Border Wall Models Thwart US Commandos in Tests

Some news on the border wall with Mexico that went unnoticed ....

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Recent assaults by tactical teams on prototypes of President Donald Trump's proposed wall with Mexico found their imposing heights should stop border crossers, The Associated Press has learned, a finding that's likely to please security hawks but raise concerns about costs and environmental damage. 

Military special forces based in Florida and U.S. Customs and Border Protection special units spent three weeks trying to breach and scale the eight models in San Diego, using jackhammers, saws, torches and other tools and climbing devices, a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the rigorous testing told the AP on condition of anonymity because the information was not authorized for public release. 

Each model was to be 18 to 30 feet (5 to 9 meters) high, and contractors built at or near the maximum, which is roughly twice as high as many existing barriers. Ronald Vitiello, the agency's acting deputy commissioner, said after visiting the prototypes in October that he was struck most by their height. 

The highly trained testers scaled 16 to 20 feet (5 to 6 meters) unassisted but needed help after that, said the official, who described the assaults on the wall prototypes to the AP. Testers also expressed safety concerns about getting down from 30 feet.
Only once did a tester manage to land a hook on top of the wall without help, the official said. Tubes atop some models repelled climbing devices but wouldn't work in more mountainous areas because the terrain is too jagged. 

The findings appear to challenge what Janet Napolitano, now chancellor of the University of California, often said when she was President Barack Obama's homeland security secretary: "You show me a 50-foot wall, and I'll show you a 51-foot ladder."
A Customs and Border Protection report on the tests identifies strengths and flaws of each design but does not pick an overall winner or rank them. The report recommends combining elements of each, depending on the terrain. The official likened it to a Lego design, pulling pieces from different prototypes. 

The report favors steel at the ground level because agents can see what is happening on the other side through mesh, and damage can more easily be fixed than concrete, the official said. With concrete, large slabs have to be replaced for even small breaches, which is time-consuming and expensive. Topping the steel with smooth concrete surfaces helps prevent climbing. 

Brandon Judd, who heads the union representing border agents, said the recommended height and steel-concrete design make sense. He said people have been able to scale the smaller border walls, which were not put to same degree of testing before construction.
"Not many people are going to attempt to go over 30 feet," said Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council. "I just don't see it happening."

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Overdosed: Obama Administration Failures Profit the Players

Headlines appear weekly, if not daily around the United States about 'opioid abuse' which is just more political correctness for a junky or addict. A pleasure seeker that funds torture and terrorism for tar  These  'victims' were created by this administration's policies and actions in the poppy fields of Afghanistan and inaction along the U.S. /  Mexican border.

Mexican Drugs Enter U.S. at Record Rates, Western States “Heroin Transit Zone”

The junkies are buying ever increasing amounts of  heroin from the Mexican drug cartels which derive their product from opium. The opium trade enriches the Taliban. The use of Narcan supports executives and shareholders at drug makers. Executives whose parents might be politically connected. .



We can't talk about money and drugs without mentioning guns.  The Obama administration's connection to the Mexican drug cartels is a matter of public record. This administration helped arm the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico during Operation Fast and Furious.  Coincidentally, the Sinaloa Cartel controls the heroin and cocaine trade in Chicago. Obama's adopted home town.

Conveniently, the increasing gun violence in Mexico was used by the Obama administration  to call for more gun control in the United States.







Creating the problems is what community organizers do. Chaos and the opportunity of crisis.

White House And DOJ Colluded With CBS To Silence Reporter

Email Proves That White House And DOJ Colluded With CBS To Silence Sharyl Attkisson

A document obtained by Judicial Watch via a Freedom of Information Act request proves that Justice Department colluded with the White House and CBS to silence a Sharyl Attkisson investigation into Fast and Furious, and a negative piece about Rep. Darryl Issa by then National Journal Reporter Susan Davis was actually planted by the DOJ.

Judicial Watch announced Thursday that it received from the Obama Department of Justice a treasure trove of documents pertaining to Operation Fast and Furious. The documents were forced out of the Obama administration through a June 2012 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and subsequent September 2012 FOIA lawsuit.

Our initial review of the documents shows the DOJ and White House targeted then-CBS journalist Sharyl Attkisson :
On October 4, 2011, Holder’s top press aide Tracy Schmaler tells White House Deputy Press Sectary Eric Schultz, “I’m also calling Sharryl’s [sic] editor and reaching out to Scheiffer. She’s out of control”

Schultz responded, “Good. Her piece was really bad for the AG.”

Schultz also detailed to Schmaler that he was working with a journalist (Susan Davis, formerly of the National Journal) to target Rep. Darryl Issa (R-CA), the House Republican leading the charge on Fast and Furious:

“And I sent NJ’s Susan Davis your way. She’s writing on Issa/FandF and I said you could load her up on the leaks, etc.”

(Davis authored a critical profile of Issa a few weeks later.)

This one email chain implicates both the Obama White House and the Department of Justice in an effort to secretly undermine a congressional investigation and to suppress critical media reporting of the Obama administration. No wonder Obama waited until after he was safely reelected (and even after this year’s elections) to finally release this material that documents obstruction and abuse at the highest levels

 More on Operation Fast and Furious, the Coverup and LIES by the Obama Administration :






Previous blogs on Fast and Furious:
Leftist Media Supports the Fast and Furious Coverup
Obama & the Leftist LIARS Have ZERO Credibility on Gun Control

Mexican Tax Officials Seize Hundreds of Foreign Owned Boats in $70 Permit Dispute

MEXICO CITY (AP) — When heavily armed marines and government tax agents stormed eight marinas on Mexico's Pacific and Caribbean coasts, boaters thought they were witnessing a major drug takedown.

The mostly American and Canadian retirees found out that the target was actually them — couples spending their golden years sailing warm-weather ports in modest 40-foot boats.

After inspecting more than 1,600 vessels in late November, the Mexican government's Treasury Department announced it had initiated seizure orders against 338 boats it accused of lacking a $70 permit. The office says it has four months to decide whether to release the boards or sell them at auction.
Many owners say they actually have the permit but were never asked to present it. Others say minor numerical errors in paperwork were used as grounds for seizure.

Some say they were away at the time and have never been officially notified at all, learning of the seizure only from local marina operators.
It is all part of a new effort by President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration to increase government revenues in a country with one of the worst tax-collection rates among the world's large economies. The push has drawn howls of protest from Mexicans upset about new sales taxes and levies on home sales. But few of the new measures were as unexpected or toughly enforced as what foreign pleasure boat owners call a heavy-handed crackdown over a minor permit, and they say it threatens a tourism sector Mexico has long sought to promote.

"They brought all these marines, with machine guns and stuff, and they kind of descended on the marina and everybody's going, 'Wow, there's a big narco thing going down here,'" said Richard Spindler, whose catamaran Profligate was impounded near Puerto Vallarta. "These are just retired people, 50-, 60-year-old retired people, mellow people. It was way over the top."

The document in question, known as a Temporary Import Permit, can be obtained from a Mexican government website and proves holders own their boats and promise not to leave them in Mexico or sell them here.

Many boat owners say they simply weren't around when authorities came by and slapped liens on the boats barring them from leaving Mexico. They say officials have not told them how they could remedy the situation.

One boater said marina operators warned that anyone who tried to leave would be hunted down. The owner, who expressed fear that speaking out by name could bring reprisals, said officials had given no written notice of seizure on their boat, and they had learned of it second hand from marina workers.

Hundreds of boats did present their papers on time and weren't impounded. Elizabeth Shanahan, who lives on her boat at a marina in the Pacific coast resort of Nueva Vallarta, said she had no trouble when authorities came through, and that fellow boaters who didn't initially have their papers in order were given 10 days to comply.

"It is the responsibility of the property owner, be it a boat or whatever, to know the laws of the country in which they are traveling and visiting," she said.

The Treasury Department and its tax agency refused to specify the size, value or nationality of boats that were impounded and did not respond to numerous requests for details or reaction to the boat owners' complaints.
Because authorities put no notices or chains on targeted boats, some foreigners in affected marinas are uncertain if their boats are on the impound list and fear their vessels might be seized if they tried to sail away even if they had paid the $70 tax.

"This is killing nautical tourism in a worse way than drug trafficking, because it's the government itself that is taking the yachts," said Enrique Fernandez, a member of Mexico's Association of Marinas.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, Mark C. Johnson, said in an email that U.S. officials are holding discussions on the issue with the Mexican government. Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development said it knows of three Canadians whose boats were seized.
Spindler, who has been sailing to Mexico for 36 years and publishes the sailing magazine Latitude 38, estimated that about 45 of the 53 boats at the marina where his boat was seized are owned by Americans or Canadians.

"Mexico wants and greatly supports nautical tourism," he said, but warned that the heavy-handed approach could put the sailing sector at risk.
"I'm getting all these letters from people now going: 'Well, that's it. I was going to go to Mexico, I was a little scared before, but now I'm not going to do it for sure,'" he said.

Paradoxically, Mexico may be punishing some of its biggest boosters — visitors who return each year and keep marinas and boatyards in work.
"This is the killer, these people are the greatest ambassadors for Mexico you have ever heard," Spindler said. "It's given Mexico a really black eye."