How did you know this? You can thank the Media

[Tosh Plumlee]

This post is in answer to a few emails I have received asking me 'How did you know about these stories before they broke on CNN today and a few days ago?"...

Well the stories and the details thereof and the first news about Mexico's drug war problems first broke on this forum a few weeks ago. It was a test to see if anyone really reads this stuff. (documented before the fact, or appeared on any major American media news reports)

We, and that means friends of mine in law enforcement in Mexico and the United States, put together a 'private Undercover team and went into Mexico for three weeks. Some of us are still there. What we found was turned over to U.S. government officials, DEA, ATF and The Department of Justice as well as the Mexican Army, and the major media outlets..., it was sat on for a number of days by all, and appeared to be going nowhere.

I then went on Mike Levin's radio program with Celle Castillo, previous border Patrol and DEA, last week and in that program was a recap of previous CIA and military operations, dating back twenty years concerning America's so called Drug War, of the time was discussed.

That is when I started posting on this forum about the Mexico Drug War in and around Juarez and other border towns. Soon the mainstream media starting to cover parts of our findings, because we were pushing at them to take a look at what we had uncovered.

They then sent some of their own investigative teams into some of the areas we exposed for them. They took all the credit and cut our teams out of the loop and made it appear they had been investigating this on their own.

Yesterday I posted information, ON THIS FORUM, about more bodies being found south of Juarez. The information was sent to the French AFN and the AP picked the story up from the French. It then became public and CNN and CBS was forced to cover the information.

I also posted a few days ago, on this forum, about the weapons found in one of the drug gang's truck reg to a Texas address and the individuals association with the Gulf Cartel and the gangs thereof.

CNN covered this story today March 15, 2009 at 6AM ET with detailed information obtained from OUR SOURCES.

My point American Mainstream has been forced to cover this information because a UC team went in and documented it before the fact... and made it public in alt news media... They, the media, have not wanted to cover these allegations because in doing so it would expose sensitive sources associated with some of our previous and current elected officials and previous Pentagon and CIA black budget operations.

Your Press, Media, government officals, at work for you. A real "clean-up" crew at work.

I hope this answers some of those lingering questions of " Tosh. How did you know this before it was in the news?".

[David Guyatt]

Tosh, I can't speak for other founding members of this forum, only for myself. But:

Way to go!

This is the raison d'etre of this forum imo.

[Magda Hassan]

Yes, Tosh and David, that is the raison d'etre of this forum. Thank you Tosh and to your comrades too. Be safe. Much more to do.

[Tosh Plumlee]

Yes, Tosh and David, that is the raison d'etre of this forum. Thank you Tosh and to your comrades too. Be safe. Much more to do.

We're doing. The following should be of interest. Its really touch and go down here.. Its like a war zone. Reminds me of El Salvador in the 70's and 80's.

______________________________________________________________

Juárez refuses to lie down and die

By Adam Thomson in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
Published: March 13 2009 18:29 | Last updated: March 13 2009 18:29


There is no curfew yet in Ciudad Juárez, a bleak and sprawling border city in Mexico’s northern desert but the atmosphere is distinctly reminiscent of martial law.
Masked federal police man roadblocks on the main streets. At the border crossings, soldiers with automatic rifles search cars entering from El Paso, Texas.


The heavy military presence is the latest response of the administration of Felipe Calderón, the president, to a rise in drug-related violence that has turned Juárez into just about the most dangerous place on Earth. Last month, more civilians were murdered in the city of 1.6m people than in Baghdad.

The centre-right government has in recent weeks sent 5,000 soldiers to Juárez to back up a force of 2,000. It has also dispatched an extra 1,800 federal police to complement at least 500 in place. “We’ve come for as long as it takes,” says General Pedro Gutiérrez, who heads the federal police operation.
In perhaps the clearest sign of concern, control of the local commerce, prison services and police ministries has been handed to the military. It is the first time since at least the revolution of 1910 that the army has had so much power.
Jaime Torres, spokesman for the city government, says: “There was corruption in these institutions and we needed to guarantee the security of our citizens.”
In better times, Juárez was associated with thriving factories that made electrical components for big US carmakers and, more recently, flat-screen television sets.
Today, the dusty outpost is associated with drugs and death. Recent violence, thought to stem from a battle between the incumbent Juárez cartel and its Sinaloa rival for the domestic drugs market and a vital smuggling corridor into the US, claimed 1,640 lives last year alone. That is 0.1 per cent of the city’s population and a quarter of all drugs-related deaths in Mexico in 2008.
“They [the cartels] are killing us,” says an employee of a seafood restaurant in Juárez who preferred not to give his name for fear of reprisal. “This is a city of the dead.”
He has seen the death throes first hand. On a late January evening two customised pick-up trucks bristling with gunmen drew up outside the shabby restaurant and emptied their magazines into five people. “We’ve been trying to get the business on its feet again but it’s been hard,” he says.
Other businesses have suffered. Retailers say the cartels have started to demand protection money – probably, authorities say, to supplement lost income as anti-drugs efforts and inter-cartel bloodshed take their toll.
Fear has spread among foreign-owned manufacturing plants. Alvaro Navarro, Juarez’s economic development minister, says his department has had to offer companies “panic buttons” in each factory with a promise to respond within five minutes. “We’ve installed hundreds,” he says.
It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that most people have welcomed the security presence. In The Future, a neighbourhood of shoddy, single-storey houses and flea-infested dogs, José Reynaldo says he feels safer now that Juárez has been militarised.
“They drive by every half an hour or so,” says Mr Reynaldo, a mechanic. “It’s a reassuring sight.”
At the city morgue, the workload is the lightest in months. Héctor Hawley, the assistant director, says he might frame a report for March 6 that reads: “The shift passed without incident.”
There are even signs the measures are translating into drug seizures. In a raid tinged with moments from a Keystone Kops script, police used a battering ram on a door only to discover it was unlocked and opened the other way and then confiscated 700kg of marijuana.
In spite of the relative calm in Ciudad Juárez, many people say it is only a matter of time before the cartels return. “They’re biding their time,” says Pedro Torres, deputy editor of El Diario, the city’s leading newspaper. “The power of the narcos and their ability to bribe is very strong.”



Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

note: AP received sections this story as it was developing on March 08, 09, as well as CBS and CNN.

P.S ... Going back over the border tonight... something is in the works.. Border Patrol is on HIGH ALERT!

[Dawn Meredith]

Yes, Tosh and David, that is the raison d'etre of this forum. Thank you Tosh and to your comrades too. Be safe. Much more to do.

I feel so so proud to be your friend Tosh and to be a part of DPF.

"One person can make a difference and every one should try".
John F Kennedy.

Those words are on my fridge and today they are even more meaningful.
Stay safe and never say never.

Dawn