Note: Some interesting writing from one of us lowly locals. Ed
Ashurst speaks for himself, and for a lot other of folks on the
border. No government or media reports here. The following is
passed on from folks down there. BTW, a few years ago when the
smelter closed, it was thought that Douglas would disappear. Didn't
happen. Also just up the road, about 50 miles, from the Mexican
mining center of Cananea. Read it at your digestions peril.
Ed Ashurst manages a large ranch near Rodeo, NM, just north of Warner
and Wendy's ranch, and some of it laps over into New Mexico. Both it
and the Glenn ranch lie along Geronimo Trail that starts from Douglas
(extension of 15th St.) and the border just east of "D" Hill at
Douglas and meanders to the northeast. He doesn't mention it, but the
largest Border Patrol post in the U.S. now is about four miles west of
Douglas on the old Johnson ranch just south of the SP railroad bed,
about one-half mile from the Mexican border, and southwest of the old
Hanigan's dairy. This is about the fourth piece I have read written
by Ed Ashurst. He certainly writes descriptively. I am afraid,
however, that what he says in the 7th paragraph below about the
possible legitimacy of some businesses in Douglas may have some truth
in it. I hope not, but some people have said the same thing to me.
Begin forwarded message:
Subject: An Essay about Truth
My backyard....And this president sees fit to ignore what is going
on at our border and even lie about it....
In a message dated 1/28/2012 4:20:03 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
____ writes:
The Truth Hurts
"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
Quote by Albert Einstein
On three occasions in the last twelve months I have toured the
border east of Douglas with various dignitaries including authors, Tea
Party leaders, film makers and three congressman: Jason Altmire and
Tim Holden from Pennsylvania, and John Barrow from the state of
Georgia. If you stand at the international boundary where it traverses
the southern edge of the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge you
can look east and west and see a stretch of road right next to the
border fence and get a panoramic view at the least fifteen miles in
length. At no time on any of these three trips did we encounter, or
see, a single border patrol vehicle or agent. Why isn't the Border
Patrol on the border?
Twenty-seven miles straight north of the San
Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge, five miles north of Highway 80 on
Price Canyon Road there is a Border Patrol camp. While three shifts of
agents work out of this camp Mexican outlaws pack dope on a nightly
basis a mere stones throw away from the FEMA surplus camp trailers
that house these Border Patrol employees. I live where Price Canyon
Road leaves the highway, and I view Border Patrol vehicles going to
and fro fifteen times an hour - 24/7. Off duty agents drive into town
in government vehicles to get supplies, and none of them that you ask
will tell you they catch more than one in four illegal aliens; many
estimates are one in ten.
In the last several years Mexican cartel employees
have started numerous forest fires in Cochise County costing the
American taxpayer hundreds of millions to fight. In the summer of 2011
the Horseshoe Fire #2 burned the entire Chiricahua Mountain range down
and that fire alone cost the U.S. Treasury fifty million to put out.
Since that fire the National Forest Service, who refuses to
acknowledge the fires were started by outlaw Mexicans, have installed
large metal gates on all major roads entering forest lands in the
Chiricahua range.
On Tex Canyon Road a mile or so above the Krentz Ranch
the new gate is a few steps away from a large sign installed by the
federal government warning all who see it that drug smugglers and
criminal aliens are known to be in the area. The heavy metal gate that
cost taxpayers $2500.00 to build has one purpose: to deny access to
you and me on what is supposed to be public land. Mexican outlaws are
free to roam, but you and I will soon be locked out. Why do Mexican
outlaws have more freedom that I have?
A Border Patrol supervisor from the camp on Price
Canyon Road recently told a neighboring rancher that he was going to
have to take some mandatory time off. "Why?" The rancher asked. The
agent replied he had exceeded the maximum overtime limit and if he
didn't stand down for several weeks he would be making too much money.
"How much do you make," the rancher asked? "Oh, I'll pull down about
$134 thousand this year" was the agents reply.
In the last decade job growth in the private sector
has increased 1 percent, compared to 15 percent in government. When
this recession started a couple years ago the U.S. Department of
Transportation had one employee making $170,000 a year, today there
are 1690. Employees in the Department of Defense making over $150,000
a year has increased in numbers from 1168 to 10,100 in a couple years.
Since Obama has been elected President, federal employees making over
$100,000 have doubled in number. Per capita, individuals who are
employed by the federal government make over twice as much as those
employed in the private sector. The Border Patrol itself has 21,000
plus agents. I wonder how many of these would vote for a candidate who
truly wanted to seal the border?
In the last few months I have interviewed numerous
business people and law enforcement personnel from several agencies. I
ask them how many businesses in border towns like Douglas are
legitimate and how many are mere fronts for money laundering and other
illegal activities relative to cartel smuggling. The lowest estimate
given me was 20 percent who are involved to some degree with illegal
border trade. The highest estimate was 80 percent, with most people I
talked to saying it's somewhere between 35 percent and 50 percent. No
one I questioned denies a large underground economy that benefits not
only Mexicans but many U.S. citizens, some of whom have ties to
Washington D.C. The drug trade in Mexico is estimated to be a trillion
dollar industry. No one knows for sure how big it is, but everyone
agrees that it is so awash with cash that it makes the GDP of many
nations in the world pale in comparison.
I am acquainted with a plain clothes NARC detective
(who is not employed by a federal agency). In a conversation a few
months ago he told me a story how in the mid-nineties he and other
officers after making a large narcotics bust acquired enough evidence
to arrest three U.S. Customs agents for taking bribes and in the
course of the investigation on these agent's treasonous acts they put
together a cut and dried case that should have convicted them. They
couldn't even get an indictment. He explained that the U.S. Customs
agency itself didn't want the bad publicity. The judge was apathetic
and the district attorney was lazy - nobody cared. At the end of this
story he looked at me with disgust and said," Right today I know of
ten agents working at the port of entry between Douglas and Agua
Prieta that are taking bribes, and there is nothing I can do about
it."
The idea that a fence from San Diego to Brownsville
will fix the border problem is a fantasy. The border isn't sealed
because too many people are getting immensely wealthy doing business
under the radar and many of them are Americans. For Washington
politicians there is too much power at stake to actually find real
solutions.
We don't need a fence; we need a change in the rules of
engagement. About ten years ago about a dozen Cochise County ranchers,
including myself had a meeting with Congressman Tom Tancredo. Mr.
Tancredo is a true pioneer in trying to expose truth about border
violence and the flood of illegal activity on the border. He told us
that on any given day it was impossible to find over two or three
individuals in the capitol building who would be willing to discuss
border issues. Everyone in Washington, Mr. Tancredo said, considers
the problem on the border political suicide.
The impotent gangster, Philipe Calderon, who is nothing but a
puppet in a regime completely out of control, gets an invite from
Obama himself to address a joint session of Congress. His speech,
which Obama hoped he could use to embarrass conservatives in general
and Arizona in particular, was considered a smashing success by all on
the left. Congressman Altmire, Holden, and Barrow were there along
with Giffords, Pelosi, Reed, Grijalva and McCain, standing - cheering.
We bomb Qadafi without a declaration of war and ignore the plague of
human atrocities committed daily in Philipe Calderon's country.
In an article in the New American Friday January 13, 2012 written
by Brian Koenig some enlightening statistics about the U.S. citizen
and immigration service are revealed. The article states that over
half of USCIS officials say that Obama puts more focus on promoting
immigration that on national security. Twenty-four percent of USCIS
officials say that they are pressured by their superiors to approve
applications that should have been rejected. The article goes on to
say that five veteran employees were either demoted or given a choice
to relocate because they were too tough on individuals applying for
immigration benefits. "People are afraid," said one veteran employee.
"Integrity only carries a person so far because they've got to pay the
rent."
I personally have had a dozen or more Border Patrol agents tell me
their superior officers purposely cause them to be unsuccessful.
Border Patrol agents who are aggressive are given desk jobs and
incompetence is rewarded. There are several agents in prison for
simply doing their jobs. Agent Brian Terry lost his life because of
the Obama administration's refusal to call the situation what it is:
dangerous. Bean bags should never have been an option.
In the last few weeks there has been considerable uproar over SB
1867. This bill was coauthored by none other than Arizona's own
Manchurian candidate, John McCain. It gives, among other things, the
President the right to send the U.S. Army to your house and arrest you
if he (in this case, Obama) deems you are a threat to National
Security. No due process, no phone call, no attorney, no trial, only
the Gulag. Of course Obama promises to never misuse the language of
the bill which he and McCain think we the people have misinterpreted.
Perhaps at this time the contents of this bill seem benign, but I
believe in the not too distant future this is going to change. The
situation in Mexico continues to deteriorate, and in spite of what
Obama says the effects of cartel presence within our borders increases
daily. The United States government will eventually be forced to
acknowledge we are in a war, if not with Mexico, at least with the
Mexican drug cartels. Experts say that the cartels now control seventy
percent of Mexico, so war with Mexico or war with Mexican drug cartels
are for all practical purposes one and the same.
If and when the U.S. government (which means Obama or whoever is
on the throne) realizes war has come home to roost, the language is SB
1867 could take on a more relevant tone. Could it at that time seem
more acceptable for a president to arrest someone who has the
reputation of being dangerous?
This puts a whole new light on Joe Biden's comment that the
Taliban isn't the real enemy.
Under Obama, respect for the constitution and the rule of law have
been replaced by post millennial political activism. Patriotism has
become a dirty word. The Obama agenda is not, nor has it ever been,
solution driven. This is most evident in the President's refusal to
acknowledge the well documented relationship the Mexican drug cartels
have with Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups who want to
destroy America.
Since Obama became President we've had no federal budget, colossal
debt, embarrassing foreign policy, no energy policy, higher gas
prices, no Keystone pipeline, higher unemployment, increased class
warfare, embarrassing government subsidies to companies doomed to
bankruptcy, praise from the White House toward Wall Street occupiers
and open hatred for Tea Party activists, violence and increased
anarchy on the Mexican border, increased anger, frustration ,
confusion, depression, hysteria, and disgust from the American public
which leads to more executive power, more departmental czars,
increased regulation, federal intervention, and eventually we will
have martial law.
As Rahm Emmanuel said, "You never want a good crisis to go to
waste."
By now you are probably thinking, "This guy is paranoid." I have
contemplated this and have decided that paranoia rests on a higher
plane than deliberate naivety and cultivated stupidity. One doesn't
have to participate in the current dumbing down of America.
Connect the dots and fill in the spaces. The border isn't getting
sealed because too many people are getting rich and powerful
perpetuating the red hot economy that drug and human trafficking
fuels. Anarchy, cruelty and killing are just unfortunate byproducts of
the crisis that Obama and Holder and Napolitano refuse to recognize.
In a recent conversation I had with Cochise County Sheriff Larry
Dever, who is an honorable man, I remarked to him, "Larry, several
people have told me that the cartel is going to kill me because of the
articles I've written. What do you think?" He replied, "Yes, there are
people who would kill you if given the opportunity" He paused
momentarily, staring at me, and then continued, "But who you really
need to worry about is the U.S. government. They have ways of
punishing people like you."
That begs another question, "Who are you afraid of?" The
possibilities are endless.
Ed Ashurst
Apache, Arizona
January 26, 2012
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