Minuteman Blog Central

FoxNews.com article today about the Minuteman Border Fence Project security fence!

Minuteman Project Brings High-Tech Security to Arizona Border
Friday, October 27, 2006

By Sara Bonisteel

If you build it, they won''t come.

That''s the hope of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, who are behind a nearly one-mile long fence now under construction on an Arizona ranch along the U.S.-Mexico border.

As politicians wrangle over whether to build barriers along the nation''s borders and how to pay for them, the MCDC started building the first of what they plan to be many state-of-the-art border protection systems using donated technology never before seen in the United States and originally developed for use along the Korean peninsula''s Demilitarized Zone.

"Each journey begins with a first step, and this is the first mile," said Connie Hair, spokeswoman for the group.

On Thursday, President George W. Bush signed the Secure Fence Act of 2006. The legislation calls for 700 miles of both real and virtual fencing and southern border security as well as a feasibility study of barriers for the northern border with Canada.

"We''re helping our Border Patrol agents do their job," Bush said before the signing, noting the bill is "an important step in our nation''s efforts to secure our borders."

But months before the Secure Fence Act was passed by Congress, the MCDC decided to take border security into its own hands. In May, the group barb-wired a 10-mile stretch of border on another Arizona ranch.

"If the government won''t build it, we''re a self-governing people, we need to step up and do it," Hair said.

Utilizing high-tech gadgetry straight out of a "James Bond" movie, the Minuteman''s latest project is a .9-mile-long barrier designed to be an early detection and warning system to aid the U.S. Border Patrol in its fight against illegal immigration.

"We''re trying to demonstrate that you can have an extremely effective, multi-tiered approach to the problem of illegal immigrants coming across the border, and we''re trying to show that you can combine technology with just a good old-fashioned tall fence," said Peter Kunz, project manager for the Minuteman fence system.

The system, built with private donations and scheduled to be completed by the end of the year, will create a dual barrier across the southern line of W. Richard Hodges'' 372-acre cattle ranch near Naco, Ariz.

A chain-link fence covered in fiber-optic netting will detect unwanted intruders, while a 14-foot "Israeli-style" no-climb steel fence 20- to 30-feet behind that will bar people and cattle from crossing into the United States, the MDCD says.

Three cameras placed along the no-climb fence will use facial recognition software to identify possible intruders, Kunz said.

"All of this will be hooked into the Internet, which will be able to monitor all of the cameras from the Internet," Hair said. "It will even e-mail you and call you on your cell phone to tell you that there''s been an intrusion or an attempted intrusion."

Once operational, "Cyber Minutemen" will be able to log onto the Border Fence Project Web site to telepatrol Hodges'' border-front property and others.

It''s the first time at least one of the technologies will be applied to a domestic operation. The fiber-optic netting, called FOMGuard, was designed by South Korean scientists for use along the DMZ, said Nina May, chairwoman of FOMGuard USA.

The company donated $7.8 million worth of the material to the Minuteman corps, Kunz said.

"We thought this is a perfect opportunity to deploy it to show that the stand-alone sensors, that have been standard in the industry, in addition to this type of integrated technology with the cameras and facial recognition software, that it would be very easy and very inexpensive to protect our borders without all the political hyperbole that we''ve been hearing about," May said.

A Huntsville, Ala., company, Digilant Systems, is creating cameras with facial recognition software for use on the fence, Hair said.

With donations for materials, Kunz said the actual cost of the double-fence on the Hodges property could be as little as $150 per foot. And plans are under way for more barriers on other private lands.

"Ultimately we''re looking to do about 70 miles of total fencing just in Arizona. And then we''re talking to folks in California, New Mexico and Texas as well," Kunz said.

~SNIP~

To read the entire article:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,225799,00.html

To discuss this topic on our Minuteman Forum, click on the title link!

Senator Rick Santorum in a speech he started giving around Pennsylvania today paints a really frightening picture of what''s about to come marching across our southern border, if it hasn''t already.

From today''s National Review Online:

The Gathering Storm
By Senator Rick Santorum

~SNIP~

Most everybody has heard by now that Iranian President Ahmadinejad has denied the Holocaust and called for Israel to be wiped off the face of the earth. But that''s only the beginning of his mission. He continued with a rhetorical question: "Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?" He answered himself: "But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved."

~SNIP~

Ahmadinejad has recruited and is training 52000 suicide terrorists called the Commando of Voluntary Martyrs. An Iranian Revolutionary Guard intelligence officer bragged that "We have a strategy drawn up for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization and for the uprooting of the Americans and English ... There are 29 sensitive sites in the U.S. and the West. We have already spied on these sites and we know how we are going to attack them."

Our growing challenge, however, is that Iran is not alone in its rhetoric, intent or capacity to threaten the security of the U.S.

It is important for Americans to know that the threat is more complex, and has grown more complex. The enemy that has to be named is greater than Islamic Fascism.

~SNIP~

Look again at the Iranians'' strategy. A couple of months ago Ahmadinejad signed a mutual defense pact with his pal, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Two dictators, awash in petrodollars, and besotted with hatred for the United States.

President Chavez, who called President Bush "a devil" at the podium of the U.N., spoke to the applause of those in attendance as he decried America. Calling America an "imperialist power," he says his ambition is to become leader of global alliance of nations to "radically oppose the violent pressure that the (American) empire exercises." This summer Chavez honored Ahmadinejad at a gala and plans to visit North Korea, at which an "oil-for-missiles deal" may be on the agenda.

The same North Korea that has been building nuclear weapons to put on missiles that can reach our soil.

Did you know that Venezuela is the leading buyer of arms and military equipment in the world today? Did you know that Chavez is building an army of more than a million soldiers and the most potent air force in South America-the largest Spanish-speaking armed force in history?

Did you know that Venezuela will shortly spend thirty billion dollars to build twenty military bases in neighboring Bolivia, which will dominate the borders with Chile, Peru, Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil? The bases will be commanded by Venezuelan and Cuban officers. This is what the brilliant Carlos Alberto Montaner-a survivor of Castro''s bloody regime-calls "a delirious vision of history," and it is driven by a new alliance of dictators from Iran, Cuba and Venezuela.

It is part of the grand design so proudly announced by Ahmadinejad: the destruction of our civilization.

And the sad irony is, we are dependent on the very people who hate us. American imports 60% of the oil we need to fuel our economy. We are underwriting their efforts to undermine us.

Venezuela is our fourth largest supplier of oil. President Chavez called oil "a geopolitical weapon" and said "I could easily order the closing of the refineries that we have in the United States. I could easily sell the oil that we sell to the United States to other countries of the world ... to real friends and allies like China."

A recent Congressional report found that Hezbollah may, right now, have established bases in Venezuela, a country which has issued thousands of visas to people from places like Cuba and the Middle East, possibly giving them passports to evade U.S. border security.

~SNIP~

To read the entire speech:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MzZmYWUyNWYzNThlM2UwZGY0ZmUxYmI5NTIyMTJjYWU=

To discuss this topic on our Minuteman Forum, click on the title link!

Believe it or not, this article is from the decidely liberal New Republic.

THE MINUTEMEN ARE MORE MAINSTREAM THAN YOU THINK
By Eve Fairbanks

What "anti-immigration cranks such as the Minutemen ... are really up to," The Washington Post judged in an editorial this month, "is simple harassment." But on a recent Friday morning the Herndon Minutemen--a new Northern Virginia chapter of the notorious Arizona-based Minuteman Civil Defense Corps--are mostly just being harrassed themselves. "Minutemen, go home!" commuters yell from cars careering down Alabama Drive, the no-man''s land between the Herndon 7-11 where the day-laborers gather and the strip of sidewalk where the Minutemen keep watch. At one point, a white SUV pulls up to the curb where that morning''s group of six Minutemen, five men and one woman, are standing with camcorders, binoculars, and walkie-talkies. "You are racist," its driver tells the bundled, defiant band. "You don''t represent the people of Herndon. Go home."

The problem is, these Minutemen are home. Two weeks ago, I joined the Herndon Minutemen on one of their missions to photograph and videotape employers hiring day-laborers from the Herndon 7-11 expecting to be highly entertained by a gaggle of nutty retirees who''d piled into their Buicks before dawn for the chance to shake a shotgun at any varmint Mexicans they could find. After all, this is the image of the Minutemen held by many Americans, from commuters hurling insults to members of the media. A recent Post headline explained that "ON PATROL IN VT., MINUTEMEN ARE THE OUTSIDERS," while The Nation described a Minuteman rally as a "fringe political event." In short, the Minutemen are widely regarded both as outside agitators to the areas they patrol and as politically marginalized extremists.

But most of the Herndon Minutemen I met live just minutes away from the 7-11 they watch, next door or down the street from the day-laborers who cluster opposite them across Alabama Drive. And, while their actions are obnoxious, their concerns, far from being fringe, echo decidedly mainstream anxieties about cultural questions raised by uncontrolled illegal immigration. A recent Rasmussen Reports poll found that a full 54 percent of Americans actually have a "favorable impression" of the Minutemen, while only 22 percent have an "unfavorable" view. For liberals to dismiss the Minutemen as a tiny minority of racist throwbacks, loathed by the communities in which they operate, isn''t just inaccurate. It''s also naïve--and politically dangerous.

One reason the Minutemen have acquired a crankish reputation is their obsession with legal technicalities. The Herndon group does not harass the day laborers themselves; rather it seeks to nab their employers for minor violations of the law and, further, insists that it is these kinds of violations that really bother them. George Taplin, the organization''s founder, tells me that he plans to file reports on employers for operating a business without a license, operating without a valid contractor''s license, non-payment of business taxes, and improper registration of a motor vehicle. This concern for the proper application of law pervades group members'' behavior while on patrol. They never step back onto the grass behind their strip of sidewalk because it is technically illegal to snap photographs of unwilling subjects while standing on private property. "Bottom line is, we have laws in our society," Bill, a short, affable Minuteman who declined to give his last name, tells me. "Are we going to selectively choose which we follow?" This sanctimonious concern about the corollary legal issues raised by illegal immigration is part of what makes the Minutemen seem, well, a little weird.

But over the course of the morning, as the Minutemen speak about why they joined the group, and why they soldier on the in face of such abuse, it becomes clear that such legalistic concerns are often a veil for deeper dissatisfaction with the way an expanding immigrant population is affecting the social fabric of their communities. This discomfort manifests itself as concern both about crime and about broader changes in the local culture--i.e., how the local immigrant community lives and socializes. Bill explains that he "slid into the Minutemen" because he was disturbed by the way his neighborhood was changing, and the other Minutemen standing with him nod in agreement. "Dormitory-style homes" have popped up on their streets, Bill says, and the residents come and go at strange hours. Their neighbors'' children are intimidated and no longer like to play outside, in part because "we''ve got about 17 cars coming and going from our neighbors'' houses." Matt, another Minuteman who lives in nearby Manassas, claims that the police have busted prostitution rings operating out of nearby properties.

Bill doesn''t want his name printed, he tells me, because he worries about retaliation from the local Hispanic gang, MS-13. Pointing to the cluster of day-laborers across the street, he explains to me that the Herndon 7-11 is "a social gathering place, too." Taplin has publicly objected to a regulated day-laborer site set to open in Herndon on December 19--proposed in order to combat the trespassing, litter, and nuisance complaints that have arisen in conjunction with the informal 7-11 site--because he worries that even a regulated locale wouldn''t change "their behaviors." Even on the coldest mornings, more than 50 workers often convene at the 7-11, and Bill judges that sometimes only 10 or 20 get hired. "When," he asks me, "is it ever a good thing for 40 men to hang out together?"

These anxieties may be overblown, in some cases borderline racist; but they are not, unfortunately, outside the mainstream. In Mount Pleasant, the predominantly Hispanic, rapidly gentrifying Washington neighborhood where I live, complaints have begun to surface about the groups of men that congregate on stoops or outside of convenience stores at night. Those who have complained call it loitering, but one Hispanic resident told the Post that when the men gather outdoors, "[t]hey''re having coffee; they talk about issues. ... It''s part of our community." For the neighborhood''s Hispanic population, this practice is a cultural tradition; for its newer batch of hip, ostensibly liberal urbanites, it is disturbing, and too closely resembles something American law designates a crime.

These are people who would never admit they share anything in common with the Herndon Minutemen. But like it or not, the Minutemen are acting on anxieties many Americans share--anxieties about the challenge of enforcing the law in towns that are swelling in size due to immigration; anxieties about the challenge of integrating and accommodating an immigrant culture. Border states like California have been grappling with these issues for years, in court battles about day-laborer sites and debates over concepts like bilingual education. Often in these conflicts those who have presented cultural, as opposed to legal, objections to uncontrolled immigration are condemned as xenophobic or racist. But as my Mount Pleasant neighbors have shown, it can be tricky to disentangle legal from cultural discomfort.

Bill O''Reilly, who consistently reaches the largest number of viewers of any cable television pundit, lectured his viewers (and guest Geraldo Rivera) on the evil consequences of immigration last month: "You know, there''s the slumlords are stacking 60 men in one house out on Long Island, and then the whole neighborhood is devastated. When you have no supervision of sexual predators who come from other countries, as you don''t, all of those unintended consequences frighten people." And it''s not just O''Reilly. In a Democracy Corps poll this month, 49 percent of respondents said they have a generally "cold and unfavorable" feeling towards immigration, while just 23 percent said they have a "warm and favorable" feeling. Keep in mind that this poll was measuring Americans'' views on immigration as a general concept, not on illegal immigration specifically.

~SNIP~

The rest of the article is available online by subscription:

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w051128&s=fairbanks112905

To discuss this topic on our Minuteman Forum, click on the title link!

This in from Chris Simcox at the new fence site. Construction of the fence is proceeding nicely, with the no-climb, steel mesh fence panels scheduled to begin being welded into place on Monday morning!

To watch the video:

Windows Media Player (takes longer)

http://www.minutemanhq.com/~video/fencempeg.wmv

Real Player

http://www.minutemanhq.com/~video/fencempeg.rm

To discuss this topic on our Minuteman Forum, click on the title link!

Gotta love Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona.

From the CBS affliate in Phoenix:

Inmates To Attend English-Only Classes

PHOENIX -- Non-English-speaking inmates in Maricopa County jails will start attending English-only classes Monday.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio said his aim is to teach inmates about American government and the criminal justice system. Arpaio said inmates will also learn how to communicate health and safety needs in English to the sheriff''s detention officers.

"Some of my detention officers have had to learn and speak Spanish just to communicate with inmates," Arpaio said. "These inmates happen to be incarcerated in the United States of America and in Maricopa County where I run the jails. And we speak English here, not foreign languages."

County officials said there are approximately 3,000 Hispanic inmates in Maricopa County jails out of a total inmate population of nearly 10,000. Around 1,000 are illegal immigrants, officials said.

Classes will be conducted for two hours a day and will last two weeks. Lesson plans will cover the three branches of government, how a bill becomes law, state government, law enforcement and court services as well as jailhouse situational terminology.

~SNIP~

To read the entire article:

http://www.kpho.com/news/10136192/detail.html

To discuss this topic on our Minuteman Forum, click on the title link!

No, Tony, sending Border Patrol agents to prison for doing their jobs is "nonsensical."

From WorldNetDaily.com today:

Snow says question on officers'' prison time ''nonsensical''
Bush spokesman turns back inquiry about jail for officers who injured fleeing smuggler

Asking whether two U.S. Border Patrol agents sentenced to prison for shooting a drug-smuggling suspect in the buttocks is "nonsensical," according to a White House spokesman, even if it is something of high interest among WND readers.

Yesterday Les Kinsolving, WND''s correspondent at the White House, asked Bush spokesman Tony Snow whether Bush would use his power of pardon to free the agents.

"That''s an unanswerable question, Les. The president is the person who is responsible for pardons. You can tell the network, which made you ask that question, that it is nonsensical," Snow said.

The question referenced the terms of 11 years and 12 years handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, Texas, last week. She gave Jose Alonso Compean 12 years in prison and Ignacio Ramos 11 years and one day despite a plea by their attorney for a new trial after three jurors said they were coerced into voting guilty in the case, the Washington Times reported.

~SNIP~

To read the entire article:

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52577

To discuss this topic on our Minuteman Forum, click on the title link!

Minutemen and Supporters:

Just finishing up another great weekend at Operation Block Watch in Pima County Arizona! This weekend, we hosted Boy Scout Troop #141 out of Tucson for a clean up of the North end of Kings Ranch. For those that are familiar, we all know that Coleman Rd ends in a Cul-de-Sac which backs up to the King Ranch. Illegal Aliens use this location as a massive load area where they discard their clothing, backpacks, hygiene gear to load into cars headed for interior portions of the USA. This area of the Kings Ranch has literally tons upon tons of litter left behind. It was the mission of Troop #141 to clean up an environment in their community as part of one of their members Eagle Scout status.

20 young men and a few hardy parents joined with us for Friday PM and camped out at our Minuteman camping area. They were given a brick radio so they could hear the Minuteman activities on the lines/post that night. Saturday at 8AM we met at the ranch house and caravanned out to the lay up spot for a day cleaning up! By noon, they had filled 75 large garbage bags, 3 trucks filled with trash! The photos below show the hard work they put into the days events, they are to be commended.

Out on the lines, the radios were going wild both Friday and Saturday nights. Post Bravo 2 spotted 6 come up to the post. The Minutemen on post lit-them up, 5 scattered and one lone soul stood in the spotlight wondering what just happened! One other IA was found, and USBP was unable to locate the other 4. However, the one that stood his ground upon being lit-up was in fact.........the coyote! He was wearing American Army camo pants, really nice hiking boots and a Mexican Army canvas backpack. USBP agent inspected his gear and came across his cell phone! Oooops! Forgot to ditch that did ya! When an agent finds the cell phone, hes found the guide (Coyote) of the group and can charge them with smuggling, which the agent assured us would be done. The coyote spoke English, and of course denied that he could. But as we waited an hour for USBP to come to pick him up, he laughed at the jokes the Minutemen were telling on post!

We are learning a bit more about coyotes and how to spot them in a group. They are typically heavier in weight, no visible signs of exhaustion, better dressed with better gear. Minutemen do not inspect gear or pat down IAs, that''s done by USBP agents when they take them into custody. As we watch the agents inspect their gear, we are seeing that the guides have not only cell phones, but better food and clothing in their packs. They are different in appearance to the typical IA as they usually appear drawn, exhausted and not dressed for miles of hiking in the desert.

Saturday PM out on the Kolbe Line, our fearless Tucson Chapter Leader Lance Altherr had 15 come across his post! In fact, he lit them up and they immediately stopped and sat down all by one light! With only two Minutemen on post, it was a bit overwhelming and other Minutemen from the next post over came to help ensure that the area was safe for everyone. USBP agents made their way to the Kolbe Line with 2 vehicles to pick them up. All was well as 15 IAs were quickly deported back to Mexico only to make another try sometime later this week!

Today, our numbers are 322 sightings and 144 apprehensions by USBP from those sightings for the month. Yes, the numbers are far lower than we saw in April (1500 sighted), however they are still coming across, bypassing USBP Operation ''Willpower'' and the US National Guard standing post only 35 miles south of our location on the border! The USBP apprehends only 1 in 3 that come across, and MCDC AZ is effecting a 1 in 3 apprehension rate on the ones the USBP agents miss. As I write this tonight, across the scanner came a USBP call that in Three Points; a USBP agent was shot at by a drive by car-and are now chasing them into Tucson. Our USBP agents have a dangerous job and we are thankful they are there to defend Americas front lines.

One week left at Operation Block Watch. You too can come stand a post and help prove to the government that the average American can do the jobs the government is failing to do, 5 years after 9-11. We have over 225 Minutemen come through our operation in Arizona representing 25 US States, now that''s pretty darn exciting!

Enjoy the photos!

Stacey O''Connell
AZ State Director
MCDC AZ

[PHOTOS FORTHCOMING]

It would appear that the Mexican drug cartels are picking up some grotesque practices of al-Qaeda.

From the Associated Press:

Mexico gangs displaying severed heads
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer

VILLA MADERO, Mexico - The drug lords at war in central Mexico are no longer content with simply killing their enemies. They are putting their severed heads on public display.

In Michoacan, the home state of President-elect Felipe Calderon, 17 heads have turned up this year, many with bloodstained notes like the one found in the highlands town of Tepalcatepec in August: "See. Hear. Shut Up. If you want to stay alive."

Many in Michoacan''s mountains and colonial cities are doing just that: They are tightlipped, their newspapers are censoring themselves and in one town, 18 out of 32 police officers quit saying they had received death threats from drug smugglers.

In the most gruesome case, gunmen burst into a nightclub and rolled five heads onto the dance floor. In another, a pair of heads were planted in front of a car dealership in Zitacuaro, a town best known until now as a nesting ground for monarch butterflies.

By a highway outside Tepalcatepec, suspected drug smuggler Hector Eduardo Bautista''s tortured body was dumped on July 10. Near a black metal cross put up by his family at the spot, killers apparently avenging his death have been leaving severed heads — five so far — each with a threatening message.

Beheadings and accompanying notes in sometimes cryptic and misspelled Spanish are becoming a ghoulish vogue among the gangs that grow marijuana, cook methamphetamine and run cocaine in Michoacan. There have been 420 homicides in the state this year, including 19 police chiefs and commanders, and Juan Antonio Magana, the state''s attorney general, says well over half the killings were drug-related — the work of smuggling gangs reorganizing after authorities captured some of their top leaders.

"These are groups that are very big, very strong and are out to dominate territory," Magana said in an interview.

Drug smuggling in Michoacan has traditionally been controlled by a syndicate known as Los Valencia. Police arrested its leader, Armando Valencia, in August 2003 and one of his lieutenants, Carlos Alberto Rosales Mendoza, a year later.

To read the entire article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061021/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_bloody_michoacan

To discuss this topic on our Minuteman Forum, click on the title link!