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U.S. law enforcement authorities helped facilitate a $32,000 ransom payment in Mexico for a relative of a U.S. congressman who was kidnapped last week by gunmen in Ciudad Juarez, a border city with rampant drug smuggling, gunfights and corruption. Erika Posselt, a Mexican national described only as “a relative of the wife” of Rep. Silvestre Reyes, Texas Democrat and powerful chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, was abducted June 19 from an auto glass store she owns in Juarez. Held for three days, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents – at Mr. Reyes’ request – helped arrange her safe return.
Saying they would kill Mrs. Posselt if a $500,000 ransom wasn’t paid, the kidnappers negotiated with Mrs. Posselt’s brother in Juarez and agreed to release her for $32,000 – in U.S. and Mexican currency. According to a confidential ICE memo, Mrs. Posselt was heard yelling in the background on one phone call between her brother and her captors. The family raised the money, according to the memo. On June 21, two men on a motorcycle collected the ransom money at a Juarez street corner but sped off and eluded investigators who had staked out the drop site. Mrs. Posselt was released several hours later, and Mexican authorities quickly transferred her to their American counterparts, who rushed her to El Paso, Texas, for “security reasons,” according to the ICE memo.
No arrests have been made.
Wait, I thought we NEVER negotiated. I guess this makes Bush soft on terror.
So a powerful democrat, that is on a committee that controls the purse strings of the agency that the request was put to, makes a request for help and now Bush is soft on terror?
–slaps head with hand.
So where does it say that tax dollars were used to pay the ransom? It says that family raised the money.
[corrected, thanks -ed]
Houston we have a border control problem.
#1. Hell, we should have sent in the Special Forces…er, uh, The Marines, uh the National Guard…….um, Boy Scouts of America?
Is there anyone here that can protect us from the Terrorists?????
Thank you webskeet37 for that insight. He almost had me on that one.
These aren’t terrorists … they are CRIMINALS. Everyone is a frak’n “terrorist” nowadays.
#7- You are right on this point, considering that there didn’t seem to be a political motive.
Now we have a political motive to actually move our asses (as a country) to secure that ****ing border.
This has nothing to do with the border! The kidnapping took place in Mexico. The ransom was paid in Mexico.
The only part the US had in this case was the fact that US government agencies gave this Mexican family help.
The Headline more relevantly should say something like:
“American Failed Drug Policy Continues to Destroy Mexican Society—Who’s Next?”
or
“Just Say No Head in the Sand Prohibition Continues to Fail Ruining Countless Lives.”
Stuff like that==and yes, Bushco is responsible as has been every past Administration, and the future ones as published.
Has nothing to do with President Bush.
Just another surrender monkey Democrat in action.
Yet another hack thread. Continue to dance, liberals.
#9
Maybe the US ought to re-evaluate Mexico then? I mean it seems they can’t get it under working order, we have home invasions on US soil by (former) military members and continued illegal immigration.
The fact that a leader in the US has shown that he is willing to cede to aggression will only empower those that did this in the first place.
Secure the border, and push Mexico to getting those drug cartels under control.
Tend to agree with post 13 but note that Americans are providing the cash that allows the drug cartels to run wild in Mexico just as outsourcing to China and India is providing much of the cash to pay for oil used in China and India driving up the price of oil.
Like Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”