Mexican and U.S. authorities were “secretly scrambling” last month to thwart a Mexican drug cartel’s plot to blow up a Texas dam that would have flooded an area with about 4 million inhabitants, according to the Houston Chronicle’s Dane Schiller and James Pinkerton.
Law enforcement officials were reportedly tipped off to a plot when they found one of the handbills that the drug cartel Los Zetas was distributing on the Mexican side of the river, warning residents to clear out ahead of the explosion. Authorities found “small amounts of dynamite near the dam,” the Chronicle said.
Los Zetas wanted to blow up the Falcon dam not to hurt civilians, but to exact revenge on a rival gang called the Gulf Cartel, which smuggles drugs in the area, local authorities said. The gang has also been implicated in armed robberies of Texan fishermen in Lake Falcon, the reservoir behind the dam.
U.S. officials said they had “serious and reliable sources” informing them of the plot, the Chronicle reported. Officers placed hidden cameras on the dam and hid in the brush to watch.
Police Capt. Francisco Garcia of Roma, Texas, told the Chronicle that the traffickers would have needed a tractor-trailer full of dynamite to pull off the explosion.
In a related story, Mexico opens a consular office in California to provide identification to illegals. Nothing to see here people…move along. All the bad guys are in Afghanistan.
Ahh. Those wacky Mexicans. You gotta love all their antics. They certainly make life so much better for all Americans. Yessiree. I can’t get enough of them. Please. Let’s have an open border policy continue. They are such a “rich diverse” asset to us all.
This doesn’t make any sense at all: a Mexican Issued Matricular card? WHO CARES??? How could such a card provide any status other than illegal unless there is some kind of treaty or exception under the US law? If so, revoke that law.
We’re just doing it to ourselves.
Regarding the ReConquista: looks like we didn’t learn anything from the way we treated the Indians. Or the way China treated Tibet. Or the way the Greeks treated Cyprus. And the way the Arabs are treating Israel. Yes, flood your adversary with your poor and wretched and wait for Malthus to take control.
So help me understand this…a gang wants to flood out a rival gang. Stupid plan, probably won’t work. This becomes terrorism….how?
#2. Or the way we treated the Vietnamese, or the Iraqis, or the (fill in the blank).
#3.Try asking the 4 million people downstream.
I don’t understand this story. is it to flood 4million people in Mexico or in Texas? I didn’t know there were that many people in Mexico, or in Texas (which would have to be the entire state?)
As for the identification office. First of all “illegal” Mexican workers aren’t dangerous, they are the new slaves for the 21st century. This is what we use to rebuild things damaged or destroyed by floods, earthquakes and fires.
Since it’s too damn expensive to hire American skilled labor anymore (since they also need to have their Cafe’ Late every morning, driving trucks that get 10MPG), it’s cheaper to just pick up a bunch of Mexicans camped out at home depot to do some yard work.
I call BS, this is a false Flag.
Yawn, another BS article on illegal immigration. We Americans like our cheap produce, we like our cheap lawn care, we like our cheap houses, all work done by illegal immigrants. The solution is clear, obvious and simple: heavy fines on employers who hire illegals. But that would cause prices to go up, and no one wants that, including you wingnuts who are wetting your pants about the foreign invaders, ooh mommy, I scared! *rolls eyes*
It’s just a charade.
Poster & #5 McCullough
Terrorism is violence or the threat of violence that is politically motivated. This is a drug gang war. It would be mass murder, but not terrorism. It is like calling people that oppose Muslims racist (i.e. Muslim is not a race). Words matter.
#8 “The solution is clear, obvious and simple: heavy fines on employers who hire illegals.”
I agree with that statement. Companies hire illegals because we greedy Americans insist on getting paid at least minimum wage. Employers should be fined for exploiting foreigners. However, the illegals are blowing up dams that Americans won’t.
#11 pedro “Yawn, another knee-jerk reaction from an lefty-loon illegal apologist.”
Really? I thought her solution was obvious: “The solution is clear, obvious and simple: heavy fines on employers who hire illegals.” How is that not a conservative solution. If we make it unprofitable to exploit illegals, then the illegals will go back home where they can work.
#12 Exactly right Benjamin… the laws of supply and demand work here. No jobs for illegals, no illegals coming here. All we have to do is deal with the anger of millions of Americans complaining about prices going up. Piece of cake. 🙂
The dam sabotage is about the drug war it seems, not about illegal immigration.
It seems like the majority of Americans is willing to sacrifice the Americans along the border in order to get their drugs and their cheap produce: Chaos along the border? Eh, too bad for them… I got my pot and my cheap romaine lettuce, that’s all that matters.
And btw, sorry about the gender confusion, but I’m actually a guy. 🙂
#13 “I’m actually a guy.”
I never heard of the name Phydeau, so I guessed. On a fiction writing forum I am on, I don’t use my real name, so people guess gender based on the feel of the fiction pieces I write. They have been wrong since most of my stories have female main characters.
#13 “pot and my cheap romaine lettuce.”
Are you sure it is just drugs and cheap produce. I think it is mostly greedy employers hiring Mexicans for slave wages. My plan is to fine employers. I think $35,000 per illegal is fair or three times the illegal’s wage for one year. Make it so that illegals cost a lot more than legals.
#14 Yes, “Phydeau” is a silly-ass made-up name of indeterminate gender. But I’m kind of used to it by now. Oh well. 🙂
Well, ultimately I think it’s about drugs and cheap produce. But of course to achieve that goal for the consumers, the producers need to hire the illegals. So the producers are driven by price competition, that’s why they hire the cheapest (and illegal) labor to deliver the cost savings to the consumer. If they don’t, the consumer will purchase from another producer. The free market in action!
#14 So you put the farmers out of business and you get to buy imported veggies with even less control over chemicals used than state side.
I’m one of those crazy repubs that want to let Mexicans come in and do the honest jobs many want to do while making sure they bleeping well get paid whatever the law requires.
My roof was put on some years back by these guys and they did a great job working for a contractor. The pay wasn’t bad but few Americans wanted the job because working on the roof on a very hot summer day is not much fun and slightly dangerous. If you aren’t in decent shape work like this will kill you. At sixty it would kill me.
How about a semi load of ammonia nitrate mixed with diesel?
That ought to make a major crater. Once you get a leak started the moving water and pressure will normally tear a damn apart.
#16 deowll, that’s another solution that would work just as well. I agree, they’re hard workers and go-getters, what America needs. The lazy Mexicans are the ones sitting on their asses back in their home towns. You don’t get to El Norte without some serious dedication.
And you’re right, if domestic produce became more expensive, they’d import it from god knows where with god knows what sprayed on it. That’s why I buy organic local, even though it’s more expensive. Cheapest isn’t always best, IMHO.
#17 Congrats pedro, an attempt at making a coherent argument. 🙂
Gee, all this time I thought Phydeau was a type of bread or the phonetic version of man’s best friend. Never thought of it being indeterminate gender status.
I generally like indeterminate status regardless of subject matter. Encourages one to think. Names can be quite powerful. Sue. Phydeau. bobbo.
Heh, heh.
I want to know what Presidente Calderón has to say about it. I suspect we should not have created a hazard by putting a dam there.
Hey pedro, please share with us the inner workings of the Latin American mind.
“I don’t understand this story. is it to flood 4million people in Mexico or in Texas? I didn’t know there were that many people in Mexico, or in Texas (which would have to be the entire state?)”
(In Hank Hill voice)
That boy ain’t right.
# 9 LDA said, “Terrorism is violence or the threat of violence that is politically motivated. This is a drug gang war.”
I congratulate you on your observation. We toss the word “terrorism” at almost everything.
Of course, from what I read, this misuse is directly attributable to McCullough, not the source material.
McCullough – the story is scary enough without you trying to make it worse.
bobbo, The Don Juan of Partnerless Loving said, on June 4th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
“Gee, all this time I thought Phydeau was a type of bread or the phonetic version of man’s best friend. Never thought of it being indeterminate gender status.”
The gender confusion is understandable given that Phydeau has been Obama’s faithful bitch for years.
#25. So blowing up a dam that can affect millions is not an act of terrorism but blowing up a bus in your particular city is. Regardless of motivation. What the fuck are you talking about?
#27 McCullough said, “What the fuck are you talking about?”
Gee, McCullough. You kiss your mother with that mouth? According to the Webster Online Dictionary (Don’;t expect me to look up all the hard words for you in the future)
: the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion
Now, the article you quoted says, “…blow up the Falcon dam not to hurt civilians, but to exact revenge on a rival gang…” In other words, there was no intent to coerce only to get back at rivals. As stated above, it may have been a plan for mass murder but it would not have been an act of terrorism.
On other matters: # 21 pedro said, Phydeau “…shows your supine ignorance…” Pedro, I agree. Phydeau has no idea how to lay down properly.
Where is the BS meter John?
So let’s say you manage a poor, south Texas county, and you need to build a new dam. But you don’t have any money in the county coffers to pay for it.
How about getting some stupid illegal you catch at the border to “confess” to this plot.
Now that you have created a problem, it is time to sell a solution! Go to Washington DC and tell them that you need a big new concrete dam. Tell them that they have to build it and pay for it.
Return home and watch the money and construction jobs roll in to your county.
If drugs were legal, these cartels would lose 99% of their revenue. Then they wouldn’t have all that dough to buy guns and terrorize people. Mexico tried legalizing, but found themselves under serious pressure from the US government after their feeble attempts (too many mexican politicians on the take). Unplug from the matrix people.
First, and I found this hilariously funny, is the unidentified neutral color in the center of Mexico on the map. What does that color represent?
Areas controlled by the Mexican government.
Second is that nobody so far is even remotely close to the cause of this.
The meme of the US stealing waters from Mexico is not new, but is mostly unknown north of the border. It happens to be true. We take everything(all of the water).
The only shared water source not taken is the Rio Grande, and only because emptying it would make Mexican access to the US much easier.
The cartels are very practical minded. They might see a domestic popularity boost for taking back the water, but they can buy or kill anybody in Mexico so they aren’t traditional political actors. I can’t think of a good reason for them doing this.
Mexico does have a history of idealists who are open to try military conflict. That sort seems like a much more likely source of this action.
Mexico also has a tradition of government provocation used to justify state sanctioned mass murder. They don’t only come here for the opportunity.
Hard to say what is going on, but the US-Mexico relationship is certainly an under-appreciated strategic threat in the US.
Imagine living your entire life in a place where laws could be nullified at will by a variety of state and non-state actors.
You might say, “The US is like that.” No, it isn’t by a mile.
#28–Animby==take it from ME, 99% of the time I go out of my way to be an asshole, I really am being an asshole. I hate it when that happens. Lets take your criticism of Pedro’s use of “supine ignorance.” Pedro, who I assume is Mexican or maybe just South American, who I further assume therefore is of Catholic persuasion. Pedro, raised in the tradition if not the current faith, is using a well know term of art: supine as in intentional as opposed to mere or simple ignorance. Is it “fair” to use this dogmatic term in polite society?
I think so. Words are what we think with. The more words we have, the more thoughts we have, the better we think. The more disciplines we linguistically include in our armamentarium of thought, the better equiped we are to sally forth and cure the poor supine lepers existing at the edges of our society.
It amuses me that Pedro uses the term from his cultural context and in your simple ignorance coming from years of secular training (“distal from the Catholic experience if you will”) choose to make fun of him because he doesn’t follow your equally dogmatic catechism (sic) of specialized language.
Well, I think its amusing. lol. Could it be just me?
# 6 FRAGaLOT, Texas is home to three of the ten most populous cities in the U.S. and has a total population of over twenty-one million. Of course, the area around the lake and dam is not densely populated, but the flood would wash quite a distance down the Rio Grande, perhaps all the way to Brownsville, going through a major agricultural area, more heavily populated on both sides of the river.
My uncle who was a doctor lived and worked not far from the area for a long time. We paid a visit when I was a kid and I remember being very impressed to be walking around in shorts on New Year’s Day! Also, the best grapefruit in the world comes from there.