Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Immigration headlines today

As we hear of immigrant stash houses Along Texas-Mexico Border
Some Smugglers Cram 100 or More Migrants Into a Decrepit House, Nancy’s greeting the newcomers:

The Obama administration knew this was coming: On January 29 this year, the Department of Homeland Security was advertising for contractors to provide Escort Services for Unaccompanied Alien Children:

provide unarmed escort staff, including management, supervision, manpower, training, certifications, licenses, drug testing, equipment and supplies necessary to provide on-demand escort services for non-criminal/non-delinquent unaccompanied alien children ages infant to 17 years of age, seven days a week, 365 days a year. … There will be approximately 65,000 [unaccompanied alien children] in total.

As I mentioned before, acting by executive order is part of the plan.

Ace:

I don’t care if the next two years are a constant series of lawsuits decided by the Supreme Court — in fact, I’d prefer it.

Do they imagine they’ve got some advantage here, going into the elections, with hundreds of thousands of immigrant children now enticed to cross the border illegally thanks to their policies?

Neoneocon’s late commenter FredHJr had an observation that may shed some light on that,

Obama is part of a nexus of interests. What the American dopes who will put him in office are getting is a NETWORK of alliances and interests, running the gamut from Finance (Soros) to academia to media to law. Thus far, in order to appeal to the Middle Muddle he has been packaged as a moderate or centrist. But once in office the venomous swarm of this network will burst out of the nest and devour the host. You wait and see. And I’m not eager for the moment to say “I told you so.” I really would it be the case that it never happens at all. Why? Because the lives of tens of millions of human beings hang in the balance of this and mushroom clouds on the horizon. I put the value of human life far above my own frustrated rantings.

I leave it to you to ponder.

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Border security for pu**ies: The Sir Robin border patrol strategy

Border security = national security, and we’re in the hands of Sir Robin.

First, The Tale of Sir Robin:

And now, the news story, via Jawa:

Border Patrol union blasts Homeland Security instructions to ‘run away’ and ‘hide’ from gunmen

Border Patrol agents in Arizona are blasting their bosses for telling them, along with all other Department of Homeland Security employees, to run and hide if they encounter an “active shooter.”
It’s one thing to tell civilian employees to cower under a desk if a gunman starts spraying fire in a confined area, say members of Tucson Local 2544/National Border Patrol Council, but to give armed law enforcement professionals the same advice is downright insulting. The instructions from DHS come in the form of pamphlets and a mandatory computer tutorial.

Specifically,

Main Points of the “Active Shooter” training course
Evacuate: If there is an accessible escape path, attempt to evacuate the premises.
Hide out: If evacuation is not possible, find a place to hide where the active shooter is less likely to find you.
Take action: As a last resort, and only when your life is in imminent danger, attempt to disrupt and/or incapacitate the active shooter.

Say again? “Attempt to disrupt and/or incapacitate the active shooter”? Whatever happened to shoot to kill?

What’s next? Holler at them, “Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elder berries”?

Jawa also points out,

OT kinda but not considering the current head of DHS and her prior position as Gov of Arizona: Obama Contributor, Who Helped Enact Assault-Weapons Ban, Ran ‘Fast and Furious’

In 2003, when Napolitano became governor, Burke became her chief of staff. He stayed in that job until the fall of 2008, when he left to help Democratic political campaigns, including then-Sen. Obama’s presidential campaign

Read it all.

We’re in the best of hands.

UPDATE,
Linked by Mental Recession. Thanks!

Cross-posted in The Green Room.


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Hezbollah honcho busted at his Tijiuana Mx home

I’ve been stating for a while that securing the border with Mexico is a matter of national security. Long-term readers of this blog also know that Hezbollah is carrying out operations in Latin America, frequently associated with drugs. Now this,
Hezbollah leader living across US border in Tijuana

My my… more evidence bubbles to the surface that the US-Mexican border war is about more than the civil rights of illegal immigrants… or the anticipated built in voter bloc for desperate Dems. Today brings good news that the Mexican police are actively working to thwart Hezbollah’s attempt to gain a foothold there. A surveillance operation focused on Hezbollah leader, Jameel Nasr, resulted in his arrest at his Tijuana home. Nasr employed Mexican nationals with family ties to Lebanon for his Hezbollah/Mexico network.

Haaretz reports,
Mexico thwarts Hezbollah bid to set up South American network
Militant group employed Mexican nationals with ties to Lebanon to target Israel and the West, Kuwaiti newspaper reports.

Mexico foiled an attempt by Hezbollah to establish a network in South America, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Hezbollah operatives employed Mexicans nationals with family ties to Lebanon to set up the network, designed to target Israel and the West, the Al-Seyassah daily said.

According to the report, Mexican police mounted a surveillance operation on the group’s leader, Jameel Nasr, who traveled frequently to Lebanon to receive information and instructions from Hezbollah commanders there.

Police say Nasr also made frequent trips to other countries in Latin America, including a two-month stay in Venezuela in the summer of 2008.

Nasr was living in Tijuana, Mexico at the time of his arrest, the report said.

Congresswoman Sue Myrick (R- NC) had written to the Dept. of Homeland Security

In June, a U.S. congresswoman wrote to the Department of Homeland Security to warn that Hezbollah was increasing its presence in Central and South America.

In her letter, Congresswoman Sue Myrick called on the U.S. to work with Mexican forces, as there was intelligence that Hezbollah was working in conjunction with Mexican drug cartels on the U.S.-Mexico border.

I wonder what happened to her request.

Meanwhile, what is the Obama administration doing?
The Department of Justice is suing Arizona over its immigration law. Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion posted the complaint, which you can read below the fold:

(more…)

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Shahzad on Homeland Security list since 1999; VIDEO

Yes, siree, the Times Square bomber who was pulled out of the plane that would have taken him out of the country after his terror attack had been on the Homeland Security list since before the second WTC attack:
Faisal Shahzad on Homeland Security List Since 1999

Sources tell CBS News that would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad appeared on a Department of Homeland Security travel lookout list – Traveler Enforcement Compliance System (TECS) – between 1999 and 2008 because he brought approximately $80,000 cash or cash instruments into the United States.

TECS is a major law enforcement computer system that allows its approximately 120,000 users from 20 federal agencies to share information. The database is designed to identify individuals suspected of or involved in violation of federal law.

He could buy a one-way airline ticket for cash and get on the plane to Dubai but you and I can’t even wear a belt through the metal detector at the gate.

And… the anything-but-a-radical-Islamist-terrorist dude was Taliban-trained:
Suspect’s Ties to Pakistan Taliban Probed
Islamabad Official Claims Shahzad Received Instructions From Suicide-Bomber Trainer; Group Has Been Targeted by CIA Drones

Pakistani investigators also are probing Mr. Shahzad’s possible connections with Jaish-e-Muhammad, an outlawed Islamist militant group, after the arrest Tuesday of Tohaid Ahmed and Mohammed Rehan in Karachi. A senior Pakistani government official said the two men were believed to have links to Jaish. Mr. Ahmed had been in email contact with Mr. Shahzad; Mr. Rehan took Mr. Shahzad to South Waziristan, the official said.

There, Mr. Shahzad received training in explosives in a camp run by Qari Hussain, the official said. Mr. Hussain is a senior commander with Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, the Pakistan Taliban’s formal name, and trains suicide bombers, the official said. Mr. Hussain is also a cousin of Hakimullah Mehsud, the Pakistan Taliban’s chief. The 30-year-old Mr. Shahzad has admitted to investigators that he received training from militants in Waziristan, U.S. officials said.

Jawa has the video of Faisal on Times Square during a prior visit,

Watch CBS News Videos Online

In lighter news, maybe the authorities were following him on Twitter!

UPDATE
James Joyner doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry,

The interesting question to me is: Which would be worse?

That is, would it be better if our ridiculously expensive and cumbersome Homeland Security apparatus wasn’t monitoring Shahzad, despite his being a Pakistani national or the right age set constantly traveling back to his homeland? Or that they’d been following him for eleven years but didn’t catch him until well after he finished his plot, avoiding disaster only through his incompetence?

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Shahzad on Homeland Security list since 1999; VIDEO

Yes, siree, the Times Square bomber who was pulled out of the plane that would have taken him out of the country after his terror attack had been on the Homeland Security list since before the second WTC attack:
Faisal Shahzad on Homeland Security List Since 1999

Sources tell CBS News that would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad appeared on a Department of Homeland Security travel lookout list – Traveler Enforcement Compliance System (TECS) – between 1999 and 2008 because he brought approximately $80,000 cash or cash instruments into the United States.

TECS is a major law enforcement computer system that allows its approximately 120,000 users from 20 federal agencies to share information. The database is designed to identify individuals suspected of or involved in violation of federal law.

He could buy a one-way airline ticket for cash and get on the plane to Dubai but you and I can’t even wear a belt through the metal detector at the gate.

And… the anything-but-a-radical-Islamist-terrorist dude was Taliban-trained:
Suspect’s Ties to Pakistan Taliban Probed
Islamabad Official Claims Shahzad Received Instructions From Suicide-Bomber Trainer; Group Has Been Targeted by CIA Drones

Pakistani investigators also are probing Mr. Shahzad’s possible connections with Jaish-e-Muhammad, an outlawed Islamist militant group, after the arrest Tuesday of Tohaid Ahmed and Mohammed Rehan in Karachi. A senior Pakistani government official said the two men were believed to have links to Jaish. Mr. Ahmed had been in email contact with Mr. Shahzad; Mr. Rehan took Mr. Shahzad to South Waziristan, the official said.

There, Mr. Shahzad received training in explosives in a camp run by Qari Hussain, the official said. Mr. Hussain is a senior commander with Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, the Pakistan Taliban’s formal name, and trains suicide bombers, the official said. Mr. Hussain is also a cousin of Hakimullah Mehsud, the Pakistan Taliban’s chief. The 30-year-old Mr. Shahzad has admitted to investigators that he received training from militants in Waziristan, U.S. officials said.

Jawa has the video of Faisal on Times Square during a prior visit,

Watch CBS News Videos Online

In lighter news, maybe the authorities were following him on Twitter!

UPDATE
James Joyner doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry,

The interesting question to me is: Which would be worse?

That is, would it be better if our ridiculously expensive and cumbersome Homeland Security apparatus wasn’t monitoring Shahzad, despite his being a Pakistani national or the right age set constantly traveling back to his homeland? Or that they’d been following him for eleven years but didn’t catch him until well after he finished his plot, avoiding disaster only through his incompetence?

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Can’t prevent a terrorist attack? Subpoena a blogger, then!

Blogger gets a subpoena from the Department of Homeland Security for

All documents, emails, and/or faxsimile transmissions (sic) in your control possession or control concerning your receipt of TSA [Transportation Security Administration] Security Directive 1544-09-06 dated December 25, 2009.

Yes, the bloggers (h/t Instapundit) get subpoenas over security directives that were made public

as soon as soon as airlines and airports began implementing the directive—and that began before the bloggers posted their copies.

The document was not classified.

TSA subpoenas bloggers, demands names of sources

As the government reviews how an alleged terrorist was able to bring a bomb onto a U.S.-bound plane and try to blow it up on Christmas Day, the Transportation Security Administration is going after bloggers who wrote about a directive to increase security after the incident.

TSA special agents served subpoenas to travel bloggers Steve Frischling and Chris Elliott, demanding that they reveal who leaked the security directive to them. The government says the directive was not supposed to be disclosed to the public.

The Lid reminds us that the TSA

accidentally posted their procedures guide on the net, and while the secret parts were blacked out, there are software programs that can help people with nefarious intent to see under those “black marks.”

Will the TSA supoena themselves next?

More at Blackfive.

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