Car Bomb Wounds 7 in Mexican Border City

[Static-Line]

http://laht.com/article.asp?ArticleI...tegoryId=14091


Just one of many VBIEDs we've seen within our southern neighbor's borders in recent years. Looks an awful lot like an insurgency is taking place. Let's see:



Increasingly weak and corrupt government that can't extend it's influence beyond the Federal District- CHECK

Anti-government organizations engaging in criminal and terrorist activity to further their endstate (aka "CONTROL") (murder for hire, drug trade, prostitution, VBIEDs, complex attacks on Military installations, ambushes on patrols, illegal checkpoints for tolls etc)- CHECK

A steady flow of weapons leaving the hands of government military and other security personnel into insurgent control (US DoD miltary-grade weapons to SEDENA being given to Cartels via corrupt military/law enforcement personnel)- CHECK

Anti-government forces engaging in an effective IO campaign via multi-media (ref-narcorridos, execution videos, blogs, night letters etc)- CHECK

Ritualistic executions of government and military officials (ref- "Santa Muerta," La Familia's "purification" of enemies" through fire and Los Zetas decapitations)- CHECK

Ties to foreign intelligence services/military organizations (ref-Los Zetas ties to members of the Guatemalan Kabiles, Venezualan SOF community, Cuban Intelligence etc)- CHECK

Anti-Government forces waging an effective non-lethal campaign to win the local populace to their side (ref- cartels offering jobs, benefits, governance and SECURITY)- CHECK

Anti-Government forces successfully compromise an influential political party that may possibly make significant gains in the upcoming election (ref-the PRD and ties to La Familia and to a lesser extent Los Zetas)- CHECK



Yep, just had to check, Mexico does have an INSURGENCY down there. And to think "Big Sis" is saying northern Mexico and the border is "safe..."

[Zimmy]

Yep. I cannot believe the troops and money we put into distant heathen lands when we could have invested this in local security for ourselves and our southern cousins.

[Static-Line]

Yep. I cannot believe the troops and money we put into distant heathen lands when we could have invested this in local security for ourselves and our southern cousins.

Yup, and right now Mexico is on the verge of their own presidential election. The winner will have a profound impact on which direction the country will go. It's probably just as significant as our's this November. The PRI (Enrique Pena Nieto) appears to be ahead in the polls, which means if they win, then the government returns to having an agreement with the Sinaloa Cartel. If that happens (which appears likely), then we have the very real threat of increased violence on the borders in addition to growing civil unrest in the form of the "have's and have not's" of the under-class and the old money elite who rule over them. This could very well be the catalyst that sets off the start of such unrest that eventually escalates into a bigger national crisis down there.

However, should the leftist PRD wins, then we could very well see Mexico descend to the socialist hell of the likes of Cuba and Venezuela. It's important to note that PRD candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is an avowed Marxist who has a well-known friendship with Hugo Chavez and the Castro brothers. If he wins, then organizations such as La Familia win. La Familia, it should be noted, is a cartel that runs on a quasi-Marxist/religious (Santa Muerta) ideology where they believe in "purifying" their enemies by burning them alive in public displays. Interestingly enough, they have fully compromised the PRD and actually have candidates in the party calling for "a lasting peace" with the cartels. It's also worth noting this party has been tied to several foreign intelligence services, such as the Cuban Intel apparatus (look up former Cancun mayor Gregorio Sanchez and his wife Niurka, who's the daughter of a senior Castro intel official). If the PRD wins, expect the military to get involved and I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a coup. This is a big reason for the PRD and PRI wanting to demilitarize the drug war, because right now Mexico is seeing an unprecedented deployment of military forces. Their military is light infantry-based with next to no heavy armor with units usually not being based anywhere larger than battalion-sized elements. This is to discourage any possibility of a coup. The problem, in their eyes, is now they have BDE-sized elements in key places like Monterrey, Juarez and Mexico City. If something were to tip the scales, it would be much easier to seize control of key nodes of governance such as broadcast towers and government buildings. Also keep in mind SEDENA already has a big problem losing military personnel through desertion, who get recruited by the cartels. Los Zetas raised the bar by trail blazing that practice, but now the others do this as well just to keep up. FYI, the Mexican military is a conscript force which means the elite can pay their way out of serving while the poor are obligated. This has some racial undertones in the sense that the poor are mostly indigenous peoples and not the old money types of European descent or wealthy Lebanese expats. This particular faction has been very effective in their IO campaign due to utilizing the message of class warfare and racism.

The PAN is assessed to have NO CHANCE of winning. They put a woman up for the race and in Mexican culture, that just don't fly.


Then there's the emerging humanitarian crisis. Lots of people coming across nowadays "for safety" instead of "jobs." People forced out of small towns because the cartels took them over once the police force was either killed off/quit and governance collapsed. When I was stationed at Ft. Huachuca we were seeing alot of this, where people would be detained by border patrol talking about how they were fleeing for their lives. Many were asking for asylum only we have no such policy with Mexican nationals like we do with say, the Cubans. In fact, at UTEP, they've been having a problem with foreign students (many from Juarez) who refuse to go home because they're afraid of the illegal checkpoints groups such as the sinaloa and los zetas cartels set up after sundown...

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ashington.html

[Dustover]

Never thought about it as an insurgency before, but, after reading your first post, hot damn, you're absolutly right. Sounds like Uncle Sam needs to shift focus, send us to take care of the issues on our own front porch before our house gets broken into.

[Static-Line]

Never thought about it as an insurgency before, but, after reading your first post, hot damn, you're absolutly right. Sounds like Uncle Sam needs to shift focus, send us to take care of the issues on our own front porch before our house gets broken into.

The worst part is the deteriorating situation in Mexico allows other players to exploit it in order to get to our country (e.g.Al Qaida, IRGC-Qods Force, Hezbollah etc). In fact, last year's attempt to assassinate the Saudi and Israeli ambassadors to the US involved transport through Mexico. On top of that we found out through a DEA source embedded with Los Zetas. It's not that far-fetched since Los Zetas recruits alot of military from the Mexican, Guatemalan, Colombian and Venezuelan ranks and the later has a formal training relationship with the Iranian military much like our's with the UK and Germany. Additionally, the Mexican military does a lot of cross training with Venezuela, so it leaves open the possibility multi-nation training has occurred involving Iran as well. Interestingly enough, the emergence of the VBIED TTP in Mexico is very similar to what we've experienced in Iraq and seen in the Levant with Hezbollah, which btw happens to have also started popping up just when more and more guys from Venezuela started to get recruited. So it's possible what we saw with last year's plot was a reflection of long standing relationships between select Los Zetas personnel and IRGC-Qods Force personnel stationed in North America. From what I understand, the DEA source had great placement and access, so much so he was linked up with the Qods Force. The disturbing part is this was just what we happened to find out about, how much is going we know Jack and shit about? Check it out:


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/us/us-accuses-iranians-of-plotting-to-kill-saudi-envoy.html?pagewanted=all

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...googlenews_wsj


Looks like the PRI (and the Sinaloa Cartel) are back in power. I can't wait to see their opposition start to drop like flies through assassinations and "car accidents..."

[Dustover]

The worst part is the deteriorating situation in Mexico allows other players to exploit it in order to get to our country (e.g.Al Qaida, IRGC-Qods Force, Hezbollah etc). In fact, last year's attempt to assassinate the Saudi and Israeli ambassadors to the US involved transport through Mexico. On top of that we found out through a DEA source embedded with Los Zetas. It's not that far-fetched since Los Zetas recruits alot of military from the Mexican, Guatemalan, Colombian and Venezuelan ranks and the later has a formal training relationship with the Iranian military much like our's with the UK and Germany. Additionally, the Mexican military does a lot of cross training with Venezuela, so it leaves open the possibility multi-nation training has occurred involving Iran as well. Interestingly enough, the emergence of the VBIED TTP in Mexico is very similar to what we've experienced in Iraq and seen in the Levant with Hezbollah, which btw happens to have also started popping up just when more and more guys from Venezuela started to get recruited. So it's possible what we saw with last year's plot was a reflection of long standing relationships between select Los Zetas personnel and IRGC-Qods Force personnel stationed in North America. From what I understand, the DEA source had great placement and access, so much so he was linked up with the Qods Force. The disturbing part is this was just what we happened to find out about, how much is going we know Jack and shit about? Check it out:


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/us/us-accuses-iranians-of-plotting-to-kill-saudi-envoy.html?pagewanted=all

You're absolutly right, the destabalizaiton along the border just opens the door for potential terrorist to be able to slip right through.

This isn't helping any either...

Border Patrol agents in Arizona are blasting their bosses for telling them, along with all other Department of Homeland Security employees, to run and hide if they encounter an "active shooter."



The FEMA-administered computer course, entitled “IS-907- Active Shooter: What You Can Do,” is a 45-minute tutorial that provides guidance to all employees on how to recognize indicators of possible workplace violence and what to do should their office be invaded by gunmen and focuses around three main options; either evacuate, hide out, or in dire circumstances, take action.

Main Points of the "Active Shooter" training course
Evacuate: If there is an accessible escape path, attempt to evacuate the premises.
Hide out: If evacuation is not possible, find a place to hide where the active shooter is less likely to find you.
Take action: As a last resort, and only when your life is in imminent danger, attempt to disrupt and/or incapacitate the active shooter.



But members of Local 2544 say they are obligated to protect the public in such a situation, whether they are on duty or not. Given the instructions, some wonder if they would be disciplined for taking down a gunman in a situation like the Fort Hood shooting or the January, 2011 case in Casa Adobes, in which a deranged gunmen shot 19 people, including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Six people were killed.

“It is always comforting to know that for those of us who carry a weapon when we are off-duty, if we should encounter such a situation, stop a shooter and save countless lives, we can look forward to being disciplined or fired by the Border Patrol because we should have run away to hide and then maybe thrown objects at the deranged killer instead of taking action and stopping him with a firearm,” the union local's website says.

Border Patrol union blasts Homeland Security instructions to 'run away' and 'hide' from gunmen | Fox News

[Old All American]

Spot-on, Static Line. Just wonder if any of those explosives were supplied by our Justice Department? (only half-joking here).

The HH6 and I try to go to San Antonio every year on Memorial Day weekend as our little getaway. Love the place, you have the Alamo, the Riverwalk - what more do you want. Back in 2007 we headed west to Brackettville to visit John Wayne's Alamo. We realized we were only about twenty miles from the border so thought we'd head over there so she could say she'd been to Mexico (she's never been) - we were warned off by the locals who told us that Brackettville was about as close to the border as they'd recommend; we were even warned off by a border patrol agent at the store there in town. We got stopped a couple times on our way back by border patrol guys who made sure we were legit.

Since then, we've made trips to Goliad and Victoria - thought we might make it to Laredo (worse!). Now, if you ask me, it's a sad state of affairs when the twenty mile strip along our border has become a "No Man's Land" where citizens are warned to stay away. I feel sad for those who live in that region - I suppose life goes on (as it does in Israel and other war zones) but it's unthinkable to me to be happening here, in the USA. JMO.

[Dustover]

Didn't see a way to edit my post or I would have, hope double posting isn't an issue here (don't remember seeing it in the rules).
----

Another disgraceful event for the BP.. they issue our guys beanbag rounds, while the cartels have automatic and high caliber weapons... Bit of an old report, but still relevant.

Bean Bags Fired First in Arizona Shootout Killing Border Patrol Agent

By DEVIN DWYER (@devindwyer)
March 4, 2011

U.S. Border Patrol agents caught in a violent December standoff with illegal immigrants in Arizona fired the first shots, but with bean bags not bullets, newly obtained records show.

At least one of the suspected bandits armed with AK-47 assault rifles returned fire, hitting Agent Brian Terry, who later died.

"When the suspected aliens did not drop their weapons, two Border Patrol agents deployed 'less than lethal' bean bags at the suspected aliens," FBI search warrant requests say, according to the Arizona Star newspaper, which first obtained the documents. The ammunition is designed to wound and take down targets not kill them.

"At this time, at least one of the suspected aliens fired at the Border Patrol agents. Two Border Patrol agents returned fire, one with his long gun and one with his pistol."


http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bean-...5#.T_AfbZEXFJE