| By Digger |  |
I am receiving many messages of concern that they don't believe that the story of the Los Zetas seizing multiple ranches in Laredo, Texas is true. They keep questioning the confirmation. They question why there are no visuals or pictures. "Where is the video!" they scream. So I will address those issues in this post. First, let me clarify that I was also skeptical of the story when I initially heard word. It is certainly not because there haven't been armed intrusions into the United States before from Mexico. There have been a ton in the last decade, but there have not been any where they would hold onto a position. They usually leave after a standoff or upon discovery. The situation has become different in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico over the last few days. There have been gun-battles through the streets and fragmentation grenades used as the government of Mexico tries to run the Los Zetas out of their stronghold there. People died and were wounded. The city was on lockdown and the US government issued warnings to US citizens in the area to remain indoors. With our lack of border security and porous borders, it is not beneath my intellect to believe that the Los Zetas could be forced into a retreat into US territory and attempt to seize a hideout. Not only that, but "first contact" with me of the initial story was from none other than Jeff Schwilk, founder of the San Diego Minutemen, who had a confirmed source in the area of Laredo. With this in mind I decided to go with the story, but to remain cautious. I clearly stated on the story that it was not 100% confirmed. It remained that way all night. I put out my feelers throughout the night to try and collect information and other credible sources to confirm the occupation of ranches in Laredo. I did not receive actual confirmation until this morning when I got word that Kimberly Dvorak of the Examiner had made multiple confirmations within the Laredo Police Department. Up until this point the story had not spread wide. There was no reason for the Laredo Police Department to crack down hard and keep things truly blacked out as there was no heavy interest from media. However, upon that second confirmation and her running her story "Los Zetas drug cartel seizes 2 U.S. ranches in Texas" the story to me at that point was 100% confirmed. I changed my story to reflect that and released it to the world - spreading it wide. It has since gone viral. (Since then I have learned Kim has no less than three sources inside law enforcement. Kim was also involved in the Acorn investigation with Breitbart, so she's no whipper snapper.) Since that time many journalists have tried to get information from law enforcement in the area. With the flood of calls to the Laredo Police Department, others are now starting to receive dodgy kind of answers to their questions. This leads me to believe that there may indeed by a bona-fide news blackout as they try to resolve the situation. We do have people looking into it and digging further; other things behind the scenes are going on for additional confirmation other than the current sources. The question remains, what is a news blackout and why would it occur? A news blackout is basically an order from the top down to disavow any knowledge of a situation or story. Deflect, disavow and deny. There are many reasons for this. They range from the legitimate tactical reasoning to the downright nefarious "cover up" reasoning. Tactical reasoning is an easy one. It is so they can perform their duties with minimal intrusion. That one is very simple to understand. Let us analyze the nefarious reasons though just for the heck of it shall we? 1. This would make the Obama Administration look horrible. Their lack of security along the border is well known. A breech of national security this large would create a firestorm of anger at the administration. Their aims to pass an amnesty for illegal aliens would be shot to pieces and all of their arguments against building true security in the form of a fence would go down with it. This would have ramifications in the upcoming November elections for congress. 2. There is currently a gubernatorial race going on in Texas. The current sitting governor, Rick Perry, is looked at as being weak on immigration. He stood up for in-state tuition for illegal aliens and has done little to crack down - or push for a crackdown - on illegal immigration in his state. This would destroy his "tough guy" and "tough on crime image". 3. Local congressional races in Texas. As everyone knows all of the members of The House are up for election. Some of those are open borders supporters. This breach of security would show that their continued fight against closing down the border in any way is flawed logic (as if it took this story to actually show that - the same story could happen again tomorrow). 4. Local sheriffs and elected officials could be made to look bad. There could have been mistakes made during operations that they don't want revealed. Or they could have not been properly prepared for them and this intrusion showed their incompetence. 5. Businesses. It's no secret that some agriculture and other businesses use low-skilled illegal alien labor to operate. They do this to avoid taxes so that they can make a hefty profit and avoid all of the hassles of insurance and the like. Strong business interests and wealthy individuals with influence could bring their power to bear down and cover things up to keep their cheap labor flowing. 6. General corruption. Some people in our government are beholden to or on the take from the cartels, Los Zetas or the Mexican government itself. After all, we seem to hear stories daily of someone or another being busted for being on the take. Imagine how many actually are on the take and just haven't been discovered. Those are most of the nefarious reasons that I can think off of the top of my head as to why it would be covered up or blacked out. I don't truly believe any of them. Let me make that entirely clear. I don't truly believe any of them. I believe there is a blackout because local law enforcement and the Border Patrol are waiting for backup and authorization from the Federal Government to make any moves. Something like this does have cross border and international impacts. Things like that generally are handled by the federal government, as that is the primary reason we have a federal government in the first place. The situation is relatively young and if they have the Los Zetas contained in one spot, there really is no reason to go all cowboy and charge into an unknown situation. This sums up the current state of the situation and the path of how the story broke. I have no other knowledge at this time that is not contained here. We will find out soon the extent of this situation as it develops further. As I stated in the article - and it still remains - we don't know if it's only several members or a squad. The story is still developing and I'll report more as I find out. Posted July 24, 2010 06:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (30) |
Filed Under: Homeland Security | Immigration | Politics | 
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