Thread: Maricopa prosecutor calls for probe of Guard border incident

Published: 01.09.2007
Maricopa prosecutor calls for probe of Guard border incident
The Associated Press

PHOENIX - A prosecutor plans to ask state and federal lawmakers to investigate an incident last week in which National Guard members backed off from armed men who were near them at the Mexican border.
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said he was troubled by the retreat and questioned whether the rules the National Guard members operated under at the border were appropriate.
"This is a terrible precedent to set," Thomas said.
Border Patrol officials are investigating the incident, which happened Jan. 3 near Sasabe. A group of armed men were spotted about 100 yards from a Guard observation post and the four-man team decided to move to a safer position. A Border Patrol spokesman said after the incident that it was minor.
"There were no shots fired, no attacks, no overrunning of the National Guardsmen," nor any contact with the group, spokesman Mario Martinez said.
The National Guard troops are in Arizona and the three other border states assisting Border Patrol agents in a variety of roles, such as operating surveillance cameras, repairing border fences, constructing vehicle barriers and reporting illegal entries. The team involved in the recent incident were armed.
Thomas said a more independent probe was needed because the Border Patrol was involved in the incident.
Even though Maricopa County does not share a border with Mexico and the incident happened outside the county, Thomas said drug and immigrant smuggling has caused huge problems.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/38143.php

State lawmakers plan to investigate border incident

Jessica Coomes
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 9, 2007 07:38 PM


State lawmakers want to know why National Guardsmen retreated from the border in the face of armed gunmen last week and to nail down what exactly the soldiers' role on the border should be.

Rep. Warde Nichols, a Gilbert Republican, said he will interview Maj. Gen. David Rataczak, head of the National Guard in Arizona, in a hearing of the new Homeland Security and Property Rights Committee soon.

"Why would this be allowed to happen?" Nichols, the committee's chairman, asked. "Why do we have National Guard running from illegals on the border? . . . Are they (National Guardsmen) armed? Do they have bullets in their guns? We need some answers to some of these questions."

A spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol in Washington could not be reached for comment late Tuesday afternoon.

The National Guard could be put in a "first line of defense role" on the border, not a support role, and the Legislature could make that happen, Nichols said.

Four gunmen approached a National Guard observation post near Sasabe about a quarter-mile north of the Mexico border about 11p.m. Jan.3. Four or five troops were at the observation post when they spotted the gunmen. The soldiers retreated and called the Border Patrol, but the gunmen were not found.

Border Patrol spokesman Mario Martinez said last week that the soldiers acted appropriately by moving to a safer location.

"They're armed for their protection," Martinez said. "Once they are afraid for their lives, they can defend themselves. That was not the case."

Rep. Russell Pearce, the Legislature's strongest voice on border security, said two National Guardsmen who work on the border told him their weapons do not have bullets. Pearce said the unarmed soldiers are in harm's way, and he called the situation "absolutely outrageous."

"This is our military. We send them to Iraq, Afghanistan, but for some reason, to protect our own border, we think they should be acting like Boy Scouts, we disarm them," Pearce, a Republican from Mesa, said.

In a separate announcement Tuesday, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas called on the state Legislature and Congress to investigate the National Guard incident on the border.
http://www.azcentral.com/php-bin/clickt ... nt-ON.html

"This incident should not just be brushed by and forgotten," Thomas said, adding that he was taking a position on an incident out of his jurisdiction because "Valley streets increasingly are being flooded with crime, drugs and violence flowing from the open border with Mexico."

Thomas had not spoken with Legislative leaders and was unaware of Nichols' plans when he called the press conference Tuesday.

About a quarter of the 5,700 Guard soldiers stationed on the U.S.-Mexico border are in Arizona to curb illegal immigration.

Nichols said his committee was renamed for this session to include "homeland security" to address this type of issues.

The committee next meets Tuesday afternoon, but Nichols said Rataczak has not yet confirmed the date. If Rataczak does not come to next week's hearing, Nichols said he expects the major general would attend another regularly scheduled committee meeting, which are held Mondays.

"We're going to get some answers, and then we're going to go from there," Pearce said.

About time they started asking questions
And>>> Getting Answers!

Now I too wonder if the National Guardsmen have bullets
in their guns.