Vehicle searches yield few weapons at U.S.-Mexico border

Searches of vehicles crossing into Mexico are yielding few weapons in what U.S. officials concede is a frustrating effort to slow the flow of guns to violent Mexican cartels operating across the U.S. border.

Almost immediately after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced a stepped-up vehicle search program beginning in March 2009, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials went five consecutive months — May through September — without recovering a single weapon in El Paso, within sight of the bloodiest battleground in the Mexican drug war.

Weapons seizures from vehicles moving through the Southwest border’s busiest crossings have increased to 310 so far in fiscal year 2010, up from 155 in fiscal year 2009, CBP records show. Besides guns, weapons include grenades and rockets.

Yet the seizures represent a tiny fraction of arms flooding Mexico from the USA, at a rate of 2,000 per day, according to Brookings Institution estimates.

Full Story Here:
Vehicle searches yield few weapons at U.S.-Mexico border

What? Seriously? The U.S. government isn’t finding those guns being transported to Mexico that they said they would? Surely not…

What about all the Texas Gun Shows? Weren’t we, Texas gun owners, being accused of making *straw-man* purchases and abusing our Second Amendment rights? Weren’t honest Texas gun dealers subjected to accusations of impropriety and subjected to all kinds of BATF audits?

And about those Texas Gun Shows…weren’t they supposed to be a wholesale market for fully automatic assault weapons, grenades, land mines and myriad other weapons of war?

You would think a state like Texas, one that held the BATF and federal gun regulations in such low esteem would be flagrantly exploiting the U.S. - Mexican border weaknesses and transporting tons of guns to the cartels and bringing back loads of money in the process.

You would think.

“It is a challenge for us,” says Steven Stavinoha, director of CBP’s outbound search operations. He says the agency is revamping its strategy.

Stavinoha says federal authorities have been hampered by staffing limitations, spotty intelligence and gun smugglers who alter their operations to elude capture. “Smuggling organizations are able to adapt to our activities and use it against us,” he says.

OR…maybe the guns are coming into Mexico from Central America, or into seaports, or beaches. Just sayin’.

Maybe the guns are coming in on the same routes, via the same sources that are exporting drugs into America. It doesn’t seem to me that the DEA is doing all that great at stopping drugs from coming in, how can BATF be expected to stop guns from going out?

He says smugglers monitor search teams’ locations and redirect shipments to alternate crossings or wait for the teams to move to other locations.

Well, imagine that, the smugglers are monitoring your actions.

I am going to let these guys in on a little Op/Sec Intel that I tried to share with the military and the folks in charge when talking about how our troops are ambushed and killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The U.S. military and ALL of our Intelligence agencies are fully and thoroughly infiltrated.

Bet on it. That is what PCness and liberalism have done for us.

The Taliban and al-Qaida have their operatives in high places within the military and intelligence agencies of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen and everywhere else we operate. Some have even offered speculation that the infiltration extends to the highest office in the land.

The Mexican drug cartels have accomplished the exact same thing. Infiltration runs rampant in the drug and gun business. And think about this; the drug cartels and gun importers have more disposable income than the entire United States government.

Police departments are infiltrated. Governments themselves are also infiltrated and in many case, fully complicit in ALL of these actions, on both sides of the border, drugs and guns.

If the United States wants to win the war on drugs, guns and terrorism they must 1st LOSE a thing or two. Political correctness being first and foremost.

Long time readers know my opinion when it come to fighting, and winning a WAR. If you are not in it to win, by any means necessary, you are not going to win at all.

« Read the rest of this post HERE! »

Suicide bomber kills 48 outside Iraqi military base

BAGHDAD (AP) — Twin suicide bombings killed 48 people on Sunday, including dozens from a government-backed, anti-al-Qaeda militia who were lined up to get their paychecks near a military base southwest of Baghdad, Iraqi officials said.

The bombings were the deadliest in a series of attacks across Iraq Sunday that were aimed at the Sons of Iraq, a Sunni group also known as Sahwa that works with government forces to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq. The attacks highlighted the stiff challenges the country faces as the U.S. scales back its forces in Iraq, leaving their Iraqi counterparts in charge of security.

The first attack Sunday morning — the deadliest against Iraq’s security forces in months — killed at least 45 people and wounded more than 40. It occurred at a checkpoint near a military base where Sahwa members were lined up to receive paychecks in the mostly Sunni district of Radwaniya southwest of Baghdad.

“There were more than 150 people sitting on the ground when the explosion took place. I ran, thinking that I was a dead man,” said Uday Khamis, 24, who was sitting outside the Mahmoudiyah hospital where many of the wounded were taken. His left hand was bandaged and his clothes were stained with blood.

Full Story Here:
Suicide bomber kills 48 outside Iraqi military base

To date, 3,490 AMERICAN lives have been lost in combats actions in this Operation Iraqi Freedom debacle, yet Iraq isn’t free. After over 7 years of American sacrifice, Iraq is still at war with itself, and it will always BE at war with itself.

Iraqi Freedom? Iraq has never been free and it never will be.

To date, 1,188 American lives have been lost in Operation Enduring Freedom, the battle against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan. Afghan Freedom? Will that be the battle cry of those afraid to actually fight and WIN a war?

Has anyone thought that maybe Russia is now doing to us in Afghanistan what we did to the former Soviet Union back in the day? Operation Cyclone

In it’s inception, I was a hearty supporter of the war in Afghanistan, I felt that is was the place we needed to be, the place where we needed to start in this war on terror against al-Qaida and the Taliban.

I no longer believe Afghanistan is where we need to be. It believe it WAS the right place, until Bush took his eye off of the REAL target and took us along on his personal vendetta.

I NEVER believed that Iraq was a place we needed to go. I have long believed that Iraq was George W. Bush’s *get even* maneuver. He bore a personal grudge against Saddam Hussein for the threats Hussein made against GHW Bush.

Afghanistan WAS the right place, until politics took over the war, until the war became an overseas contingency operation, until Obama felt he had to back up his Islamic brothers.

I am firmly convinced that our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, hindered by a ridiculous set of Rules of Engagement, coupled with a desire from the White House and Pentagon to be able to fight a *surgically precise* war, a politically correct war, a war with ZERO collateral damage, has made our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan efforts that have been committed in vain.

I DO NOT blame our soldiers for this either. Those wonderful men and women will go anywhere they are needed and will destroy anything in their path if it means America will stand free in a place of leadership in this world, but they can’t DO their job with their hands tied behind their backs.

I am a solid Conservative and TEA Party leader, but I don’t hesitate to say, the GOP and George Bush led us down the path of death, destruction and bankruptcy in Iraq. Barack Hussein Obama is nailing the coffin shut with his political correctness in the prosecution of the war in Afghanistan.

Remember in November, vote em ALL out and replace RINOs and Dems with real American Patriots and Conservatives! Replace them with leaders that will LEAD this nation, not run it into the ground. Replace them with leaders that will let our military do the job they are intended to do.

And remember this, Iraq and Afghanistan are each about the same size in land area as is the state of Texas. We have been fighting for 9 years in those 2 areas and have no definitive result to show for our efforts.

If our current crop of politicos can’t stomach the defeat of al-Qaida, it’s time to put folks in office that can!

Afghan war options: Beating al-Qaida key yardstick

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama is considering a range of ideas for changing course in Afghanistan, from pulling back to staying put to sending thousands more troops to fight the insurgency.

A look at the options and their implications for achieving Obama’s stated goal of defeating al-Qaida.

Full Story Here:
Afghan war options: Beating al-Qaida key yardstick

None of these options, as presented, are my writings, they are all from the original story. I am doing to opine on the options themselves, what I feel they may or may not accomplish in the Afghanistan campaign, and how these options will impact our troops, our economy and the United States.

GETTING OUT

A full, immediate withdrawal of American forces does not appear to be in the cards, not the least because U.S. allies in NATO share the view that abandoning Afghanistan now would hand a victory to Islamic extremist forces such as the Taliban that are aligned in some respects with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida. Some argue that because the al-Qaida figures who were run out of Afghanistan when U.S. troops invaded after the Sept. 11 attacks are now encamped across the border in Pakistan, there is no point to a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. A related school of thought holds that the very presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan adds to the country’s instability and fuels its insurgency. Obama has taken a different view. Less than two months ago he said, “If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al-Qaida would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defense of our people.”

OK, on 1st impression, that is a good paragraph over all, but consider this; Barack Obama knows the words, he knows the tune, but will he DO the dance or just talk? Talk is all we have seen from Obama to date. He is correct in this statement, “If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al-Qaida would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defense of our people.”, but it appears that Obama has been too preoccupied with Michelle, Oprah and their Excellent Adventure into failure by pandering the IOC instead of focusing on the most important matters at hand.

And in ALL fairness, it must be pointed out, if we walk away from Afghanistan, we look like foolish losers. We will have failed to win a decisive victory in a nation that is approximately the same size in land area as is the state of Texas. That is not the most confidence inspiring thing that this nation and our so-called leadership could do.

Also, not that I particularly care one way or the other, but if the USA walks away from the Afghans, Hamid Karzai is a dead man. No maybe in that statement, he is as good as gone.

Karzai was nothing more than the most well educated, and most easily acceptable war lord at our disposal after the initial actions against the Taliban following 9-11. He easily bent to our will, for a while. Then he became all too impressed with his own assumed importance and has blasted the USA for our unacceptable conduct in prosecuting the war. He is demanding things that are getting our troops killed, and our ultimately PC President is only too eager to grant Karzai his wishes.

« Read the rest of this post HERE! »