US taxpayer money helping Mexican army smuggle drugs and humans

The U.S. government has sent more than $376 million to Mexico in the past decade for the Mexican military and police to help stop illegal alien and drug smugglers, guard against terrorists, and protect America's southern border, including $50 million due this year. The money that was quietly and unknowingly to the American public authorized through State and Defense departments to train and equip the Mexican military and police who has been repeatedly caught crossing into American territory to unsuccessfully help drug smugglers go undetected. The US taxpayer money helps funds helicopters, four-wheel-drive vehicles, trucks, all-terrain cycles, communications and detection equipment, binoculars, training Mexican in intelligence gathering and counterterrorism, computers and other equipment for the Mexican military and police.

This funding program should cease immediately, and the Mexican government needs to be placed on notice that any further incursions by its military or police will not be tolerated after reoccurring incidents on the border in which the Mexican military confronted and fired upon U.S. law-enforcement officers. If they have this kind of money to give away, there are better ways to spend it like school and more detention space. Mexico cannot control its own military, and it makes no sense to give them better weapons and equipment they can use to attack and threaten our own law-enforcement officers.

The 2006 budget request calls for the delivery of a telephone intercept system, which would give Mexico the ability to eavesdrop on suspected narcoterrorists, smugglers, both American and Mexican citizens, as well as high ranking officials of the American government all over the country. According to the State Department, the funds help the Mexican government respond to domestic Mexican threats, and equipping Mexican first-responders. Most of the 2006 funding request for about $28.1 million, comes from the State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs for technical assistance, equipment and arms transfers, as well as programs to encourage the cultivation of legal crops and assistance for drug demand-reduction programs.

An additional $18.4 million is from the Defense Department's International Military Education and Training program, which provides counternarcotics assistance and training to foreign military personnel and police. The budget also includes $2.5 million for grants and loans to help Mexico purchase U.S.-produced weapons, defense equipment and military training; $1.1 million is for additional training for the Mexican secret police and an unknown number of civilians; and $450,000 to train military officers as part of the Regional Defense Counterterrorism Fellowship Program.

Cheney hunting story over reported?

Since Sunday (2-12-06) when the hunting accident involving Vice President Dick Cheney shooting lawyer Harry Whittington was reported, it seems that is the only big news happening in the United States for the past three days. Every show from cable news to late night talk shows are constantly making jokes, and endlessly talking about it. And why? On average about 80 fatalities are caused each year by hunting accidents, and never go reported, especially for three days straight.

But on a whole the over reporting of the Dick Cheney story is not that big of a thing. So many other stories in the United States that are not favorable to the current administration are going under reported. Like the story of British abuse, two soldiers were arrested today in Britain, but that doesn’t seem to be important at all. For months the public has known from Iranian governmental statements that they have been working towards nuclear weapons, and what has the UN done? Nothing. And the media prosecution of Neil Entwistle has also has been dropped by the media. Unfortunately on of the downsides is the under reporting of the CIA and NSA leaks and prosecutions. I bet numerous people would feel those are more interesting and important stories then a hunting accident in Corpus Christi Texas on private property. So if the media wants to constantly bloviate about a story that will go nowhere, I say let them, then we can watch as their ratings plummet, as people realize there is better things to do with their time.

Master Mason Spc. Wilder found dead after ritual

Spc. Donald Anthony Wilder, radio communication security controller repairman with the 512th Maintenance Company, become active with the Prince Hall Masons in the fall of 2005 and was found dead in a barracks shower. His plan was to get so drunk for the Jan. 7 2006 ceremony that he wouldn't feel the pain of the paddling he expected, according to a friend, Spc. Tony de'Ercole. His mother Diane Wilder, said her son told her that if he got so drunk that he passed out, his fellow Masons would take his blows for the fallen Brother.

The Prince Hall Masons are a predominantly black secretive brotherhood. Similar to other branches of Masons, the group offers a system of morality and performs community service. Several U.S. troops in Europe and around the world belong to the Prince Hall Masons. On Jan. 8, just hours after the evening ceremony that took place inside Mannheim American High School at Benjamin Franklin Village, Wilder was found dead in a friend's shower in the barracks at Spinelli Barracks in Mannheim, medical professionals, military police and the German police were called to the scene. Shortly after noon, Spc. Donald Anthony Wilder, a 21-year-old veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, was pronounced dead.

An autopsy performed last month at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center was inconclusive, pending further studies, which are due back next week (2/14/06 - 2/18/06). Marie Shaw a hospital spokeswoman, said preliminary findings show Wilder experienced a sudden, unexpected death. Soldiers are not prohibited from joining such groups as the Masons.

The Prince Hall Grand Lodge that has jurisdiction of the lodge with which Wilder was active issued an edict against hazing just 10 days after Wilder died. The lodge's Grand Master said his group is investigating what happened at the initiation ceremony, stated paddling is forbidden, a that what happened on Jan. 7 2006 was an isolated incident that should not reflective the Prince Hall Masons as a whole.

"Be it hereby known and acknowledged that there will be no hazing or un-Masonic conduct of any sort tolerated during degree work within the Jurisdiction of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Washington and Jurisdiction, the Jan. 18 2006 letter stated. Any such behavior that is determined to be inappropriate will be dealt with swiftly and unequivocally per our code on un-Masonic conduct."

The letter was signed by Wendell O. Hutchings, the lodge's grand master.

Freemasonry under attack in Scottland

The Scottish Parliament Wednesday rejected a petition calling for an inquiry into how many Freemasons there are in the police and the judiciary. Sidney Gallagher brought forward the petition to the Public Petitions Committee was reported to have been thrown out of the Edinburgh-based parliament after shouting at its MPs.

Convener Michael McMahon said there had been a number of petitions on the topic in the past and had referred them on to the Justice Committee, which then carried out a full inquiry. "I don't think this petition adds anything to that inquiry. I don't think there's any value in taking it forward," McMahon was quoted waying by PA News. The committee simply agreed to note the latest petition, Gallagher, described as a 66-year old joiner from Glasgow, shouted that he wanted justice before being led out by security staff.

Police were said to have later questioned the petitioner, who later revealed he had been sentenced to six years in prison for attempted murder, claiming that two officers, who gave evidence against him, were Freemasons. An inquiry by the Home Affairs Committee of the British Parliament in 1998 concluded that there were a "large number of freemasons within the criminal Justice system," but said that the numbers in themselves give "no general cause for concern." It reported that it is "not possible on the evidence we received to say that there has never been any abuse of masonic contacts" despite the many allegations.

"There is a widespread public perception that freemasonry can have an unhealthy influence on the criminal justice system," the committee said. It said that it "certainly believe that one of the main reasons for freemasonry's poor public image is a perception that it is a secret society" while recommending that members themselves of the secret brotherhood address such a perception. A government survey at the time found that there were at least at least 247 judges in the UK who admitted they were masons and over 1,000 magistrates.

Iranian contradiction concerning the Holocaust

Today I was very surprised to hear that Iran's best-selling daily paper Hamshahri has launched a competition to find the best cartoon about the Holocaust. The reason for my surprise was not because the Holocaust is a forbidden taboo that can never be talked or joked about, it is because the newly elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently called the Holocaust a "myth." "Iran's Foreign Ministry has decided to hold a conference on the Holocaust to assess its scale by scientific means and discuss its consequences," a ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, told a news conference on Sunday.

It seems to me that Iran is facing a dilemma right now because they want to attack Israel and Jews in retribution for cartoons depicting Muhammad, but the cartoon contest should not be very offensive since according to their President the Holocaust is a "myth" that was created by Western powers to justify the creation of Israel in the heart of the Islamic world. Just as with their nuclear program, I think Iran needs to get their story straight before making statements.

Cartoon Contest Source
Holocaust myth source
Why protests where delayed

What would Muhammad do? WMD

Last year the Danish writer Kaare Bluitgen was putting the last touches on a book about the prophet Muhammad aimed at children. In spite of the prohibition on portraying the prophet in Islam, Bluitgen decided that he would like his book to be illustrated. In the wake of the murder on Theo van Gogh, and an attack on a professor in history at the University of Copenhagen, Bluitgen felt that it was wisest to keep the illustrators anonymous because of fear of reprisals from crazy fundamentalists.

The Danish newspaper "Jyllandsposten" picked up the story about Bluitgens choice to keep the names of the illustrators secret, and to demonstrate that Denmark has freedom of speech, the newspaper commissions cartoonists to make a series of satirical drawings of the prophet Muhammad. 12 of the numerous cartoons appeared in print September 30 2005. They were not immediately met with outrage from Muslims in Denmark, the outrage by the muslim population only started after several radical clerics from Europe traveled around the Middle East distributing the cartoons, and giving fiery speeches.

This is crazy how muslims are protesting these cartoons when Jews are shown in islamic newspaper cartoons over and over with hook noses, jew gold around their necks with the star of David, and greedily stashing money. And what about all the caricatures depicting Christ and god, you do not see Christians taking to the streets and shooting rifles into the air like they have smoked to much dope in thier parlors. I think muslims need to take a serious look at themselves, and realize what they are turning into.