In case you missed it, there’s a war brewing on U.S. border

Police corruption hinders crackdown

The Mexican army has captured 25 gunmen in northern Mexico who witnesses say disguised themselves as soldiers.

The men were captured at a ranch in the state of Chihuahua, across the border from Texas.  Soldiers also seized 29 automatic rifles during a  raid in Nicolas Bravo, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Mexico has deployed 45,000 soldiers nationwide to crush Mexico’s drug cartels but corruption among police and other government officials has hindered the crackdown.

Soldiers arrested the local leader of the Gulf drug cartel, who was in charge of drug sales, extortion and kidnappings in Cancun.

Ten midlevel military officers are accused of passing information to reputed drug cartel leader Joaquin Guzman.

Authorities in the western state of Michoacan said three federal agents were killed in two separate attacks along a highway. The agents were on patrol along a  highway when gunmen opened fire. Investigators recovered more then 500 shell casings from the two crime scenes.

Mexico’s drug violence has claimed more than 10,800 lives since 2006, when President Felipe Calderon launched his anti-drug campaign.

Evoking memories of Duke Tully

Reading about military impersonator John William Rodriguez today, visions of Duke Tully must have swirled for many Arizonans.

Onetime Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette newspaper publisher Darrow “Duke” Tully was a well-connected social elite, traveling in the poshest of circles, wearing his military officer’s finery, replete with prestigious ribbons and metals attesting to his combat valor. John McCain, a man with actual military bona fides, was the recipient of Tully’s inked support and became a close associate. Tully was godfather to one of McCain’s children.

The problem was Tully was a fraud and his tall tales of action in Korea and Vietnam were bogus.  His deception was uncovered by Tom Collins, a former Maricopa County Attorney and Marine, now a judge in Cochise County.

KTAR reports that Rodriguez, 31, was arrested and charged with 13 felony fraud schemes and may also face a federal charge of violating the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, which makes it a misdemeanor to lie about getting a military decoration. If convicted on the federal charge, he faces up to a year in prison and $200,000 in fines.

Sam Stanton, now with the Sacramento Bee, was previously a star reporter for the Arizona Republic. Several years ago, he wrote this piece, titled They are heroes — in own minds: Phonies wage war on truth. It goes hand-in-hand with this exposé of Rodriguez and other imposters who despicably pose as highly decorated military officers.

D-Day remembrance: President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s national prayer

This is the prayer originally entitled “Let Our Hearts Be Stout” written by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as Allied troops were invading German-occupied Europe during World War II. The prayer was read to the nation on radio on the evening of D-Day, June 6, 1944, while American, British and Canadian troops were fighting to establish beach heads on the coast of Normandy in France.

The previous night, June 5, the President had also been on the radio to announce that Allied troops had entered Rome. The spectacular news that Rome had been liberated was quickly surpassed by news of the gigantic D-Day invasion which began at 6:30 a.m. on June 6. By midnight about 57,000 American and 75,000 British and Canadian soldiers had gotten ashore. Allied losses on D-Day included 2,500 killed and 8,500 wounded.

His prayer can be read and heard here. Listen to President Roosevelt 65 years ago today.

Will wonders ever cease? Democrats line up with Sen. Russell Pearce

Legislative Democrats are lining up behind Republican Sen. Russell Pearce, (R-Dist.18), author of SB1176,  a bill which refines the requirements for drawing down money from the state’s Military Family Relief Fund.  The Dems are urging the bill’s passage.

The bill, along with more than 400 others,  has been awaiting Senate action. But, Senate President Bob Burns, (R-Dist.9), has been firm in his commitment that no bills will get consideration in the Senate until after the state budget for 2010 is dealt with.

The bill adds more requirements to the relief fund, which draws its money from private sources, not state dollars.

For example, it caps awards from the fund at $10,000 per recipient. And it clarifies that the benefit extends to the immediate family of a military member who was killed, wounded or became seriously ill after Sept. 11, 2001 and claimed Arizona either as his or her home state, was deployed from an Arizona base, or served in the Arizona National Guard.

“For the sake of our veterans and their families, let’s do it now,” said Rep. Pat Fleming, (D-Dist.25). Her district includes Fort Huachuca, an Army base in Sierra Vista, the daily reports.

Gitmo detainees get laptops to ready them for release

Detainees at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base already get to order fast-food takeout from the base and have access to a phone booth for weekly calls. Now some 17 Uighur Muslims awaiting a nation to grant them asylum are about to go high-tech, with laptops and web training.

While awaiting details of President Barack Obama’s order to close the prison camps by Jan. 22, commanders here have ordered 20 laptops for the captives of Camp Iguana.

”As you know, detainees are leaving this place,” said Army Lt. Col. Miguel Mendez, who oversees detainee classes, a multilingual library and now-emerging virtual computer lab. “We’re getting them computer classes to prepare for their return, according to a report in the Miami Herald.”

 Attorney General Eric Holder said some could come to the United States for resettlement, triggering protests from members of Congress around Virginia, where other Uighurs live and have offered to settle them.

Memorial Day remembrances

A day to thank our veterans and their families, who have given so much to protect our many freedoms 

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs has a fact-filled site with a treasure trove of historic information regarding the observance of Memorial Day.

We invite you to listen to this haunting rendition of “Taps,” courtesy of the Evansville Courier Press.

Democrat Senate bolting on Obama

Taking a major swipe at President Barack Obama, the U.S. Senate voted by an decisive 90 – 6 vote, mirroring last week’s House action, to block the transfer of Guantanamo detainees while denying the administration the $80 million it sought to close the Cuba-based prison.

The action leaves no dispute that Obama faces a tough fight with his own Democrat controlled Congress to move the 240 detainees.

Although the White House struggled to downplay the setback, several Democrats criticized the administration for putting their party in this quandary.  Facing constituents during the upcoming round of elections, they know they will meet strenuous opposition to having terrorists housed in their states.

In recent weeks, Republicans have called for keeping Guantanamo open, warning that terrorists who can’t be convicted might be set free in the United States.

“The American people don’t want these men walking the streets of America’s neighborhoods,” Sen. John Thune (SD) said. The American people don’t want these detainees held at a military base or federal prison in their backyard, either.”

The vote came as FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress that he is concerned Guantanamo detainees could support terrorism if sent to the United States.

But Obama’s new Pentagon policy chief, Michele Flournoy said it’s unrealistic to think that no detainees will come to the United States, and that the government can’t ask allies to take detainees while refusing to take on the same burden.

Obama is scheduled to give a major address Thursday detailing his plans for Guantanamo, but it’s already clear that Congressional support for bringing detainees to U.S. soil, even if the inmates would be held in maximum-security prisons, is wearing thin, according to a FOX news report.

The individual senate votes can be seen here.

The Obama creed: Save American lives, get disbarred

A Justice Department inquiry of Bush administration lawyers who wrote memos authorizing the use of enhanced interrogation techniques of enemy combatants –  such as top Al Qaeda official Abu Zubaydah and other terrorist suspects — has concluded that the authors committed “serious lapses of judgment” but should not be criminally prosecuted.

The report by the Office of Professional Responsibility, an internal ethics unit within the Justice Department, is instead expected to request that state bar associations consider possible disciplinary action, including reprimands or even disbarment, for some of the lawyers involved in writing the legal opinions. One is now a judge on the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Retrieving information that hindered further devastation and loss of life on American soil is now a crime under the reign of Obama.

Until recently, the Obama administration had maintained it would not investigate or prosecute the lawyers. Recently Obama said, “Nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past.”

But Team Obama’s stated refusal to support prosecution of Bush officials never sat well with the leftwing blogosphere, which blew up this week with threats to withhold donations and support from Democrats if investigations aren’t forthcoming, wrote Gary Bauer in an article in Human Events  titled, Prosecuting War Crimes: Will Pelosi Need a Lawyer?

The CIA believes that “the intelligence acquired from these interrogations has been a key reason why al Qaeda has failed to launch another disastrous attack in the West, leading to the discovery of a plot, the ‘Second Wave,’ … to use East Asian operatives to crash a hijacked airliner’ into a building in Los Angeles.”

Waterboarding caused not one death. But three thousand non-combatants died on September 11, 2001. People who showed up for work or boarded a plane on a bright autumn morning.

Yet waterboarding is considered too tough to retrieve the information that saved American lives.

We recommend Debra Saunders excellent column, Los Angeles or waterboarding.

Does this evidence matter to the Obama administration?

The Central Intelligence Agency told CNSNews today that it stands by the assertion made in a May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that the use of “enhanced techniques” of interrogation on al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) — including the use of waterboarding — caused KSM to reveal information that allowed the U.S. government to thwart a planned attack on Los Angeles.

After he was subjected to the “waterboard” technique, KSM became cooperative, providing intelligence that led to the capture of key al Qaeda allies and, eventually, the closing down of an East Asian terrorist cell that had been tasked with carrying out the 9/11-style attack on Los Angeles.

Read the complete article here.

According to this AP report, President Obama is still considering prosecution of Bush administration Department of Justice lawyers who wrote legal arguments that waterboarding and other methods of extracting necessary information to protect American lives could be legally used by interrogators.

Janet Napolitano’s non-apologetic apology and a Savage lawsuit

Radio talk show host Michael Savage has teamed up with the Thomas More Law Center to file a lawsuit against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

The complaint can be read here.

“It is a civil rights action brought under the First and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution, challenging the policy, practice, and custom of the United States Government that targets for disfavored treatment those individuals and groups that are considered to be ‘rightwing extremists.”  Read the full report on WorldNetDaily

Napolitano has inflamed people across the country with release of a Department of Homeland Security report in which she warns against the possibility of violence by unnamed “right-wing extremists” concerned about illegal immigration, increasing federal power, restrictions on firearms, abortion and the loss of U.S. sovereignty — singling out returning war veterans as particular threats

Seeing Red AZ previously covered her ill-advised report.

Her not-quite-an-apology, (”To the extent veterans read it as an accusation … an apology is owed.”) was greeted by the liberal taxpayer-subsidized National Public Radio (NPR) questioning whether an apology was even necessary.

“It wasn’t an apology in my view,” said Iraq Army veteran Pete Hegseth, chairman of Vets for Freedom. “It was one of those non-apology apologies. She was sorry that veterans were offended. She should either apologize for the content of the report as it stands or they should rewrite the report and reissue it.”