Debbie Nathan

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.