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Bean bags vs.

AK-47s
Posted: December 18, 2010

World Net Daily


http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=240945

Another Border Patrol agent on the Arizona border was shot and killed by Mexican drug
smugglers last Tuesday. Of the eight attackers, four are in custody and a fifth is under
surveillance by Border Patrol Blackhawk helicopters as he tries to make his way back to
the Mexican border.

BP Agent Brian Terry was part of a BORTAC team (for border tactical unit) tracking
armed drug smugglers 15 miles northwest of Nogales, Ariz., (and only three miles west
of Interstate 19) when they were attacked with automatic weapons fire. The area is
well-known as a major drug-smuggling corridor, and the smugglers are known to
frequently be armed with AK-47s and other long rifles.

Here's the part Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Border Patrol
management are trying to hide: Border Patrol Agent Terry and the BORTAC team were
under standing orders to always use ("non-lethal") bean-bag rounds first before using
live ammunition. When the smugglers heard the first rounds, they returned fire with
real bullets, and Agent Terry was killed in that exchange. Real bullets outperform bean
bags every time.

The larger, ugly truth Napolitano and senior managers in the Border Patrol want to hide
is that the rules of engagement and inadequate weaponry of the Border Patrol place the
lives of all agents at grave risk. The National Border Patrol Council, which represents
over 15,000 field agents, believes the border is too dangerous for officers to patrol
without body armor, armored vehicles and automatic weapons.

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Tancredo's book, "In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America's Border and Security" –
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Another aspect of this story that is not being reported is that the site of the shooting,
Peck Canyon, is inside the area Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., has proposed to designate
as the Tumacacori Highlands Wilderness reserve. If Grijalva's bill is enacted into law,
what is now a well-established drug smuggling corridor will become a drug-smuggling
superhighway, because the Border Patrol will be prohibited from patrolling the region.
Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah has proposed legislation that will remove the restrictions on
Border Patrol jurisdiction on such public lands within 50 miles of the border.

On Thursday, Secretary Napolitano and several aides flew to Tucson to meet with local
Border Patrol brass. The Obama administration obviously has a mess on its hands, and
Napolitano does not want it to blow up before today's U.S. Senate vote on the Dream
Act. They know another murder on the southwest border will not help garner needed
votes for the Dream Act, because senators supporting that bill must be able to say with
a straight face, "The border is as secure as it has ever been."

The BORTAC team encountered not one or two smugglers but a team of eight. Four
are in custody, one is under surveillance in the rugged terrain of the Pajarita
Wilderness area east of the small ranch town of Ruby, and three others are missing.
The captured smugglers had AK-47s and backpacks filled with ammunition, food
and radios. There are rumors that three of the captured four are members of the
Mexican military, but that is unconfirmed. Yet, it would not be the first time Mexican
police and military have been apprehended smuggling drugs into the United States.

It is not widely reported by our news media that the smugglers maintain a dozen or
more permanent lookout posts on desert hilltops inside the U.S., and that those lookout
posts are manned in week-long shifts by individuals who commute not from Mexico but
from Phoenix, Tucson and other Arizona cities.

The allegation that the Sinaloa drug cartel obtained those AK-47s from gun shops in the
United States is nonsensical. That's a fairy tale cooked up by the Obama administration
and endorsed by the Mexican government because they do not want to admit that the
cartels get most of their serious weaponry from the international black market and the
Mexican military itself.

The rules requiring first use of bean-bag ammunition is but one example of the suicidal
rules of engagement that govern Border Patrol operations. The reason they have such
insane rules? The politicians who run the agency do not want the public to think the
border is so dangerous a place that Border Patrol agents fear for their lives. In other
words, the rules of engagement are based on a lie, a lie that must be maintained for
political purposes.

Secretary Napolitano should do two things on Monday morning. First, she should order
all Border Patrol agents to be issued weapons adequate for both self-defense and
apprehension of armed drug smugglers. The second thing she should do Monday
morning is resign.

Tom Tancredo is a former five-term congressman from Colorado and 2008 candidate
for the Republican presidential nomination. He currently serves as chairman of the
Rocky Mountain Foundation and co-chairman of TeamAmericaPac. Tancredo is the
author of "In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America's Border and Security."

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