Report: 80% of Women /Girls From Mexico To US, Raped Along The Way – powered by ise.media
By Rachel Stoltzfoos – Carrier Air Conditioning announced this week it’s shipping 1,400 jobs to Mexico, and the reaction of a room full of employees when they learned the news was caught on camera.
“The best way to stay competitive and protect the business for long-term is to move production from our facility in Indianapolis to Monterrey, Mexico,” a man speaking on behalf of the company says in the video to a large crowd of employees in a gymnasium-like room.-
The crowd immediately erupts in shouts and boos. “That’s why you brought all those motherfuckers here!” one man shouts.
“Listen, we’ve got, I’ve got information that’s important to share as a part of transition,” the speaker continues. “If we could go ahead, if you don’t want to hear it other people do, so let’s quiet down. Thank you very much.”
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“We also intend to relocate the distribution center from Indianapolis as well,” he continued. “Relocating our operations to Monterrey will allow us to maintain high levels of product quality –”
“Why would we care?” a man interjects.
“At competitive prices, and continue to serve the extremely price sensitive market place,” the speaker says, as people are heard yelling and exclaiming in the background. “I want to be clear, this is a strictly business decision.”
At that many laugh and continue to boo the speaker. “Once again, let’s please get, more information to share,” he says. “And by no means reflects the performance of this facility or any individual within it.”
The transition will not begin until mid-2017 and will take place over three years. The speaker ensured the crowd they’ll discuss the plan with the employees’ union representatives.
“Through all the transition, we must remain committed to manufacturing the same high-quality products,” he says, to which someone yells loudly: “Fuck you!”
The speaker again pauses to quiet the crowd, and continues: We still have a job to do. This is an extremely difficult decision, it was made most difficult because I understand that it will have an impact on all of you, your families and the community. As we continue and just as we are doing today, we will provide you with as much information as soon as possible about the transition. This will allow you to understand the plan better as well as the impact on you personally. We are committed to treating you with respect throughout this transition, and we will work with your union representatives to help ensure that this is the case.”
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While some GOP candidates have made statements pertaining to immigrants learning English and committing crimes in the United States, and have used them as talking points, a recent report suggests that immigrants are succeeding in learning English and are, on average, less likely to commit a violent crime than the average American.
A 443-page report, released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine on Monday, studied “The Integration of Immigrants into American Society” and looked at how immigrants assimilate into American culture by learning English, adopting similar values and achieving certain socioeconomic outcomes.
The report compiled data from 41 million foreign-born immigrants in the United States, 11.3 million or over 25 percent of which are undocumented.
Several of the GOP candidates have made statements concerning the use of English as the official language of the United States, and have suggested that immigrants should speak English exclusively.
Carly Fiorina told CNN that “English is the official language of the United States.” However, Think Progress noted that the United States does not have an official language, but that “many states have already passed or are trying to pass legislation to make their official state language English.”
Candidates such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) have also expressed their belief of the importance of immigrants learning and speaking English.
During the second GOP debate, hosted by CNN last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that while he wouldn’t deport millions of undocumented individuals in the same way that candidates such as Donald Trump have called for, he does think they should learn to speak English.
“They can come here, but they should learn to speak our language,” Graham said. “I don’t speak it very well, but look how far I’ve come.”
The report states that “there is evidence that integration is happening as rapidly or faster now than it did for the earlier waves of mainly European immigrants in the 20th century.” This knowledge is influenced by the fact that many of the immigrants have taken English classes in their native countries or have been exposed to English media.
[pull_quote_center]Today, many immigrants arrive already speaking English as a first or second language. Currently, about 50 percent of the foreign-born in surveys report they speak English ‘very well’ or ‘well,’ while less than 10 percent say they speak English ‘not at all.’ [/pull_quote_center]
The stereotype of immigrants as violent criminals has been used by GOP candidate Donald Trump, who kicked off his presidential campaign with choice words on immigration.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” Trump said. “They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
In contrast to Trump’s statements, the report claimed that “increased prevalence of immigrants is associated with lower crime rates,” and that “among men age 18-39, the foreign-born are incarcerated at a rate that is one-fourth the rate for the native-born.”
[pull_quote_center]Cities and neighborhoods with greater concentrations of immigrants have much lower rates of crime and violence than comparable nonimmigrant neighborhoods. This phenomenon is reflected not only across space but also over time.[/pull_quote_center]
The report noted that there is also evidence that crime rates for the second and third generations from immigrant families “rise to more closely match the general population of native-born Americans.”
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, whose parents are Indian immigrants, used the idea of a lack of immigrant assimilation to criticize the presence of “hyphenated Americans,” using the phrase “immigration without assimilation is invasion.”
“We need to insist people that want to come to our country should come legally, should learn English and adopt our values, roll up their sleeves, and get to work,” Jindal said.
According to the report, current immigrants and their descendants are integrating into U.S. society, and they have found that the outcomes of “educational attainment, occupational distribution, income, residential integration, language ability, and living above the poverty line,” increase when they “become more similar to the native-born and improve their situation over time.”
[pull_quote_center]Across all measurable outcomes, integration increases over time, with immigrants becoming more like the native-born with more time in the country, and with the second and third generations becoming more like other native-born Americans than their parents were.[/pull_quote_center]
For more election coverage, click here.
By Jason Ditz
The Egyptian military junta routinely carries out airstrikes in the Western desert without any indication of who was killed. Today, however, the most recent of the airstrikes ended up causing something of an international incident, when it turned out they’d attacked a group of Mexican tourists and their Egyptian guides, killing 12 and wounding many more.
The tourists were stopped by the side of the road and having a barbecue when, in what is described as a joint military police and armed forces operation, Egypt launched several airstrikes against them. The Interior Ministry referred to them as being “mistakenly dealt with.”
Not that they’re apologizing or anything. The Egyptian tourism chairman insisted that the Mexicans “didn’t have a permit” and that the military thus had no reason to assume they weren’t terrorists. Local witnesses, however, say that not only was the attack in an unrestricted area, where no special permit was needed, but that the local police had been giving the tourists a police escort through nearby towns to prevent any incidents.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto condemned the killings and demanded a full investigation. That’s unlikely, of course, since the Egyptian junta maintains they did nothing wrong, and that if the tourists didn’t want to get “dealt with” they shouldn’t have been barbecuing on top of a sand dune.
During CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Jake Tapper asked Former Alaska Gov. and 2008 GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin what she thought of recent comments from GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump criticizing Jeb Bush for using his ability to speak both English and Spanish to relate to voters, and Bush criticizing Trump for having a “lack of tolerance.”
Palin said that she doesn’t know what opposition to “choosing to speak English or Spanish in a conversation” has to do with tolerance, and that she thinks it can be a benefit for the current GOP candidates who are fluent in both languages.
“I think it’s a benefit of Jeb Bush to be able to be so fluent in Spanish because we have a large and wonderful Hispanic population that is helping to build America, and that’s good, and that’s a great relationship and connection that he has with them through his wife and through his family connections,” Palin explained.
Palin said that when it comes to immigrants who are in the U.S. legally, she thinks they should “speak American” because it is the “language that is understood by all” and she sees it as a unifying aspect for the nation:
[quote_box_center]“I think we can send a message and say, ‘You want to be in America? A. You better be here legally or you’re out of here. B. When you’re here, let’s speak American,’” Palin said. “I mean, that’s just — let’s speak English and that’s kind of a unifying aspect of a nation — the language that is understood by all.”[/quote_box_center]
Palin also said that if Donald Trump were elected President in 2016, she would consider the position of energy secretary, and as head of the federal energy department, she would “get rid of it.”
“I think a lot about the department of energy, and if I were head of that, I’d get rid of it,” Palin said. “And I’d let the states start having more control over the lands that are within their boundaries and the people who are affected by the developments within their states.”
The full interview can be seen below.
For more election coverage, click here.
Former Minnesota Governor, Navy SEAL, and pro wrestler Jesse Ventura addressed 2016 presidential candidate and billionaire real estate tycoon Donald Trump’s proposal to force Mexico to pay for a massive wall on the southern U.S. border in a recent clip, seen above (or click here to watch), from his Ora.Tv show Off The Grid.
Ventura, who has endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders for president in 2016 and who lives part of the year in Mexico, feels Trump’s immigration proposal would effectively transform the U.S. into a penal colony.
Ventura asked his viewers, “Well, being one that crosses that border more often than probably most people do, do we really want to put a wall around our country? We stand for freedom, and yet we want to put up a wall that makes the United States look like a prison?”
“Walls are a two way street. Not only will they keep people out, but they will also keep you in. I do not want to live with walls around my country. I do not want to live like I live inside East Berlin and I don’t feel a wall is going to protect me any more or less than if there were none at all,” he added.
[RELATED: Judge Napolitano Blasts Donald Trump On Immigration Plans]
Ventura said that if national security were the primary objective behind building a wall, politicians should not neglect the threat of terrorists crossing over the Canadian border and “just put the wall around the whole country“, because, “if you believe the 9/11 report, the hijackers came down from Canada.”
He also commented on how it takes him longer to cross into the U.S. from Mexico than it does for him to cross the border in the other direction. “When I drive into Mexico, I’m welcomed. Nobody there questions why I’m there. In fact, they welcome me for coming down there. Yet, when I turn around and come back to my own home country, the United States, it usually takes me two to three hours in an unconditional questioning… Right now it is easier to go into Mexico as an American than it is to go into my own country as a United States citizen. Something is sorely wrong with that.”
For more election coverage, click here.
Billionaire mogul Donald Trump announced his presidential bid on June 16, and included in his speech were comments about illegal immigrants bringing crime, drugs, and being “rapists,” which pushed Trump into the spotlight, both as a presidential candidate, and as the developer of the latest Trump Hotel in Washington D.C., which has employed undocumented workers in its construction process.
According to a report from the Washington Post, at the site of the Old Post Office Pavilion in D.C., five blocks from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue, Trump is funding the construction of a $200 million hotel. Several of the workers building the hotel told the Post that they came to the U.S. through immigration programs from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, while others “quietly acknowledged that they remain in the country illegally.”
In his speech, Trump said, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” instead they’re sending people that “have lots of problems” who are “bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some I assume are good people.”
“It’s something ironic,” Ivan Arellano, a worker and immigrant from Mexico who became a U.S. citizen through marriage, told the Washington Post. “The majority of us are Hispanics, many who came illegally. And we’re all here working very hard to build a better life for our families.”
Daniel Gonzalez, a sheet metal worker who came to the U.S. in the 1980s from El Salvador and became a U.S. citizen when a judge granted him asylum, told the Post that he is worried about the possibility of Trump’s comments escalating “into a bigger problem,” that could lead to workers like him losing their jobs.
“Do you think that when we’re hanging out there from the eighth floor that we’re raping or selling drugs?” asked Ramon Alvarez, a window worker from El Salvador. “We’re risking our lives and our health. A lot of the chemicals we deal with are toxic.”
Michael Cohen, executive vice president and legal counsel to Trump, told the Washington Post that Trump followed all of the guidelines for hiring and that when he hired Lend Lease as a contractor for the project, it became that company’s “obligation to check all workers on site.”
Trump released a statement on Monday, clarifying his comments and acknowledging the fact that he has “lost a lot during this Presidential run” because of his comments on Mexican immigrants.
Following the comments, several major companies cut ties with Trump, including Univision, NBC, Macy’s, Serta and NASCAR. Trump said that these companies appear to have “taken the weak and very sad position of being politically correct even though they are wrong in terms of what is good for our country.”
In his statement, Trump reiterated his position, and said that the Mexican Government is “forcing their most unwanted people into the United States” and that they are “in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc.”
Trump used the example of Kate Steinle, a woman in San Franciso who was killed over the weekend when she was shot in what appeared to be a random bullet that allegedly came form the gun of an illegal immigrant and felon who had been deported to Mexico five times before.
“This is merely one of thousands of similar incidents throughout the United States,” said Trump, who claimed that his initial comments were “deliberately distorted by the media.”
For more news related to the 2016 Presidential election, click here.
Forty mothers who came to the United States from Central America, seeking asylum, launched a hunger strike on Monday to protest their detainment. The mothers and their children are being held at an immigration detention center in Karnes City, Texas, while they await their immigration hearings.
McClatchy DC reported that while more than 80 women had initially signed a petition to take part in the strike, several dropped out after two women were placed in isolation.
Johana De Leon, a legal assistant with the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, told McClatchy DC that some of the mothers were warned they could “lose custody of their children” if they participated in the strike.
Part of the letter, which was obtained and translated by Colorlines, says:
“During this time, no mother will work in the detention center, nor will we send our children to school, nor will we use any services here, until we are heard and approved: we want our FREEDOM.”
Colorlines reported that the mothers who signed the letter have all been interviewed by immigration officials, and have established a “credible fear of persecution or torture if they were to be deported.” While some have not been given the opportunity to post bond for release, others have a bond set too high for them to pay.
Colorlines’ Aura Bogado reported that when she contacted the facility, she spoke with an anonymous immigration officer who laughed at the strike, calling it something the women’s attorneys had convinced them to do.
Kenia Galeano, a 26-year-old mother who came from Honduras with her 2-year-old son, told McClatchy DC that instead of finding the shelter they were seeking when they came to the US, she and the other mothers are being treated like prisoners. She said that while she has been held at the center for five months, some of the other mothers have been there for 10 months.
Galeano said that the mothers participating in the strike have not been influenced by any outside sources, and that they will not eat, work, or send their children to the center’s school until the detainees are released.
Colorlines noted that the Karnes facility, which is run the private GEO group, has a mostly-male staff of guards who have access to the women and children’s rooms at all times, and as a result, the Karnes facility has been the site of repeated allegations of sexual abuse.
According to Colorlines, while illegal immigrants are not authorized to work in the United States, undocumented detainees at Karnes help run the facility, and receive a paycheck of $3 a day. Their work includes cleaning and running the laundry facility for the 532-bed detention center.
Karnes City, Texas, has a population of about 3,500, and is home to several major fracking operations. These operations have led to complaints about contaminated water, which means that the city’s residents rely on bottled water. For residents at the Karnes facility, $3 is both a day’s salary and the price of a bottle of water, according to Colorlines.
Nina Pruneda, a spokeswoman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), released a statement saying that the agency is carefully monitoring the situation for potential health and safety risks.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement fully respects the rights of all people to voice their opinion without interference, and all detainees, including those in family residential facilities such as Karnes, are permitted to do so,” Pruneda said.
McClatchy DC reported that the Karnes center is one of three immigration detention facilities set up specifically for women and children in the US. More than 2,500 illegal immigrants have been detained at these centers since July.
The Pew Research Center released a report which has found, for the first time in over 60 years, the Border Patrol has captured more non-Mexican immigrants crossing the Mexican-American border than Mexican immigrants.
The number of non-Mexican immigrants who were captured totaled 257,000 while the number of Mexican immigrants captured was slightly less, at 229,000.
This is a huge shift in numbers compared to the year 2007 when close to 809,000 Mexican immigrants were captured while attempting to cross the border, as compared to the 68,000 non-Mexican immigrants who were captured.
Jens Manuel Krogstad, co-author of the Pew report, told VICE News, “It is a pretty striking milestone… It’s the first time on record this has happened.”
What the research also found was the number of Mexican immigrants coming to America illegally seemed to drop drastically around the 2008 recession.
“That’s been for a variety of reasons,” said Krogstad. “Some of them are economic, there are fewer jobs in the US, and economic conditions in Mexico also contributed. Also, there’s increased border enforcement.”
Another reason for the increase in non-Mexican immigrants is attributed to the number of children from other Central and South American countries who have made the trek to America. Some experts are claiming the violence in these countries is driving some immigrants out of their homelands.
Wendy Feliz, a spokeswoman for the American Immigration Council, said, “It’s no surprise given how violent it’s gotten in Central America that those numbers are up… It used to be all economic reasons, now it’s gotten to the point where people are actually seeking safety.”
The number of child immigrants coming to America has sparked a lot of debate in DC and across the country about what to do with the children.
In November, President Obama passed an executive action which relieves about 4 million of the 11 million immigrants in America from the threat of deportation.
On Monday, a report was released from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which claimed that following the legalization of marijuana in certain states, it is now being smuggled from the U.S. into Mexico, instead of the other way around.
U.S. News reported that according to the DEA, the alleged smuggling is being conducted by Mexican cartels, and it “involves top-notch marijuana grown by American entrepreneurs.”
According to NPR, while at one time “virtually all the weed smoked in the States” came from south of the border, times have changed, due to the fact that marijuana plants from the U.S. are much more potent than the plants grown in Mexico.
RT reported that “instead of making $60-$90 per kilogram,” marijuana growers in Mexico are now making “between $30 and $40 per kilogram,” which could eventually make the growers “abandon the drug altogether.”
The Communication Director for the Marijuana Policy Project, Mason Tvert, is uncertain about the accuracy of the DEA’s claim.
“It’s certainly interesting if it is actually the case, but we should probably wait until there is confirmation that it’s even happening before we jump to conclusions,” said Tvert. “Unfortunately, the DEA doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to providing objective information about marijuana.”
Lawrence Payne, a spokesman for the DEA, told U.S. News that the majority of the trafficked marijuana is “being grown and obtained in states that have relaxed their marijuana laws, such as Colorado.”
Payne said that although they believed the trafficked marijuana is “much higher quality and more expensive for the purpose of smuggling back into Mexico for sale and distribution,” they have not been able to gauge the level of the trafficking.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have any specific information or numbers to quantify other than to say we know that it’s happening,” said Payne. “It’s too early to really know the level or scale of the trafficking southward.“
According to the FBI’s crime statistics from the last 20 years, half of the drug arrests in the United States have been Marijuana-related. The U.S. Department of Justice reported that a “large portion of the U.S. illegal drug market is controlled directly by Mexican cartels.”
Last week, The Washington Post reported that Marijuana farmers in the Sinaloa region of Mexico have “stopped planting due to a massive drop in wholesale prices, from $100 per kilo down to only $25,” with one farmer saying, “It’s not worth it anymore. I wish the Americans would stop with this legalization.”
Sean Dunagan, a former DEA Senior Intelligence Specialist, compared the effect of legalizing marijuana to the effect of legalizing alcohol.
“Anything to establish a regulated legal market will necessarily cut into those profits,” said Dunagan. “It won’t be a viable business for the Mexican cartels — the same way bootleggers disappeared after prohibition fell.”
Dunagan spent two years in Mexico, working for DEA Operations, and he claimed there was a “temptation sometimes to prioritize a certain cartel or informant.” He said cartels were aware of this, and that they “exploit the relationship to provide information on their competitors. It creates these perverse incentives — you are investigating what your informant is telling you, not what they are doing.”
“Is it hurting the cartels? Yes. The cartels are criminal organizations that were making as much as 35-40 percent of their income from marijuana,” retired federal agent, Terry Nelson, told VICE News. “They aren’t able to move as much cannabis inside the US now.”
Although Marijuana is legalized in Colorado and Washington, it is still on the federal list of high-priority illegal drugs, and according to Dunagan, even in a state that has legalized marijuana, it is still illegal under federal law.
Dunagan pointed out that, “Technically, a DEA agent could still walk into any marijuana dispensary in Colorado and seize the money, and arrest everyone.” However, instead of doing that, the DEA uses other tactics.
While some doctors in states like Massachusetts have been threatened and told that prescribing medical marijuana will cause them to lose their license to prescribe other drugs, banks have been instructed not work with marijuana facilities.
“The DEA doesn’t want the drug war to end,” said Nelson. “If it ends, they don’t get their toys and their budgets. Once it ends, they aren’t going to have the kind of influence in foreign government.”
Texas Governor Rick Perry appeared on Fox News Sunday, and in an interview with Brit Hume, he discussed the current crisis at the US-Mexico Border.
Perry pointed out that right now, 70% of the United States’ border patrols at the southern border are taking care of the children who have recently arrived illegally, rather than doing their job of securing the border.
Perry’s plan to address the crisis starts with sending 1,000 National Guard troops to the border, to stop the influx of children crossing into the United States.
After calling for the National Guard to come to the border four years ago, Perry is reiterating his request due to the fact that he hopes it will help to move the border patrol forward. “The president was not even aware that his border patrol was back 40-45 miles away from the border at the checkpoints,” Perry said. “They need to be right on the river as a show of force.”
“That’s the most humanitarian thing we do,” maintained Perry, who is convinced that this “show of force,” will send a message back to Central America. “It’s important to do that because this flood of children is pulling away the border patrol from their normal duties.”
Hume mentioned that the troops “are not, under the law, allowed to apprehend any of these children that are crossing.”
“The issue is with being able to send that message,” insisted Perry. “It’s the visual of it is that is the most important.”
Regarding the current refugees on the border, and their means of communication with those still in Central America, Perry said, “Their conversations are being monitored with calls back to Central America, and the message is ‘Hey, come on up here, everything is great, they’re taking care of us.’ And that needs to stop.”
“What we’re talking about now is sending the message back now so we can staunch the bleeding,” said Perry. “Those that are already here, to address them, to humanitarianly take care of them, to make sure they are safe, to process them as quickly as you can, to reunite them with their families.”
TUCSON – News 4 is reporting that a Mexican military chopper crossed the United States border and opened fire on US Border Patrol agents.
The incident occurred early Thursday morning, west of the San Miguel Gate on the Tohono O’Odham Nation. There are no reports of injuries or deaths at this time.
Two statements have been released:
Art del Cueto, Border Patrol Tucson Sector union president:
The incident occurred after midnight and before 6 a.m. Helicopter flew into the U.S. and fired on two U.S. Border Patrol agents. The incident occurred west of the San Miguel Gate on the Tohono O’odham Indian Nation. The agents were unharmed. The helicopter went back into Mexico. Mexico then contacted U.S. authorities and apologized for the incident.
Andy Adame, U.S. Border Patrol Spokesperson:
Early this morning, a Mexican law enforcement helicopter crossed approximately 100 yards north into Arizona nearly 8 miles southwest of the Village of San Miguel on the Tohono O’odham Indian Nation while on a drug interdiction operation near the border. Two shots were fired from the helicopter but no injuries or damage to US property were reported. The incident is currently under investigation.
Reynosa, Mexico- After the recent surge in violence, the top Mexican security official, Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osori Chong, said that a new security push in the northern border state of Tamaulipas would be spearheaded by military officials.
Chong gave no specific information in regard to federal police and troop reinforcement numbers in what sounded like a bolstering of the current strategy. He said the Mexican government will continue to vet the local police for corruption, work to dismantle cartels, and block smuggling routes for drugs, weapons and people.
Since the start of April at least 76 people have been killed in drug violence in Tamaulipas due to infighting in the cartels and battles between security forces and gunmen.
The new security push will divide Tamaulipas into four sections with each having an army or navy officer charged with implementation of the federal security plan in hopes of bringing peace to the state, said Chong.
“We are going to re-establish the conditions that will allow Tamaulipas citizens to recover the tranquility they deserve,” Chong said in Reynosa, according to the Associated Press. What he didn’t say is how this push would differ from past failed attempts to turn public safety over to the military.
Chong said that much of the recent rash of violence could be attributed to the success of the government in taking out the leadership of the cartels. The dominant criminal organizations in Tamaulipas are the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas. Without specifically naming him, Chong suggested the military killing of Galindo Mellada Cruz, a founding member of Los Zetas, was one of those successes.
He also said that five major high tech checkpoints would be established on highways that connect the states major cities to stem the tide of smuggling. He went on to say that a prosecutor dedicated to leading criminal investigations will be assigned to each of the areas in the plan, and that government forces will be patrolling urban areas 24 hours a day.
Tamaulipas and Texas share a long border that runs from Brownsville to Laredo and cross-border commerce is the main source of economy in the border region.
The strong intervention in Tamaulipas is not unexpected after a similar effort was undertaken last year in Michoacan, although this intervention could be more difficult as there are two heavily armed cartels battling for control in the state.
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AP is reporting that six people involved in the theft of radioactive materials are hospitalized in Pachucha, Mexico, with police blocking the hospital so they cannot escape arrest.
The International Atomic Energy Agency stated the cobalt-60 “could be extremely dangerous to a person if removed from the shielding, or if it was damaged.” http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/2013/mexicoradsource.html
Direct exposure to the radioactive isotope could result in death within minutes stated IAEA
On Monday night thieves stole a cargo truck loaded with a shipment of radioactive cobalt-60. Monday’s theft triggered alerts in Mexico, as well as at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. Authorities did warn that whoever stole the materials was probably contaminated and would die.
The original intended truck driver said he left Tijuana on Nov. 28 and was headed to the storage facility in another part of Mexico. On Monday night he was sleeping in the truck while parked at a gas station in Tepajaco. Two armed men approached the truck around 1:30am, Tuesday morning. The thieves forced the driver out, tied his hands and feet, and left the driver in a vacant lot near the gas station.
Concerns went up this week that the stolen materials could have been used to make a dirty bomb. Dirty bombs are conventional explosives that disseminate radioactive materials.
Later in the week the truck was abandoned in an empty rural field, with the radioactive shipment container open. The radioactive cobalt-60 pellets are a risk to the surrounding population. Sources report the materials were from antiquated chemotherapy therapy equipment, and were to be transported to a nuclear waste facility.
Police now believe the truck was stolen for the crane and a movable platform, and the thieves likely initially were not aware of the radioactive cargo.
For a few days this week the truck and thieves whereabouts were unknown, and concern in the international atomic community was very high.
United Nations says their nuclear watchdog division receives more than 100 reports of unauthorized activity of nuclear or radioactive materials annually. their nuclear watchdog division receives more than 100 reports of unauthorized activity of nuclear or radioactive materials annually.
The United States National Security Agency (NSA) is under scrutiny once again for eavesdropping.
This time, however, it is not American citizens that the NSA is accused of spying on.
According to new evidence obtained by Spiegel Online, the NSA hacked into the email of Mexico’s former president, Felipe Calderon. Spiegel claims the information comes from documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
According to Spiegel, a report from May 2010 claims that by hacking into Calderon’s email, the government agency was able to learn details about “diplomatic, economic and leadership communications which continue to provide insight into Mexico’s political system and internal stability.”
The U.S. also used the information obtained to monitor Mexico’s drug trade and economic status.
Then during the summer of 2012, the NSA “took its activities to new heights as elections took place in Mexico. Despite having access to the presidential computer network, the US knew little about Enrique Peña Nieto, designated successor to Felipe Calderón.”
The U.S. government snooped on 85,489 text messages of Peña Nieto, who is currently Mexico’s president, and those in his “inner circle.”
The NSA has spied on Brazilian politicians, too, which has caused an outrage in Latin America. Spiegel reports, “According to one internal NSA presentation, the agency investigated “the communication methods and associated selectors of Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff and her key advisers.” It also said it found potential “high-value targets” among her inner circle.”
Spiegel contacted the NSA for a comment on the new bombshell report. In response, the agency released the following statement:
“We are not going to comment publicly on every specific alleged intelligence activity, and as a matter of policy we have made clear that the United States gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations. As the President said in his speech at the UN General Assembly, we’ve begun to review the way that we gather intelligence, so that we properly balance the legitimate security concerns of our citizens and allies with the privacy concerns that all people share.”
Some argue that the leaking of information regarding NSA spying is straining our relationships with other countries.
Do you think that such spying is better kept secret, as to not hurt ties with allies? Or do you believe in a more transparent government, where citizens area aware of all government doings?
Then again, that question could be avoided altogether if the U.S. hadn’t spied in the first place.
