Thread: Bikers Head to Mexico to Free Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi

Bikers Head to Mexico to Free Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi

Dean Garrison 47 mins ago


As the U.S. struggles with the massive influx of Mexican, and other Central American, immigrants there is still the matter of Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi sitting in a Mexican prison. Though the Obama Administration found justification in trading 5 dangerous Taliban leaders for the release of Bowe Bergdahl, they have been apathetic toward the plight of a young Marine who has been imprisoned for "making a wrong turn." In April, Tahmooressi got lost and landed at the Mexican border while carrying three legally registered guns in his vehicle. Now he is facing weapons trafficking charges and awaiting trial. Upon discovering that he had crossed the border, Tahmooressi reached out for help via this 911 call:



No help was offered by the 911 caller and our federal government has been quiet about the incident. It appears that the "powers that be" are content to let Tahmooressi rot in jail.

An American Marine deserves much better than this and a group of bikers has had enough.

Rather than waiting for the Obama Administration to do the right thing, their plan is to do it themselves.

They are either in Mexico or on the way as you are reading this.

The Daily Surge reports:

John Harrington, founder of Shield Tactical, is leading the charge to release Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi from a Mexican prison.

Sgt. Tahmooressi is currently imprisoned south of the border, charged with weapons trafficking by Mexican officials for accidentally entering that country with three of his registered firearms.

Harrington, who is not an American military veteran, says that "he still cares" how our vets are treated.

"I started last Thursday, to organize the ride on the border to demand the release of Sgt. Tahmooressi. Somebody has to stand up for these guys," Harrighton said. "It's time we start fighting liars with fires. And that's what we're doing."

Pete Santilli and Patrick Henningsen of Guerilla Media Network caught up with John Harrington long enough to interview him and put together a short video:




This is what happens when the people grow tired of lies, excuses, and double speak.

This group of bikers may be short on a specific strategy, and this may be a long shot proposition, but they are doing something. They realize that if the people don't do something that this innocent Marine will just sit and wait for Barack Hussein Obama to do the right thing.
Sadly, that day might never come.

Source

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Read more at http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/06/bi...rWECXCXJstw.99

WND EXCLUSIVE

'Don't take 1 of ours. We'll do something about it'

Bikers rally to confront Mexico about jailed Marine

Published: 14 hours ago Bob Unruh About | Email | Archive Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially.

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U.S. Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi

A team of bikers plans to rally Saturday at the Southwest border in support of a U.S. Marine in custody in Mexico and to deliver a message to the world.


“We’re proclaiming that the occupant of the White House … no longer speaks for us. The American people will speak for themselves,” John Harrington, president of gun seller Shield Tactical, told WND Friday.


Harrington said the activists want to “remind the world, one citizen at a time, that we are still the greatest nation.”
“We are still the No. 1 superpower,” he said.


Some, however, are apologizing for America, insisting it’s no longer great.


“More and more, the people are deciding it is time for us to pick up the mantle of freedom,” he said. “‘We the People’ of America, not talking heads reading teleprompters.”


The issue at hand is the detention in Mexico of U.S. Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, 25, who has been in prison since his arrest April 1 after he took a wrong turn and ended up over the border with his guns, which are legal in the United States but not in Mexico.


The controversy has reached a fever pitch for many in light of the Obama administration’s release of five Taliban terror leaders from the Guantanamo Bay prison in exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held in the Middle East.


There have been no known moves on the part of the Obama administration to have Tahmooressi returned to the U.S., his supporters charge.


Harrington, who is updating the “very fluid” rally plan on Facebook, told WND he wants to make it clear that the bikers joining in the rally are not fools.


He debunked Internet rumors that the rally is some sort of raid on the Mexican prison to free Tahmooressi. Instead, he said, the Mexico government will be warned that there will be a cost should it keep the Marine.


“Don’t take one of ours,” he said. “We’ll do something about it.


“We will find ways … to choke your money off. There are many different ways to do it. That’s the message.”


Harrington told WND the bikers at some point Saturday will make the trip to the border to deliver a written proclamation.


The timing of the events and actual plans depend on a number of factors, such as the arrival of other bikers and the turnout.

He discussed his plans earlier in a video report:



In the report, Harrington said members of Riders USA were joining the “ride to the border,” which was drawing a lot of support.
“It’s time we start fighting fire with fire,” he said. “Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi back in March made a wrong turn, ended up in Mexico … he actually was up front with Customs and told them he had guns in the car.


“Now he’s in a Mexican jail.”


Harrington, who said he was still drafting his statement for the rally, criticized Obama for his lack of action.


He said Obama left “four behind” in Benghazi, the four Americans killed by terrorists, and went to extraordinary lengths to retrieve a solder detained in the Middle East by exchanging him for five terror leaders.


He pointed out the Mexican military “crosses the U.S. border daily.”


“We turn around and let them go home.”


WND reported earlier when Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he was speaking only partly tongue-in-cheek when he suggested President Obama send five Democrats, including Secretary of State John Kerry, former Sen. Hillary Clinton and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to Mexico in exchange for the U.S. Marine.


WND columnist Gina Loudon also wrote about the Tahmooressi case.


“In my backyard, Sgt. Tahmooressi, who served ‘with distinction’ on two tours of duty, waits for Obama to make a phone call to Mexico on his behalf. Patriots fought to get more than 100,000 signatures at WhiteHouse.gov to ensure that Obama had to respond, but so far, crickets,” she said.


Earlier, Jill Tahmooressi, the mother of the jailed Marine sergeant, said her son was encouraged by people who are pressing for his freedom.


“He fought for them, and now it is so nice to see so many are willing to fight for him,” she told WND in an interview.


Hear Loudon’s comments:


Andrew Tahmooressi graduated with honors as a Florida Bright Scholar and was a pilot by the age of 17.


“He could have chosen any public university in the country,” his mother said, “but he knew he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do yet, and he told me he didn’t want to waste the government’s money, or mine. That’s the kind of person he is.”

3 videos at link below

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/06/dont-take...Sf7sg38APkB.99

Obama Blows Off Jailed Marine’s Mother

• Subscribe to TellMeNow

Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi has been jailed in Mexico for over three months after he took a wrong turn and accidentally crossed the border and there’s been continual cries for Obama to do something to help. Now the White House petition has garnered will over 100,000 signatures to get a reply and Tahmooressi’s mother is as frustrated as ever she still hasn’t heard from Obama or the State Department.

Jill Tahmooressi appeared on CNN to discuss her the status of her son while he remains jailed in a Mexican prison. When Chris Cuomo asked her if she had heard from Obama’s State Department, she replied “I have not.”
“I did reach the 100,000 signature threshold, but that was May 30th; and I go on every morning–the first thing I do when I wake up, I go online. And I’ve not received a response yet on that WhiteHouse.gov petition site, so that is frustrating.”
Isn’t it great to see the President give the cold shoulder to the mother of one of our loyal soldiers?
Tamooressi’s mother is said to be hiring a third attorney to try to get the charges against her son dropped since she has received little help from our government.

H/T: Mr. Conservative


video at link below

http://tellmenow.com/2014/06/obama-b...arines-mother/


But Berdahl is free!!!!!!

GOP Reps Visit Marine Jailed in Mexico, Challenge Obama to Act




by Fox News Insider // Jun 24 2014 // 11:22am
As seen on On the Record with Greta Van Susteren

A U.S. Marine who's been held since March in a Mexican prison will likely be jailed for at least a few more months, according to his new attorney. Fernando Benitez called Monday for patience, saying an outcome in the case won't be coming "tomorrow."

Benitez also said he's hopeful that Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi will be acquitted.
Tahmooressi has been held by Mexican authorities since March 31, when he accidentally drove across the U.S.-Mexico border with three legally purchased guns and 400 rounds of ammunition.
Tahmooressi, who served two tours in Afghanistan and suffers from PTSD, has claimed to have suffered physical abuse at the hands of jail guards who allegedly stripped him naked and chained him to a bed.
Last night, Greta Van Susteren continued to follow the case, talking to two Republican congressmen who visited Tahmooressi over the weekend (video above). She asked why the Obama administration has not called Mexican officials and at least urged them to fast-track the legal process.
Reps. Ed Royce (CA) and Matt Salmon (AZ) both said Tahmooressi was in good spirits, with Royce saying he talked with VP Biden last week about the case. Royce said he's working to get the case "fast-tracked," but noted that President Obama did not mention Sgt. Tahmooressi in a conversation last week with the Mexican president.
"We pushed [Biden] hard to get involved," said Royce, adding he didn't receive any guarantees from the vice president that a call would be made.
Royce shared a bit of positive news, saying Tahmooressi expressed that the Tecate prison is a "much better" place for him than the "horrible" La Mesa prison where he was initially held.
Salmon believes President Obama could make a real difference in the case if he would get involved, challenging the president to take action and comparing Tahmooressi's case to the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner exchange.
"I'm challenging him and I'm asking him to do the right thing. You've done that for another soldier. This soldier, no one has any questions about his commitment to this country. He's an American hero and he needs to be out. ... If [the president] would actually take the time and invest some of his sweat equity to get this done, I believe it would put it over the hump," said Salmon, arguing that Obama should call for Tahmooressi's release on "humanitarian" grounds because of the PTSD.
As William LaJeunesse explained this morning, the case boils down to one question: did Tahmooressi make a wrong turn or was he engaging in gun smuggling? Watch his report on the legal issues at play below.





2 video's at link below


http://foxnewsinsider.com/2014/06/24/gop-reps-visit-marine-jailed-mexico-challenge-obama-take-action

Andrew Tahmooressi: America’s P.O.W. in a Manufactured NAFTA Border War

July 3, 2014 By 21wire Leave a Comment

Patrick Henningsen
21st Century Wire
ROAD REPORT

It’s been said that when it comes to news reporting, there’s nothing better than getting out on the road. What a road it’s been.

Since joining the GMN double-wide RV (broadcasting studio on wheels) on May 29th in Las Vegas, we’ve reported from the Bundy Ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada, before cutting across Northern Arizona, over to Albuquerque, New Mexico to bear witness to the true horrors of government-run healthcare from US veterans under the hammer of a dysfunctional VA healthcare system, and then up into the mountains overlooking Alamogordo, New Mexico, to investigate first-hand another standoff between local cattle ranchers and US federal government over land and water rights. After that the tour took an unexpected turn…

The GMN mobile studio rolled up in California after a three week tour of the western states (Photo credit: Patrick Henningsen)


After Alamogordo and leaving Las Cruces, New Mexico, the GMN research team began feeding us real time news alerts about an immigration crisis boiling over in Arizona, so we decided to make a bee line for the Greyhound bus station in Tucson, Arizona, hoping to catch the federal government dumping off refugees that night. About 100 miles west of Las Cruces at about 3pm, a small detachment of Harley steel wheels heading west pulled up alongside the GMN bus, signaling for us to pull over. GMN radio host Pete Santilli was on driving duty and initially crowed, “Hell no. I’m not pulling over, I don’t know these guys”. As a colorful shock-jock, Pete has been known to attract all sorts of fans – and foes, and with GMN recently declared domestic terrorists (or tourists) by Nevada Senator Harry Reid, we knew the bus was a potential magnate of controversy. But Pete really seemed more concerned with keeping our timetable and making to Tucson by dark. We and GMN’s head of security, Ken from Michigan, agreed that the riders must have recognized the GMN signage on our bus and had something important to tell us – what else would a gaggle of bikers want with an RV plastered with gorillas with guns for signage?

Not taking no for an answer, bikers pulled up alongside us in the breakdown lane pointing to a gas station off the next exit. We decided to pull off. It turns out that the bikers were led by one John Harrington – the founder of Shield Tactical, a successful firearms business out of Shiner, Texas. John told us his story and how he was hoping to gather support for his mission to bring more awareness to the plight of a US Marine who he believed is unlawfully sweating it out in a Mexican prison on a dubious cross gun possession charge. We interviewed John on camera, edited it the next day, and the video immediately went viral on YouTube with 100,000 views in only 4 days. This led to an impromptu protest ride on June 14th with 50 Harley riders and drivers to the Tijuana crossing, and we went along for the ride with them. It was enough to attract coverage by every major San Diego broadcast network affiliate on the day, but everyone who showed up agreed that this was just a warm-up and that another bigger protest ride would have to take place on ‘Cinco de Julio’ on July 5th, now only 3 days away.



See footage of that biker rally here:

Having just arrived from London, and after being submerged in the Ukraine crisis since February, followed by two weeks baking under a 110F sun filming a documentary in Bunkerville, Nevada, I admit I was not really up to speed on the plight of 25 year old USMC Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi.After speaking with Harrington and his crew, many details of this story became apparent very quickly. This Marine is a political football being kicked between bureaucrats in Washington DC and their equally corrupt counterparts in Mexico City.

Tahmooressi was arrested on March 31st, at the Tijuana Port of Entry into Mexico, 13 miles south of downtown San Diego, after being caught in San Ysidro’s notorious ‘magic roundabout’ where he had unintentionally crossed into Mexico. Andrew is claiming that he missed the last turn to get out – where Interstate 5 and 805 merge into 5 lanes that feed into Mexico, one of the most confusing and unforgiving bits of driving fair where if you’re not paying attention and do not take the “Last U.S. Exit, Camino de la Plaza” off-ramp – you will end up driving across the border. For those who assume that because he may have done the Tijuana crossing before, and therefore shouldn’t fall into this trap, it is still very easy to fall into this trap, especially at night. It can happen to anyone. I’ve done this crossing twice before and still nearly got locked into Mexico. If not for the fact that others were in the vehicle with me who made sure I didn’t go too far, I too, would’ve had the pleasure of an accidental crossing.

The rest of the story is where things really get dicey for Andrew. Upon entry, Mexican border officers stopped him for a cursory chat and then decided to search his vehicle at a secondary station a few yards further inside Mexican customs. In his truck were three firearms in the cab: a .45 caliber pistol, an AR-15 and a 12-gauge shotgun – all legally registered to him. According to Alejandro González Guilbot, a Mexican customs officer at the Tijuana-San Ysidro border, as relayed by Vice Magazine, the firearms found were loaded and not locked and stored away as per the California penal code on transportation of firearms. “They were all just wrapped in his belongings — clothes, a blanket,” the official said. The rifle was found behind the driver’s seat, the shotgun on the passenger seat, and the pistol was in the driver-side door pocket, along with several cartridges. “They were all loaded… and ready to fire,” Gonzalez said. The same version of events was also given in a public statement by the Mexican Attorney General, and no doubt, the facts will eventually be flushed out one way or another. Unfortunately, this part of the story was omitted throughout most of the initial US media blitz led by “legal expert” Greta Van Susteran and FOX News, and these and other details may be seized on by more liberal-leaning media outlets like MSNBC, later in this story, before or after Andrew is eventually released from Mexican custody (when– still anyone’s guess).

Bikers at the border supporting Andrew Tahmooressi (Photo: Patrick Henningsen)


A number of liberal-leaning media outlets had jumped on the angle that Andrew ‘didn’t tell the truth’ when apprehended by Mexican police and that his story did not add-up due to the fact that he was being ‘coached’ by his attorney early on. For anyone naive enough to make this argument, ‘being coached’, or told to bend the truth in order to get off with a lighter sentence is in fact (and unfortunately) an hourly occurrence in any courtroom in the world. Lawyers are experts in lying and cheating justice (we have enough of them in Washington now to prove that). That’s what lawyers get paid to do, and if they advise you badly, then you fire them – and Andrew Tahmooressi has since fired his.

According to his family, Andrew had recently moved to Southern California in order to receive treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, and tried to escape custody after his apprehension in Mexico, and ended up being chained to a bed for 4 weeks. “Being tied to a bed in four-point restraints and joint manipulation restraints — like ways that a POW would be treated… it’s just ridiculous,” said fellow Marine and friend Sam Vranicar. Andrew also described, “a suicide attempt with a shattered light bulb after being punched, slapped, cursed at, deprived of water and food, and shackled to a bed with a four-point restraint in a Mexican prison”. After this made national media, Tahmooressi was transferred out of La Mesa prison and to a better facility south of the Tecate line. The inhumane treatment suffered by the Marine during his first weeks of captivity would normally be grounds alone to have him transferred back to the US, but not in this border war. For the Mexican authorities, Andrew is now a trophy, or political football, depending on which game you’re watching.

Most Americans who travel regularly to Mexico have argued that if he had enough cash on hand, he might be reporting for duty this week – as the US government boldly announced, ‘we need to let the Mexican justice system take its course’. As much as many liberal and young internationalists are trying to paint Mexican society as a beacon of justice and transparency, the truth of matter is that it didn’t get its reputation as a lethal tourist trap for nothing. Ask any American from 1970 onward about the cash hungry, corrupt Federales south of the border. Many, many $50 and $100 dollar bills have been passed into Mexican palms.

Unlike many other thousands making their way in and out at that time, Tahmooressi was not on a tequila sunrise mission, nor was he a flaky student on spring break. He is a decorated Marine who served two tours in Afghanistan. Although this counts for very little in the eyes of the current White House, you can’t escape the reality that it does count for a lot across for a country whose sense of patriotism has been repeatedly kicked in the teeth by a series of military-related scandals attributed to the Obama White House – the VA scandal, Benghazi, arming known Islamic foreign terrorist fighters in Syria and swapping 5 Taliban terrorists for alleged Army P.O.W. Bowe Bergdahl – who many of his own military colleagues believe was working for the other side (a story that GMN broke on the air from Bundy Ranch), and done without the consent of Congress. Such political grievances are exactly why Andrew Tahmooressi’s story has been elevated to national status. While on the road, the GMN road tour was approached by hundreds of Americans who were openly pissed off and feel alienated from the arrogance and evasiveness of the current White House regime. This is a reality which cannot be ignored, or written of in a Left vs. Right mud-slinging match. John Harrington echoed the general feeling by explaining, “He (Obama) says he doesn’t leave anyone behind. Well, he left four behind in Benghazi, and he’s leaving one behind here”.

GMN host Pete Santilli at the border with bikers (Photo Credit: Patrick Henningsen)


Pete Santilli invested a fair bit of time on this trip bull-horning the DHS over the border situation and the jailed Marine. I asked Pete, himself an ex-US Marine, what his thoughts were on Tahmooressi’s current situation. Pete simply replied, “Whether he’s innocent or guilty of breaking any Mexican or American laws, this will be decided by a Mexican judge, or a California judge, but I personally want to see him brought home and we’ll take care of him from here. Ask any US Marine and they will tell you they want him home”. One thing I have learned from Pete during this road trip is that once a Marine has made up his mind, don’t try and talk him out of it (that’s more or less what separates Marines from other branches of the US military).

Meanwhile, the dominant political and social themes driving this story are as follows:

PTSD and Gun Control: Andrew’s mother, Jill Tahmooressi, came out early talking about Andrew’s post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) condition and her son’s need to feel hyper-vigilant, in part explaining why he felt the need to carry this particular collection of weapons with him. But this talking point has now taken on a life of its own. According to Congressman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., what’s transpired in discussions he’s had with Mexican officials is that Andrew would have to admit to PTSD as the cause of his oversight in order to have his sentence reduced in Mexico. Hunter states, “It was conveyed to me that the only way Andrew can avoid an extended prison sentence is by stating that PTSD was the reason for his mistake”. Wait, hold on a minute – what (how and why) does the Mexican legal system care at all about PTSD? Did the Mexican government get this new PTSD talking point straight from Washington following John Kerry’s visit there? It certainly sounds like it. Even a Mexican precedent here would certainly be seized upon by a NAFTA-loving Obama White House, and might also embolden DOJ Attorney General Eric Holder, who himself is on a mission to restrict the use and ownership of firearms in the United States – an institutional effort already underway using psychological evaluations by VA staff to target military veterans and confiscate their guns using provisions like the Brady Bill - that includes anyone said to exhibit any PTSD symptoms, including Vietnam Vets. This is no conspiracy theory by the way because on our tour in Albuquerque at the VA Congressional meeting covered by GMN, no less three separate Vietnam Vets approached me to tell they were victims of this exact scenario.

In New Mexico meeting and speaking with disabled Vets living under the VA debacle (Photo: Patrick Henningsen)


A high-profile case like Andrew Tahmooressi would only help the White House’s desire towards disarming vets and reservists with PTSD in terms of bolstering Democrat and California voter based-public opinion, and the fact that it happened in Mexico to a US Marine, in a way provides a soft landing with little turbulence on the US legal side. It’s worth pointing out here, admist the media tornadoes, that Holder is indeed on the record saying that the government must, “brainwash people into thinking differently about guns”. Something to think about.

It’s highly laughable that the Mexican authorities could classify Andrew’s violation under the heading of “smuggling firearms” or anything other than a possession charge, as it’s obvious that the guns were not hidden and were given up by Tahmooressi when asked to step out of his vehicle at customs. If he was smuggling them, it was probably the worst attempt in history. I could give one hundred and one reasons why no American citizen would ever bother to smuggle guns into Mexico – not least of all, if you actually wanted to sell your guns in Mexico, you’d be guaranteed to get a much, much low price for them. But while we’re on the subject of smuggling guns into Mexico, let’s look at the US federal government and the Obama Administration for a minute, specifically Janet Napolitano and Eric Holder (there’s that name again) – just two top US officials who knowingly allowed Operation Fast and Furious to carry on for years – a program where Federal Agents and their network of Illegal straw purchasers flooded the Mexican black market with hundreds of thousands of illegally straw-purchased firearms from the US. To date, no one has gone down for Fast and Furious. On a global scale, Washington itself is illegally (both directly and indirectly) under the guise any given creative ‘operation’, trafficking hundreds of thousands of guns into Mexico, Central and South America, as ‘lethal aid’ to fascists in the Ukraine or ‘rebels’ in Syria, with those same arms being used by ISIS jihad terrorists in Iraq at this very moment. But that fact, in and of itself, is not going to help Sgt. Tahmooressi who faces a sentence of six to 21 years in a Mexican prison for “possession”. If his sentence is reduced for good behavior, he might get out at the tender age of 40.

Open Borders and NAFTA: Between the US and Mexico, there is a huge problem with reciprocity, and so the issue of the US southern border with Mexico is also hanging over the Tahmooressi issue like a giant storm cloud. Over the last decade, over 500 fully armed Mexican military and law enforcement personnel have crossed over the US border without permission. It’s almost a daily occurrence. This naturally raises questions over why a U.S. Marine remains jailed in Mexico for the same offense. On June 5, 2014, US Border Patrol near El Paso, Texas arrested four Mexican police officers who claimed to have “mistakenly crossed the border into Texas” in pursuit of a man who had been shot in the leg. US authorities released the 4 Mexican police intruders in 48 hours. But there’s more – on June 26th, a Mexican military helicopter crossed into the U.S. and fired on two Border Patrol agents in Arizona near the San Miguel Gate, southwest of Tucson during the early morning, nearly hitting two US border agents before it turned back. You’d think this would be an international incident, from a US State Department that has held a press conference and cried to the UN every time a Russian soldier dropped a cigarette butt on their own side of the Ukrainian border. Mexico claimed it was working on an “anti-drug operation” but no one is buying it. In fact, the GMN bus had passed through that area two weeks previous, and filed a report on the free-flow of narcotics walked over the Mexican border – heroin, methamphetamines, cocaine , and cannabis another daily occurrence.
Watch here:



And then there’s the January 27th incursion by Mexican troops at Sasabe into Arizona, where Mexican soldiers crossed into Arizona and drew their weapons on Border Patrol agents – just one of at least 300 incursions over the past 18 years identified in a Freedom of Information Act reported by the News 4 Tucson Investigators. “Soldiers from that same Army base also tried to kill three American citizens who were across the border in Sasabe, Sonora, last March. One of the victims was shot twice. Soldiers said the young men had tried to run a checkpoint. However, an investigation by KVOA News 4 showed there was no checkpoint in the area”. Wonderful transparency of the Mexican government.

About that helicopter attack by Mexico, we asked a volunteer Minuteman border patrol guard what he thought about it and he just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Well, what do you think? The Mexican police were helping someone”. And here’s where the rubber truly meets the road. It’s no secret that Mexican drug cartels have full operational control, not only over large sections of the US southern border, but also inside of the US, especially in Arizona. The problem has persisted for years and Washington’s finest have allowed that situation to fester. Those illegal drugs end up in cities, towns and college campuses all over the US with a multi-billion dollar distribution network that the cartels boast is “as good as Federal Express”. Millions of junkies and addicts are being serviced every day in America as a result of this unrestricted black market trade. Yet, another reason why pissed-off Americans no longer recognize ‘Mexican justice’, or ‘Washington justice’ – in the eyes of Americans they are both banana republics.

It’s somewhat ironic that Tahmooressi went down on a gun charge in Mexico. With all of Mexico’s “strict gun laws”, it hasn’t seemed to dampen their crime rate. Somehow the government has managed to devolve control over large swaths of their country to two criminal drug cartels. In Mexico, the only two groups allowed to arm themsleves are the government and the drug cartels, and everyone else in between has to fend for themselves and steer clear of the bullets. Maybe that’s the brave new North American Union that the anti-gun crowd would like to see materialize north of border too.

Then came the immigration crisis – which is technically a refugee crisis. The issue of mass Mexican migration into the US is nothing new as they come in droves to gain an economic advantage. For some reason, however, over the last year tens of thousands per month have been pouring over the Texas border, mainly from Central American countries Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, some were socioeconomic refugees, and some were fleeing the violent drug wars there, while others were indigenous people fleeing very real persecution in their country. Zeta Cartel-linked paramilitary groups control the profitable cocaine crops in Guatemala and are also exacting vengeance on locals who oppose it. The government there seems about as ineffective in dealing with the cartels as in Mexico. There were others on the DHS bus, including groups of young men from the Middle East and Central Asia that GMN witnessed getting off at one of the Department of Homeland Security’s ‘people-dumping sites’ in Phoenix. They looked a lot like middle class college students, wearing designer T-shirts and jeans, who looked like they had read Trip Advisor and downloaded a how-to-guide for an easy and cheap path to asylum in the US (and they did). But overwhelmingly, the DHS dump-offs were Central American – and they were vulnerable, including many single mothers, all exposed and being thrown onto US streets without any noticeable support network one would expect for typical political asylum applicants from a country like Afghanistan or Bosnia for instance. There was a air of secrecy about the whole DHS operation which was unsettling. It’s now well and truly a free-for-all of epic proportions, not unlike the influx of Syrian refugees who flooded into Lebanon and Jordan over the past three years. What do these Guatemalan and Syria refugees have in common? They are both on the move en mass as a direct consequence of US foreign policy and CIA activity in their home countries. Maybe that’s a problem too big and too old to fix, but unless American can do something about the root causes of the mass exodus, then it will simply never stop.

Adding fuel to the flames, there is also the medical health issue. Volunteers we spoke to on the ground in Phoenix told us that there was a TB issue among the homeless there and that these refugees were also at risk. We can also now report that the general population might also at risk too, but it’s hard to tell just how much. An unaccompanied child held at a South Texas DHS ‘warehouse’ for children was hospitalized this week after showing symptoms of swine flu, or H1N1. On this issue alone, Washington has failed miserably in managing the tide coming over the border. We saw DHS bus drivers dumping human cargo in Phoenix wearing blue rubber surgical gloves – unusual, but it seems even they were afraid of something.

Here’s the billion dollar question: what is America’s illustrious sister banana republic – Mexico, doing about these immigrants using their country as a transit area? Answer: what they normally do, which is absolutely nothing. Granted, the Democratic establishment led (for now) by Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, see the migrants flowing over the southern border as future legions who will vote Democrat and maybe this is why the unprecedented flow of asylum applications has been allowed under this Administration. Nancy Pelosi even went to the border recently, proudly declaring, “We are all Americans”. So there’s something else at play here, something much bigger and more Hegelian than just growing votes. Problem, reaction, solution. This is no accidental crisis, it is an engineered one, designed to evoke public outrage, where poll master and focus groupers in Washington will be calculating public opinion closely in order gauge acceptance of something which is already signed, sealed and has only to be delivered. Most Americans never payed attention to the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) because they didn’t understand it, or because they were intentionally misled about its alleged benefits by Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama. This is no longer a conspiracy theory, it is a fact. This full-court press of border crisis issues is only pressing the public towards a series of ready-made solutions waiting in the wing to be wheeled out at the optimum time. On this new bullet-train NAFTA , the President is the conductor. “We need more funding to send to Guatemala to tackle the refugee issue”. Check. “We need more funding for cross-border ‘cooperation’ with Mexico to tackle ‘the drug problem’ “. Check. “Sorry, but now it seems this problem just too big for the US anymore, we need to pool the resources of our North American ‘partners’ Mexico and Canada to deal with these important issues.” Check. That… is the endgame to this engineered border crisis – a North American Union where the US will finally sign over its sovereignty to an EU-style continental bureaucracy. What bureaucrats and lawyers-cum-politicians in Washington aren’t telling Americans is that it’s already a done deal. “After America comes North America,” said David Petraeus (rather confidently) this past week in answering the question, ‘what comes after the United States’. “Are we on the threshold of the North American decade, question mark? I threw that away, threw away the question mark — and boldly proclaimed the coming North American decade, says the title now.” Bilderberg steering committee member Petraeus tells us how our three economies have already been “put together” over the last 20 years in the “implementation” of NAFTA. Funny how we haven’t seen any economic benefits. In the new North American Union, the US will be forced to subsidize Mexico, through taking on increased debt and every business will have a new regulatory regime to comply with – giving a marked advantage to corporations who already command large economies of scale. Every state and county in the US will be expected to constantly fund the new North American Union, the same way all European nations are made to supply constant funding the EU bureaucracy. And like Europe has done, there will be no referendum on the issue, instead it will be signed off as a ‘treaty’ by our CEO the President. Sounds like utopia, right?

Now the Texas/Arizona refugee crisis has grown a new head in Murrieta,California wherethe DHS has erected (in advance of this crisis) a giant containment and processing facility for the refugees that Texas and Arizona can’t handle anymore. They’re busing them in, processing them, and then they are spread out to different parts of California and the US. This border facility is the latest battleground designed to divide Democrats and Republicans, Left and Right, on the issue. The GMN road crew headed to Murrieta last night to find out what’s really happening there and it was as we suspected – the same as in Tucson and Phoenix – and further fueling the immigration crisis.

Pete and General Lee arrived at midnight to the facility there. Pete was adamant, “The national media are out here looking for visual imagery, but where is everybody? Do we need the numbers to get the country’s attention on this issue? Actually, we only need a few hundred and we need people yelling the right message to the King – which is that we don’t need the King to fix this, the States and their people need to step up and fix this ourselves”.

‘New York’ Myke is a fiercely patriotic American, and owner of Harley Davidson in San Diego who has donated his parking lot as a meet-up point for the ‘Cinco de Julio’ ride to the Tijuana border on July 5th . Myke is passionate about where the country is heading and also wants to see Andrew back on US soil. “We were there loud and clear for Bowe Bergdahl, no matter what he did we rallied for years to get him free, now we’re rallying to free Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi and he’s wrongly imprisoned in Mexico as far as we’re concerned.”

“We have Mexicans coming here (to the US) all the time - by the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, and they’re all demand – and getting from the United States government welfare, food checks, education and better medicine than our veterans are getting. All that we’re asking is that one guy (Tahmooressi) that made a mistake - should come home.”

In the wake of this federal chaos, there’s also been calls to boycott Mexico – and shut down commerce on the border. By anyone’s estimate at San Yisindro alone, a stoppage of tourism and commerce would amount to losses in excess of $1 million per hour, enough to make Mexicans put pressure on their own authorities to transfer Tahmooressi back home.

“I would like everyone to know that I’m an innocent man and that it was just a big mistake and that I had no intention of bringing weapons into Mexico or committing any crime at all,” Andrew said in an interview from the Tecate prison. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t treated right at the border and my rights were violated.”

Many of his supporters are coming the realize that USMC Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi is an unofficial P.O.W. in a NAFTA border war. He’s represents an emotional rallying point, a symbol of something bigger. Putting aside the traffic school logistics, the medical diagnosis and John Kerry’s diplomatic minutia of what he did, when and why, the bottom line is that there are now millions of Americans who want him back, and they want their country back, and they really want their Constitutional Republic back. Americans, especially those residing in the 11 western states are quickly realizing that the chances of Washington ‘fixing it’, any of it, is really slim to none. Likewise, Washington is unlikely to do anything to secure the transfer of Tahmooressi back to the US.

John Harrington from Shield Tactical cools off in the GMN bus during a live broadcast of the Pete Santilli Show.


In advance of July 5th, John Harrington has taken to the road again on what he describes as his ‘Wake the Giant’ tour, to build up awareness for some of these issues, across Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska and back down to San Diego for Cinco de Julio. Harrington put it best, “This is no longer left or right, this has now come down to good vs evil – whether it’s a Marine in Mexico or the way the VA has treated our veterans.”

“The other day I read the Declaration of Independence. It looks like Obama’s ‘to do list’. All the grievances in the Declaration of Independence are happening right now”.

Everyone seems to agree that something has to be done – and that Washington’s not going to do it.


‘Cinco de Julio Ride to the Border’ meet-up will be in San Diego on July 5th.

–

Author Patrick Henningsen is a freelance journalist and filmmaker, former Middle East correspondent and regular contributor to Russia Today (RT) and UK Column TV (UKCTV), and host of The Sunday Wire weekly radio show broadcast globally on GMN. Other past work includes associate editor of Infowars.com, presenter and producer of 21st Century Wire TV on SKY Channel 191 in 2012-13, and has written for The Guardian, New Dawn Magazine, and appearaned on Coast to Coast AM, Red Ice Radio, Edge Media TV(UK), ITN, and Al Jazeera International.

READ MORE NAFTA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire NAFTA Files



http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/07/0...da33c-72209589

Mom of imprisoned ex-Marine in Mexico tells supporters to chill out

Robin Abcarian

LOS ANGELES TIMESrobin.abcarian​@latimes.com

Andrew Tahmooressi's mom tells supporters who want to bust him out of a Mexican prison to chill out

Ex-Marine sergeant who blundered into Mexico with three loaded guns will remain in Tecate prison for now.

Looks as if Andrew Tahmooressi, the former Marine jailed in Mexico after blundering across the border last spring with three loaded guns and 400 rounds of ammunition in his truck, will not be coming home any time soon.

That is not an acceptable action. Please honor our request to wait for the legal process to resolve this.- Jill Tahmooressi, to supporters of her son who advocate breaking him out of a Mexican prison, where he is being held on gun charges

On Wednesday, Tahmooressi faced a Mexican federal judge for the first time since his April 1 arrest at the San Ysidro border crossing on suspicion of violating Mexican gun laws. As my colleague Tony Perry reported, during a seven-hour hearing, Tahmooressi was finally able to explain how he took a wrong turn out of a border parking lot and ended up in a country that essentially outlaws guns.

“We feel the hearing was a success, and we feel we are finally on the right track in order to achieve what every one of us is ultimately hoping for,” said Tahmooressi’s attorney, Fernando Benitez, who spoke to reporters in Tijuana.

But the judge did not issue a ruling, and Tahmooressi, 26, will remain imprisoned in Tecate until his next scheduled court date, Aug. 4.
Predictably, Tahmooressi’s legal struggle has become a cause celebre in conservative political circles.

Many supporters, who note that his guns were legally obtained in the U.S., are genuinely offended that he was detained rather than escorted back to the border and released. They need to be reminded that Mexico, despite the well-chronicled corruptionof many local police agencies, is still a country of laws.

Although it would be humane to release Tahmooressi, who according to his mother is suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome after two tours in Afghanistan, Mexico will not be pressured into releasing Tahmooressi.

That has not stopped partisan critics of President Obama, who have tried to frame Tahmooressi's plight as a case of abandonment by a commander-in-chief who only weeks ago insisted that Americans leave no man on the battlefield after he approved the trade of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban prisoners.

But Tahmooressi was not on a battlefield. And he’s no longer on active duty.

Dozens of members of Congress have written the president asking him to work with the Mexican government to secure Tahmooressi’s release. The president has not spoken publicly about the case, but Secretary of State John Kerry raised the issue during a visit to Mexico in May.

On Wednesday, during a Senate committee hearing on the flood of Central American children crossing into Texas, Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson briefly veered off topic to talk about the case.

He called Tahmooressi’s incarceration “outrageous” and demanded to know from Francisco Palmieri, a deputy assistant secretary of state, what the president was doing to help Tahmooressi.

“Is President Obama as outraged as most Americans are by the Mexican government’s mistreatment of Sgt. Tahmooressi?” Johnson asked. “Are we going to demand his return if he is not returned today?”

Palmieri replied that Tahmooressi is being provided with “the full range of American services.”

“I know my colleagues in Mexico City and Tijuana are working vigorously on this case to expedite as speedy a resolution as we can,” Palmieri said.

The jingoistic intensity around this issue has become so extreme that Tahmooressi’s mother, Jill, was moved to issue an "urgent" plea on Facebook to his “passionate supporters,” asking them to stop their crazy talk (my words) about breaking him out of prison on their own.

“That is not an acceptable action,” she wrote. “Please honor our request to wait for the legal process to resolve this.”

Criminal defense attorney and veteran's advocate Philip Dunn, who was with Jill Tahmooressi in Tijuana on Wednesday, was even more blunt. He told Tony Perry that Andrew Tahmooressi is not being helped by “all these blowhards who have no respect for the dignity of a sovereign nation and its judicial system.”

Maybe the blowhards will turn down the volume a little now. Not that I'm holding my breath.

http://www.latimes.com/local/abcaria...10-column.html