Connect the Dots

Following up on yesterday's post regarding border security:

May 26, 2010 - Feds Issue Terror Watch for the Texas/Mexico Border

The Department of Homeland Security is alerting Texas authorities to be on the lookout for a suspected member of the Somalia-based Al Shabaab terrorist group who might be attempting to travel to the U.S. through Mexico...

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

In recent years, American Somalis have been recruited by Al Shabaab to travel to Somalia, where they are often radicalized by more extremist or operational anti-American terror groups, which Al Shabaab supports. The recruiters coming through the Mexican border are the ones who could be the most dangerous, according to law enforcement officials.

Security experts tell FOXNews.com that the influx of hundreds of Somalis over the U.S. border who allegedly have ties to suspected terror cells is evidence of a porous and unsecured border being exploited by groups intent on wrecking deadly havoc on American soil.

al Shabaab - remember that name. More on them later.

May 27, 2010 - Democrats stop bid to send 6,000 troops to border

President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in the Senate have repelled a move by presidential rival John McCain to send an additional 6,000 National Guard troops to the U.S-Mexico border.

The Arizona Republican says the security situation along the order has deteriorated so badly that 3,000 guard troops are needed just to help protect his state.

Obama on Tuesday promised to send 1,200 Guard troops to the border to support efforts to block drug trafficking and temporarily supplement Border Patrol agents until more agents can be trained.

Former President George W. Bush sent thousands of Guard troops to the border in 2006.

1200 troops. A 1700 mile border. Do the math - that's about 1 soldier every 1.5 miles. That'll really shut down illegal border crossings. 

June 18, 2010 - Five Federal Lands in Arizona Have Travel Warnings in Place

Imagine the federal government closing a section of the Lincoln Memorial because it was under the control of Mexican drug lords and bands of illegal immigrants.

That scenario is playing out as reality in southern Arizona, where parts of five federal lands -- including two designated national monuments -- continue to post travel warnings or be outright closed to Americans who own the land because of the dangers of "human and drug trafficking" along the Mexican border.

Roughly 3,500 acres of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge -- about 3 percent of the 118,000-acre park -- have been closed since Oct. 6, 2006, when U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials acknowledged a marked increase in violence along a tract of land that extends north from the border for roughly three-quarters of a mile. Federal officials say they have no plans to reopen the area.b

Dennis Godfrey, a spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management's Arizona office, said roughly a dozen signs were posted earlier this month along the Sonoran Desert National Monument advising that travel in the area is not recommended due to "active drug and human" smuggling. The signs are not far from where a Pinal County deputy was shot and killed during a confrontation with marijuana smugglers in April and the fatal shooting of two men suspected to be drug smugglers.

"It is a corridor for smugglers of all types," Godfrey told FoxNews.com.

Similar signs have been posted at the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and the Coronado National Forest, which covers nearly 1.8 million acres in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico.

Estimates of exactly how many acres of federal land are closed due to safety concerns near the border were not immediately available, but at least one lawmaker told FoxNews.com that the policy of "ceding" federal land to drug and human trafficking is unacceptable.

"This is one of those things that the Department of Interior does not want to publicize," said Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, ranking Republican on the House Parks and Public Lands Subcommittee. "These bad actors are now being channeled into federal lands along the border because it's so easy to make that access. The situation is getting worse on federal lands and will only get worse until we make some proactive activity to change the status quo."

"Frankly," Bishop continued, "the status quo is failing. We are failing to control our borders."

I don't get it. If the feds know where the illegal crossing points are - and they must, as evidenced by the signs - then why on God's green earth aren't they beefing up enforcement at those points? 

We have ceded portions of our country - U.S. soil - to narcoterrorists, human smugglers, and illegal aliens. How can any president or U.S. official - elected or appointed - stand by and let this happen? Maybe to curry favor with a certain ethnic group....?

But isn't undermining national security for personal and political gain the definition of treason? I'll freely admit I know very little about the law, but it sure would be nice to see some of those officials charged. If nothing else, it might light a fire under someone and result in some meaningful action.

July 13, 2010 - Suspects held after World Cup bomb attacks

Somali al-Shabab Islamists linked to al-Qaida have claimed responsibility for the attacks on a crowded restaurant and a rugby club in the capital Uganda while fans watched the World Cup final on television.

"I think that there's a common recognition that this is a new phase for al-Shabab in terms of expanding their geographic reach unfortunately," U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters.

"We are constantly looking at ways that we can increase our preparation for, prevention of, and interdiction of any type of terrorist attack before it should occur on our own soil."

76 people were killed in the bombing, including 1 American. Five other U.S. citizens were wounded.

Yes, that's the same al-Shabab mentioned in the terror alert issued on May 26. The same al-Shabab that freely uses the U.S.-Mexico border to smuggle in terrorists. If Napolitano is serious about "ways that we can increase our preparation for, prevention of, and interdiction of any type of terrorist attack before it should occur on our own soil" then perhaps securing our borders would be a damn fine place to start.

July 19, 2010 - 250 soldiers to be deployed along border

Texas will see 250 National Guardsmen along the border with Mexico when troops are deployed Aug. 1 to help battle drug, immigrant and gun smuggling, federal officials said Monday.

“These troops will provide direct support to federal law enforcement officers and agents working in high-risk areas to disrupt criminal organizations seeking to move people and goods illegally across the Southwest border,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.

The troops are part of 1,200 National Guardsmen ordered to the border by President Barack Obama in May.

Texas, with a 1260 mile border with Mexico, gets 250 Guardsmen. One every five miles. Nationally, 1200 Guardsmen are spread across a 1700 mile border.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the troop deployment “falls woefully short of the resources needed to truly secure America's borders.”

Nearly half the guardsmen, 524 troops, are headed to Arizona, where frustration with the federal government's failure to stop illegal immigration resulted in the passage of a state law that requires local police to check the immigration status of those stopped or apprehended for other crimes or violations. The Obama administration is challenging the law in federal court.

Napolitano said the recently announced plan to bolster border security is just part of ongoing efforts to step up enforcement of current laws “with an unprecedented sense of urgency.”

Oh my aching butt. She's nothing but obama's sock puppet.

The 1,200 guardsmen are far fewer than the 6,000 dispatched to provide border security in 2006 under then-President George W. Bush.

Still, some Texas lawmakers applauded the Obama administration's efforts.

Yeah, the democrap ones who are more interesting in political posturing than border security.

“As drug-related violence persists in neighboring Mexico, this is one more step we're taking to ensure the safety of our border states,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee's subcommittee on border affairs.

Cuellar is one of six Democratic congressmen from Texas who represent border communities and support Obama's efforts to thwart drug trafficking and immigrant smuggling.

Republicans were more cautious in their praise, saying the administration's recent actions are a response to the frustration with the federal government's inability to secure the border.

“It's taken far too long for this administration to supply much-needed additional border agents, resources and equipment to our law enforcement personnel,” Cornyn said.

Jonathan Gurwitz, an op-ed columnist with the San Antonio Express-News, does a fine job of wrapping things up.

Border security is national security. The latest confirmation of what should be an obvious statement came last week from Uganda. What does the East African nation have to do with America's porous borders?

Terrorists struck in the capital Kampala as fans watched the World Cup championship. Suicide bombers set off lethal charges at a mass viewing party and a crowded restaurant. Seventy-six people were killed.

Twelve summers ago, another little-known Islamist group carried out simultaneous suicide attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, leaving more than 200 dead. The group responsible for the 1998 bombings was al-Qaida, and the East African operation was the first sign of its lethal international reach and a prelude to the plot — executed three years later — to attack the United States.

Al-Shabab is al-Qaida's subsidiary in Somalia...

A Homeland Security intelligence assessment produced before the Uganda bombings and obtained by the Associated Press warned, “We cannot exclude the possibility that U.S. persons aligned with al-Shabab in the Horn of Africa may return to the U.S., possibly to carry out acts of violence.”

How might they enter the United States undetected? ... (by) following the same routes and with the same human smugglers that millions of other unauthorized immigrants have used to surreptitiously cross the border.

Let's acknowledge that the overwhelming number of unauthorized immigrants entering the United States are simply seeking better lives and economic opportunity. Let's also acknowledge that in most cases, they are compelled to break the law because of irrationally restrictive U.S. immigration policies.

Those are arguments in favor of reforming immigration. They are not reasons to ignore the federal government's responsibility to secure the border. And they are certainly not reasons to legally challenge states that act to remedy the federal government's delinquency.

In most cases, unauthorized immigrants come here to cut American lawns, make American beds and pick American crops. But some of them want to come here to cut American throats. And there's no way to turn a blind eye to the former without also enabling the latter.

Let me repeat and emphasize one point. Immigration reform and border security are two different things. We can and should improve both. It's like sailing in a boat that's taking on water. You need to bail (immigration reform). But all the bailing in the world isn't going to help until you plug the hole (border security). I don't know why that's so hard for some people to understand.

There is nothing so uncommon as common sense...