American Patriot Journal

TULSA, Okla. (ICE) - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Thursday announced the arrest of 45 gang members, gang associates and immigration violators during this latest six-day local effort of an ongoing national ICE program called “Operation Community Shield.”

The operation began Friday and ended Wednesday night. Fifteen of those arrested are transnational gang members who are aliens and will be processed for deportation following any pending criminal charges against them. Thirteen of those arrested have no known gang affiliation but are deportable due to their criminal convictions or because they are in the U.S. illegally. Another 17 U.S. citizen gang members were also arrested on state warrants or criminal charges during the operation.

The following law enforcement agencies assisted with this operation: Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office, Tulsa Police Department, Oklahoma’s Alcohol Beverage Law Enforcement Commission (ABLE), and the FBI.

Each of the 32 gang members arrested during this operation was associated with one of the following violent street gangs: Bloods, East Side Longos, Hoover Crips, Juaritos, Latin Kings, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), and Surenos.

Three gang members were arrested during the planning phase of the operation based on outstanding state arrest warrants. Aggravated felons accounted for 17 of the arrests. Following are some of the criminal convictions or charges from those arrested during this operation: murder, armed robbery, felon possessing a firearm, weapons charges, accessory to a murder, various drug charges, shooting with intent to kill, assault with a deadly weapon, and re-entering the U.S. after being deported. The U.S. citizen gang members were immediately turned over to local law enforcement to answer for state warrants against them. ICE placed detainers on two alien gang members now in state custody so that if they’re released for any reason, they’ll be transferred to ICE.

In addition to those arrested, the following items were also seized: 11 handguns, $2,100 cash, an ounce of cocaine and 0.3 ounces of crystal methamphetamine.

ICE will present some of the aliens’ cases to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Oklahoma, for federal prosecution.

Of the non-U.S. citizens arrested, 26 are from Mexico, one from Nigeria and one from El Salvador. Following any judicial proceedings and sentences, all will be returned to their countries of origin.

“ICE has unique immigration and customs law enforcement authorities which complement the authorities of our federal, state and local partners,” said James Delia, resident agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Oklahoma City. “Together, we can effectively remove dangerous gang members and associates from the streets to make our communities safer. Local law enforcement agencies act as significant partners in these anti-gang operations.”

HONOLULU (AP) - Federal agents have arrested 43 male immigrant farm workers in Waipahu.

A raid on an apartment complex rounded up the men who authorities say are all Mexican citizens. They are being held in the federal detention center pending deportation hearings and possible charges.

Immigration and Customs special agent-in-charge Wayne Wills says it was the largest arrest in a single raid so far this year. He says all of the men worked for a business called the Farms.

Earlier immigration arrests included 22 restaurant workers on Maui and 19 construction workers in Honolulu.

Wills says the arrests are part of a crackdown on employers who use illegal immigrants.

Officials of the Farms could not immediately be reached for comment on the latest raid which took place on Sunday.

“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of ‘liberalism,’ they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day, America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”

- Norman Thomas (1884 – 1968)

(NewTimes.com) - Bill O’Reilly did a good number on “local” Congressman Robert Wexler tonight.

And I think Wexler is in a bit of trouble.

You see, the longtime Democratic rep says he lives in Delray Beach and he’s required to maintain a residence in his district. But he really lives in Potomac MD. The house in Delray that he calls his “offical residence” is owned by Lawrence and Roslyn Cohen, the parents of Wexler’s wife, Laurie. And it’s in a restricted over-55 community, which makes it impossible for Wexler and and his three children to reside there.

“U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Delray Beach)”? I think not.

Wexler’s Republican opponent, Edward Lynch, dug this stuff up and fed it to Fox News. O’Reilly ate it up.

A Fox News producer named Griff Jenkins caught up with Wexler in the front yard of his home in Potomac. When Jenkins walked up on his driveway, Wexler — looking 100 percent the goofy suburban dad in a green hat, green t-shirt, and shorts — didn’t even wait for a question.

“No, I’m not doing this,” Wexler said. “If you want to call my office, that’s fine, I gotta drive my daughter to work.”

Jenkins, like any good reporter, kept charging, asking Wexler by the congressman’s silver Volvo SUV if his residency was in Delray.

“That’s correct, that’s my residence,” he said.

Jenkins noted that it belonged to Wexler’s in-laws.

“Is that true? You live with your mother-in-law?” Jenkins asked with a straight face.

That’s when the fire-breathing liberal got what football coach Bill Curry likes to call the “brook trout stare.” His eyes went blank and you could practically hear his brain leaking out of his head.

“Uh, the, mm …”

The stammering only lasted a second or two, but it seemed like an hour in at the DMV.

“My in-laws own that house, that’s correct,” he finally said.

“So you live with your mother-in-law?”

“My in-laws own that house, yes, that’s my official residence.”

You might think this seems a small matter and you might not like the vigor that O’Reilly goes after Wexler (fresh liberal meat, you know). But it’s about more than partisan politics or even the fact that Wexler hasn’t lived in his district for ten years and lists a sham residence in official papers. Put bluntly, this is a sleazy and unethical move by Wexler. For one, he gets a housing deduction from Congress to help him maintain two residences. Unless, he’s paying Mrs. Cohen rent when he sleeps on the pull-out, he’s just pocketing that little federal benefit.

Another thing is that he might be using the sham Delray house for tax purposes — as in, to not pay them. Florida doesn’t have a state income tax, Maryland does. That means his little deceit might be bringing him more than a little coin. It’s not proven, but his cars are, weirdly, registered in Florida and it deserves to be looked into.

Basically, this could be tantamount to fraud and it could actually have some legs, though I seriously doubt we’ll see any criminal charges and I’m quite certain his loyal voters will quickly forgive him. He’s good ol’ Bobby Wexler, after all.

But good on Lynch for digging it up. So how did he do it? Well, Wexler can blame his own big mouth. Or, more specifically, his typing fingers. From Lynch’s press release:

This revelation became known after reading Congressman Wexler’s book, “Fire Breathing Liberal.” On P. 52 he states, “While many members don’t bring their families with them to Washington, choosing instead to fly home each weekend, Laurie and I decided it would work best for our family if our three young children attended school in the Washington area.” It was that statement the caused this candidate to look further into Rep. Wexler’s past.

That’s how he found a damn good story, though you wouldn’t really have known it if you read the story about it in the Palm Beach Post this morning. Rather than treat it like a serious local political story, the Post basically wrote a preview of O’Reilly’s show and brought up none of the more pertinent problems regarding Wexler’s action. Headlined “Wexler residency dispute enters Fox’s ‘No Spin Zone’,” it basically nullified itself as news and handed Fox the real scoop. It also reminded me of how chummy the Post has historically been with its long-time congressmen. Remember Mark Foley? The newspaper treated him like a near-deity until he finally went down in flames over the page scandal.

This isn’t anywhere near a Foley-caliber story (even if O’Reilly treats it as one as part of his non-existent political agenda). But it definitely deserves serious local coverage.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats are convening the first congressional hearing on the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy since its enactment 15 years ago. But they acknowledge there’s no chance of repealing it this year.

Indeed their only hope of success, they say, is if Democratic Sen. Barack Obama gets elected president.

“We need a new president in order to get this passed” - specifically, a President Obama, Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., told reporters on a conference call Tuesday convened by the Human Rights Campaign and the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

Obama wants to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” and will work with military leaders to get it done, his campaign Web site says. Republican opponent John McCain supports “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Tauscher’s legislation to overturn the policy has 133 co-sponsors. But key Democrats including House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., support the status quo, and there are no plans to bring the bill to a vote this year.

Tauscher said she has no interest in a “show vote” that her side might lose.

Instead, the hearing Wednesday in the Armed Services Committee’s military personnel panel is meant to draw attention to the issue and to the growing public sentiment in favor of gay people serving openly in the military, Tauscher said.

Then there is this:

Military Excluded From ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Hearing

(CNSNews.com) – When a House panel holds a hearing Wednesday afternoon examining the impact of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding homosexuals in the military, no one from the Defense Department will testify.

That’s because no one from the military has been invited to testify, according to Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), sponsor of a bill to overturn the military’s ban on homosexuality.

“The truth of the matter is, we don’t (have anyone from the Defense Department scheduled) because we know what they would say,” Tauscher said at a Tuesday news conference. “We know that they would say, ‘That’s the law, ma’am. We salute smartly and we do what the law says.’”

In fact, Tauscher admitted that the entire reason for the hearing is to lay the groundwork for efforts after the election, when she and subcommittee chair Rep. Susan Jones (D-Calif.) hope to get a newly elected President Barrack Obama to make an issue of homosexuals in the military.

“This is not a question of whether the committee can pass this out today,” Tauscher said. “This bill is not going to be brought for a vote in this Congress. We do not believe that it is appropriate to bring a bill forward that the president won’t sign.”

Tauscher admitted she is merely trying to lobby for the bill in the hope that the next president, whom she told reporters will be Sen. Barrack Obama (D-Ill.), the expected Democratic nominee, who she said has indicated would take up the issue early in his administration, if elected.

Tauscher’s bill, meanwhile, reportedly does not have the support of the Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), or of many of the Democrats on the committee.

When pressed if she had canvassed the members, or Skelton, and knew where the bill stood, Tauscher was defensive.

“There’s no reason to do that, since we’re not going to bring the bill forward until we have an environment where we can not only pass the bill, but get it signed,” Tauscher said.

“In our business, we can pass bills all day long, but if the Senate doesn’t take them up and pass them, or if president doesn’t sign them, it’s a lot like wasting your time,” she said.

One witness who is expected to testify in support of barring homosexuals from military service, surprisingly supports not inviting the military to the hearing.

Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, said even the Defense Department doesn’t understand that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is not the law of the land. .

“They know what the policy is, but they don’t know what the law is,” Donnelly said, “and they don’t understand the difference between the two. In their public statements, I have seen no indication that they really understand what the difference is.”

Donnelly, who supports barring homosexuals from military service, said the 1993 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy is a set of policies and an enforcement scheme that President Bill Clinton put into place in 1993 after Congress passed a law.

“The statute — Section 654, Title X — states clearly that ‘homosexuality is incompatible with military service,’ ” Donnelly told CNSNews.com. “After he signed the law, President Clinton then put into place regulations that are inconsistent with the law.”

Donnelly said the Clinton policy is clearly illegal – “‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ suggests that you can serve in the armed forces as long as you don’t say that you are homosexual.”

The Pentagon did not return calls. But retired Army Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis, who has testified at previous congressional hearings on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” said the move to remove the ban on homosexuals in the military is political and has nothing to do with the needs of the military.

“For someone in the middle of politically correct Washington to hold a hearing suggesting that our armed forces – some of whom are dying and getting wounded on the battlefields today –are somehow going to be better armed forces if we remove the barriers to a politically powerful group and, all of the sudden, make them a mainstream part of this organization, is the height of arrogance,” Maginnis said.

Obama has indicated that he would support efforts to eliminate a ban on homosexuals serving in the military.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the likely Republican nominee, has indicated he is opposed to making changes to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Wednesday’s hearing is taking place in Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on personnel.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, believes that if there are no anti-gun laws currently in place to restrict those who are licensed to carry a concealed weapon then they should create some.

(AP) The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee says he might pursue new gun restrictions in response to a recently enacted Georgia law that could allow people to carry concealed firearms in parts of the Atlanta airport.

Apparently surprised that some airports long have allowed guns in unsecured areas, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said the new Georgia legislation represents a significant hole in national security and a threat to travelers.

He asked the Transportation Security Administration to clarify federal law governing weapons in areas outside security checkpoints. In a letter Monday to TSA Assistant Secretary Kip Hawley, he said “the committee may seek legislative action to correct this omission” if there are no restrictions.

TSA spokesman Christopher White said Tuesday that no federal prohibitions apply to areas outside security checkpoints and that the agency follows local regulations. He said he didn’t know how many airports allow firearms and declined to say whether the agency has a position on the matter, maintaining that it is focused on keeping guns from getting through security.

“We work within the framework of local laws,” he said.

At issue in Georgia is a law signed by Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue earlier this year that allows residents who have passed criminal background checks to carry concealed weapons onto mass transit, as well as into state parks and restaurants that serve alcohol. The law took effect July 1.

A legal battle quickly erupted over whether the law applies to public areas of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport before travelers pass through security checkpoints.

On the day the new law took effect, Atlanta officials who oversee the airport declared it a “gun-free zone” and said anyone carrying a gun there could be arrested and charged with a misdemeanor. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin argued that allowing guns could endanger people because airports remain attractive targets for terrorism.

Gun rights supporters filed a federal lawsuit challenging the designation, saying the airport qualifies as mass transportation and has restaurants that should be accessible under the new law.

Sean Broderick, spokesman for the American Association of Airport Executives, also said he did not know how many airports allow handguns. Andrew Arulanandam, a National Rifle Association spokesman, said he thinks guns are at least partially allowed on airport grounds in most states.

The Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport, for example, allows weapons in areas outside checkpoints, while Washington’s Reagan National and Dulles International airports eased rules several years ago to allow weapons on grounds and parking lots, but not in terminals and other buildings that access airfields.

Hartsfield spokesman Herschel Grangent said airport and TSA officials were scheduled to meet late Tuesday on the guns issue.

(NY Post) - Allah board!

An Islamic group plans to blitz 1,000 subway cars with advertisements this September in a campaign being promoted by a Brooklyn imam whom federal officials have linked to a plot to blow up city landmarks.

The group says its mission is to explain the true nature of Islam to non-Muslims who believe the religion is bent on acts of violence - but Siraj Wahhaj, the inflammatory imam who appears in a promotional YouTube video for the project, has defended convicted bomb-plotters and called the FBI and CIA the “real terrorists.”

US Attorney Mary Jo White even named Wahhaj one of 170 unindicted co-conspirators in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the thwarted plan to blow up a slew of buildings.

“In time, this so-called democracy will crumble, and there will be nothing, and the only thing that will remain will be Islam,” Wahhaj said in one of his sermons.

The stark, black-and-white ads of the Subway Project promote Islam with the goals of clearing up long-held misconceptions about the faith and reaching out to those interested in becoming Muslim, according to the Islamic Circle of North America, the group behind the campaign.

Timed to run during the month of Ramadan, the ads come in pairs, reading “Q: Prophet Muhammad?” or “Q: Islam?” and the corresponding answer is always “A: You deserve to know.”

Those interested in knowing more are directed to call (877) WHY-ISLAM or to visit whyislam.org, which provide literature that teaches and proselytizes about the faith.

The group insists it is not looking to transform subway cars into the “G-had train.”

“Anyone who looks at this ad objectively can see that it is not preaching anything,” Azeem Khan, the group’s assistant secretary general, told The Post. “There is a lot of Islamaphobia out there. We provide people with a chance to speak with an actual Muslim who is informed.”

Wahhaj, imam of Al-Taqwa mosque, is a former member of the Nation of Islam and was the first Muslim to give an invocation at the House of Representatives.

Formal charges were never filed against him by White, although he did serve as a character witness for the defense in the trial of Omar Abdel-Rahman, “the blind sheik” who is now serving a life sentence for his role in plotting the 1993 WTC bombings.

In the promotional video for the Subway Project, Wahhaj is the first to speak.

“Every day in this city, some 4.9 million people ride the subways - that is a lot of people,” he says. “Imagine them seeing the word Islam. Imagine them seeing the word Muhammad.”

The MTA confirmed that the group has signed a contract for the ad campaign but would not comment further.

(CNSNews.com) – The Drug Enforcement Administration has “unequivocal” evidence that terrorists – including al Qaeda and Hamas – are using the global drug trade to finance their organizations and put deadly drugs into the hands of Americans, a top official said.

Michael Braun, chief of operations for the federal intelligence agency, said almost half of the 42 groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United States government are involved in the drug trade and justify their criminal activity because it can further jihad by funding cells around the globe and providing drugs to consumers in the U.S. and other western societies.

“This is the face of 21st century organized crime, and it’s meaner and uglier than anything we’ve ever seen before,” said Braun, who spoke last week at the Washington Institute, a public educational foundation that studies U.S. interests in the Middle East. (See list of terrorist organizations)

Braun said the difference between long-operating drug cartels like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), and the new “hybrid” drug rings operated by organizations that are “one-part terrorist and one-part drug cartel” is what drives them.

“Terrorist organizations are motivated by ideology, and global drug cartels are motivated by one thing only, and that is greed,” Braun said.

But Braun said the DEA, which joined the intelligence arm of the U.S. government in 2006, has been fighting terrorists with links to drug trafficking for 25 years. He also cited the Taliban – and its rise to power by taxing farmers who grew opium in Afghanistan – as evidence of how the drug trade supports terrorism.

The bottom line continues to attract terrorist organizations, Braun said.

“Nothing, absolutely nothing, produces the kind of money that the global drug trade produces,” Braun said, adding that cash assets seized from the drug trade in bilateral operations staged by U.S. agencies and their counterparts in countries around the globe has ballooned from about $500 million four years ago to more than $3.4 billion in 2007.

Terrorist organizations use the proceeds from drug sales for what Braun calls their “care, nurturing and feeding” – namely recruiting, training, procuring arms and other weapons and the establishment of safe houses around the world.

“It cost hundreds of millions of dollars for any terrorist organization worth its salt to operate,” Braun said.

Braun also said the nexus between drug trafficking and terrorism is part of a larger global war on terror that will not go away any time soon.

“Most of the deep thinkers at the (Department of Defense) believe we are going to be fighting this fight – what they refer to as ‘the long war’ – for the next 30 to 50 years,” Braun said.

ALBURGH, Vt. (AP) — Summer is usually a busy time for both the Border Patrol and smugglers who try to enter the U.S. illegally via Lake Champlain, but authorities say organized smuggling in the area is way down this season.

Border Patrol officials credit the reduction in smuggling to benefits of an emphasis on better security. Last year, as part of that effort, U.S. and Canadian officials broke up what they described as two major rings that smuggled illegal immigrants across the border, many through Alburgh.

“We have received more people, more equipment, more stuff to get things done,” said Mark Henry, a spokesman for the Border Patrol’s Swanton Sector, which runs from Ogdensburg, New York, 295 miles east to the New Hampshire-Maine line.

Organized smuggling is down — but violence is up.

Last week, an agent fired his weapon after being shot at by a person who assaulted him when apprehended near the border in Derby Line. It was the third shooting in the Swanton sector in less than a year. No injuries were reported in any of them.

Henry says the violence is a symptom of their success.

“They’re getting frustrated,” Henry said of the smugglers. “They’re being denied entry. Part of that is we see more violence on the border. It’s not just here, but nationwide.”

During the first nine months of the current fiscal year, the Border Patrol says the number of violent incidents has increased by 22 percent. Through June 30, the number of assaults was 827, up from 676 in 2007, said Lloyd Easterling, a Border Patrol spokesman in Washington.

Easterling said the greatest increase in violence is in the San Diego Sector on the Mexican border. He said criminals were increasingly reluctant to abandoned parts of the border where they had previously “operated with impunity.”

“This entrenchment mentality, along with a willingness to engage our officers, has resulted in an escalation in violence and assaults,” Easterling said.

Last fall, Vermont’s U.S. attorney announced that two human smuggling rings, one based in Montreal, the other in Toronto, had been broken up after they had moved hundreds of illegal immigrants from Asia and Latin American into the U.S. Some illegal immigrants were charged as much as $10,0000.

Agents don’t know if any people were smuggled down the lake as part of those rings, but the lake has been used by other smugglers.

“We’ve had several attempts where people have rented boats in Canada and come down, you know, with a guide and a smuggler and a car will be waiting along a shoreline where we’ve interdicted them and apprehended them,” said Border Patrol Supervisory Agent John Letourneau.

The rings sent people walking across the border in Alburgh, or down unguarded back roads or railroad tracks, where the new arrivals were picked up by waiting vehicles.

Since the 2001 attacks on the United States, the Border Patrol has been tripling its manpower levels on the U.S.-Canadian border, and added aircraft, all terrain vehicles, snowmobiles and even personal watercraft.

The Border Patrol has used boats to patrol the lake for years. They’ve always had snowmobiles and all terrain vehicles, but now there are more of them.

Letourneau said smuggling routes are always changing.

“One year they’re in our area, the next year they’re west, the next year they’re in New York,” he said. “Who knows what’s in the mind of the smuggler.”

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico has awarded Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy the country’s highest honor for his work defending the rights of immigrants during his decades in Congress.

The Mexican government said in its official gazette it presented the “Aztec Eagle” honor to Kennedy in Washington on Friday.

“He has denounced injustices suffered by immigrants,” and “promoted initiatives to promote full political participation and increased access to health and education services for the Mexican-American community,” the official announcement said.

The veteran Massachusetts senator fought for an immigration reform bill in Congress that failed to pass last year.

Kennedy has been a vocal critic of Republican President George W. Bush and actively campaigned for Barack Obama in his bid to become the Democratic nominee in the November presidential election.

Kennedy, 76, was hospitalized in June for brain surgery to remove a tumor but showed up in Congress this month to vote on a Medicare bill opposed by the White House.

Last year Mexico presented Bill and Melinda Gates with the same honor for the philanthropic work of the Microsoft Corp co-founder and his wife in Mexico where they have donated computers for schools and promoted public health programs.