July 19, 2007
Update on Iraqi poodles and border microwaves
It looks like I’ll not be eating my cachucha (meaning hat, for those without the time to email “Ask a Mexican”). According to today’s Las Cruces Sun News, that Joint Terrorism Task Force report about Iraqis smuggled across the border, which I wrote about yesterday, is most likely utter mierda. It turns out the “intelligence” came from a small-town sheriff who cites a “confidential informant,” but who didn’t even bother passing on his tip to county-level superiors. (Note to border journos: check out the datilera – loco weed - crop this year. If you don’t know what that is, contact “Ask a Mexican.”)
Additional higher ups hemmed and hawed to the Sun News yesterday about the Joint Terrorism report. And when the paper called ABC to find out if they’d checked their info before worrying the nation about the “smuggling operation,” no one was willing to talk.
Next questions that Sun News has yet to report on: How did this bullshit end up in a Joint Terrorism Task Force report? Who gave the document to ABC? And why? Hint: Think anti-immigrant politicking. Think Bush administration response to Democrats’ “get out of Iraq” moves.
Think.
And that goes for you, El Paso Times, which — true to form — has done nothing with this story except ask semi-literates in Chaparral if they’re scared.
Alfredo Corchado’s story a couple weeks ago in the Dallas Morning News portrays
a lone Minuteman from El Paso patrolling the Lower Valley and posting signs in spanish AND arabic… keep out…
i have a friend who speaks arabic…i told her to go out there and see what the signs actually say…
Talk of border fence divides West Texas residents
Dallas Morning News (subscription) - TX,USA
By ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News
Just outside his property line, Louisiana native Bob Masling is on
patrol in his old SUV – a .45 pistol on his hip and high-powered
weapons in the back seat.
“We’re being invaded by wetbacks, and it’s up to us to stop the
invasion. We can’t wait for Congress, much less our president, to take
action,” Mr. Masling said.
He’s also worried about drug traffickers and possible al-Qaeda
terrorists streaming into the United States. If they’re not here yet,
they will be soon, assures Mr. Masling, a founder of the Texas Border
Regulators, a group organized to protect the border.
To get his message across, Mr. Masling has posted half a dozen signs
in Spanish and Arabic warning unwelcome visitors to stay out.
There are smugglers who use the El Paso area to bring in Middle Eastern persons. Smugglers will bring in anyone they can, regardless of nationality. But this happens all along the border, its just not well known. The number of people are small and they tend to be refugees. In the case of Iraqis, they used to be mostly persons who had gotten into trouble with Saddam Hussein. Since the war, they have been people trying to escape the conflict. Don’t get me wrong, though, this story was poor journalism.
In particular, the media should be condemned not just for running a story on such flimsy facts (the TV news kept harping it was FBI based) but on the obvious racist slant they gave the story, implying that if the persons were Iraqi they were obviously terrorists.
I actually was impressed by the people in Chapparral who were interviewed by the local TV news media. Even when prompted by the reporter into the whole “terrorist in your backyard” theme, most persons said they thought the people were only coming over to better their lives, just like most immigrants. It was the media that screwed up and tried to turn it into something it wasn’t.
Here is my two cents. First, let me just say how unbelievable it is that these so called reporters feed us this crap. But that’s not the problem, the problem is that it’s even more unbelievable how many people out there swallow it!!! In my opinion, it’s another right-wing attempt to intimidate our fellow ignorant American Citizens into Social Conservatism, not to mention the core theory that all illegal immigrants are criminals. I’m surprised I wasn’t labeled an Iraqi terrorist back in the 90’s when I myself was smuggled into this country. It’s probably because I’m Mexican and that doesn’t seem to come accompanied by the word terrorist. Well I guess I’ll always have to wonder. But one thing I do know. I was at one point an illegal immigrant in this country, and I am most definitely not a criminal. Instead, I served this country as a United States Marine, and ultimately became an extremely competent Systems Engineer (in the words of my peers) in a very prestigious Fortune 500 IT Corporation. Comes to show how much of a criminal I am.