From Family Security Matters.
Mexican Military Holds Border Patrol at Gunpoint Inside U.S.
In the latest Mexican military incursion into the United States, two heavily armed camouflaged soldiers from Mexico actually crossed 50 yards inside Arizona and held American Border Patrol agents at gunpoint in a tense confrontation.
Armed with assault-style weapons, the Mexican soldiers retreated back south after a 35-minute standoff as if nothing ever happened and the Obama administration just let it slide. The unbelievable foray was made public by a mainstream newspaper that obtained government documents with alarming details of the January 26 incident. Specifically, the paper cites the Border Patrol Foreign Military Incursion report and a separate letter from U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske, an Obama appointee who was recently sworn in.
The Mexican soldiers were spotted by a Border Patrol agent entering the U.S. about 2.5 miles west of Sasabe Arizona shortly before 9 a.m. A second federal agent positively identified the two individuals in tan, digital camouflage uniforms, on foot traveling westbound, on the United States side of the International Boundary Fence Line, according to the report obtained by the newspaper. The Mexicans misidentified themselves to U.S. Border agents and claimed to be pursuing drug smugglers, the government documents say.
Kerlikowske admits that the intruders were "confirmed members of the Mexican military" but he asserts that U.S. border officials determined that no further action was necessary involving the matter. Like a loyal Obama lapdog Kerlikowske claims military incursions from Mexico are infrequent though he was apparently forced to admit that there were 23 incidents in the Tucson and Yuma sectors of Arizona since 2010, including three this fiscal year alone.
The latest incursion was one of the most serious in recent years, according to U.S. officials that apparently didn't want their name printed in the newspaper. The same officials, clearly insiders privy to information that's not made public, seem to indicate that Mexican soldiers aren't chasing drug smugglers but rather protecting cartels as they transport their cargo into the United States through the treacherous desert.
Not surprisingly, Mexico's government long denied that its soldiers were involved in the January incursion and initially suggested the men were drug smugglers somehow clad in military uniforms. When reporters confronted Mexican officials with the evidence the embassy changed its story to this: "Those individuals were part of a counter-narcotics operation, which had taken place a few minutes prior on the Mexican side of the border," said Ariel Moutsatsos, minister for press and public affairs at the Mexican Embassy. "The two members of the Mexican army did not see any sign notifying them that they were crossing the border."
The official version from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico is that incursions happen and that they are "unintentional." No worries, says an American Embassy spokesperson quoted in the story, because U.S. officials work closely with their Mexican counterparts to ensure respect for the border and to return them quickly to Mexican territory. "The bilateral collaboration in these incidents testifies to the strength of our security cooperation," the U.S. Embassy official said.
Judicial Watch has done a lot of work in this area and has obtained records from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that show Mexican military incursions occur quite often and go unpunished by the U.S. For instance, the DHS documents reveal 226 incursions by Mexican government personnel into the U.S. occurred between 1996 and 2005. In 2007 alone, 25 incursions occurred along the U.S.-Mexico border involving Mexican military and/or law enforcement. The problem has only gotten worse over the years, according to the records obtained in the course of JW's ongoing investigation.
A few years ago police in Phoenix Arizona reported that three members of Mexico's army conducted a violent home invasion and assassination operation that killed one person and littered a neighborhood with gunfire. The Mexican military officers were hired by one of that country's renowned drug cartels to carry out the deadly operation, according to Phoenix police officials, who confirmed the soldiers were armed with AR-15 assault rifles and dressed in military tactical gear. An official police memorandum describes it as a "drug rip," a tactical assault in which approximately 100 rounds were fired.
