Posted on 10/23/2004 9:06:36 AM PDT by Kokojmudd
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEXICO CITY - The new head of Mexico's federal police force said Monday that he doesn't see the U.S.-Mexico border as a terror target and that while terrorists may try to use this country to sneak into America, there's no evidence they have yet done so.
Speaking at a news conference eight days after he took the reins of the country's largest federal police force, Adm. Jose Luis Figueroa said anti-terrorism efforts were his highest priority.
And although he remarked that "at any moment terrorists could use Mexico as a passage to the United States," he said recent jitters sweeping the U.S.-Mexico border were unfounded.
"Up until now, we have not detected one terrorist in this country," he said, later adding, "I don't think the border is a place, a target, for fundamentalist Islam movements."
Figueroa said nothing came of two recent terrorism scares, one involving two Jordanian nationals arrested in Central America and another about a woman who crossed from Mexico into Texas with a South African passport that had been altered.
In September, Costa Rica deported two men who tried to enter the country with false but well-crafted European travel documents. The pair bounced around Central America and spent some time in Mexico before finally being sent back to Jordan in an incident that sparked investigations throughout the region.
The other case Figueroa spoke of took place in July, when a South African woman was arrested at the international airport in the border city of McAllen, Texas, after trying to board a plane to New York with a passport that had been tampered with. She flew from London to Mexico, then slipped across the Rio Grande into Texas.
Dear "top cop for Mexico":
Nobody ever said the border was a terror TARGET, you idiot. It's a terror CONDUIT.
Hand in your badge, moron. You're fired.
Some bad mushrooms in this guy's burrito.
NAAAAAAH....
He's too busy supervising the flow of drugs into the U.S. to bother with minor distractions.
He will keep his opinion the same as long as he keeps getting his cut from the coyotes.
I'll take "Things Al qaeda Marxist shills say" for 500 Alex
Says he with hand behind back, palm up.
We ain't letting no steenkin' terroristas into you steenkin' country, gringo!
Let's say the border was not an actual target. Let's say instead that terrorists merely had to transit the border to attack the US.
Would the US still be jumping the gun by maintaining border concerns?
But then that reasoning still misses the point; the US should enforce its borders irrespective of the small chance terrorists will use our open southern border to make war on us. Indeed, the US should enforce its borders even if it's "just" 3,000 mexicans that invade the country every night for a whole bevvy of lesser crimes.
A growing concern in the the Middle East is whether Iran will take advantage of Iraqi unrest. To that extent, our involvement there involves border concerns.
I find it really, really interesting that Iraqi border concerns command more concern from US authorities than does US border integrity.
I'm not saying that this state of affairs is unprecidented, but can anyone point out a case in which a country was demonstrably concerned more about foreign borders than it's own borders?
and, I care what he thinks because.....
Beat me to it.
The pronouncements of puffed up members of the Mexican Junta are nothing more than comic relief for the rest of the world that actually has an average IQ above room temperature.
#10 - good post. It is only recently that we've heard anything from the White House about protecting our borders. With thousands of illegal aliens coming over every night, their statements are not believable. I consider it election time chatter, nothing more.
Having spent some time in Pakistan, I was amazed that the culture was so similar to that of Mexico and Central America.
The customs are similar, the food is similar (lots of rice and green chilis) and Pakistanis are similar in stature and coloring to "Latinos."
It would be the easiest thing in the world to come in through Mexico, and anyone who thinks it can't be done needs to have a brain transplant.
This is an area that needs to be WATCHED CAREFULLY and continuously!
A lot of others here on FR share your concern and have said the same thing. Do you think this or past administrations would allow a massive influx of illegal aliens to cross the border from North Korea into South Korea? Nope - the US would get all bent out of shape and take steps to put an end to it.
Things aren't going to get any better if Bush is reelected and will only get worse if Kerry is elected.
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