Free Republic

Former Iraqi militants graduate border guard trainingStory and photos by Pfc. Chris Jones, 40th PADRABIAH, Iraq (August 28, 2003) – Two hundred and eleven Iraqis will soon relieve soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment (Rakkasans) guarding the Syria/Iraq border after graduation from Initial Border Guard Training August 26.IBGT is an eight-day course. It covers the basic skills needed to be a border guard, including patrolling, handling of detainees, physical fitness and basic marksmanship, said Maj. Colinh Fortier, operations officer, 3rd Bn.“The guards’ job is to maintain the integrity of the border,” Fortier said. “One of their main jobs...

A theme park that lets visitors travel back to in time to communist East Germany is to be set up in Berlin. The GDR Fun Park will be built in the east of the formerly divided city. Visitors will pay about £8 to spend the day watching old news programmes and films before a GDR-style lunch. German newspapers say it is not yet clear whether lunch orders will be met with the traditional GDR reply of: "Ain't got that." Theme park visitors will also be able to ride the infamous Trabant cars. GDR citizens usually had to wait years before...

In December of 1999, U.S. authorities had apprehended Ahmed Ressam, an al-Qaida affiliate who had attempted to enter the country across the Canadian border in Port Angeles, Washington. This man's equipment, 200 pounds of fertilizer, four timing devices, and two jars of liquid, suggested that he had been plotting to assail the Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Day of 2000. Thanks to the expediency and foresight manifested by the U.S. border guards, a horrendous act of murder had been averted. That is the proper function of border guards, to exhibit discrimination in granting admittance based on objectively identifiable...

<p>The unarmed National Guard troops that began working on the Vermont-Canada border Monday are actually hurting security by displacing armed U.S. immigration and customs agents at a time of red alert, union leaders say.</p> <p>Unions representing Vermont's 1,000-plus Immigration and Naturalization Service agents and its 120 Customs Service agents say the situation is especially dangerous at 15 remote rural ports of entry along the Vermont border where a single armed INS or Customs agent is paired with an unarmed guardsman. The agents had been paired with other armed agents in the six months since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.</p>