Bean bags vs. AK-47s ~ By Tom Tancredo

Here is how the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was reported in the media:

Video provided by NewsyVideos ~ December 17, 2010

Secretary Napolitano should do two things on Monday morning. First, she should order all Border Patrol agents to be issued weapons adequate for both self-defense and apprehension of armed drug smugglers. The second thing she should do Monday morning is resign.

~ Tom Tancredo, from this column

I'm not saying he's wrong about the facts of the case of the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, but the information in Tom Tancredo's column doesn't match up with what I had been seeing and hearing in the news. For instance, every news story I've seen had the Border Patrol up against FIVE bandits, with one escaping and being sought.  There has been no mention of the bean bag rounds that the Border Patrol are ordered to use.  There has been no mention of the EIGHT attackers, but rather, just five.  None of the reports have mentioned the BORTAC team (Border Tactical unit) tracking drug smugglers.  Why would this be?

Well, Tom gives us a hint of why the full truth of the incident hasn't been told in the media (until now). As you will read in this column, it's all about politics, and the failed Dream Act vote on Saturday. The politics trumped the real truth from being known.

Bean bags vs. AK-47s

TOM TANCREDO

By Tom Tancredo

December 18, 2010 ~ 1:00 am Eastern

© 2010

Another Border Patrol agent on the Arizona border was shot and killed by Mexican drug smugglers last Tuesday. Of the eight attackers, four are in custody and a fifth is under surveillance by Border Patrol Blackhawk helicopters as he tries to make his way back to the Mexican border.

BP Agent Brian Terry was part of a BORTAC team (for border tactical unit) tracking armed drug smugglers 15 miles northwest of Nogales, Ariz., (and only three miles west of Interstate 19) when they were attacked with automatic weapons fire. The area is well-known as a major drug-smuggling corridor, and the smugglers are known to frequently be armed with AK-47s and other long rifles.

Here's the part Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Border Patrol management are trying to hide: Border Patrol Agent Terry and the BORTAC team were under standing orders to always use ("non-lethal") bean-bag rounds first before using live ammunition. When the smugglers heard the first rounds, they returned fire with real bullets, and Agent Terry was killed in that exchange. Real bullets outperform bean bags every time.

The larger, ugly truth Napolitano and senior managers in the Border Patrol want to hide is that the rules of engagement and inadequate weaponry of the Border Patrol place the lives of all agents at grave risk. The National Border Patrol Council, which represents over 15,000 field agents, believes the border is too dangerous for officers to patrol without body armor, armored vehicles and automatic weapons.

Another aspect of this story that is not being reported is that the site of the shooting, Peck Canyon, is inside the area Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., has proposed to designate as the Tumacacori Highlands Wilderness reserve. If Grijalva's bill is enacted into law, what is now a well-established drug smuggling corridor will become a drug-smuggling superhighway, because the Border Patrol will be prohibited from patrolling the region. Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah has proposed legislation that will remove the restrictions on Border Patrol jurisdiction on such public lands within 50 miles of the border.

On Thursday, Secretary Napolitano and several aides flew to Tucson to meet with local Border Patrol brass. The Obama administration obviously has a mess on its hands, and Napolitano does not want it to blow up before today's U.S. Senate vote on the Dream Act. They know another murder on the southwest border will not help garner needed votes for the Dream Act, because senators supporting that bill must be able to say with a straight face, "The border is as secure as it has ever been."

READ FULL STORY at WorldNetDaily.com

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