A recent study by the Washington State Board for Judicial Administration (BJA) provides information to help protect our courts from violence. The BJA, co-chaired by Grant County District Court Judge Janis Whitener-Moberg and King County Superior Court Judge Steven C. González, adopted Public Safety Standards for Washington State Courthouses in July 2007.
The Standards provide guidance for courts of all sizes in all parts of Washington for implementing security training, screening, weapons policy, use of force, alarm systems, key card access, threat assessment and facility design.
Additionally, the Administrative Office of the Courts assisted to develop a comprehensive system for reporting and tracking security incidents across the state. The incidents that have been reported in the last two years are striking, both in number and scope of threat and attack, according to Judge González.
Increased presence of law enforcement is one of the primary issues on which our courts need to focus.
Weapons screening stations should have:
• Adequate room for people to congregate inside, out of the weather, without being so crowded as to present additional security problems.
• A magnetometer, x-ray equipment, and hand-held magnetometers for backup screening.
• A duress alarm to summon additional help if needed.
• Closed circuit television monitoring of the access point.
• Adequate staffing of at least two trained staff to monitor traffic flow and at least one officer with a weapon to observe and respond to emergencies.
• Access to a private area to conduct more thorough searches using same gender personnel.
Emphasis added
Federal Way Municipal Court has one unarmed security guard at the metal detectors. Two armed bailiffs are usually busy transporting prisoners; Federal Way personnel with whom I have spoken are concerned for their own safety, the safety of judges, attorneys and other parties such as defendants and witnesses, as well as the public.
Indeed! The metal detector ensures that only an occasional LEO inside the courthouse is armed but also ensures that an intruder that can get past the unarmed security officer will be in an almost gun free environment. If such a scenario seems far-fetched then why do we have the metal detectors? In fact, Judge González states, every kind of threat, including threats to prosecutors and judges are on the upsurge and numerous judges, attorneys and other persons have been gunned down in the courtrooms of the United States.
Sudden violence has erupted in King County courts, too!
If we ask folks to disarm in order to enter the courthouse, we need to take reasonable precautions against foreseeable threats. The presiding judge can take some leadership on such issues and should be doing so.
In the entrance to the Thurston County District Court there are usually two attendants, both experienced LEOs, always with sidearms. In the Kitsap County Courthouse there are often three officers, always armed. In neighboring Fife there is an armed security officer at the metal detectors and always an armed bailiff in the courtroom. The prosecutor is also armed.
Many judges are also armed, according to well-placed sources. King County Superior Court and the King County District Courts station armed sheriff’s deputies along with unarmed security guards at the metal detectors.
Of course, there are also other courts in our area that choose to remain in denial as to the level of threat confronting those of us that enter the courthouse doors.
Any public official, including a judge, should be willing to sacrifice some of his or her salary in order to provide an armed presence at the entrance to our courthouse. Any city council member that is willing to sacrifice the safety of the public in order to solve the current budget crisis should be voted out of office.
See it for real: Video of man with AK-47 invading a courthouse.
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By Mark S. Knapp, Attorney at Law
In 1994, Congress enacted a ban on assault weapons. President Clinton declared that such semi-automatic weapons were “built only for the purpose of killing people.” In the estimation of President Clinton and the United States Congress, Americans did not need such weapons to hunt and practice marksmanship. In 2004, the ban expired because its supporters could not show any impact on crime.
Americans increasingly favor owning light, semi-automatic rifles that fire many rounds (one pull of the trigger at a time) for competition and other purposes like protecting our children from predatory criminals. What makes assault weapons (AW) distinctively different from other semi-automatic weapons?
Automatic weapons that fire more than one shot with one pull of the trigger are already prohibited under federal law. Politicians seeking to gradually eliminate gun ownership know that the ability to create a banned category of weapons provides politicians with power to expand an Assault Weapon Ban to all semi-automatic weapons or even to weapons that hold more than ten rounds.
Thus, politicians recognize that by creating a list of characteristics defining certain weapons as illegal, firearms can be regulated out of existence. Many people think that pistols have no legitimate purpose. Is it true, however, that firearms with “legitimate” hunting and sporting purposes are the only weapons that Americans should be allowed to possess?
The men that drafted the Constitution had an intense debate that was finally settled by leaving the question of standing armies and military preparedness to the executive and legislative branches of the state and federal governments. In the event that inadequate attention to security issues put national security at risk, it was decided that the people themselves should be ready to take up arms to protect the Republic. On the other hand, the question of how to curtail a tyrant from controlling a large standing army was also addressed by providing for an armed populace.
The Second Amendment secures other liberties like the right to express dissent and to be free from governmental intrusions while enjoying privacy in our homes. State and federal legal cases resound with the precept that militarily useful weapons, not sporting goods, are what the U.S. and state constitutions provide for. Laws that required citizens to have a working rifle, suitable for military purposes and a prescribed amount of ammunition were common until modern standing military forces became the rule. Semi-automatic versions of the M-16, determined to be militarily useful by the United States government, are deployed every weekend as rifles of choice in competitions all over the State of Washington and the U.S.
10 USC 311 defines the militia as consisting “of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and… under 45 years of age….” The U.S. Constitution distilled legal wisdom from the classical world of Greece and Rome and Biblical Israel. Politicians were just as prone to disarming citizens in former times as they are today. The ancient despots stripped your weapons and there you stood- a slave. The moderns put you to sleep in lukewarm water while gradually turning up the heat.
Dave Workman’s piece about sixty-five House Democrats that oppose renewal of the AWB:
Gun prohibitionists are crowing that a federal judge on March 19 blocked a rule change allowing concealed carry in national parks.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Bill Clinton appointee, issued a preliminary injunction that the National Rifle Association says it will quickly appeal.
An apparently giddy Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, was quoted by the Associated Press noting, “We’re happy that this headlong rush to push more guns into more places has been slowed.”
Darned right he’s happy, but this has nothing to do with public safety or even the lengthy process under which the rule was adopted late last year. Contrary to what the Brady camp and its allies who sued to stop this rule are claiming, this change was not “sudden” or a “last minute bone” thrown to the evil “gun lobby.” This process took a couple of years and went through an extended public comment period last year, and the gun ban lobby knows it. Public comments were being taken as far back as last spring, and everyone had a chance to weigh in, and was even extended an additional 30 days at the request of opponents like Kurt Repanshek.
But, as it has now occurred to 65 Democrat members of the House of Representatives, the gun ban lobby is pretty good at stretching a falsehood (truth has nothing to do with it!). Read this letter in pdf form, courtesy the National Rifle Association.
‘The gun control community has intentionally misled many Americans…’
See Dave Kopel’s article for more about threat of “assault weapons” to police officers.
“Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief with a law?” -Psalms 94:20
“A wise man scales the city of the mighty, and casts down the strength of the confidence thereof.” Proverbs 21:22
“They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them.” Proverbs 28:4
Josiah was king of Judah when he was eight years old. 2 Kings 22. The kingdom was governed via guardians in a trustee capacity and Josiah was educated by men who had lost the Books of the Law so many generations back that they had no recollection of the Holy Decrees, Memorials and Feasts of the Lord- kind of like the men and women that hold the reins of power in many of our modern academic institutions and government-media complex- and churches!
His elders worshipped Baal and condoned or actually practiced false religion wherein parents sacrificed their children to Baal and other idols. Hearing the screams of their children while they burned in furnaces fashioned into statues of evil deities, apostate Israelite parents had sex with temple prostitutes that were kept in the high places. These practices went back to Solomon’s time when his wives brought in their false worship from other countries.
How did Josiah know what was right in the sight of the Lord in order to destroy the high places and depose the priests that presided at the high places?
What inspired him to do this at approximately the age of twenty-six? He was administering repairs on the Temple of Solomon when the Books of the Law were found in the Temple and brought to him. After he read the Pentateuch (five Books of Moses) he went into grief, tore his clothes and then did not stop until he made all the people take an oath to serve God. Josiah instituted the Feast of Passover that had been commanded by God in the Books of the Law as a memorial to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. 2 Kings 23: 21-25.
Today young men and women are looking for values to which they can commit. How many of we older citizens have declared the glory of God and his eternal values “from one generation to another"? We grew up differently than kids today (but not that differently, in many cases). Nevertheless, our culture was steeped in cultural messages that were accretions from past generations that had fought and died to serve the God of the Bible. Much of that traditional culture has now been erased and we wonder why our children go into the schools and start shooting each other. We need to start pulling down some idols and send the prophets of Baal packing. We need judges, professors and journalists- and pastors that are watchmen- that will stand at the walls of the City and sound an alarm!
Stop smoking the heroin pipe that secular-humanism offers us and start seeking after righteousness. If you think culture and righteousness are not important because one culture is as good as another then look at the mass shootings of defenseless people occurring around the United States The professional bureaucrats intone the usual mantras involving “response times” and predictive factors. They promise to get to the bottom of the problem.
The Biblical answer is in the Book of Esther. Surprisingly, Esther is a Second Amendment treatise. The enemies of the Jews had obtained a decree permitting genocidal annihilation of the Jews within the Persia-Median Empire. The Emperor, by Persian tradition unable to reverse his own decree, issued a new decree permitting the Jews to defend themselves and permitting their neighbors to come to their aid. This is exactly the concept of the Second Amendment. The difference is that for the Jews it was on an ad hoc basis. In other words, only for a few specifically designated days until the Jews had overcome their persecutors. The Second Amendment permanently institutionalizes the means of self-defense on a de jure basis; i.e., by permanent enactment of law.
The reason humanists want so badly to erase the Knowledge of the Holy from our society is because such knowledge is more powerful than guns, bombs, political action committees, money and sex, political deception or all the books in the world. Think about it.
“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Rev. 3:21).
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The concept of situational awareness is critical when preparing to confront an enemy or a potential disaster of any kind. The first step in developing such awareness is to know that an enemy exists and to identify from where the enemy threat may develop. These issues were the thrust of the November 29th, 2007, Terrorism Awareness Presentation. Ray Gross, Federal Way’s Emergency Preparedness Manager, presided over the presentation and facilitated some helpful discussion with a good cross-section of the Federal Way community.
Ray Gross, spent eight years in the Marines, obtained a degree in accounting and started out in the field of emergency management in Southern California. Ray will tell you that the Northwest has environmental extremists, professional anarchists and assorted other home grown extremists that are escalating toward more violent exploits. They cannot operate without a social groundwork to provide camouflage and support.
The purpose of this report is to apply theoretical knowledge from a variety of sources to tactical issues in Federal Way. Think about scenarios that could develop locally in the same way that the military creates opposing teams that work up plans, with one team pretending to be the Taliban, insurrectionists or homegrown organizations bent on attacking military installations, pipelines, nuclear facilities, etc. In case you are not reading the newspapers, several actual plans have been discovered; e.g., the young men of Middle-Eastern descent that were trying to acquire assault weapons from “Al Qaeda” (actually a federal agent) for the purpose of attacking Fort Dix.
In another well reported case, convicts hatched a plan that they actually began to execute after they were released from prison. The plan was to rob businesses in order to acquire funds to finance larger attacks against Jewish facilities in the U.S., U.S. military installations and “valuable” civilian targets.
“Target Value” to a terrorist indicates a potential to create overwhelming bewilderment that causes the population to lose confidence in the ability of the government to protect us.
While some of the material herein was presented on November 29th, the conclusions are solely based on the author’s interpretation of situational dynamics gleaned from a variety of sources that may need to be identified as time goes on.
One intriguing aspect of the blog format is the ability to throw out some raw material and then draw on the comments and other feedback. Since our format is always a continuing work in progress, statements and suggestions can be adjusted, revised and tested by the unfolding impact of subsequent events. As they say in warfare, the only thing that is for sure is that the plan will be changed as things go wrong on the battlefield and unanticipated circumstances materialize. In other words, we welcome your comments and analyses. There are no real experts in this area, just people that are willing to pay attention and people that blithely sail on ignoring the brewing storm.
The first point then is to make clear that we are in a war. The numbers of groups that pose threats of violence are legion. These groups may link up on an operational level even when they oppose each other ideologically; e.g., Al Qaeda (a Sunni extremist base of operations conducts operations in conjunction with Iran, governed by a regime that is Shiite and diametrically opposed to the Sunni sect).
Think about white supremacists like Timothy McVeigh and the potential for homegrown brands of extremism to operate in tandem with any number of groups that hate Israel and the U.S. Government.
One important concept to Islamicists, according to intelligence generated from interrogation rooms and jihadist internet training sites is that of “the perfect day”. This would be like a perfect storm where many apparently unrelated forces and individuals come together via certain triggering events.
By way of explanation: there have been at least two instances where men of the Islamic persuasion have attacked offices of the Jewish Federation, once here in Seattle and once in San Francisco. In each case there was no evidence reported by the media that these men were affiliated with any organized extremist groups so the stories were not reported by the media as terrorist incidents:
The idea that a lone individual will appear seemingly out of nowhere to launch a horrific terrorist attack sends shivers down the spines of public security planners and law enforcement officers — not to mention average citizens. Because of their unique traits, “lone wolves” present very real challenges to the law enforcement and security professionals charged with guarding against such threats.
See Jihad & Lone Wolf terrorists.
When we look at the larger pattern, however, it becomes apparent that many other such individuals may actually be programmed by their belief system to act (apparently spontaneously) and certain events may trigger such apparently spontaneous terrorist activities in the future.
The man in San Francisco (who started his homicidal drive through the City by assaulting Jews near the Jewish Federation in San Francisco) and another man at a university in the Southeastern United States used vehicles to assault and murder numerous pedestrians.
At least one of these murderers demonstrated perfect rationality (within the premises of his own belief system). He planned the attacks for days, going through all the rituals required by his faith prior to a jihad attack. The man has all the earmarks of a Takfiri, a loose knit group of extremists from North Africa that are more deadly and insidious than Al Qaeda.
A Takfiri (from the Arabic word ÊßÝíÑí) accuses other Muslims of apostasy. Takfiris are not bound by the usual religious constraints regarding wearing a beard, drinking alcohol, or eating pork when such restrictions would interfere with waging effective jihad. To Takfiris, strict adherence to those laws interferes with the covert action necessary to “defend” Islam. Because Takfiris “blend in,” they can organize, plan, and take action necessitated by the overriding duty of jihad with less risk of identification, interference, or interception.
The Northwest has had a tradition of aiding and abetting anarchy that goes back at least to the days when Eugene Debbs organized the Industrial Workers of the World.
“Big Bill” Haywood, and two other WFM leaders, Mssrs. Pettibone and Moyer, were prosecuted for the murder of Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg after the Governor was assassinated for keeping order in North Idaho. His home was blown up by Harry Orchard, a professional bomber for the Western Federation of Miners. It was the trial of the century and many famous personalities, including Clarence Darrow for the defense, played starring roles.
The Wobblies clashed with the U.S. Government and local governments, especially after the WW I began. By advocating that WW I was a war of the capitalist class and the international bankers, the Wobblies who were loggers, unemployed bindlestiffs and members of other crafts were violating the Espionage Act and other laws by interfering with the U.S. Government’s ability to fight the Great War. The IWW and its enemies also participated in armed violence and bombings that killed many people.
Distinguished members of the bar around the United States, including Clarence Darrow, and local lawyers like Seattle’s own George Francis Vanderveer (See The Counsel for the Damned, by Lowell S. Hawley and Ralph Bushnell Potts), came to the Wobblies’ defense and aggressively represented the “Wobblies”, as they came to be known. The IWW’s support resided in a network of mining camps, radical trade unionists like the Western Federation of Miners and a far flung criminal underground that included professional assassins, saboteurs and organizers. See also “Cabal of Death: Harry Orchard and His Associates in Murder in the Western Mining Wars” (Gem Book)by Robert Grimmett. The IWW was philosophically not far removed from the professional Anarchists that terrorized Seattle during the WTO riots several years ago.
It is a sure bet that, the next time the WTO comes to town, Anarchists will progress beyond just vandalizing the storefronts of such symbols of corporate abuse as Starbucks Coffee. The same kind of people went beyond breaking windows to assaulting delegates at the Republican Convention in Twin Cities this summer. The fact that such groups exist and may have a propensity for violence (think about environmental terrorists and so-called animal rights activists- ELF and ALF respectively) raises the issue of whether these groups represent the same degree of imminent danger as jihadists who have sworn to destroy the U.S. and Israel in order to establish a worldwide Caliphate under Shariah law.
The main reason for discussing these organizations in so much detail is to show that Washington State and the whole West Coast is an environment in which violence prone “activists” may be able to find a refuge. We live in a social sea that provides habitat for radical schools of fish to swim, with food, cover and places to blend in with their surroundings.
This brings us to the first target in Federal Way that satisfies all the criteria for likely target selection- Weyerhauser Corporation. Located on its semi-wooded campus in Federal Way, Weyerhauser has visibility and value as a symbol of corporate interests that are antithetical to many in the environmental movement (think Enviromental Liberation Movement- they already have graduated beyond arson to more serious crimes).
People arrive at Weyerhauser at predictable times via predictable routes and it is relatively accessible. Nevertheless, Weyerhauser lacks one key criterion as a probable target, the management is aware of the threat, not unaware. The employees on their way to work, though, are another story.
Does anyone remember the Pakistani jihadist that appeared outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, killed two employees waiting to turn into the parking lot and then disappeared into Pakistan for almost five years? That was in the early 1990’s. The FBI finally got their man but they had to go to Pakistan and actually abduct him (with some help from the nice government over there).
We have a major pipeline for natural gas transmission that runs right through the boundary between our city and neighboring Auburn. It is relatively close to residential areas and Weyerhauser. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently featured an article about Communist terrorists in Mexico. They blew up pipelines that caused billions of dollars in damage and great loss of life. An ocean going ship carrying liquefied natural gas and putting into the Port of Tacoma can be used in such a way as to create an explosion that will physically impact areas as far away as Federal Way.
The most likely way to prevent explosions, deployment of chemical weapons and biological agents is by interrupting the perpetrators at their most vulnerable point in the cycle of destruction. The vulnerable point is at the point where the terrorist organization surveils its targets far ahead of an actual detonation or other point where the plan is executed. In order to select a target some individuals will begin reconnoitering the area. The enemy needs to plan and deploy and of course companies like Weyerhauser and cities like New York City and Los Angeles employ intelligence professionals to anticipate attacks.
What is the Commons Mall in Federal Way doing to obtain intelligence? Or the City of Federal Way, for that matter? Or your local church or small business? Here I may sound alarmist again but most of us have heard of how Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia has attacked shoppers in the market place, public officials and Christian churches in Iraq (many mosques have also seen carnage). And they have been wildly successful at killing Iraqi police recruits, little children and even our own troops while the troops were in highly secured areas. The jihadists often perpetrated such atrocities by dressing like police. So if you feel comfortable- don’t be.
The WSJ had an interesting article on November 30, 2007, explaining the ways in which the conflict with the Taliban in Afghanistan is more a battle of the mind than of the flesh (in a sense, isn’t every war like that?). The goal of the insurrection is to get the U.S. installations “by the belt”. This means to infiltrate closely enough within secured perimeters that the security forces are afraid to shoot for fear of hitting their own men and women.
Remember the Chechens that murdered Russian school children in Beslan? The LAPD and other agencies that have jurisdiction in localities where there are extensive support systems for Chechen minorities, already are monitoring many of these groups, that can be motivated by money and politics at the same time (they send the money home to fund their insurrection against Russia and other republics of the former USSR0. They look just like Ukrainians, Russians, Irishmen or Scandinavians; i.e., white, Anglo and American. And they could be teamed up with the M-13 gang (literally an international army with many thousands of soldiers all over the U.S.) or other mercenary gangs from South of the border. The moral of this story is to know those that labor among you. Talk to your local police and get involved in the CERT program or some of the local volunteer law enforcement assistance programs. Block Watches work.
Ironically, perhaps, it is the secular humanist world-view that provides the best cultural support system for terror networks. There is nothing wrong with diversity but we need to be able to discuss community safety issues without the chilling-effect of having to talk as though pro-life activists pose a threat that is commensurate to Al Qaeda’s activities and goals (some people apparently equate the convicted terrorist, Eric Rudolph, with parents that spank their children or lawfully demonstrate in front of abortion clinics).
If your church, business or police force is not out gathering intelligence, don’t feel too upset. Intelligence gathering is expensive and sophisticated in nature. The federal government itself keeps telling us that its defense system depends on observant people like you and I that listen to our guts and make that phone call when we see suspicious activity at the local mall, freeway viaduct or intersection.
As a lawyer, I have to warn you. If you make a call about an employee, neighbor or some suspicious looking customer or business activity, you may be sued! This may not surprise you but you need to understand that the threat of legal action is a recognized weapon of terrorists. The Council of Islamic-American Relations (CAIR) and other Islamic “civil rights” groups have done a great deal to undermine the ability of government officials and other responsible authorities to take action against determined enemies. There has been at least one RICO suit against CAIR that alleges that they are in a conspiracy orchestrated with known terrorist groups to make America more vulnerable to attacks.
Remember the clerics that boarded an airliner and acted very suspiciously and then sued when they were “discriminated” against?
People that are aware of “diversity” issues are often sensitive to other people’s rights and justifiably concerned about legal liability.
Other people will tell you that fundamentalist Christians are tantamount to jihadists. Many people right here in Federal Way think Bush is the enemy and do not believe we are even at war.
Meanwhile there is viable intelligence indicating that Islamic males have been boarding school buses around the United States, possibly just to see what kind of reaction develops- is the reaction predictable?
Terrorists are known to test their prospective victims the same way a shark bumps a potential victim in the water. So if you see a ladder against your building, check on why it is there. A jihadist scout may be waiting to see how long it takes before someone checks to see whether someone is on the roof.
We need some armed school bus drivers and teachers that are trained volunteers in the battle to protect our children. The voters should be telling elected officials and administrators at every level to start providing training for volunteer school district staff; training now- not after our children are captured, tortured and raped. You may think I am exaggerating. Just remember, while you are getting angry at the messenger, some people are planning to perpetrate atrocities on our little ones and others will react violently against innocent Muslims if atrocities against children actually occur.
Provoking a violent reaction is the end-goal of the jihadist strategy. Their ultimate goal is to recruit soldiers in the war to destroy our way of life but to get there they have to create division within our society (it is working, in case you have not noticed). Do not be so complacent and smug that you believe that destruction of our American way of life is impossible.
If you work at any level of school administration, government or your church, start getting trained by professionals that teach defensive use of deadly force.
At present, you cannot take a weapon into a school or many government buildings legally. Nevertheless, it takes time to become proficient with use of a pistol even if you already have some familiarity. So start learning now.
It is just a matter of time before you will be glad that you heeded the advice herein. Do not discount small-arms as potent weapons in the hands of honest citizens, as well as terrorists. A few teams of jihadist shooters that are prepared to die can go into an intersection or mall and cause pain, death and fear that will shut down the American economy for years.
We need trained people in every walk of life, including teachers and journalists that are willing to protect our children, families and way of life. You do not even need a concealed carry license to protect yourself with a pistol in your home and business. But you still have to travel to your place of business and a permit will usually eliminate the mandatory wait period for purchasing a handgun.
Incidentally, China is the leading country that is quietly testing every vulnerability within cyberspace. Not just military and intelligence data is at risk. Business-to-business linkage is virtually universal and failure in key industries could mean that the whole country is at risk. The way this applies to your business is that you could be doing business with a Boeing vendor or other defense related supplier. That relationship alone makes you a target for worms, robots and Trojan Horses. You, the small business person, become an unwitting host for mole programs that are as dangerous as sleeper cells unless you spend a great deal of time and money overseeing your network.
“A report issued Thursday by security-software firm McAfee said government-affiliated hackers in China are at the forefront of a brewing “cyber Cold War” still in its infancy:
Within two decades, according to McAfee, the scuffle could erupt into a worldwide conflict involving hundreds of countries attacking one another’s online networks with sophisticated software.
“America is under widespread attack in cyberspace,” Gen. James Cartwright, then-commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the military’s computer grid, told Congress in March. “Our freedom to use cyberspace is threatened by the actions of criminals, terrorists and nations alike.”
The department received 37,000 reports of attempted breaches on government and private systems in fiscal 2007, which ended Sept. 30, compared with 24,000 the previous year. Assaults on federal agencies increased 152 percent during that period, from 5,143 to 12,986.
A worst-case attack could shut down computer command-and-control systems that run banking, water and sewer systems, traffic lights, oil and gas networks and nearly every other element of the public infrastructure.The roster of adversaries in cyberspace includes foreign militaries and intelligence services, hackers who could be working in league with foreign governments, and “hacktivists” — hackers with political agendas.
Terrorists, thus far, are considered only a limited threat, but they could become more dangerous as technically proficient younger members join the ranks, the Government Accountability Office said in September, citing the CIA.”
In the years leading up to September 11th, our government was focused on China as the main source of any potential threat to U.S. security. Many officials (and candidates) are now focusing on Islamo-terrorism but China is still a threat.
Remember that, in an environment where terrorism proliferates, the opportunities multiply for covert operational linkage between ideologically opposed groups. Additionally, look at the world map displaying recent terrorist incidents worldwide.
An event does not have to maim or kill. Even the initial apprehension of nuclear radiation may severely disrupt normal life and chill economic activities in a way that hampers security and impacts the way of life in the U.S.
The Posse Comitatus Act, enacted after the Civil War, was intended to prevent the situation in the formerly Confederate South (where federal troops constituted an occupational government perceived to threaten the Southern way of life). U.S. Troops cannot carry their military weapons stateside (outside of military bases and reservations) without potentially running afoul of the Posse Comitatus Act.
The Bush administration provided a new level of protection that did not exist previously with the Law Enforcement Officer’s Safety Act, allowing active and retired police officers to carry their personal weapons anywhere in the United States.
Maybe such a provision for qualified members of the armed forces would help to ensure safety on the streets and in homes, businesses, schools, etc.
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In February, 2008, the Dallas Morning News reported that CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico and Nuevo Laredo were competing for the title of bloodiest border city.
In the first two months of 2008, Juárez had 72 murders – most of them tied to the drug cartels. They are the result of a bloody fight for control of drug distribution routes to U.S. cities, including several cities in the State of Washington.
Every authority on the subject has been predicting that the violence is about to cross the border into the U.S. About the time that Mexican officials discovered eight bodies buried at a Juárez warehouse, an El Paso Times/News Channel 9 poll showed that 64 percent of El Paso residents feared that Juárez violence would spill into the U.S. The two cities, just across the Rio Grande from each other, have close cultural ties.
In Nuevo Laredo, the cartels have killed at least one journalist, a city council member and a police chief on the job just seven hours before he was gunned down. Additionally, the cartels had created a list of police officers marked for death. Many of the LEOs on the list have already been killed along with scores of other officers that were not on the list.
According to the Dallas Morning News articles, the Nuevo Laredo news media “self-censor” much of the news they report about the cartels because of fear that more journalists will be assassinated. “We’re reporting maybe 15 percent of what’s happening in our city,” said Alfredo Quijano, editor of the newspaper, whose building has received bomb threats. The newspaper issued a statement telling readers its reporters will stick to reporting “dead bodies and not investigations.”
“We’re seeing the importation of Nuevo Laredo-style violence being unleashed to take control of this important gateway,” said a senior U.S. law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “The … magnitude, the brutality, the type of violence, this is what we now call Nuevo Laredo-style. It’s a proven strategy aimed at intimidating the public, law enforcement, the media.”
After killing two Juárez police officers the assassins left a note at a monument for fallen officers with the names of 17 others they want to kill. “For those who don’t believe it, we will do it,” the note said, followed by the names of the officers. Days later, four of those on the list were dead and a new list was left. In January and February of 2008 alone, 40 policemen left the force according to a spokesman for the Juárez Police.
Despite 30,000 soldiers deployed around Mexico to take on the cartels, journalists from Juarez take refuge in El Paso. Carlos Huerta, a reporter for Norte de Ciudad de Juárez newspaper left following death threats.
El Paso and cities like Phoenix are experiencing an increase in kidnappings. “It would be naïve to say nothing is happening,” said Mr. Almonte, who’s running for El Paso Sheriff. “We’re a border area, but we’re one area. Do Mexican cartels have a presence in El Paso? The answer is yes, absolutely yes.” Mr. Almonte stated that five suspected drug cartel members arrested in Juárez were from El Paso. Additionally, CNN reports that Phoenix has become the nation’s kidnapping capital, largely because of the cartels’ increasing presence there.
The Dallas Morning News reported that, during just one 48 hour period in 2008, a police commander was gunned down in Chihuahua City; at least four people were killed in different parts of Juárez; and three Juárez banks were robbed in one day.
Our American gun culture may be the best barrier to prevent such an epidemic of murder, kidnapping and robbery from surging across the border. According to a recent CNN story, “the cartel’s tentacles and those of its chief rival, the Gulf cartel, already reach across the border and into metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Seattle, Washington; St. Louis, Missouri; and Charlotte, North Carolina.”
In March, 2009, thirty-two-year-old Alfonso Ibanez-Martinez, a Mexican national operating near Tacoma, was convicted of conspiracy to distribute heroin. The Seattle DEA says Ibanez-Martinez has ties to the drug community in Michoacan, Mexico. Other major cartels like the Sinoloa and Tijuana also funnel drugs up I-5 into Seattle – a major distribution point before they head east to states like Wisconsin, Tennessee and North Carolina, according to King5.com.
CNN cited Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Joseph Arabit’s March, 2009 testimony before a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. “No other country in the world has a greater impact on the drug situation in the United States than Mexico does,” said Arabit, who heads the DEA’s office in this year’s border hot spot, El Paso, Texas. CNN’s map pinpointing drug traffic by cartel indicates that all the major Mexican cartels operate in and around Seattle and King County, including Renton, Federal Way & Bellevue. See where Mexican cartels are in the U.S.
The Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center reported in December, 2008 that Mexican drug traffickers can be found in more than 230 U.S. cities.
So far, the U.S. has largely been spared the violence seen in Mexico, where the cartels’ running gun battles with police, the military and each other claimed about 6,500 lives last year. It was a sharp spike from the 2,600 deaths attributed to cartel violence in 2007. Once again, drug war casualties are mounting on the Mexican side at a record pace in 2009 – more than 1,000 during the first three months of the year, Arabit said. See who the key players are »
Law enforcement officials and analysts told CNN that “it is only a matter of time before innocent people on the U.S. side get caught in the cartel crossfire.”
Although the cartels previously tried to avoid direct confrontation with U.S. law enforcement, Sinaloa cartel leader Guzman’s instructed his soldiers to shoot-to-kill- U.S. law enforcement officials included according to Los Angeles Times sources and intelligence memos.
Stratfor, a Texas-based security consulting firm that helped to research Guzman and researches security risks, has been warning that the recent trend of cartel related kidnappings in Phoenix and Tucson will soon spread out to other localities within the U.S. and that the kidnapping business will not just continue targeting cartel members and their families.
It’s all about the highways that help move the drugs. Nuevo Laredo is close to the Interstate 35 corridor, and Juarez has easy access to I-10, a major east-west interstate, and I-25, which runs north to Denver, Colorado. Tijuana is also conveniently near I-10 and I-5, which heads north all the way to the Canadian border.
The violence involves beheadings, running gun battles and discoveries of mass graves and huge arms caches. Police and public officials have been gunned down in broad daylight. The cartels’ enforcers boldly display recruitment banners in the streets.
“The beheadings started at the same time the beheading videos started coming out of Iraq,” analyst Stewart said. “It was simple machismo. The Sinaloa guys started putting up videos on YouTube of them torturing Zetas.”
“From what we’ve seen, the Zetas have taken over the Gulf cartel,” analyst Stewart said. “In violent times, soldiers tend to rise to the top.” These soldiers are incredibly well-armed, police learned after a November raid that resulted in the arrest of top Zeta lieutenant Jaime “Hummer” Gonzalez Duran. It was the largest weapons seizure in Mexican history – 540 rifles, including AK-47s; 287 grenades; two rocket launchers; and 500,000 rounds of ammunition.
In February, 2009, the Obama administration engaged in an internal debate initiated by the Attorney General’s apparent effort to reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban in order to staunch the alleged flow of weapons from the U.S. into Mexico. Eric Holder, the United States Attorney General, and a long time advocate of banning guns altogether, and others including the President, seem to argue that weapons purchased legally by U.S. citizens are being smuggled into Mexico.
The problem is that fully automatic weapons are already illegal in the U.S. (outside very strict BATF controls). The reason a high percentage of weapons confiscated in Mexico can be traced back to the U.S. is because the United States is one of the few countries that is able to cooperate with such tracing efforts. The fact that less than 17 percent of weapons used by the cartels actually originate in the U.S. has been intentionally glossed over by dishonest statistics that have been manipulated by politicians on both sides of the border to justify making citizens in the U.S. as helpless as the citizens of Mexico.
The glaring fly in the Attorney General’s ointment is the fact that Mexico, already legislated to be a “gun-free” zone, is actually a cauldron of gun violence causing an unprecedented threat to seasoned LEOs and citizens on both sides of the border. Whatever, the level of violence in Mexico, the fact that violent armies of narcotistas may be surging across the border to your neighborhood is not a reason to restrict U.S. citizenry from access to weapons; it is a reason we should stick to our guns and demand that our government honor our right to protect ourselves and loved ones with as much firepower as we need to do the job!
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In February, 2008, the Dallas Morning News reported that CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico and Nuevo Laredo were competing for the tiltle of bloodiest border city.
In the first two months of 2008, Juárez had 72 murders – most of them tied to the drug cartels. They are the result of a bloody fight for control of drug distribution routes to U.S. cities, including several cities in the State of Washington.
On June 6, 2009, a shoot-out that erupted in Acapulco left 18 dead. According to the LA Times, a war occurred when army officials received an anonymous tip and arriving troops came under fire at a house in the western section of Acapulco:
“The army said 16 gunmen and two soldiers died during the gunfight. Some news media reports said the gunmen belonged to the Beltran Leyva drug-trafficking gang, based in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, but they could not be immediately confirmed.
Soldiers later recovered 49 rifles and handguns, 13 grenades and two grenade launchers, the army said. The cache held more than 3,000 rounds of ammunition.”
Every authority on the subject has been predicting that such violence is about to cross the border into the U.S. About the time that Mexican officials discovered eight bodies buried at a Juárez warehouse, an El Paso Times/News Channel 9 poll showed that 64 percent of El Paso residents feared that Juárez violence would spill into the U.S. The two cities, just across the Rio Grande from each other, have close cultural ties.
In Nuevo Laredo, the cartels have killed at least one journalist, a city council member and a police chief on the job just seven hours before he was gunned down. Additionally, the cartels had created a list of police officers marked for death. Many of the LEOs on the list have already been killed along with scores of other officers that were not on the list.
According to the Dallas Morning News articles, the Nuevo Laredo news media “self-censor” much of the news they report about the cartels because of fear that more journalists will be assassinated. “We’re reporting maybe 15 percent of what’s happening in our city,” said Alfredo Quijano, editor of the newspaper, whose building has received bomb threats. The fact that reporters in Mexico only reporting body counts and refuse to investigate official corruption that enables the cartels raises the issue of whether U.S. news media are also intimidated.
“We’re seeing the importation of Nuevo Laredo-style violence being unleashed to take control of this important gateway,” said a senior U.S. law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “The … magnitude, the brutality, the type of violence, this is what we now call Nuevo Laredo-style. It’s a proven strategy aimed at intimidating the public, law enforcement, the media.”
If Laredo style intimidation is coming to King County, our American gun culture may be the best barrier to prevent the epidemic of murder, kidnapping and robbery that all the authorities have predicted will surge across the border. According to a recent CNN story, “the cartel’s tentacles and those of its chief rival, the Gulf cartel, already reach across the border and into metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Seattle, Washington; St. Louis, Missouri; and Charlotte, North Carolina.”
In March, 2009, thirty-two-year-old Alfonso Ibanez-Martinez, a Mexican national operating near Tacoma, was convicted of conspiracy to distribute heroin. The Seattle DEA says Ibanez-Martinez has ties to the drug community in Michoacan, Mexico. Other major cartels like the Sinoloa and Tijuana also funnel drugs up I-5 into Seattle – a major distribution point before they head east to states like Wisconsin, Tennessee and North Carolina, according to King5.com.
CNN cited DEA Agent Joseph Arabit’s March, 2009 testimony before a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. “No other country in the world has a greater impact on the drug situation in the United States than Mexico does,” said Arabit, who heads the DEA’s office in this year’s border hot spot, El Paso, Texas. CNN’s map pinpointing drug traffic by cartel indicates that all the major Mexican cartels operate in and around Seattle and King County, including Renton, Federal Way & Bellevue. See where Mexican cartels are in the U.S.
The Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center reported in December, 2008 that Mexican drug traffickers can be found in more than 230 U.S. cities.
Once again, drug war casualties are mounting on the Mexican side at a record pace in 2009 – more than 1,000 during the first three months of the year, Arabit said. See who the key players are » Since the same cartels are competing for turf in the Seattle area, violence seems inevitable.
Law enforcement officials and analysts told CNN that “it is only a matter of time before innocent people on the U.S. side get caught in the cartel crossfire.”
Although the cartels previously tried to avoid direct confrontation with U.S. law enforcement, Sinaloa cartel leader Guzman’s instructed his soldiers to shoot-to-kill- U.S. law enforcement officials included according to Los Angeles Times sources and intelligence memos.
Additionally, Stratfor, a Texas-based security consulting firm that helped to research Guzman and researches security risks, has been warning that the recent trend of cartel related kidnappings in Phoenix and Tucson will soon spread out to other localities within the U.S. and that the kidnapping business will not just continue targeting cartel members and their families.
Some neighborhoods in Phoenix have now become warehouses where the cartels hold illegal immigrants for ransom money. The economics of the “global market place” militate in favor of increased diversification The cartels have already begun to recognize the prospect of increasing revenue by kidnapping Americans.
Highways move the drugs. Nuevo Laredo is close to the Interstate 35 corridor, and Juarez has easy access to I-10, a major east-west interstate. I-25 runs north to Denver, Colorado. Tijuana is also conveniently near I-10 and I-5, which heads north all the way to the Canadian border via Seattle and Tacoma.
The violence involves beheadings, gun battles like the recent firefight in Acapulco. Mass graves and arms caches have been discovered and police and public officials have been gunned down in broad daylight. Recruitment banners in the streets display the open contempt that enforcers have for the authorities.
“From what we’ve seen, the Zetas have taken over the Gulf cartel,” analyst Stewart said. “In violent times, soldiers tend to rise to the top.” These soldiers are incredibly well-armed, police learned after a November raid that resulted in the arrest of top Zeta lieutenant Jaime “Hummer” Gonzalez Duran.
It was the largest weapons seizure in Mexican history – 540 rifles, including AK-47s; 287 grenades; two rocket launchers; and 500,000 rounds of ammunition.
Many of the Zetas are former Federales that walked away from their units taking their weapons with them. Even small towns are being taken over by groups like MS-13, an international network that uses the machete in order to increase brand recognition for the violent force which is the gang’s stock in trade.
There have also been reports that gangs have smuggled Middle Eastern terrorists across the border and that the cartels are menacing U.S. law enforcement at the border.
If the reports are true that the cartels and gangs like MS-13 are about to expand their operations into kidnapping for ransom and other activities, the U.S. population should be prepared.
PermalinkBut there is no constitutional right to be protected by the state against being murdered by criminals or madmen. It is monstrous if the state fails to protect its residents against such predators but it does not violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment or, we suppose, any other provision of the Constitution. The Constitution is a charter of negative liberties; it tells the state to let people alone; it does not require the federal government or the state to provide services, even so elementary a service as maintaining law and order.
Bowers v. DeVito, 686 F.2d 616 (7th Cir.1982)
