A must-read book for everyone here....
http://www.amazon.com/Reapers-Line-Death-Mexican-Border/dp/188789697XWritten by Lee Morgan, a thirty-year veteran of the Border Patrol, the US Customs Sevice and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE - the acronyms get confusing).
At bit dated in that it covers the Douglas - Naco Arizona border between 1974 and 2005.
Upon first opening Mr Morgan's "I'm a real badass" tone was off-putting, like did I want to read another 500 pages of that.
Well, turns out Mr Morgan is/was a real badass. There aint hardly an idle paragraph in this whole book, so plan on taking a while to read through it, and it looks like it would stand up to several re-reads.
You can think of it as him taking up the Border pretty much where Bill Jordan and Charles Askins left off. Mr Morgans frame of reference is his time serving as a combat grunt in Vietnam, and he brings that perspective to the Border.
In it he lays out the utter corruption and complicity of all levels of the Mexican Government, the mass-murdering viciousness of the Cartels, and the complete self-serving idiocy of those in authority on our side, whom he terms REMF's.
A prime example of that last being Janet Reno under the Clinton Administration signing an agreement to notify the Mexican Government as to the specifics of all US undercover operations in Mexico. Effectively consigning to a horrible death by torture of anyone in Mexico who would help us in the drug war, and making prosecution of cases here impossible if the Mexican Government had NOT been given notification when the investigation was underway.
Might be appropriate to rail at Clinton, except this agreement was extended by the Bush Administration.
What worries him the most though aint so much the drugs and violence and all that, but rather the corrupting effect of the trade on OUR side.
Mr Morgan finally resigns when drug interdictions in his sector are taken away from ICE and handed over to the Border Patrol, whom he calls "one of the most corrupt law-enforcement agencies in existence" giving examples of seventy-six BP agents arrested in Cochise County alone since 2000, and another twenty five then being investigated as of 2006.
Like I said, if ya aint already read it, its a must-read.
Birdwatcher
