Thread: What happened at the border two weeks ago?

What happened at the border two weeks ago?
Our view: Either the Guard commander or our governor should give us the facts
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.18.2007
Whatever happened with the National Guard at the Mexican border two weeks ago remains a mystery. Sadly, however, the absence of facts hasn't slowed the bombast and bravado from a variety of bloggers, politicians and others who are outraged.
The problem for those of us pursuing the trust is that we can't understand what all these agitated people are outraged about when conjecture overshadows the facts.
When we look closely at what has so far been said by the National Guard and the Border Patrol, we find ourselves confronted by an impenetrable darkness. It's disconcerting and it's wrong.
Bureaucracies have a tendency to obscure information by issuing statements that don't actually say anything. This one is a classic example.
Reporters often get around official stonewalling by finding witnesses or other knowledgeable individuals who are capable of linking a subject with a verb in a straightforward way, but in this case we're talking about an incident — a strong word, under the circumstances — that occurred so far from civilization and only the participants can actually say what happened.
There's not much to clutter the landscape east of Sasabe — a bunch of mesquite trees and creosote bushes and rolling hills where you'll find deer poking along during the day and javelina rooting about at night. Otherwise, you might encounter people in camo outfits — National Guardsmen, Border Patrol agents and the occasional clutch of Minutemen.
So far, neither the Border Patrol nor the National Guard has made any direct statements that would clarify exactly what happened.
What little we've gleaned from half-baked reports is that, two weeks ago, some armed men, who may or may not have been Mexican nationals, crossed the border in this vacant landscape east of Sasabe.
The National Guardsmen saw them and evidently decided not to confront them. The Guardsmen went someplace else. The men, who most people suggest were Mexicans, went back into Sonora. Or at least the Border Patrol says it can tell from the tracks that the men went south across the border.
But, were they Mexicans? No one has yet provided any evidence.
Did these men ever see the National Guard troops? There has not yet been a single published report indicating they did.
And yet these skimpy facts have been translated by some critics — especially the bloviating fringe characters who believe Mexico plans to take over the United States — so that the men who crossed the border are no longer figures in a neutral description. Instead, by innuendo we are told they are likely Mexican drug dealers who "confronted" the Guardsmen. And the Guardsmen did not simply move to another location, they "retreated."
And did the National Guard troops move, for reasons not yet disclosed, or did they "flee"? And why did the National Guard not open fire on these trespassers?
Ponder these questions long enough and you'll see why we are, well, concerned and more than mildly interested.
Partly because representatives of the various bureaucracies have not seen fit to be candid about this episode, we now hear from our ever-present army of conspiracy theorists that we are, somehow, at war with Mexico.
Clearly, an incident that may have been the size of a flea has now become an elephant.
State Rep. Warde Nichols, R-Gilbert, chairman of the House Committee on Property Rights and Homeland Security, scheduled a hearing Jan. 29, at which time he'll question Maj. Gen. David Rataczak, commander of the Arizona National Guard.
That should be a useful session, but in the interest of diluting the uninformed and inflammatory rhetoric that is now circulating, it's time for answers. Rataczak or Gov. Janet Napolitano should issue a clear and accurate statement informing the public of exactly what transpired on the Mexican border east of Sasabe.
http://www.azstarnet.com/opinion/165038

of course the national guard and border patrol are not going to comment, they dont want any information leaking out to the thugs who came over the border and confronted the NG.

the NG has been told NOT to shoot anyone because the government does not want any cross border problems with mexico. they have been told to retreat to avoid confrontation. the arizona national guard major general even said that in a quote o iread a few days ago in a post on here