic extremists worldwide writes: “Fears about a terrorist using the U.S.-Mexican border as a gateway for an attack have been realized.” « « Toward The Past: U.S. Doesn’t Vet or Assure Departure of Counterterrorism Trainees from Developing Nation

Report: More than 150 Afghan officers training in America have gone AWOL



According to a report from the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, 152 soldiers from the Afghan army who had been selected for special training in the United States have gone AWOL while on U.S. soil.
According to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, 13 of the 152 who had gone AWOL were still at large as of March 7 of this year. Seventy of the 152 had fled the United States; 39 gained legal status in the U.S.; and 27 were arrested, removed or in the process of being removed from the U.S. Three no longer were AWOL or returned to their training base in the U.S.
"There are so many problems here, it’s hard to know where to start," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement. "This is bad for national security, bad for Afghan military readiness, and bad for U.S. taxpayers."
AWOL Afghans are considered a security risk in the U.S. because they have military training and are of fighting age, and relatively few are ever arrested or detained.
Nearly all the Afghans who fled since 2005 were officers. Most were what the military calls "company grade" officers, meaning they were at the rank of lieutenant or captain. The prevalence of this group to abandon training posts is "particularly alarming," the report said, given the officers' important role in maintaining the overall readiness of the Afghan military.
The Afghans have fled from posts across America, including Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, where they are required to take English-language training; Fort Rucker, Ala.; Fort Benning, Ga.; Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and Fort Huachuca, Ariz.
The report cited numerous bureaucratic impediments to catching AWOL Afghans. They are required to provide limited biographical and background information while in the U.S., which can make it difficult to track them down, it said. Also, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents cannot take any action to locate a missing Afghan trainee until the departments of Defense and State take certain actions to revoke the individual's official status. This delays the start of an ICE investigation in which time is of the essence, the report said.
With so many "green on blue" attacks in Afghanistan carried out by rogue Afghan soldiers, you would think the U.S. would carefully vet any Afghan army personnel before they got to the United States.  The fact that they are required to provide only "limited biographical and background information" is extremely troubling.
The fact that there is only a small risk that any of these AWOL soldiers will become terrorists, or were infiltrated into the U.S. by the Taliban, is beside the point.  It's a risk we shouldn't have to run if officials had done their job correctly.


No comments: