Epling's Death Was no Accident
Epling's Death Was no Accident
Date: Thursday, January 01, 2004 1:00 PM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
www.ZaZona.com
Last week I did a call-in to Terry Anderson's Radio show because I felt
that the death of border patrol agent James Epling was not only being
downplayed by the media, but they were intentionally ignoring the
obvious fact that he was murdered. Every major newspaper that reported
the story said that Epling's death was caused by an "accidental
drowning". Now after more than a week, his murderer has been arrested.
James Epling was a selfless hero who risked his life to rescue a
Chinese woman from the cold swirling waters of the Colorado River while
at least four other illegal aliens watched from the shoreline. You
would the woman's partners in crime would be thankful that Epling
selflessly performed this rescue. In a show of gratitude the Mexican
"coyote" that was smuggling the Chinese into the U.S. murdered Epling
by drowning him.
The story of James Epling never made big news. It was in the back pages
of the Arizona Republic and other newspapers such as the Los Angeles
Times. In my opinion this story was downplayed because the media favors
open-border policies and therefore intentionally suppresses negative
news about the immigrants that are invading our country.
Most of the ruling elite favor open-border policies because they want
cheap labor and easy votes. That's why Bush and our so-called "Homeland
Security Secretary" Tom Ridge want to give amnesty and guest-worker
visas to anyone that crosses our borders.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said:
"The bottom line is, as a country we have to come to
grips with the presence of 8 to 12 million illegals,
afford them some kind of legal status some way, but
also as a country decide what our immigration policy
is and then enforce it."
Bush recently said:
Well, first of all, I have constantly said that we need
to have a immigration policy that helps match any
willing employer with any willing employee.
Since the Bush administration seems to be hell-bent on giving amnesty
to these invaders it's only fair that we start looking at who is
crossing the border. The second article describes how Mexican officials
are helping organized crime to smuggle Arabs into the USA - and nobody
knows how many are from Iraq! How's that for "homeland security"?
Now that we have cleared up any misunderstandings about James Epling's
"accidental drowning", let's take a look at the latest "accident" on
our border. According to the story at the end of this newsletter, a
Customs Enforcement investigator "mistakenly gave his office phone
number to suspects in an investigation" that were suspected of selling
missile engines to Iran. Would you believe it, another "accident". This
was no accident, this was a tip-off!
I'm mad as hell and not ready to celebrate this New Year as long as
these "accidents" on our border keep occuring.
Note: I found out that Terry Anderson is starting to archive his radio
shows online. At least I have some good news to report! Go to:
http://www.theterryandersonshow.com/PastShows.html
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0101borderagendrowns01.html
Smuggling suspect is indicted
Charges linked to agent's death
Associated Press
Jan. 1, 2004 12:00 AM
SAN DIEGO - A federal grand jury indicted a 22-year-old man on
immigrant-smuggling charges in connection with the death of a U.S.
Border Patrol agent, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Jose Antonio Vasquez Villasenor is charged with trying to smuggle at
least three Chinese nationals into the United States on Dec. 16 by
sneaking across the Colorado River near the California-Arizona state
line. Authorities said Border Patrol Agent James Epling, 24, drowned
while trying to apprehend the group.
Vasquez was denied bail in an appearance Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate
Judge Roger T. Benitez in El Centro, Calif., U.S. Attorney Carol Lam
said in a statement. Three Chinese nationals have been detained as
material witnesses and may be ordered to remain in custody until the
case is concluded.
Court papers did not list an attorney for Vasquez, who was arrested
Dec. 16, or state where he is from.
If convicted, he faces a penalty of up to life in prison and a $250,000
fine on two charges in the 12-count indictment handed down by a grand
jury in San Diego, Lam said. He is accused of transporting illegal
aliens resulting in death and transporting illegal aliens for financial
gain.
The body of Epling was found in the river Dec. 19, three days after he
was last seen along a river trail just north of the Mexico border. An
autopsy by the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office found that he
accidentally drowned.
Epling was found within 200 yards of where he was last seen in
54-degree water about 27 feet deep, according to the Border Patrol.
Divers used sonar and other high-tech equipment in the turbulent,
cloudy water.
He was a father of three, and his wife is expecting another child early
this year.
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=2716
Mexican Diplomat Charged With Helping Smuggle Arabs Into U.S.
by Terence P. Jeffrey
Posted Dec 31, 2003
The real life horror story that began eighteen months ago when an Arab
illegal alien named Youseff Balaghi showed up at a San Diego hospital,
dying from what the Border Patrol initially - and erroneously - feared
was radiation sickness, has now reached high into Mexico's foreign
service.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Imelda Ortiz Abdala was Mexico's consul in Lebanon.
On Nov. 12, 2003, Mexican authorities arrested her, according to the
Associated Press, "on charges of helping a smuggling ring move Arab
migrants into the United States from Mexico." The AP said Mexico had
also arrested "alleged ring leader Salim Boughader Mucharafille."
Boughader earlier pleaded guilty in the U.S. to the smuggling incident
that resulted in Balaghi's death.
Unfortunately, this story is not over.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Skerlos prosecuted Boughader. This week,
citing Ortiz's arrest, I asked him if there were other rings still
bringing Middle Easterners in from Mexico.
"Yes," he said.
Another Front
Far from Iraq, there's another front where the terror war's not over.
It's on our own border - and, here, the key enemies are the smugglers
who bring people such as Balaghi into California, and who collaborate
with allegedly corrupt officials such as Ortiz.
In congressional testimony in 2002, then-Assistant Immigration and
Naturalization Service Commissioner Joseph Greene said: "Information
available to the INS indicates terrorist organizations often use human
smuggling operations to move around the globe." According to a Library
of Congress study, "Organized Crime and Terrorist Activity in Mexico,
1999-2002," former Mexican national security adviser Adolfo Aguilar
Zinser said in May 2001: "Spanish and Islamic terrorist groups are
using Mexico as a refuge."
How is the U.S. countering the threat of terrorists using human
smuggling operations and finding refuge in Mexico? Rather than securing
our border generally, the government tolerates large-scale illegal
immigration, while trying to selectively stop the smuggling operations
most likely to move terrorists. The administration, Greene told
Congress, has put in place an "enforcement initiative aimed at
targeting alien smuggling organizations specializing in the movement of
U.S.-bound aliens from countries that are of interest to the national
security of the United States."
Balaghi was from Lebanon.
On June 5, 2002, he showed up, vomiting blood, at Scripps Memorial
Hospital-Chula Vista. He quickly died. When the Border Patrol heard his
symptoms, they feared radiation sickness - and dispatched an agent with
a detector to check his remains.
Balaghi was clean. But he was far from the only Middle Easterner
Boughader's ring had smuggled.
In an affidavit, Border Patrol Agent John R. Korkin said an
investigation "positively identified at least 80 Lebanese nationals
that have been, or were intercepted in the process of being, smuggled
into the U.S." by the ring. Boughader admitted in court to smuggling
more than 100. He was sentenced to one year in prison, and deported to
Mexico in November.
Almost immediately, Mexican authorities arrested him in their own
anti-smuggling case. A few days later, they arrested Ortiz.
She had worked in Mexico's foreign service for 25 years. From 1998 to
October 2001, AP reported, she was Mexico's consul in Lebanon. She
later directed the consular office in Mexico City.
She was fired in May, AP said, "after 150 Mexican passports were stolen
and two others were found to have been issued irregularly."
Jose Santiago Vasconcelos, Mexico's assistant attorney general, told
Notimex that Boughader's ring moved "a great number of Arabs" into the
United States. El Occidental, a Mexican newspaper, said it was "at
least 200."
I asked Skerlos to compare that number to the "at least 80 Lebanese
nationals" cited in Korkin's affidavit "I think it is fair to say that
the numbers we included in our affidavit were conservative," he said.
Almost a month after Ortiz was arrested, Homeland Security Secretary
Tom Ridge said: "The bottom line is, as a country we have to come to
grips with the presence of 8 to 12 million illegals, afford them some
kind of legal status some way, but also as a country decide what our
immigration policy is and then enforce it."
No, Mr. Secretary. We already have immigration laws. It's your duty to
enforce them. If the arrest of a Mexican diplomat for helping to
smuggle Arabs into the U.S. can't convince you of the need for that,
what will?
Copyright ) 2003 HUMAN EVENTS. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0101investigationmistake01.html
Immigration agent faces firing in snafu
Associated Press
Jan. 1, 2004 12:00 AM
TUCSON - A federal agency is moving to fire an undercover agent who
mistakenly gave his office phone number to suspects in an investigation
into the suspected sale of missile engines to Iran, a newspaper
reported Wednesday.
The phone number mistake forced U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement to close the missile engine investigation, which had taken
about 3,000 hours of federal government time, according to an agency
letter obtained by the Arizona Daily Star.
The Star says it got the letter from the attorney representing the
agent, Greg Miller, 47. The Nov. 3 letter to Miller spells out his
employer's plans to fire Miller.
Beside the phone number issue, the letter to Miller also cites two
other reasons for ICE to seek his firing: allegations that he told
federal prosecutors he could not trust his own credibility as a
witness, which Miller denies; and giving out private information about
Iraqi nationals living in Arizona to a third party.
But Miller contends the agency is using his phone number mistake only
as a pretext to dismiss him on an unrelated matter: his complaint that
state police roughed up one of his sources, a Saudi Arabian man, during
a search of the man's Tucson home.
Miller's attorney, David Ross, has filed suit with the Merit Systems
Protection Board in San Francisco, an independent adjudicator created
for federal employees to appeal personnel actions. It can also be the
first stop for lawsuits in federal court.
Ross, who specializes in whistle-blowing cases against the federal
government, said his client's employers took action only after Miller
complained to his group supervisor that the officers used excessive
force on the Saudi man.
Ross said his client was disturbed to learn that state agents had
thrown the man to the concrete floor when they entered his home with a
search warrant on Sept. 10, 2002.
The Saudi man was investigated by the Arizona Department of Public
Safety in connection with an auto theft ring, but he was never
indicted, said his lawyer, Jesse Smith of Tucson.
Ross acknowledged that Miller accidentally gave the suspects his real
office number instead of his undercover cellphone number, but he
disagreed that this was the reason for the collapse of the
investigation.
"They dropped it for insufficient evidence, but not because of anything
that had to do with Greg," Ross said.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix declined to comment, referring
questions about the dispute to ICE.
ICE would not elaborate on the investigation.
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