The PEACE Arch....

Blaine had some excitement a few days ago. Two guys wanted for murder trying to go North to Canada via I-5 which starts or ends(depending on your perspective) at the Blaine, WA Peace Arch port of entry. The ATCET team set up for a hard stop and did a hell of a good job. Some shots were fired by some of the good guys when the bad guys rammed the vehicle providing cover. One of the bad guys was wounded, but lived. They were stopped just this side of the border.

Folks that is what we do, we catch bad guys. If you take all the other federal agencies and combine the number of wanted criminals they apprehend, it doesn't even come close to the numbers we apprehend. This is why we need to stop hiring old people, now I like old folks and am getting there myself, but what we do is for the young. USCBP deserves 6c law enforcement retirement, it would benefit everyone. You would have a younger workforce willing to work a career rather than looking for a covered position as soon as they make probation. So we wouldn't have the turn over we have now. When you hire someone in their sixties, how many years will they give you. The approximate $100K spent on their background investigation, basic and post academy training would be amortized over a career instead of a few years. Not only that, without the continual turn over, you would have employees that know the job better and can provide better service to the country.

The Blaine incident is just one example of the dangers we face on the border daily. If you think
that it is about a paycheck every two weeks, you are wrong. It is about serving your country and through that sacrifice, being able to support your family modestly, but with the honor and dignity that is brings.

This is why you see me bemoan the bureaucrats and those bureaucrats they create and promote, because they wouldn't know cutting edge training or enforcement if it bit them in the ass. The have to advance the "burros", because we make them look bad as we push the envelope to a more secure nation. Recent local promotions are a good example of the "burro"mentality. You know, "if we promote them we won't have to work harder and there won't be any problems". The old adage fits, big seizures-big problems, little seizures-little problems, and of course NO SEIZURES-NO PROBLEMS!

BT

"Cutting Edge Training"...

I had the opportunity to sit through some training recently. It was provided by the best of the best, the lead agency for terrorism issues. The Instructor was a nice guy with some charisma which helped. Here is the problem, it was all open source information. Years behind what we were doing before the merger and the surprise is that the boss said that maybe we should incorporate some of the information into our training. Hello, maybe he was just being nice, but I doubt it.

There were a couple of hq folks sitting in and they probably thought it was cutting edge; and I guess that is one of the problems. What a sad state of affairs. It is kind of depressing.

BT

Just an observation...

OK folks, let's review:

For about a year, you have been hearing about all the immigration problems and the challenges of the Southern Border. The media, the Minutemen, the Congress folks all blowing a bunch of rhetoric as to the huge problem and terrorist are going to invade and the MS-13 and the OTMs and I could go on and on.

Here is the question:

What have they done about it? Anything besides exercise their jaw muscles? Nope. Now there have been some bills passed in the House, but nothing out of Congress as a whole, nothing.

Why?

Because the real problem isn't the Southern Border, the real problem is Congress.

Here is a solution, one of many, Change the immigration laws to match today's issues and put a lot more personnel on the border, all of the borders. You may think that I mean the Mexican and Canadian borders, and I do, but don't forget the coast, the seaports and airports.

The solutions are there, if only Congress would provide the mandate and of course the money.
More solutions will follow and remember, anyone can complain, but if you aren't willing to provide solutions, you aren't helping.

BT

Mexican Border Incursions...

DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff has made recent comments that downplay encursions by the Mexican Military. He was quoted as saying that the reports were overblown. This is typical of how the U.S. has always treated this type action on the part of Armed Mexican officials, whether they were military, federal, state or local personnel. These encursions have be going on for years and it is obvious that Mr. Chertoff has not talked to any of the field personnel he leads. Not to say he isn't a nice and smart guy, but he is certainly quite removed from the front lines. I guess he doesn't understand what it is like to challenge a Mexican Military non-comm and his soldiers armed with H&K G-3 assault rifles(as always, real assault rifles not the media hype versions) as they walk into the U.S. It is interesting, to say the least, as we hold the line with our 9mm pea-shooters (by comparison). Is it overblown when they drive their humvees across the border with the machine guns on top, just to see what is on the other side. Maybe it is overblown when their fully armed squad paddles the raft across the river or guard the load of narcotics as it moves towards the border. Is it overblown when their armed police drive into a port of entry and draw weapons to take someone back for a "traffic violation". No, it must be overblown when they fire upon vehicles crossing the international bridge with those G-3s, like has occurred in more than one port in South Texas. That is right 7.62x51 (.308 Win) rounds flying around the port of entry. Yes, and the poor CBP Officers that have to safely resolve these issues haven't been given the respect of a law enforcement 20 year retirement, so some of them are in their sixties and seventies. Let me share something with you, there has been more than a few U.S. Citizens saved by these CBP Officers over the years (and when have your ever read about that in the media).

On the other hand, let an American official cross the Mexican border with their sidearm and the world has come to an end, we have violated the Neutrality Act. Cross the border with one round of ammo and you rot in their jails for a long time and of course the media is all over the incident. If the truth be known, the Canadians aren't much different when it comes to us going over there with weapons and that has caused it's share of problems for International Ops.

The Mexican Military is crawling all over our Southern border and we never say a word about it, but when the U.S. Military is on the border, we are militarizing the border. This is the truth, and if you are a regular, you know I don't much support the military working the border, but the truth is the truth and that is the way it is. Mr. Secretary either get a clue or admit that we really don't care if the Mexican Military crosses the border.


BT

What a Great Example of Some of the Problems...

I read a report today that illustrates some of the problems prior to 9/11 and the Millenium Bomber, as well as some problems that continue today. While I don't normally link to stories, this one is worth reading and digging around for the whole report, so here goes: http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/oig/brookb/brbrp1.htm

In short, the report illustrates that prior to the capture of Ahmed Ressam by U.S. Customs at the Port Angeles, WA in December of 1999, our anti-terrorism enforcement posture was pretty much non-existent. A male subject from the middle east and admittedly affiliated with a terrorist group was captured trying to enter the U.S. illegally in the area around Whatcom County, WA on several different occassions. Border Patrol did a good job in interdicting him everytime, but that is when things went to hell. The first couple of times he was VRd (vountary return) back to Canada, who agreed to accept him. The last time, he was caught with a couple of others trying to board a bus. This time Canada would not accept him and charges were brought. In this situation, he was allowed to stay in the U.S. and eventually posted a $15,000 bond and was released, promising to return for a court date. He ends up being arrested in Brooklyn with explosive devices preparing to conduct an attack on the NY subways.

After you read the whole report, here is what can be learned:

Our Enforcement Posture regarding Terrorism did not exist and if we are not vigilant, we will end up in the same situation.

Immigration Law is really screwed up and needs to be changed and the only entity that can solve this problem is Congress.

Don't be fooled by the media hype and political rhetoric, from a Terrorism Perspective, Canada is a much greater threat to the U.S. than Mexico.



BT

Inspecting International Mail and other stuff...

Recent headlines scream about the invasion of privacy because some college professor had his international mail inspected when it entered the country. How did he know? CBP sealed the envelope with tape labeled inspected by CBP. (Sneaky Bastards) When did this outrage begin, it must have been after 9/11 with the Patriot Act. WRONG! CBP and prior to their existence Customs has always inspected international mail. There are 14 international mail branches in the states. Did you really think that if you mailed it, no one would check it, how much contraband would be in the mail? Get serious, for an educated man, he is really dumb. International mail has always been inspected just as people and their belongings have always been inspected, just like cargo has always been inspected. If it crosses the border, basically, it is subject to inspection. What an ignorant waste of media space, get a clue.

On another note, the subject of border crossing ID cards has been raised again (read the previous posts) and once again those proposing them are expecting the public to be sheep and be lead by the nose.... and they probably will. But imagine this scenario:
We don't go with ID cards and the law requiring passports goes into effect. Do you know what would happen if everyone said, hey we are not shelling out the bucks for passports and as a result we are not crossing the border to shop. Folks, all of the number one leading chain stores are on the border, if you don't believe it go down there during the holidays or even better look it up. If people stop crossing the border to shop, the politicians will get a resounding boot in the butt in a very short period of time. I guess it the people just have to stand up and be counted. As you can tell I am not a huge fan of the ID cards or requiring Passports, I know the inspection process and know that with state ID and good interviewing skills or really even just good interviewing skills, threat assessment can be conducted. Burdening US Citizens in this way just gets on my nerves, do you really want to keep a USC out because he forgot his passport. I don't have an problem with this requirement of Canadians or Mexicans. Reliance on the document would be a mistake, it helps, but docs can be forged or genuine docs bought, folks it is in the interview.

.....And the truth is a good interview makes for slower processing.

BT

Time to get ready for quarantine

Before I get started, I hope you enjoyed the ranch photos. I have many more that I will share as we go along.

For the last several months, we have been hearing about avian flu and how bad it is, the deaths that are attributed to this disease and of couse the media questioning the country's preparedness (it is like the government is supposed to make sure everyone is safe from everything, all the time-by the way we aren't prepared and maybe we can just try the best that we can). Before Avian Flu, it was SARS, Smallpox, and I still worry about Ebola more than most, but the point of this posting is to prepare you for what will happen if something like Avian Flu or Ebola shows up here in the states.

Quarantine is what will happen. People who are exposed or infected may face seclusion some where based on public health laws that exist or will be legislated into existence. People held against their will based on the threat to the general public.

Let me give you a likely scenario:
A flight comes in from Asia or Africa to a major airport like LAX or JFK. Someone becomes ill during the flight and when the land EMS or Public Health officials are called. They suspect a virus like ebola or avian flu. Do you think that everyone else on the flight gets to go along their merry way? Not likely. The rest of the passengers, say 300-400 of them have been in a recycling air environment for several hours with a person stricken with a highly contagious disease. Everyone else on the plane including the crew and maybe the responders(if they weren't in level A or B suits) are now going into quarantine.

Now lets take it a step further, the plane lands and the passengers disembark to the international terminal where they mingle with the many other international flights that have arrived. In a place like JFK or LAX, you might have several thousand people in the terminal at one time. During the inspection process an alert Officer suspects that someone might be ill and refers them to public health. PH suspects Avian Flu or Ebola and quarantines the person and who else? Think about the airport environment, once again a recirculating air environment. How many open windows do you see there? So now what, who gets quarantined? Certainly everyone on the plane, and now how about the several thousand in the international terminal and the hundreds of people that work there.

Now one step further, the plane lands at LAX, the infected passenger goes through the inspection process without notice and hops a flight to Salt Lake City, then another flight to Green Bay, WI. In a few days, the passenger's illness becomes worse and they are hospitalized. The medical personnel suspect Avian Flu or Ebola. Now what? Contact the CDC in Atlanta, who contacts Customs and Border Protection. CBP reviews the manifests for all people who flew in with the patient, then all the people who came in on all the other international flights at the same time and were in the international terminal, plus all the passengers on the flight to SLC who might be infected, plus all the flights that they might have got on there plus all the people they might have contacted. Now all the people that were on the flight from SLC to Green Bay and others that might have had contact with the patient or those exposed to the patient. So Now, Who goes to quarantine???? How many thousands have been possibly exposed, do we quarantine them all, where do we quaratine them, how do we move them, do we have enough hospital beds? Maybe we can use old military bases.

By now, you should have identified many of the logistical problems with keeping everyone safe all the time, with the use of quarantine, and the overwhelming task it is to prepare for the inevitable. In todays day and age of fast international travel and faster domestic travel, it is only a matter of time when we have a terrible outbreak of something, whether it is Avian Flu or Ebola.

Don't be to hard on the civil servants when it happens, because now you know some of the challenges. There are action plans set up throughout the country with feds, state, and locals all working together, but it is a very daunting task.

On a positive not(from an enforcement perspective), CBP reports seizures of fake tamiflu, which is the drug thought to be effective against Avian Flu. There have been seizures in New York and San Francisco of the fake drug in over 300 packages. See, there are some folks looking out for you, but having fake tamiflu on the market during an outbreak would certainly be a mess.

BT

Sunset at the Ranch....

 

Ranch Pics....

 

Ranch Pics....

 

Border Fence & Christmas......

As the old philosopher and crooner Jerry Jeff has said, Hi Buckaroos......

I am indeed back in the deep South, which is kind of funny since where I come from, we consider those in this area Yankees. You know, north of San Antonio it is all the same. Well Texas was just like I remember it, in the eighties on Christmas day, quite a change since last year when it snowed. It was a very busy time and honestly, not very relaxing, but it was nice to be around family and some friends, including my buddy Oscar, fresh from Iraq. I am very thankful to have him back safe and sound. I even got to hunt with him. The ranch is looking great and I will post some pics when I get a chance. I only went a couple of times, but what a great and historic place for me and my family. We were short some folks as not all the family could make it this year and some were down with the flu, not the bird kind, but it still nailed them hard.

On Christmas Eve, went went over to my youngest brother's house, a great home to say the least. I got to visiting with his father in law, who was sharing information on the huge numbers of illegal aliens he has seen while traversing to and from his ranch. He got to drawing maps and explaining how he thought they were evading the BP check points, this was seconded by my other younger brother who is also on the ranch roads quite a bit and has friends in the areas we were discussing. Now all of us are of Hispanic descent and have long generational ties to the area, even before it was Texas, but what you will find is that they don't care for alien smuggling at all. I have a job to do and have never had a problem enforcing the law, but these are folks that have a healthy respect for people willing to work to support their families, where ever they are from. Believe it or not, there is a difference to them, when it comes to this organized violation of federal law and they have no problem calling BP.

A couple of years back, my younger brother walked into his house at the ranch and found a few illegal aliens all dressed in black inside. Since they were between him and the guns, he made a hasty exit and went to the next ranch over to borrow a gun. The old man there lent him an old, and I do mean old, German Luger. Well he hightailed it into the monte, because he knew how the trails ran and sure enough caught one of the bad guys. He had called it in and the the first on the scene was an old Aggie buddy Game Warden. He cleared the house and all was back to fairly normal. I share this tale just to illustrate that there isn't really a whole lot of support for illegal immigration where I come from, even though those media and political talking heads don't realize it. This is the segway to the border fence....

Face it, it is a stupid idea that would waste millions. It won't keep anyone out, ask yourself, if it was you trying to cross the border, would it stop you? No! The truth is that if you want to keep out illegal aliens, you need more Patrol Agents. Not the army or machine gun nests on the fence, just alot more patrol agents. Where you have a surplus of CBP Officers, you ought to use them as well. Use high tech tools, but make sure the tools work for the Agents and not the other way around.

If you are using terrorism as an excuse for the fence, you ought to build it on the Northern Border. It won't stop them either, but at least you will be closer to the terrorism problem. The threat is so much greater up there, but just wait, when they catch someone from Pakistan down South they will say, "see we told you". Ofcourse they catch folks from terrorist countries on a regular basis on the Northern Border, but the media doesn't cover it the same as on the Southern Border. ( If you are a regular reader, you will recall the Seattle Intelligencer story).

Anyway, I am back, though every time I leave Texas, I wonder what the hell is wrong with me. A couple of years ago, I could justify it by the cutting edge enforcement training that I had a large hand in, now it is hard to say that. Something good will happen, I believe....

BT