Author: mopress

Reuters reporter Tim Gaynor collects valuable background info about previous Guard operations at the border. But there isn’t much evaluation of the facts included, which might leave the reader with an impression that the future is the same as the past.

But these “joint” operations (after all they helped stop $6 billion worth of pot) were mentioned by El Paso Congressman Sylvestre Reyes last month when he cast his vote against expanding the Guard role.

Reyes commanded the El Paso sector for the border patrol before retiring to elected office. He argued from the floor of the House of Representatives that massive troop deployment would not be a good idea because troop training is not police training, and it’s bad policy to militarize political issues. Border role not new for discreet US military unit

By Tim Gaynor
Reuters
Friday, June 09, 2006

EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) – While the first U.S. National Guard troops are finding their feet in a new role on the Mexico border this week, one discreet military unit has aided police there and on the Canadian frontier for years.

Last month President George W. Bush ordered 6,000 troops to help Border Patrol agents secure the porous frontier, and the first few soldiers arrived in Arizona earlier this week.

The deployment has upset many in Mexico who say they are unhappy at the increasing militarization of the border, while some residents in U.S. border states remained skeptical about the role troops will play there.

But a cadre of Marines, soldiers, sailors, airmen and defense department civilian specialists have used cutting-edge military technologies and know-how to help federal law enforcement there since the 1980s.

Originally called Joint Task Force Six, the group includes engineers, map makers, radar and intelligence specialists and was founded in 1989 to help federal police curb drug smuggling over the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) Mexico border.

Renamed Joint Task Force North two years ago, it was given a broader role to support law enforcement agencies in efforts to secure the U.S. mainland from threats including “international terrorism” and drug trafficking.

“Working on the border is nothing new for the military, we’ve been supporting law enforcement there for years,” said Col. Barry Cronin, JTFN’s deputy commander, adding that they would be there “after the National Guard has gone.”

In 2005, the El Paso, Texas-based unit carried out 63 operations nationwide, including 55 on the Canadian and Mexican borders. Its kit includes unmanned aerial drones, combat radar systems, long-range infrared optics, and seismic detectors.

“Typically we’ll go in with our planning and organizational abilities, offering federal law enforcement agencies a kind of one-stop shopping for all their needs,” said Lt. Col. Dan Drew, JTFN’s chief of future operations.

Utah National Guard troops arrived in Yuma, Arizona, this week, where they will patch border fencing and add security lighting, and New Mexico National Guard troops are due to deploy to Las Cruces over the weekend.

They are the first of several units that will help the Border Patrol secure the border for up to a year. They are set to play a support role and will stop short of making arrests.

SUPPORTING THE BORDER PATROL

Joint Task Force North is not involved in the National Guard deployment. But the scope and nature of the unit’s prior support to federal law enforcement is evident in a Mexico border operation last year.

Dubbed Operation Western Vigilance, the deployment of 400 military personnel to deserts west of El Paso enabled Border Patrol agents to arrest 2,020 intruders from Mexico and impound more than 1,000 pounds of smuggled drugs.

In it, soldiers used high-powered Forward Looking Infra-Red thermal imaging sensors to provide the Border Patrol with advanced intelligence on traffickers and undocumented immigrants as they trekked north from staging areas in Mexico.

The operation also used Hunter aerial drones from a military intelligence battalion to monitor movements along the Arizona-Mexico border, and sent Marine Corps engineers to put up lighting along a steel border fence in Arizona.

Another operation, on the Canadian border, threw a battlefield radar net across a stretch of coast between British Columbia and Washington State to help agencies like the Border Patrol and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police track smugglers in a cross-border marijuana trade valued at $6 billion a year.

It’s a tone that even the local Fox affiliate couldn’t spin. As 150 National Guard troops were scheduled to arrive in New Mexico by Saturday, here’s what the Governor was saying:

“We are ready, New Mexico is ready, to allow National Guard troops in the interim, for a year or two — a small number to make up for those Border Patrol agents that are not here, provided the fact that the federal government will pay for this,” said Richardson.

The news copy called this a “welcome” from the Governor, but they report so you decide. When you are ready to allow someone into your state, is that the same thing as welcoming them there?

In fact, as with many of these “early” deployments, the Guard visit is not really the result of Operation Jump Start, “but these units will count as part of the 6,000 ordered to help secure the United States’ border with Mexico.”

Border Guard Coming To Las Cruces, Angela Word, KFOX Associate Producer, POSTED: 5:49 pm MDT June 8, 2006

“While state officials in Texas and New Mexico said this week that National Guard soldiers assigned to border duty would be armed, officials in California and Arizona said very few soldiers there would carry weapons,” writes El Paso Times Reporter Brandi Grissom, who reports on Use of Force guidelines attached to last week’s Operation Jump Start memo.

The agreement the states signed requires soldiers to use the minimum force needed to control a situation and to defend themselves or others.

It calls for the use of deadly force as a last resort, does not allow soldiers to fire warning shots and requires a soldier to file detailed reports if deadly force is used.

Under the agreement, automatic weapons and shotguns are not to be used unless the state’s National Guard leader expressly orders them.

Soldiers are to “respect the human rights of all persons,” the rules of use of force state, and the soldiers are to carry the rules with them at all times.

Emmanuel Pacheco, a spokesman for the federal National Guard Bureau, said all four states will follow those general guidelines but will have specific orders about how many soldiers are armed and with which weapons.

“These are four separate state-run missions,” Pacheco said. “Every state will be little different.”

We don’t know about the missions being “state-run”, but we can understand why the federal office is emphasizing the term. Instead, we prefer the accuracy of Guard Chief Gen. Blum, when he tells the American Forces Press Service that:

“The National Guard will support federal law enforcement agencies that have responsibilities for the security of our borders. What we will be doing is bringing military skills, military equipment, military expertise and experience to assist at the request of the Department of Homeland Security.”

But even here we quibble. It is not the Department of Homeland Security as such that makes “requests” under Operation Jump Start. It is a specific bureau of DHS (Customs and Border Protection) that is charged with “requesting” Guard help. The difference is important when evaluating who gets to stand toe-to-toe with Rumsfeld whenever these “requests” get submitted for DoD approval.

Source: Article Launched: 06/09/2006 12:00:00 AM MDT, Guard on border in Texas, NM to be armed, By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau, El Paso Times.

The New Commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) W. Ralph Basham toured the border with Mexico this week. He heads the agency that will be in charge of initiating formal “requests” for Guard involvement at the border, although the first big request was apparently made (by acting commissioner Deborah J. Spero) before Basham took office on June 6, 2006 as second commissioner of the CPB.

“Under heavy security, Basham gave a short speech thanking CPB agents and Valley law enforcement for their cooperation,” writes McAllen Monitor reporter Andres R. Martinez about one stop at the Anzalduas County Park in Mission. “I felt very strongly if I was going to be effective I needed to get a first-hand look at the challenges and needs of the Border Patrol,” said Basham. “This gives me an opportunity to go back to Washington and be an advocate for your needs.”

At the official CBP website, the President is reported to “know Commissioner Basham well after previously appointing him to head the Secret Service.”

“He’s a decent man,” Bush said about Commissioner Basham. “I trust him deeply, and he’s going to be a superb leader for Customs and Border Protection.”

Here’s the official CBP bio:

W. Ralph Basham was sworn in by President George W. Bush on June 6, 2006 to serve as the second Commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency of the Department of Homeland Security responsible for managing, controlling, and securing our Nation’s borders.

Mr. Basham brings a distinguished record of public service in law enforcement to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He has served as the Director of the United States Secret Service, since 2003. A 28-year veteran of the Secret Service, Basham also served as Director of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and Chief of Staff of the Transportation Security Administration.

Mr. Basham’s began his career with the Secret Service in 1970 when he was appointed as a Special Agent in the Washington Field Office. He rose rapidly to the managerial level while serving in a variety of assignments reflecting the Service’s diverse interests and responsibilities. Mr. Basham has served in supervisory positions in both protective and investigative assignments, serving as Special Agent in Charge of the Cleveland Field Office, the Washington Field Office and the Vice Presidential Protective Division. Basham also served as the Deputy Assistant Director of the Office of Training and as Assistant Director of the Office of Administration, where he was responsible for the management of the agency’s administrative division.

In January 1998, Mr. Basham was appointed Director of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC). The center, located in Glynco, Georgia and Artesia, New Mexico, provides training for nearly all of the nation’s federal law enforcement officers, including Secret Service recruits. The FLETC also serves the state, local and federal law enforcement communities with training programs tailored to their specific needs.

Mr. Basham was named Chief of Staff for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in January 2002. Among his responsibilities at TSA, Mr. Basham oversaw the hiring of federal security directors for the nation’s 429 airports.

A native of Owensboro, Kentucky, Basham received a Bachelor’s Degree from Southeastern University in Washington, D.C. Mr. Basham’s numerous honors include the 1992 and 2000 Meritorious Presidential Rank Awards.