LA TIMES FINALLY PUBLISHES THE FULL STORY OF THE ARMED INCURSION AT THE MEXICAN BORDER --
Two U.S. border patrol agents were pinned down in a hail of fire!! The story has been ignored by the major media for over a week!!
Finally, the LA Times has published the FULL story of the armed incursion at the Mexican border. RMNews broke the story a week ago!
RMNews was the first to break this story!! We were sent the official press release put out by the Border Patrol Union. RMNews sent the press release to our mailing list, FOXNEWS and several Internet news magazines. We are thankful that the story has finally gotten the coverage it deserves.
This was the story RMNews ran one week ago!
OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE RE ARMED BORDER INCURSION
Posted By: Rayelan
Date: Friday, 27 October 2000, 12:52 a.m.
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/config.pl?read=4887
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RMNews wishes the headline the LA TIMES used on this story would have given readers an idea of what really happened. Their headline is an example of how a newspaper can hide an article in plain view by giving it a "milk toast" headline!!
http://www.latimes.com/news/state/20001103/t000105206.html
Friday, November 3, 2000
Mexico Denies Drug Patrol Entered U.S.
Border: Officials admit that a six-member squad was near the spot where American agents reported being pinned down by gunfire from soldiers.
By KEN ELLINGWOOD, Times Staff Writer
SAN DIEGO--Mexican authorities have acknowledged that an anti-drug squad was patrolling near where U.S. Border Patrol agents last week reported a confrontation with armed men north of the border, U.S. officials said Thursday.
But Mexico, which said six soldiers were looking for drug smuggling, maintains that the squad did not cross into the United States or fire weapons, U.S. officials said.
Meanwhile, the union representing Border Patrol agents in San Diego says the agency downplayed the seriousness of the Oct. 24 confrontation, during which it says uniformed men pursued a pair of agents on the U.S. side.
After the incident, Border Patrol officials said a squad of unidentified men crossed during daylight into remote Copper Canyon, about four miles east of the Otay Mesa port of entry. Officials said its agents called out, identifying themselves as border officers, and summoned help after hearing gunshots. But the agency said it was unclear if the shots came from the group.
But National Border Patrol Council Local 1613 is offering a more dramatic account, saying two agents were pinned by gunfire and pursued on U.S. soil by 10 men, who wore military-style uniforms and carried rifles with bayonets.
The union said snipers took positions on each side of the border while others searched U.S. terrain, pointing their rifles toward the border agents and ordering them out of the bushes where they had taken cover.
The group returned to Mexico when two more Border Patrol agents showed up, the union said.
A spokesman said the union was airing its version, based on agents' accounts, because it felt the Border Patrol had whitewashed the matter. The union did not make the agents available for comment.
"We all know we face some dangers in our jobs," L. Keith Weeks, vice president of Local 1613, said Thursday. "But in something like this--it's something that shouldn't happen, that should be brought to light."
William T. Veal, Border Patrol chief in San Diego, said the incident was taken seriously and was the subject of talks with Mexican counterparts. "Whether they crossed into the United States or not we may never definitively establish," Veal said.
But he said the episode showed the need for cross-border communication when such exercises take place.
"Our concern is that when elements of the government are going to operate in the immediate border vicinity, there needs to be a coordination mechanism," Veal said.
The incident pricked sensitivities ever close to the surface at the border, where issues of sovereignty and fair treatment can snarl binational relations and provide instant talk-show fodder.
When a U.S. Marine was jailed on gun charges last year after inadvertently crossing into Mexico with disassembled weapons in his truck, U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) drew up a list of cases in which Mexican authorities strayed into the United States but were allowed to return home.
Mexico, too, has complained that U.S. agents have strayed onto its soil in chasing undocumented immigrants.
The union compared the incident to a March 14 case in which Mexican soldiers patrolling against drugs crashed through a border fence west of El Paso and fired at agents. Weeks said such incidents highlight the dangers of working in remote border areas, where smuggling of drugs and immigrants is a high-stakes criminal enterprise.
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Check out the story the LA TIMES published earlier:
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/config.pl?read=4881
Rumor Mill News Read Only Forum
10 ARMED MEN ENTERED U.S. FROM MEXICO --
Posted By: Rayelan
Date: Thursday, 26 October 2000, 5:52 p.m.
Who were these men? Mexican soldiers? The Aztlan Liberation Army? Agent Provacateurs? Why isn't the border patrol better armed? Do we need military on the border with Mexico?
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2000 2:59 PM
Subject: 10 Armed Men Entered U.S. From Mexico, Agents Say
http://www.latimes.com/news/state/20001026/t000102318.html
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10 Armed Men Entered U.S. From Mexico, Agents Say
Thursday, October 26, 2000 |
10 Armed Men Entered U.S. From Mexico, Agents Say
Security: Border Patrol team reports hearing shots in a rural area and seeing uniformed intruders, who then retreated.
By KEN ELLINGWOOD, Times Staff Writer
SAN DIEGO--U.S. and Mexican authorities Wednesday were investigating a report by Border Patrol agents that 10 uniformed men bearing rifles crossed onto U.S. soil in a canyon east of San Diego before encountering the agents and returning to Mexico.
Border Patrol officials said the agents heard shots during the incident, which occurred Tuesday about four miles east of the Otay Mesa border crossing. The case is reminiscent of other border crossings in recent years that have caused friction between the two nations.
The Border Patrol agents took cover and radioed for help "to ensure their safe extraction from the area," the agency said in a statement.
"They were outgunned and outnumbered and heard gunshots. So they took cover and waited it out," said agent Merv Mason, a Border Patrol spokesman in San Diego.
The intruders, described as wearing uniforms, came within 20 yards of the U.S. officers, who announced themselves repeatedly as Border Patrol agents, Mason said. He said the other men did not identify themselves before turning and walking back to Mexico. Mason said the U.S. agents were unable to identify any distinguishing uniform markings.
A Border Patrol helicopter was sent to retrieve the U.S. agents. No one was injured.
Mason said U.S. officials were conferring with Mexican authorities to determine who the men were and why they crossed. They reportedly entered near Otay Mountain in a rural zone where the border is marked by a knee-high fence meant to bar vehicles from entering the United States illegally.
Roberto Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in San Diego, said a preliminary investigation indicated that no shots had been fired.
"There has been confusion. There were no shots," he said.
Gonzalez said the rugged terrain in that area makes it hard to determine where the border lies. But he said the question of whether any group entered U.S terrain was still being investigated by both nations.
Although it remained unclear who the men were, the incident recalls cases in which Mexican soldiers and agents have strayed into U.S. territory, mainly along sections where official border markers are sparse.
The best-known incursion occurred in New Mexico in March, when Mexican soldiers on an anti-drug patrol crashed through a border fence and fired shots at Border Patrol agents west of El Paso. No one was hurt. The next month, U.S. and Mexican police drew weapons on each other in a flood control channel between Nogales, Mexico, and Nogales, Ariz. Mexican officials said the agents accidentally entered U.S. territory while patrolling for drugs.
"This isn't anything new," said Michael Harrison, a spokesman for Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon), who has lobbied for construction of fences and stationing of more agents on the border. "It just reinforces Duncan's view that you need to have a clear and defined border."
Hunter last year provided Mexican authorities with a list of more than a dozen incidents in which Mexican soldiers or agents were reported to have entered U.S. territory. The matter came up as Hunter sought the release of a U.S. Marine who had inadvertently crossed into Mexico and was jailed in Tijuana on charges stemming from two disassembled weapons found in his truck. The Marine, Sgt. Brian Johnston, was released after two weeks in custody.
Mexican authorities have accused U.S. border agents of chasing suspected illegal immigrants onto Mexican soil. The Mexican consul general in Calexico charged last summer that Border Patrol agents crossed half a mile into Mexico along a remote stretch where no border fence exists. The Border Patrol said agents believed that they were in the United States.
Mexico has proposed better marking of the 2,000-mile border. West of Texas, where the Rio Grande divides the two nations, the border is marked by a string of about 280 monuments, most of them 6 feet tall and mounted on bases, and spaced as much as five miles apart.
U.S. and Mexican authorities plan to identify "critical" border sections and improve marking by installing poles with flashing lights and coated in reflective paint.
