Scientific Dictatorship

Texas National Guardsman Slain in Mexico
Two Men Killed on a Street in the Violent Border City of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; Guardsman from El Paso, Texas

(AP) Authorities say a 21-year-old Texas National Guard soldier was one of two men killed on a street in the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Spokesman Arturo Sandoval of the Chihuahua state attorney general's office says family members identified the soldier as 21-year-old Jose Gil Hernandez of El Paso...

[Full Article]

Labels: border violence, Ciudad Juarez, El Paso, Juarez, Mexico, National Guard, Texas

Airline Pilot: Everybody Forced Through Naked Body Scanners in El Paso

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
July 30, 2010

Infowars.com received an email today from a pilot for a major airline who claims all passengers are now forced through naked body scanners in El Paso, Texas. “‘I’m a pilot for a major airline and overnighted in El Paso. Came to the airport the next day and everyone except for crew and airport employees were sent through the scanners. Stood there for a while and did not see anyone sent through the metal detectors,” the pilot writes.

	“Came to the airport the next day and everyone except for crew and airport employees were sent through the scanners,” a pilot tells Infowars.com.

On July 20, the El Paso Times reported that security employees at the El Paso International Airport are using naked body scanners as the primary method of screening passengers. “The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has blocked entrances to metal detectors. Officials now instruct all travelers to get in line at one of the three imaging detection scanners,” writes Adriana Gómez Licón. Signs at the airport deceptively indicate the scanning technique is optional.

“TSA officials declined to give a reason why body scanners are being used but metal detectors are not. They unveiled the body scanners in June. Until recently, passengers were randomly chosen for the scanners.”

Companies such as Southwest Airlines have warned passengers about new procedures and advised them to be at airports two hours before their flight’s scheduled departure time, according to the El Paso Times.

In February, the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety, which includes the European Commission, International Atomic Energy Agency, Nuclear Energy Agency and the World Health Organization, said that the government must inform air passengers about any health risks posed by naked body scanners. In response, the TSA claims the imaging technology is completely safe. “Recognized standards bodies have known standards on health and safety for this type of equipment,” the agency said in a statement. “TSA complies with those national health and safety standards.”

In June, Dr. David Brenner, head of the center for radiological research at Columbia University in New York, criticized government studies claiming the scanners are not a health risk. Brenner said children and passengers with genetic mutations are most at risk because they are less able to repair X-ray damage to their cells. “The population risk has the potential to be significant,” he said.

The majority of complaints about the machines, however, focus on the invasion of privacy. “Many frequent fliers complain they’re time-consuming or invade their privacy. The world’s airlines say they shouldn’t be used for primary security screening. And questions are being raised about possible effects on passengers’ health,” USA Today reported earlier this month. “Opposition to new full-body imaging machines to screen passengers and the government’s deployment of them at most major airports is growing,” the newspaper adds.

For the government, opposition to naked body scanners is not an issue. El Paso appears to be a beta test for what is to come around the country — forcing all passengers to submit to government intrusion of not only privacy but also compromising the health of the American public under the rubric of a war on manufactured terrorism.

Labels: body scanners, El Paso, Texas

Deadly Mexican drug gang attack was 'car bomb'

[From BBC News]

Investigators in Mexico say a deadly attack by suspected drug cartel members in the northern city of Ciudad Juarez was a car bomb set off by mobile phone.

It is believed to be the first attack of its kind since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006, promising to curb powerful drugs gangs.

Three people including two police officers died in Thursday's attack.

Police said the blast was retaliation for the arrest of a leader of the La Linea drug gang, Jesus Acosta Guerrero.

La Linea is part of the Juarez drug cartel.

"There were 10kg (22lb) of explosives, activated from a distance by a cell phone," Enrique Torres, a spokesman for the army in Ciudad Juarez, said.

At least 16 other people were injured in the attack, police said.

Ciudad Juarez is just across the border from El Paso, Texas. It has long been the battleground for cartels fighting for control of lucrative drug smuggling routes into the US.

More than 7,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico so far this year. Almost 25,000 have died in the past three and a half years, according to figures released by the office of Attorney General Arturo Chavez on Friday.

[Webmaster - Compare this with the U.S. casualties in Iraq since 2003: 4,414]

Mr Chavez said the rising figures demonstrated that the cartels were under pressure from the government crackdown.

He said 75,000 weapons had been decommissioned in the same period and 78,000 people had been detained in drug trafficking operations.

President Calderon has despatched thousands of troops to regain control of areas of the country long dominated by powerful cartels.

Labels: Ciudad Juarez, drug cartel, drug wars, El Paso, Juarez

Mexican 'Assassin Teams' May Target U.S. Law Enforcement, DHS Warns

Law enforcement officers in west Texas are on guard following an alert issued by the Department of Homeland Security warning of retaliatory killings for a recent crackdown on the Barrio Azteca gang.

Law enforcement officers in west Texas are on guard following an alert issued by the Department of Homeland Security warning of retaliatory killings for a recent crackdown on the Barrio Azteca gang.

David Cuthbertson, special agent in charge of the FBI's El Paso division, said the paramilitary-style gang has an "open policy" to kill its rivals and may turn its sights toward local law enforcement officers.

"[They] are extremely cold-blooded and aggressive," Cuthbertson told FoxNews.com. "The killings are done really without thought and any kind of remorse."

Citing uncorroborated information, Homeland Security issued an Officer Safety Alert on March 22, advising lawmen in the El Paso sector to vary their routes to and from work and to wear body armor while on duty. The alert also suggested that officers' relatives pay closer attention to unusual activity in the area.

"The Barrio Azteca gang may issue a 'green light' authorizing the attempted murder of [law enforcement officers] in the El Paso area," the alert read. "Due to the threat, it is recommended that [law enforcement officers] take extra safety precautions." The Barrio Azteca gang, which formed in Texas prisons in the 1980s, is a brother organization to the Aztecas gang in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, the epicenter of Mexico's violent drug war, Cuthbertson said.

He said members of the gang's "assassination teams" are thought to work for very small monthly fees. One official from the Drug Enforcement Administration has said Aztecas have been known to kill for as little as $100. Since 2006, drug violence across Mexico has claimed nearly 18,000 lives.

Eduardo "Tablas" Ravelo, the reputed boss of Barrio Azteca members living in Juarez, remains on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List, and the FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to his arrest. He and other Barrio Azteca gang members serve as hitmen for the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes drug trafficking organization -- also known as the Juarez cartel -- and are responsible for several killings, according to the FBI.

The DHS warning came just days after hundreds of Barrio Azteca gang members were interviewed by officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and FBI following the murders of three people linked to the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez on March 13. More than 200 officers from at least 18 agencies participated in "Operation Knockdown," which resulted in at least 26 felony arrests of alleged Azteca members.

The Barrio Aztecas are believed to be aligned with the Juarez cartel against the Sinaloa drug cartel for control of the billion-dollar drug-trafficking routes through the El Paso-Ciudad Juarez corridor. Since 2008, the Aztecas have been rivals of the Artistic Assassins, or "Double A's," who serve as contract killers for the Sinaloa cartel, Cuthbertson said.

"They're very organized," he said. "They have a code they go by and certainly a communication network inside and outside of the prison system."

Cuthbertson said Barrio Azteca gang members have been found in central Texas towns like Odessa and Midland, as well as in southern Mexico.

Ricardo Valles de la Rosa, an Azteca sergeant, said last week in a purported confession that his gang was hunting for the vehicle of a Texas jail guard who was killed in one of two SUVs attacked in the March 13 shootings that killed El Paso jail officer Arthur Redelfs, his wife Lesley Enriquez, who worked as an employee of the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez, and Jorge Alberto Salcido, the husband of another consulate worker.

Valles de la Rosa, according to his statement, was instructed by Azteca brass to target Redelfs due to alleged harsh treatment of Azteca members in jail. Valles de la Rosa was ordered last week to be held for trial on weapons charges for allegedly carrying a 9mm pistol when he was arrested.

Ron Martin, president of the El Paso Municipal Police Officers' Association, said that while he takes any threat to the law enforcement community seriously, he won't change his habits.

"It's not the first time a gang has put a hit out on El Paso police officers," Martin said. "Our guys are very highly trained, so they're pretty well prepared for just about anything. For them to come out and attack a law enforcement officer in the United States would be detrimental to their business."

Martin called the March 13 killings "unacceptable" and said he felt the killings were no less shocking because they occurred in Mexico, just across the border, rather than in El Paso or elsewhere in Texas.

"It doesn't matter if it actually happens across an imaginary dotted line, you're killing people for money," he said. "It's unacceptable."

Asked if he had changed his daily routines since the DHS alert, Martin said: "It's not like we're doing anything different because a bunch of murderers -- I call 'em terrorists -- are threatening us. Personally, I don't do anything differently than I did before. We're not changing the way we do our job because of them."

Labels: Department of Homeland Security, drug cartel, drug wars, El Paso, FBI, Juarez

Mexico's Drug Wars Fuel Northern Flight

(CBS) Luis Aril Anzures is 29, and a successful restaurateur in El Paso, Texas.

But 11 months ago he lived across the border in Juarez, Mexico - one of the most dangerous cities on earth, reports CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker. One day driving home, three cars surrounded him.

"People came out of the cars with AK-47s, pointing at me, told me to get out of the car, made me kneel on the street," Anzures said. "I thought I was going to die."

At just that moment soldiers drove up and saved him. That night, Luis and his family fled to El Paso, one of the safest cities in the U.S. - just 13 murders last year. They now have a thriving new restaurant and a safe new life.

"We love it here," Anzures said.

He's part of a growing number of people fleeing north to safety across the Rio Grande.

The port is one of the busiest on the border, 23 million crossings back and forth a year. But in the last two years, as many as 80,000 people from Juarez have crossed into El Paso -- and not gone back...

Labels: Ciudad Juarez, drug wars, El Paso, Juarez, Mexico, Texas

The House Of Death

When 12 bodies were found buried in the garden of a Mexican house, it seemed like a case of drug-linked killings. But the trail led to Washington and a cover-up that went right to the top. David Rose reports from El Paso

The article below says 'the US media have virtually ignored this story', yet editing had removed a reference to narconews.com reporter Bill Conroy, who has reported it extensively. Apologies.

Janet Padilla's first inkling that something might be wrong came when she phoned her husband at lunchtime. His mobile phone was switched off. On 14 January, 2004, Luis had, as usual, left for work at 6am, and when he did not answer the first call Janet made, after taking the children to school, she assumed he was busy. Two weeks later she would learn the truth...


House Of Death

A dozen men were tortured, killed and buried in a small house in Juarez. Three years later, the U.S. government is still trying to cover up what happened...


House Of Death, DEA Agent Leonhart And An Obama Nomination

It’s been more than a year since Obama took office and his administration has been slow to fill top cabinet posts throughout the government. Many of Obama’s nominees failed the routine vetting process for a variety of reasons including; non-payment of taxes, communist leanings, illegally eavesdropping and now covering-up a 12-murder spree along the U.S./Mexico border...


Murder Capital Of The World

On Jan. 31, an armed commando unit pulled up to a house in a working-class neighborhood in Ciudad Juarez on the Mexican side of the border with the United States. Inside the house, 60 teenagers were celebrating a friend's birthday. Wielding high-caliber weapons, the commandos opened fire on the kids, robbed the house, and then drove away from the scene—amid human cries, the scent of gunpowder, and the total absence of law enforcement officials...


The Case Of A Confidential Informant

Confidential informants — people who pose as criminals so they can provide information to the police or some government agency — have helped crack some major U.S. cases.

They are part of the shadowy side of law enforcement and operate in a secret and largely unregulated world.

And sometimes, things go terribly wrong...

Labels: drug cartel, drugs, El Paso, House of Death, Juarez, Mexico, Padilla

Sheriff Will Identify People With A Retinal Scan

El Paso County Sheriff's Office will identify people not by fingerprints or DNA, but with a retinal scan.

The National Sheriffs' Association has awarded the El Paso County Sheriff's Office a grant of $10,000 to be among the first 45 law enforcement agencies in the nation to use retinal scanning to identify people.

The grant provides, at no cost to the taxpayers of El Paso County, an iris biometric system that is part of a nationwide network and registry that uses iris recognition biometric technology to confirm a person’s identity...

Labels: big brother, biometrics, El Paso, law enforcement, police state, retinal scan, surveillance, Texas