Posts Tagged Arizona

Jihadis Say They Started Arizona Fires

From The Long War Journal:

A Palestinian jihadist group, Masada al Mujahideen, recently claimed credit for ongoing wildfires in Arizona in a statement posted to jihadist forums today. The statement, titled “Masada al-Mujahideen Fulfilled its Promise and Attacked America Again After the Expiration of the Period with Fires that Achieved Historic Results,” was obtained and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group.

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Arizona Student Suspended Over Picture Of A Gun

From ABC15.com:

Daniel McClaine Jr., a freshman at Poston Butte High School, said he saved the picture as his desktop background on his school-issued computer.

A teacher noticed it and turned him in.

The picture shows an AK-47 on top of a flag.

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US Attorney Quietly Drops Case Against Sheriff Joe

U.S. Attorney’s Office Announces Closing of Criminal Investigation into Conduct of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office

Aug. 31, 2012

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Bank Robberies in Arizona and Texas

Woman Dubbed the Color Me Bad Bandit Wanted in Connection with Four Credit Union Robberies

Aug. 17, 2012
– Phoenix

Armed Bank Robber Hits Two Banks Before Noon

Aug. 20, 2012
– Houston

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A Serial Bomber in Phoenix

By Scott Stewart

A small improvised explosive device (IED) detonated at a Salvation Army distribution center in Phoenix, Ariz., on the afternoon of May 24. Two Salvation Army employees discovered the explosive device, which was concealed inside a yellow, hand-held 6-volt flashlight, as they were sorting through a box of donated items. The IED exploded when one of the employees picked up the flashlight and attempted to turn it on. The blast was not very powerful, and the two employees suffered only minor injuries.

This was the third incident in the Greater Phoenix area in recent weeks involving an IED concealed in a flashlight. Two explosive devices very similar to the May 24 IED exploded May 13 and May 14 in Glendale, Ariz., a city in the Greater Phoenix metropolitan area. Both devices were abandoned in public places. In the May 13 incident, a woman discovered a yellow, hand-held 6-volt flashlight next to a tree outside a Glendale business. When the woman picked up the flashlight and attempted to turn it on, it exploded, causing minor scratches and bruises to her face and hands. It also inflicted minor wounds to a woman beside her. The next day, a man found an identical flashlight in a ditch where he was working in another part of Glendale. He was lightly injured when the flashlight exploded as he attempted to turn it on. Read the rest of this entry »

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Texas Reps Want Surplus War Equipment On Border

From Military Times:

The Houston Chronicle reports Texas Reps. Ted Poe and Henry Cuellar have been joined by 17 border sheriffs from Texas, New Mexico and Arizona in a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta requesting that he move up delivery of surplus equipment.

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Arizona Officials, Fed Up With U.S. Efforts, Seek Donations to Build Border Fence

By MARC LACEY
PHOENIX — “Americans upset about illegal immigration have a new outlet for their rage: a fund set up by the State of Arizona that will use private donations to build a border wall.

Critics call the state’s effort to build its own border barriers a foolhardy, feel-good campaign that will have little practical effect on illegal border crossings. But organizers in the State Legislature, which created the fund, say it will allow everyday people fed up with the inability of Congress to address the problem of illegal immigration to contribute personally to a solution.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/20/us/20border.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

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Ex-Intel Agent: Hezbollah Terrorists Within Miles of US Border

By Martin Gould

“Hezbollah terrorists have set up a home base just across the Mexican border from San Diego, a former senior intelligence agent has claimed. The group presents a bigger threat to the United States than al-Qaida but so far appears to be lying low, making money from drug-running operations, San Diego’s Channel 10 News reports. www.10news.com/news/27780427/detail.html

“They are recognized by many experts as the ‘A’ team of Muslim terrorist organizations,” the unidentified agent is quoted as saying.

Hezbollah members have blended into Shiite communities in Mexican cities for years but the group has pushed north and now has a base in Tijuana, which is just over the border from the United States 25 miles from San Diego, the former agent said. It partners with drug cartels which pay for its security expertise.

Tunnels that have been built under the border show a level of sophistication that is consistent with Hezbollah’s work in the Middle East, he said.

The agent believes it is unlikely that Hezbollah will start attacking the United States from Mexico in the near future. “The money they are sending back to Lebanon is too important right now to jeopardize those operations.

“But if they really wanted to start blowing stuff up, they could.”

He described Hezbollah as more dangerous than al-Qaida “because of strategic thinking; they think more long term.” Al-Qaida members, he said, “are more shooters than thinkers.”

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Hezbollah-Mexico-US-border/2011/05/06/id/395452

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Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico

(CBS News)

WASHINGTON – Federal agent John Dodson says what he was asked to do was beyond belief.

He was intentionally letting guns go to Mexico?

“Yes ma’am,” Dodson told CBS News. “The agency was.”

An Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms senior agent assigned to the Phoenix office in 2010, Dodson’s job is to stop gun trafficking across the border. Instead, he says he was ordered to sit by and watch it happen.

Investigators call the tactic letting guns “walk.” In this case, walking into the hands of criminals who would use them in Mexico and the United States.

Documents show the inevitable result: The guns that ATF let go began showing up at crime scenes in Mexico. And as ATF stood by watching thousands of weapons hit the streets… the Fast and Furious group supervisor noted the escalating Mexican violence.

One e-mail noted, “958 killed in March 2010 … most violent month since 2005.” The same e-mail notes: “Our subjects purchased 359 firearms during March alone,” including “numerous Barrett .50 caliber rifles.”

Dodson feels that ATF was partly to blame for the escalating violence in Mexico and on the border. “I even asked them if they could see the correlation between the two,” he said. “The more our guys buy, the more violence we’re having down there.”

Video here:

“I accuse the U.S. weapons industry of (responsibility for) the deaths of thousands of people that are occurring in Mexico,” Calderon said.

How is it the weapon industry’s fault? Do they blame the auto industry for all of the car accidents in Mexico?

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Ed Schultz interview with Joe Zamudio

“The solution is not more laws, the solution is helping people.”

Zamudio: “Sir, when I came through the door I had my hand on my pistol and I clicked the safety off. I was ready to kill him, but I didn’t have to do that and I was very blessed that I didn’t have to go to that place…all I had to do was help.”

Schultz: “You would have used that firearm?”

Zamudio: “You’re damn right. This is my country, my town, you don’t get to walk around hurting people, killing innocents and little girls – it’s not right, man.”

Schultz: “How do you feel about the gun laws in Arizona?”

Zamudio: “You know, I carry a gun everywhere I go, sir. Honestly, I believe that you can make as many laws as you want , people who want guns are going to get them…criminals can get guns any way they want.

You can make as many laws as you want, it’s not going to stop anybody…that’s not the solution, the solution is helping people, taking care of people…I think our answer is to help people and not to argue about whether or not we’re allowed to own guns. We live in America and we’re allowed to own guns.”

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Joe Zamudio, Tuscon Sheepdog, interviewed by Liberty Watch Radio

Liberty Watch Radio interview with Joe Zamudio who was present at the site of the January 8 shooting of 18 people, and helped restrain the perpetrator.

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Obama Adminstration’s Attack On Guns

Fox News reports that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has proposed a new regulation for the sale of rifles in border states (i.e. Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California). The regulation would cover any rifle larger than .22 caliber that also has a detachable magazine, which is almost every rifle ever made.

According to an ATF spokesman:

the agency is pushing for this new regulation now because since 2004, there’s been a 100 percent increase by Mexican drug cartels using rifles, which are not covered by any reporting requirements.

This quote is misleading at best. The spokesman is implying that gun runners for the cartels are coming into the United States and buying semi-automatic rifles off the shelf. There have been many claims that most of the guns found in cartel caches are from the United States. Most of the guns that can be tracked are from the U.S., the U.S. military. The automatic rifles that we send to Mexico are stolen from the army and police and used by the cartels. The distinction between semi-automatic and automatic is key, because for the most part no one is this country is allowed to purchase a fully automatic rifle.

Later in the article a spokesman for the Brady Campaign is quoted:

“It makes sense that law enforcement should be alerted if someone is buying five, 10 or 100 assault weapons, when it’s likely that those guns could be headed to drug cartels in Mexico,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign.

“It will give ATF the same amount of information about people who buy military-style assault weapons in bulk that they already have had for more than 40 years about people who buy handguns in bulk,” he said in a statement. “It’s the kind of crime-fighting information that our law enforcement officials ought to have if we want to reduce the number of assault weapons being trafficked illegally to Mexico, as well as to American cities.”

This quote is also misleading and full of exaggeration, meant to scare people who don’t know any better. There maybe a few cases of gun owners buying five rifles at a time, but it is very unlikely to occur not to mention ten or a hundred at one time, which is ridiculous. I don’t know anyone who owns a hundred guns and if you are reading this I bet you don’t either. As I said before cartels are not purchasing their guns from U.S. gun shops. This regulation will, if passed, inevitably make it harder for law-abiding citizens to arms themselves while doing nothing to deter criminals and the drug cartels who are already breaking the law.

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Congressional Security and the Tucson Shooting

Congressional Security and the Tucson Shooting is republished with permission of STRATFOR.

By Fred Burton and Sean Noonan

Following the Jan. 8 shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Federal District Judge John McCarthy Roll and 17 others in Tucson, Arizona, discussion has focused on the motivations and ideology of the accused shooter, Jared Loughner. While it was important to make a quick assessment of Loughner’s profile in order to evaluate the possibility of an organized threat, all the available evidence (though not conclusive) indicates that he acted alone.

For the most part, discussion of the event has not touched on a re-evaluation of security for members of Congress. STRATFOR has previously analyzed the issues surrounding presidential security, and while there are common concerns in protecting all branches of government, Congress and the judiciary involve much larger numbers of people — 535 representatives and senators and more than 3,000 federal judges. And members of Congress put a high priority on public accessibility, which makes them more vulnerable.

A common mindset of politicians and their staffers is that better security will limit their accessibility and thus hinder their ability to do their job (and win elections). In fact, there are a number of measures that members of Congress and other public officials can institute for better security without limiting accessibility. While staying in a secure facility would be the safest, it isn’t a realistic option. What is realistic — and effective — is the prudent employment of protective intelligence as well as some measure of physical protection on the move. Read the rest of this entry »

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Supreme Court to hear arguments over AZ immigration law

PHOENIX — The impassioned debate over the nation’s immigration policy takes center stage at the Supreme Court Wednesday in a dispute over an Arizona law that punishes employers who knowingly hire workers illegally in the U.S.

Arizona’s employer sanctions law has been used just three times in three years, but business interests and civil rights groups, backed by the Obama administration, have banded together to argue that only the federal government may enforce immigration laws.

The outcome in this case also could signal how the court would handle the controversial and more expansive Arizona immigration enforcement law, known as SB1070, that the administration challenged and a federal judge blocked key components this summer.

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2010/12/04/5579100-court-to-hear-arguments-over-ariz-immigration-law

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Arizona governor vs. Phoenix Suns owner:

“The owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball team, Robert Sarver, opposes AZ’s new immigration laws.

Arizona’s Governor, Jan Brewer, released the following statement in response to Sarver’s criticism of the new law:

“What if the owners of the Suns discovered that hordes of people were sneaking into games without paying?

What if they had a good idea who the gate-crashers are, but the ushers and security personnel were not allowed to ask these folks to produce their ticket stubs, thus non-paying attendees couldn’t be ejected.

Furthermore, what if Suns’ ownership was expected to provide those who sneaked in with complimentary eats and drink?

And what if, on those days when a gate-crasher became ill or injured, the Suns had to provide free medical care and shelter?”

-Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer

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