Our Defenses are Being Tested,...

So says BobG at Sweet Spirits of Ammonia, and the TrekMedic agrees:

Here's a little more on that story about the routing of the National Guard in Arizona by what seems to have been armed aliens.

The Border Patrol is trying to determine who these men were and what they were doing. The Guard outpost in question sits on a hillside overlooking the border. The Washington Times reports that some agents believe the incursion may have been made to find out what the Guard troops would do if they were confronted by drug or alien smugglers. The paper quotes a veteran agent as saying, "I guess they got their answer. When in doubt, the troops will run."

That is so sad. According to the Times, earlier this year several Border Patrol agents said they had been assigned to guard National Guard personnel, given standing orders to be within five minutes of the troops deployed along the border. The agents, who referred to the assignment as "the nanny patrol," said most of the Guard troops are not allowed to carry loaded weapons, despite a significant increase in violence directed at Border Patrol agents during the past year.

The deployment of unarmed cooks and mechanics by the National Guard has done nothing to help secure our borders and protect us from terrorism. Bush and the rest of the government, both Republican and Democrat have made a mockery of the sovereignty of this nation. From the Guard all the way up to the President the response to the attacks on America seems to be running away. Why are we worrying about Iraq, Iran and Korea when we cannot and will not defend our own homeland.

And the Arizonan border isn't the only pinprick against our defenses:

Bomb Squad Detonates Suspicious Package at Port of Miami
Monday, January 08, 2007

MIAMI — A suspicious device was found Monday at the Port of Miami, and later detonated, according to officials.

Officials later gave the "all clear" sign for the area.

A spokesman for the Miami-Dade Police said the bomb squad located some sort of instrument that tested positive for C-4 — a type of plastic explosive. After the detonation, it was discovered the package turned out to be sprinkler parts for renovations aboard Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas cruise ship, which was docked at the port.

The ship and its 2,356 guests and 812-member crew is scheduled to leave Monday night for five days.

WSVN also reported that flight restrictions were placed over Port of Miami for a time.

(Why would sprinkler parts test positive for C-4? And sprinkler parts?? The TrekMedic doesn't traffic in conspiracy theories or paranoia, but,...)


As well as this:

Charges Dropped Against 3 Men After Miami Port Miscommunication

MIAMI — A judge Monday dropped all charges against three Middle Eastern men whose miscommunication with guards at the Port of Miami had sparked a terrorism scare.

Officials initially said that the three men were caught trying to slip past a security checkpoint in a cargo truck on Sunday and that the driver had said he was alone. Federal investigators and a bomb squad were called in, and authorities eventually determined the freight was harmless.

Even though Miami-Dade Police said the problem was a miscommunication, driver Amar Al Hadad, 28, was still charged with resisting an officer without violence, and his passengers, Hussain Al Hadad, 24, and Hassan El Sayed, 20, were charged with trespassing.

Court records show a judge dismissed all the charges on Monday and the men were released.

The three are permanent U.S. residents from Iraq and Lebanon who live in Dearborn, Mich.

Miami-Dade County police declined to comment on the judge's decision. Authorities said no federal charges were expected.

The scare started when a port security officer became suspicious because the truck's driver couldn't produce proper paperwork during a routine inspection to enter the port Sunday morning, said Miami-Dade police spokeswoman Nancy Goldberg.


"Harmless freight" means the whole thing was a test to see if our ports' security was actually doing its job.

Semper Vigilis is the watchword, folks!