Immigration: Fleeing Was "A Triumph For The Guard"

New reports confirm that armed gunmen crossing into the US from Mexico actually came within 35 feet of National Guradsmen as they were loading their vehicles to flee the area.

I wouldn't fault the guardsmen, as they were obviously following orders. But it's ironic reading a statement describing their actions as a triumph for the guard's training. While factually correct, I suspect many anti-illegal immigration Americans would disagree.

PHOENIX (AP) -- A gunman in a group of six to eight men came within 35 feet of National Guardsmen watching the Mexican border earlier this month, according to a Guard report.

The four Guardsmen from Tennessee were manning an observation post near Sasabe on Jan. 3, looking for illegal border crossings. The men approached, split into two groups and surrounded the site, according to the report.

"We see this as a triumph of the training, discipline and professionalism of the Guardsmen performing this mission," the summary says.

Euphoric Reality reported on the story here.

Comments

[Darth Malice]

A retreat a trimph....No wonder the GOP and the West is taking a beating!We can't anymore afford these "trimphs"

[Phoenix]

I wonder if these guys will get The Triumph of Training Medal for Not Shooting the Bastards? (It's for extraordinary valor in not pulling the trigger when your guts are screaming "DO IT !!") Most men, after receiving this medal, go a little bit crazy and quit the military and go to work at Wal-Mart where they get to pinch fat Mexican women on the ass and break all the hard-shell tacos on the shelves.

[Darth Malice]

What is wrong with GW?Pheonix he is killing what's left of his base.

[Purple Avenger]

Has anyone verified if they even had live ammo?

[Darth Malice]

Purple what happens in a full scale invasion,will we be allowed to fire back.

[EClark1849]

Kind of begs the question: What would the guardsmen do if they see someone coming carrying a footlocker large enough to hold a nuclear device?

All that noise about the Dubai Ports deal and all a terrorist really has to do is stroll across the southern border at his leisure.

[Phoenix]

The Barney Fife Patrol.

Darth,

It sure does seem as if things are going to hell. I think Bush is focused on Iraq right now - not a bad thing because if he succeeds all hell will break loose for the lefties. I have great hope for that.

As for the border, I am clueless. Does the Mexican government have something on us that they're using as leverage so we *have* to take their tired and poor? I've read every angle of this issue, and not once have I come away convinced that anyone knows what to do.

EClark,

I read a great article about Dubai. What a place of modernity. Seems they just laughed at us and cancelled the deal. They only service the entire planet's ships....oh, but no way could they handle our ports. We embarrassed ourselves over that.

[Cindi]

Heidi at ER broke the news on this story last week. I suggest for those interested,
read the entire run down. The Guard has their hands tied. I have to agree Phoenix, What do they have on us, or better yet.....WTF? At this very moment, we have two young BP agents facing 10 years in jail for shooting and grazing a drug smuggler. Mexico demanded justice, as far as I can tell, the US responded and the chief witness, the drug smuggler? Now these young men, with young children are facing ten years in jail.

[Darth Malice]

Phoenix I expect GW to be able to handle this stuff.He has staff,what the heck is going on?

[larry]

this sad little story just illustrates 2 very disturbing trends:

1) bush is still continuing on with his agenda. we don't know what that agenda is, but obviously it involves allowing mexico to overrun our borders with absolutely no resistance from us. the "prosecution of the 2 border patrol guys who shot the wetback drug-dealer in the ass" thing isn't a coincidence: he's letting the BP know how it's gonna be. or else. election results obviously mean nothing to bush - or, for that matter, the entire gop: the guys who just re-elected the *same* leadership that lost them congress - only advancement of the agenda matters.

2) since armed, trained, sworn-in US military personnel sat there cowering like bitches while an armed foreign, possibly 'enemy' force 'invaded' this country, we can only conclude that when/if the SHTF, they'll be no use. men, suppoosedly patriotic men, who would hide & then run away from an invasion force (just like they were ordered to) would have no problem turning their weapons on american citizens, should they be ordered to. (although i must admit the guard describing their border humiliation as a "triumph" is an amazing instance of audacity, gall, irony, bs....whatever. good to know they'll cheerfully lie to us with a straight face, ain't it?)

pains me to write it, pains me to criticize american troops, but what other conclusions can be drawn from this tawdry little vignette?

[Purple Avenger]

"Does the Mexican government have something on us that they're using as leverage"

If I had to guess.... O.I.L.

[Darth Malice]

Larry if we are defeated in Iraq and lose total control of the border ,we need to take a wreaking ball to the military.Start over,get rid of the perfumed prince officers,get some Pattons and Shermans in there......We need to get new political leadership willing to be brutal with our enemies.

[Cindi]

The Guardsmen did NOT RUN.

[Darth Malice]

Cindi,I am in the Guard and I would have ran.Even if I had a weapon I could get proscuted by Bush for fighting back.Time for Bush to step down sad to say.

[Phoenix]

This is going to sound so off the wall, but it keeps coming back to me like a little brain-signal whenever the border stuff comes up. I cannot remember the source, but I read an article a long time ago about the drug problem. It was long, comprehensive and believable. The gist of it seemed to be that no one wants to 'really' end the drug flow. The amount of money involved ends up being good for Mexico, and that theme was followed by how bad it might be if that money were not there as the number of poor Mexicans would double and thus cause the U.S. more problems.

Not sure if I made sense because I'm dragging this up from a long time ago. I just distinctly recall the theme that no one wants the drug war to stop. There was also that thing about keeping the underclass happy at all costs because an unhappy underclass can be the demise of any democratic capitalist society.

(Sorry for being so vague, but I had to get it out. I don't think it's just oil.)

[Phoenix]

By the way, according to the prosecutor of these two border patrol guys, they shot this guy in the back after he stood up with his hands up and then tried to run away. He said the BP knew he had no weapon and that the BP unloaded their weapons on him. At least fifteen shots hit the guy. He also said they then tried to cover up the incident.

[Darth Malice]

Pheonix drugs to keep the masses happy.You are on to something!

[larry]

you're right, cindy: the guardsmen there on that glorious night "did not run". first they hid like small children, cowering, hoping they wouldn't be seen. then, after it became clear they *were* seen, and the bad-guy force moved towards them, they....retreated in an orderly manner (single file, no pushing, no cutting in line. all the things so important for military discipline) and got in their jeeps and drove away.

i expect this magnificent triumph will someday be enshrined right up there with sgt. york, and midway, and bastogne in the 'proud moments' hall of fame. after all, they didn't A) surrender their weapons or B) allow the bad guys to pants them, and make them hop like bunnies back to base.

(mutters to self angrily) "too late.....born 200 years too damn late...."

[larry]

phoenix! babe! long time no read....howzit?

ready for a potpourri post?

1) well, of *course* the prosecutor said all those bad things about the BP ass-shooters. saying bad things is what prosecutors DO. doesn't mean they're not lying, though. see: prosecution of randy weaver; durham DA mike nifong; etc etc ad nauseum. hell, they prosecuted martha stewart for saying, "i'm innocent".

2) you're probably on track re why we want drugs to be illegal & highly profitable. "miami vice", a million years ago, had a deeply cynical episode saying pretty much the same thing. (crockett & tubbs finally meet the sinister shadowy banker: who seemed very much like the 'god' character in matrix 2, btw)(but i digress) everybody admits drug war to be utter failure; most people see parallels with prohibition; federal government keeps "fighting" losing war on drugs, despite being 0-for-90 years now. and the voters be damned.

3) and if it's not drugs, it's bank loans. way back when, there were many many scare articles about how mexico, and south america had been lent **BILLIONS** by incredibly stupid US banks. so much money, that were mexico et al to default, it would bring down the US monetary system. so much so that one day, the mexicans almost certainly realized THEY had the power now. they're already poor: they don't care if they default. but WE most certainly do. hmmm....what might mexico demand as blackmail in order to keep making minimum monthly payments; keep the "banks are sound" fiction going? would they demand "unlimited immigracion"?

i grew up on the mex border. i KNOW they would. thank you, david rockefeller.

[Redhead Infidel]

Phoenix said: "By the way, according to the prosecutor of these two border patrol guys, they shot this guy in the back after he stood up with his hands up and then tried to run away. He said the BP knew he had no weapon and that the BP unloaded their weapons on him. At least fifteen shots hit the guy. He also said they then tried to cover up the incident."

That's false information. Good lord, you couldn't be more wrong. Shot 15 times??? The incident occured on Feb 17th, 2005, and the drug smuggler had a teensy fragment of one bullet removed from his ass almost a MONTH later. Here are the facts:

Feb. 17, 2005, US Border Patrol Agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos shot Aldrete-Davila once in the buttocks saying that they thought the suspect was armed. Upon returning to Mexico, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila complains of his misfortunes to his mother, who contacted the mother-in-law of Border Patrol agent Rene Sanchez in Wilcox, AZ.

--

According to a document, Rene Sanchez stated “that Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila's mother, Marcadia Aldrete-Davila, contacted Rene Sanchez's mother-in-law, Gregoria Toquinto, and advised her about the BP agents shooting Aldrete-Davila. Toquinto told her son-in-law, Rene Sanchez, of the incident, and he spoke to Osvaldo via a telephone call.”

--

Agent Rene Sanchez repeatedly called the Fabens Border Patrol Station requesting information to see if there were any seizures or shootings. However, according to the Department of Homeland Security in a memorandum of activity document, Rene Sanchez stated that he queried the Border Patrol Tracking System (BPETS) and found that the Fabens Border Patrol Station seized a load of marijuana on February 17, 2005.

--

Border Patrol Agent Rene Sanchez assisted with securing an attorney for Aldrete-Davila to sue Agents Compean and Ramos in a civil case.

--

Office of Inspector General Agent, Christopher Sanchez –

Agent Christopher Sanchez served as an ICE agent in Arizona before lateraling over to OIG.

Mar. 2005, Rene Sanchez calls the Office of Inspector General at DHS and speaks to a Agent Christopher Sanchez who was a four-month trainee in OIG.

--

Agent Christopher Sanchez began investigating the case, and eventually he goes to Mexico and brings Davila back to El Paso.

The chain of evidence, including custody gets really murky at this point and Compean and Ramos are arrested, charged, and arraigned within days.

--

Agent Rene Sanchez’ mother in-law drove Aldrete-Davila to the William Beaumont Army Medical Center, and he had a fragment of a bullet removed.

Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila was given immunity to testify against US Border Patrol Agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos.

--

Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila later broke his immunity agreement in October 2005, when officers say he attempted to smuggle 1,000 pounds of marijuana into America.

The prosecution further extended its immunity to this felony and sealed the indictment from jurors.

--

Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila is now suing the US Border Patrol for $5-million for violating his civil rights, and Compean and Ramos are each doing over 10 years hard time.

[Redhead Infidel]

BY the way, that news report above is very careful not to mention the uniforms and military assault gear of the Mexican, and is excruciatingly careful to claim that no one knows who the mysterious armed gunmen were. It is also NOT CORRECT that the BP were called AFTER the AZNG moved positions. The AZNG had been monitoring the incoming Mexicans for over three hours. The BP knew all about it. The media can't ever get anything right, so I'm not surprised that a silly little gal like Amanda Lee Meyers doesn't understand the military implications of this "incursion". So, she's left to simply regurgitate the governor's cleaned up (and by "cleaned up", I mean factually inaccurate) statement on the issue.

[Phoenix]

We're talking about two different incidents here. I just quoted the prosecutor of the two U.S. agents who shot the one un-armed guy. Who knows who to believe as the two were tried by a jury and found guilty for a number of things. Seems the outrage was not that they shot an un-armed man so much as they tried to cover it up.

I don't know... just parroting back what I heard last night on the tube. The irony of both stories is the juxtaposition of positions: Two guys shot - got put in jail; Two guys didn't shoot - walked away clean. Perfect example of this horrific problem at the border.

[Buzzy]

So which is worse, Bush for refusing to secure the border or the Democrats for refusing to secure the border? Bush calls the Minutemen vigilantes and the left calls them terrorists. Our National Guard retreats in the face of an armed invasion and yet it's a triumph? These are sad days.