America's Mexican Border Wars

[Tosh Plumlee]

Pandemic Alert: Deadly Swine Flu about to Explode?

Natural Solutions Foundation
http://www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
[ April 24, 2009 - Please share this Alert! http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=2515 ]
We have continually raised the warning about the potential for a “weaponized” or “engineered” pandemic as an excuse to force people to receive a weaponized vaccination. See for example the following postings on this blog:
07/19/08 - Weaponized Avian Flu Intelligence Report - http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=742
09/15/08 - Smoke and Mirrors… shards of truth - http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=965
03/06/09 - Avian Flu “Accident” - http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=2220
UPDATE: 04/25/09 - Pandemic eAlert - http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=2531
UPDATE: 04/28/09 - Proactive Protection Steps - http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=2581
Now we must raise the alarm once again. “Although past weaponization events have failed to trigger the pandemic,” Foundation President Gen. Stubblebine suggests, “we must assume the forces at work will produce what world health officials have called the inevitable pandemic.”
Whether those forces are the chaos of the natural world, the greed-addicted structure of the health care industry and its Big Phama cartel, or the evil intent of individuals or groups, we know not. One need not believe in conspiracies to observe that social and economic conditions may be such that a pandemic is almost a foregone conclusion. For example, several major foundations are providing significant funding to several dozen laboratories around the world that are studying the Avian Flu virus to find out how easy it might be for “terrorists” to weaponize the flu. How many such labs do you think it takes before it is inevitable that an engineered pathogen will escape?
Before you answer that question, remember that just this past January, as related in the second link above, a shipment of annual flu vaccine was “accidentally” contaminated with live Avian Flu virus… nearly triggering the pandemic.
And now, over the past couple days, the story has broken of a potential Swine Flu pandemic (yes, the Swine Flu is back!). We reproduce below several stories about this and are continuing our investigation so that we can issue a Pandemic Flu eAlert shortly to the Health Freedom Action eAlert’s several hundred thousand subscribers. If you do not yet receive the free eAlert, please join at: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?page_id=187
A final “smoking gun” is found in one article below, where the particular strain of Swine Flu is said to be a “novel strain” — and in another where it says, “It first looked mostly like a swine virus but closer analysis showed it is a never-before-seen mixture of swine, human and avian viruses, according to the CDC.” this, Dr. Laibow says, can be a hallmark of an engineered virus.
PLEASE TAKE THIS ALERT SERIOUSLY.
Dr. Laibow urges you to make sure you have supplemental silver (ionic or colloidal) available and stockpiled. This nutrient offers hope in a dangerous situation. You can order ionic silver and support the Foundation at the same time by going to: www.Nutronix.com/NaturalSolutions and on the top bar choose “Products” — then on the left menu (near the bottom) choose: “Silver Solution”.
Ralph Fucetola JD
NSF Trustee for Dr. Laibow and Gen. Stubblebine
Our Accomplishments: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?page_id=195
We need your support to keep you informed: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?page_id=189
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These articles are reproduced as a public service:
[1] April 29, 2009 - Message from Dr. Joseph Mercola
http://www.voteronpaul.com/newsDetail.ph...iction-899
“Could a mixed animal-human mutant like this occur naturally? And if not, who made it, and how was it released?
Not one to dabble too deep in conspiracy theories, I don’t have to strain very hard to find actual facts to support the notion that this may not be a natural mutation, and that those who stand to gain have the wherewithal to pull off such a stunt.
Just last month I reported on the story that the American pharmaceutical company Baxter was under investigation for distributing the deadly avian flu virus to 18 different countries as part of a seasonal flu vaccine shipment. Czech reporters were probing to see if it may have been part of a deliberate attempt to start a pandemic; as such a “mistake” would be virtually impossible under the security protocols of that virus.”
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[2] More US swine flu cases, Mexico illnesses raise pandemic questions
Lisa Schnirring * Staff Writer
Apr 23, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – Five more cases of an unusual swine influenza virus infection have surfaced, officials from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today, bringing the total to seven and raising more concerns about human-to-human transmission.
The new cases include two clusters, two 16-year-old boys in San Antonio, Tex., who attended the same school and a father and daughter from San Diego County. Anne Schuchat, MD, interim deputy director for the CDC’s science and public health program, told reporters today at a teleconference that the clusters are consistent with human-to-human spread.
She also said that the World Health Organization has not raised its six-phase pandemic alert level above phase 3 (no or very limited human-to-human transmission).
The fifth new case occurred in a patient from Imperial County, which borders San Diego County. Both counties are home to the first two swine flu patients that the CDC announced on Apr 21.
News of the five new swine flu cases came on the same day Canadian officials warned its public health, medical, and quarantine workers to look for illnesses among Canadians returning from Mexico. Mexico has reported several cases of severe respiratory illness and has asked Canada to assist in finding the source of the illnesses, some of which have been fatal, according to a report today from the Canadian Press (CP).
Schuchat said no swine flu cases have been confirmed in Mexico or Canada, but that CDC officials are discussing the situation with Mexican health officials and representatives from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Novel strain, relatively mild symptoms
Concerning the seven American cases, Schuchat said, “The good news is that all of the patients have recovered, and one was hospitalized. This is not looking like a very severe influenza.”
Patients experience fever, cough, and sore throat symptoms similar to typical influenza, but some of the patients who had swine influenza also experienced more diarrhea and vomiting than is typical of seasonal flu.
The CDC said genetic sequencing of samples from the first two patients, California children who lived in adjacent counties, show that the swine flu virus contains segments from four different viruses: some North American swine, some North American avian, one human influenza, and two Eurasian swine.
“This virus hasn’t been recognized in the USA or elsewhere,” Schuchat said.
CDC scientists have determined that the novel swine flu virus is resistant to the older antivirals rimantadine and amantadine but is susceptible to oseltamivir and zanamivir.
Schuchat said the CDC expects to see more swine flu cases and that it would provide regular updates on its Web site.
“This is not time for major concern around the country, but we want you to know what’s going on,” she said. Most of the public health response will focus on the California and Texas areas where cases have been identified, but the CDC is urging health departments in other states to heighten their awareness of respiratory illnesses, particularly in those who have had contact with pigs or traveled to the San Diego or San Antonio areas.
Schuchat said the CDC doesn’t know yet if the H1N1 component of this season’s influenza vaccine provides any protection against the swine flu virus, but she said studies are under way to determine if there is any cross-protection.
Expert reaction
Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director of the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, publisher of CIDRAP News, said the findings, though concerning, don’t mean that a pandemic is imminent.
However, he said health officials shouldn’t take comfort in the fact that the illnesses so far have been mild. “The first wave of the 1918 pandemic was mild, too,” Osterholm pointed out.
Walter Dowdle, PhD, who worked in the CDC’s virology unit during the 1976 swine flu outbreak, told CIDRAP News that it’s interesting but not greatly alarming that the 2009 swine flu strain contains such an unusual mix of gene segments.
“It’s a real mutt,” said Dowdle, who now works with the Task Force for Child Survival and Development, based in Atlanta. “When you have an evolving RNA mechanism, it’s hard to be surprised by anything.”
The H1N1 component of the seasonal flu vaccine might provide some degree of protection, he said. And if the swine flu virus persists, federal officials could consider adding an additional H1N1 strain to next year’s vaccine.
Marie Gramer, DVM, PhD, a University of Minnesota veterinarian who has studied swine flu, said her preliminary examination shows that the outbreak strain doesn’t appear to closely match anything currently circulating in pigs. However, Gramer added that she has only looked at a small number of viruses and only at the hemagglutinin gene.
Risk message implications
Peter Sandman, PhD, a risk communication consultant based in Princeton, N.J., also listened in on today’s CDC teleconference. While he credited the CDC with getting a clear, calm, and concise scientific message out about the swine flu cases, he said they missed a teachable moment to promote pandemic preparedness.
“Everyone needs to learn how to say ‘This could be bad, and it’s a good reason to take precautions and prepare’ and ‘This could fizzle out,’” Sandman said. “They need to simultaneously say both statements.”
He added that “good risk communicators need to know how to be both scary and tentative.”
Federal health officials are probably treading cautiously around the word “pandemic,” because some accused them of fearmongering when they raised concerns about the H5N1 virus 2 years ago and also because of overreaction during the 1976 swine flu epidemic that led to vaccination missteps.
When talking to the public about pandemic risks, federal officials could take some cues from hurricane forecasters, Sandman said, “and speculate responsibly.”
Canadian officials probe Mexico illnesses
Canada’s Public Health Authority (PHAC) said today in a situation update that Mexican authorities have asked its assistance in determining the cause of two clusters of severe respiratory illnesses that have occurred this month.
A cluster in Mexico City involved 120 cases and 13 deaths; the other occurred in San Luis Potosi, where 14 cases and 4 deaths were reported. Three deaths were reported from other locations: One from Oaxaca in southern Mexico and two from Baja California Norte, near the US border.
The PHAC report said the disease outbreak struck some healthcare workers and that most patients were previously healthy young adults between the ages of 25 and 44. Symptoms included fever, headache, ocular pain, shortness of breath, and fatigue that rapidly progressed to severe respiratory distress in about 5 days.
Mexican officials detected some influenza A/H1N1 and influenza B viruses, but have apparently ruled out H5N1 virus involvement. The PHAC said it received 51 clinical samples from Mexico for testing at its National Microbiology Lab.
Mexico told the PHAC that it had a late influenza season with an increasing number of influenza-like illnesses since the middle of March. The country also had a higher proportion of influenza B viruses than previous seasons.
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content...neflu.html
———————————————
[3] Sixty Swine Flu Fatalities In Mexico Confirm Pandemic Start
Recombinomics Commentary 13:30
April 24, 2009
A rare outbreak of human swine flu has killed at least 60 people in Mexico and spread to the United States where authorities are on alert, the World Health Organisation said on Friday.
“To date there have been some 800 suspected cases with flu-like illness, with 57 deaths in the Mexico City area,” Chaib added.
Twenty four suspected cases and three deaths were also recorded in San Luis Potosi in central Mexico.
The above comment confirm that the swine H1N1 in southwestern United States (see updated map) is the leading edge of a H1N1 pandemic that appears to be centered in Mexico.
These deaths should increase the pandemic phase to 6.
Release of sequences from fatal cases in Mexico would be useful.
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/042409...demic.html
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[4] Deadly new flu strain breaks out in Mexico, U.S.
By Alistair Bell and Noel Randewich
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A strain of flu never seen before has killed as many as 61 people in Mexico and has spread into the United States, where eight people have been infected but recovered, health officials said on Friday.
Mexico’s government said at least 16 people have died of the disease in central Mexico and that it may also have been responsible for 45 other deaths.
The World Health Organization said tests showed the virus in 12 of the Mexican patients had the same genetic structure as a new strain of swine flu, designated H1N1, seen in eight people in California and Texas.
Because there is clearly human-to-human spread of the new virus, raising fears of a major outbreak, Mexico’s government canceled classes for millions of children in its sprawling capital city and surrounding areas.
“Our concern has grown as of yesterday,” U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acting director Dr. Richard Besser told reporters in a telephone briefing.
It first looked mostly like a swine virus but closer analysis showed it is a never-before-seen mixture of swine, human and avian viruses, according to the CDC.
“We do not have enough information to fully assess the health threat posed by this new swine flu virus,” Besser said.
Humans can occasionally catch swine flu from pigs but rarely have they been known to pass it on to other people.
The WHO said it was ready to use rapid containment measures if needed, including antivirals, and that both the United States and Mexico are well equipped to handle the outbreak.
Both the WHO and the CDC said there was no need to alter travel arrangements in Mexico or the United States.
CLOSE TO 1,000 SUSPECTED CASES IN MEXICO
Eight people were infected with the new strain in California and Texas, but all of them have recovered. Mexico said it had close to 1,000 suspected cases there.
The CDC’s Besser said scientists were working to understand why there are so many deaths in Mexico when the infections in the United States seem mild.
Worldwide, seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people in an average year, but the flu season for North America should have been winding down.
The U.S. government said it was closely following the new cases. “The White House is taking the situation seriously and monitoring for any new developments. The president has been fully briefed,” an administration official said.
Mexico’s government cautioned people not to shake hands or kiss when greeting or to share food, glasses or cutlery for fear of infection.
The outbreak jolted residents of the Mexican capital, one of the world’s biggest cities and home to some 20 million people.
One pharmacy ran out of surgical face masks after selling 300 in a day.
“We’re frightened because they say it’s not exactly flu, it’s another kind of virus and we’re not vaccinated,” said Angeles Rivera, 34, a federal government worker who fetched her son from a public kindergarten that was closing.
The virus is an influenza A virus, carrying the designation H1N1. It contains DNA from avian, swine and human viruses, including elements from European and Asian swine viruses, the CDC has said.
The Geneva-based U.N. agency WHO said it was in daily contact with U.S., Canadian and Mexican authorities and had activated its Strategic Health Operations Center (SHOC) — its command and control center for acute public health events.
The CDC said it will issue daily updates here
Surveillance for and scrutiny of influenza has been stepped up since 2003, when H5N1 bird flu reappeared in Asia. Experts fear that or another strain could spark a pandemic that could kill millions.
In Egypt, a 33-year-old woman died of bird flu, becoming the third such victim there in a week. The H5N1 bird flu, a completely different strain from the swine flu, has infected 421 people in 15 countries and killed 257 since 2003.
An outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, killed 44 people in Canada in 2003.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/i...24?sp=true
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[5] SNAP ANALYSIS-New swine flu likely widespread, experts say
25 Apr 2009 21:06:44 GMT - Source: Reuters
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) - A new and unusual strain of swine flu is likely widespread and impossible to contain at this point, experts agree.
The H1N1 strain has killed at least 20 people and possibly 48 more in Mexico and has been confirmed in at least eight people in the United States, all of whom had mild illness.
Probable cases also were found at a school in the New York City borough of Queens and experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say they fully expect to find more cases. Here is why:
* This new strain of influenza has shown it can spread easily from person to person.
* It has been found in several places and among people who had no known contact. This suggests there is an unseen chain of infection and that the virus has been spreading quietly.
* This can happen because respiratory illnesses are very common and doctors rarely test patients for flu. People could have had the swine virus and never known it.
* At least in the United States, it has so far only been found in people who had mild illness, another factor that would have allowed it to spread undetected.
* World Health Organization director Dr. Margaret Chan has said the new strain of H1N1 has the potential to become a pandemic strain because it does spread easily and does cause serious disease.
* CDC experts note that while it is possible to contain an outbreak of disease that is in one limited area, once it is reported in widespread locations, the spread is impossible to control. (For full coverage of the flu outbreak, click on [nFLU]) (Editing by Xavier Briand)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N25472826.htm
———————————————————————-
[6] World eyes deadly flu risk, Mexico City hushed
Sun Apr 26, 2009 11:56am EDT
By Catherine Bremer
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Governments around the world rushed on Sunday to check the spread of a new type of swine flu that has killed up to 81 people in Mexico and infected around a dozen in the United States.
Mexicans huddled in their homes while U.S. hospitals tracked patients with flu symptoms and other countries imposed health checks at airports as the World Health Organization warned the virus had the potential to become a pandemic.
The epidemic has snowballed into a monster headache for Mexico, already grappling with a violent drug war and economic slowdown, and has quickly become one of the biggest global health scares in years.
Mexico’s tourism and retail sectors could be badly hit. A new pandemic would deal a major blow to a world economy already suffering its worst recession in decades.
In New Zealand, 10 pupils from an Auckland school party that had returned from Mexico were being treated for influenza symptoms in what health authorities said was a likely case of swine flu, although they added none was seriously ill.
The WHO declared the flu a “public health event of international concern.” WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan urged greater worldwide surveillance for any unusual outbreaks of influenza-like illness.
“(We are) monitoring minute by minute the evolution of this problem across the whole country,” Mexican President Felipe Calderon said as health officials counted suspected infections in six states from the tropical south to the northern border.
While all the deaths so far have been in Mexico, the flu is spreading in the United States. Eleven cases were confirmed in California, Kansas and Texas, and eight schoolchildren in New York City caught a type A influenza virus that health officials say is likely to be the swine flu.
The new flu strain, a mixture of various swine, bird and human viruses, poses the biggest risk of a large-scale pandemic since avian flu surfaced in 1997, killing several hundred people. A 1968 “Hong Kong” flu pandemic killed about 1 million people globally.
New flu strains can spread quickly because no one has natural immunity to them and a vaccine takes months to develop.
TRAVELLERS SCREENED
Countries across Asia, which have had to grapple with deadly viruses like H5N1 bird flu and SARS in recent years, snapped into action. At airports and other border checkpoints in Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, officials screened travelers for any flu-like symptoms.
In China, officials assured people that conventional measures in place were adequate to contain the new threat.
“The measures we’ve been taking against bird flu are effective for this new type of disease,” said Wang Jing of the China Inspection and Quarantine Science Research Institute, in comments carried by state media.
Argentina declared a health alert, requiring anyone arriving on flights from Mexico to advise if they had flu-like symptoms. Continued…
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/i...2820090426
—————————————————————-
[7] Swine Flu Could Become More Dangerous
3 hours 8 mins ago
SkyNews © Sky News 2009
* Print Story
The swine flu virus that has killed more than 80 people in Mexico may mutate into a “more dangerous” strain, the World Health Organisation has warned. Skip related content
“It’s quite possible for this virus to evolve… when viruses evolve, clearly they can become more dangerous to people,” said Keiji Fukuda, of the global health watchdog.
Mr Fukuda also called for international vigilance as health experts wait to see whether the virus will turn into a worldwide pandemic.
Over 1,300 people are now thought to have contracted the virulent H1N1 swine influenza after it mutated into a form that spreads from human to human.
The Mayor of New York has confirmed that eight school children are suffering mild symptoms after becoming infected.
And there have been at least 12 other confirmed cases in Texas, Ohio, California and Kansas.
The White House has declared a public health emergency but told the public “not to panic”.
Sky US correspondent Greg Milam said: “It’s important to realise that those affected have only had mild symptoms, and all have recovered or are recovering.
“But the authorities do believe that this outbreak will get worse.”
Canada has become the third country to confirm human cases of swine flu with six people falling ill in Nova Scotia and British Columbia.
Elsewhere in the world, suspected cases have been reported in France, Spain, Israel, New Zealand and the UK.
In France, two people who had returned from Mexico with fevers are being monitored in regions near the port cities of Bordeaux and Marseille.
A 26-year-old Israeli man has also been admitted to hospital after returning from a trip to Mexico with flu-like symptoms.
In Auckland, 10 school children have tested positive for influenza after returning from Mexico.
In the UK, two people have been admitted to a hospital in Scotland after returning from Mexico last week.
They are said to have mild flu-like symptoms but their condition is not causing concern.
Mexican City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said two more people have died of the virus, taking the death toll to 83.
All schools have been shut in Mexico City, the surrounding area and the central state of San Luis Potosi until May 6.
The WHO says it has a stockpile of the antiviral Tamiflu, which has proven effective against the virus, and is preparing a vaccine if needed.
The H1N1 strain of swine flu is usually only seen in pigs - but in humans can cause symptoms including fever and fatigue.
The WHO says there is “zero evidence” that people are getting infected with the virus from exposure to pigmeat or pigs.
However, many countries say they are stepping up checks on pork imports from the region.
Russia has banned meat imports from Mexico as well as from several US states and Central American countries.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090426/twl-...d0ae9.html
This entry was posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 1:20 pm and is filed under Avian Flu, Disinformation, Get Involved, Promising Developments, The Law & CODEX, Vaccination, Weaponized Avian Flu . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.


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[Tosh Plumlee]

Drug-war virus spreading like the Swine flu



Posted by Bill Conroy - May 2, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Narco-corruption has infected both sides of the border

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has deployed some 40,000 military troops to battle the drug “cartels” in order to stem the flow of drugs north into the United States.
It’s not working; the drugs keep coming.
The U.S. government has spent billions of dollars over the past four decades trying to stop the flow of drugs from coming north and more recently has ramped up border security in an effort to stop guns from flowing south and into the hands of narco-traffickers.
It’s not working, the drugs and guns keep spreading.
This failed strategy is premised on the notion that drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) are tightly structured hierarchical organizations that can be neutralized by force along a front line — the border.
But, of course, it doesn’t work that way.
Like the Swine flu, the real enemy in the drug war is a virus spread by human contact, and its infection rate is not inhibited by the border or nationality.
Since the early 1970s, when President Nixon declared the “war on drugs,” unleashing this virus, it has spread all across the Americas, often by the very instruments meant to impede it.
No one, regardless of their country of origin or status in society [from indigent street person to U.S. Senator] is immune to this virus (commonly called corruption) — which is spread by the tools of addiction, violence and greed (drugs, guns and money).

[B]Tracking the Virus
[/B]

As with most diseases deemed deadly, myths typically creep up (propagated by word of mouth and the mainstream-media hype machine) that result in mass disinformation being accepted as fact about the modes of transmission of the illness.
In the case of the drug-war virus, the most recent transmission myth foist upon the public is focused on weapons. The myth is that the virus is now being spread, in large part, by guns and munitions being shipped south by criminal actors in the U.S. to the “cartels” in Mexico. Again, the fallacy of this myth is that it presumes the virus respects borders.
The truth is that the guns being used by the DTOs are coming from multiple sources — including the U.S., Central America and other nations on other continents; and from within Mexico itself, via players in law enforcement and the military who have been afflicted with this drug-war virus.
In November of last year, Mexican law enforcers seized a huge cache of weapons in Reynosa, Mexico, that was linked to the Zetas — a group of DTO mercenary enforcers formed by highly trained special-operations soldiers who defected from the Mexican military. The weapons stash include hundreds of assault rifles as well as grenade launchers, hand grenades and half a million rounds of ammunition — among which was a collection of U.S. military-issued 40 mm artillery shells.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), after a five-month delay — caused, in part, by the reluctance of the Mexican government to allow ATF timely access the serial numbers of the seized weapons — finally reported through the media in late March of this year that they were able to trace the serial numbers of 383 of the 540 rifles found in the Reynosa arms cache. Most of those guns traced back to U.S. firearms dealers, according to the ATF.
But clearly a not insignificant number of those weapons — including nearly 160 rifles as well as the grenade launchers, hand grenades and artillery shells — were not traced by ATF, assuming the media reports are accurate, and their source remains a mystery. Ironically, according to the State Department, the U.S. approved for export to Mexico via private companies more than $1 billion worth of defense hardware between fiscal years 2004 and 2007 alone — including assault rifles, grenades and grenade launchers.
A couple of weeks back, during an interview on a Fox News show, Thomas Mangan, a special agent with ATF, said that Mexican authorities are recovering from DTOs an increasing number of “true machine guns,” which Mangan said are not being purchased in the U.S.
Mangan said ATF suspects these machine guns, such as the U.S.-made M60, are being acquired by DTOs through Central American sources. Ironically, the M60 is also a machine gun used by the Mexican Army.
A story in the April 27 issue of the Brownsville Herald, which was not picked up by the national media, reported that the Mexican Army discovered an abandoned car in Matamoras, Mexico, packed with “four assault rifles, two submachine guns, more than 2,000 rounds of ammunitions and 24 cartridges.”
Also in the car were “three radio systems with chargers, as well as two army type uniforms, and a tactical [bullet-proof] vest,” the Herald reported. The evidence, according to the Herald report, was turned over to the Mexican federal police to investigate.
Two days later, also in Matamoras, the Associated Press reported that Mexican law enforcement had arrested a major Zeta ringleader, Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa — and in the process seized an arms cache that included five rifles and a clutch of ammunition.
Could that be a coincidence? Likely not.
And if not, we again have military-issued hardware (submachine guns) linked to the Zetas — who defected from the Mexican military, along with more than 100,000 of their fellow soldiers since 2001.
So what are we to make of all this? Is the United States really the nearly exclusive supplier of weapons to Mexico’s DTOs?
Or is the situation more complicated, the virus more widespread?
Narco News put that question to Bill Newell, special agent in charge of the ATF in Arizona and New Mexico.
Newell concedes that the ATF’s efforts to impede the illegal flow of U.S. guns south into Mexico likely will not solve the problem. He says stopping the gun flow from the U.S. will only lead the DTOs to step up their acquisition of weapons from other non-U.S. sources, because they "are not stupid."
Newell says, for example, a lot of weapons are now coming up from El Salvador and Guatemala — citing the fact that the Zetas are “getting their grenades” from Central America.
"We're a victim of our own success" in cracking down on the U.S. flow of arms, he adds.
Newell also did not disupute that the Mexican government is very selective in the guns it turns over to ATF to trace. Newell stresses that he has no direct evidence of Mexican military corruption playing a role in the arming of the DTOs, but he also agrees that ATF is not getting all of the evidence. He adds that an ATF badge and gun in Mexico is essentially a "paperweight."
And on that front, a U.S. Senator has already weighed in with his concern.
Last month, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, held a hearing in the field — in El Paso, Texas, located along the U.S. border with Mexico. In his opening statement for that hearing, Kerry revealed the following:
Only about one out of every four weapons seized by Mexican authorities last year was submitted to the ATF so they could be traced back to purchasers and sellers in the United States. The Mexican government should provide the ATF with fuller access to these weapons.

Spreading North

Tosh Plumlee is a former CIA asset and contract pilot who flew numerous missions delivering arms to Latin America and returning drugs to the United States as part of the covert Iran/Contra operations in the 1980s, according to public records.
Plumlee still has deep contacts in the spook world, including within the Mexican intelligence world. Plumlee claims that behind the scenes the Obama administration, with the help of a special joint task force involving U.S. and Mexican agents, is attempting to get a handle on the spread of the drug-war virus, but are finding themselves up against a major contagion that does not yield easily and is very capable of evolving into a more virulent strain.

Here’s Plumlee’s take, which he sent to Narco News via e-mail:

".. Relations with Mexico over this "Border War" and the escalations thereof, coupled with the drug policies of old, have caused a difference of opinions within the two-party system of the United States, as well as between various factions within Mexico.... The Drug Cartels have embedded themselves so deep within the political atmosphere of Mexico that they can manipulate policy as well as Mexico's reality. These cartels have gained control of a majority of the media outlets as well as the party system of Mexico and to some degree infiltrated our [the U.S.] political structure as well as our financial institutions.
We have some politicians in this country who do not want in-depth investigations into the Cartels of Mexico or the cut-out companies used in these illegal operations, or the personal used in those various operations. Our secret, newly formed joint Task Force, working a delicate matter with the Mexican Army, has uncovered direct associations with some officials on this side of the border as well as inside Mexico. ..".

So the drug-war virus, according to Plumlee, has infected the U.S. side of the border as well — since the virus spreads easily across borders.
Plumlee points to a small U.S. border community of some 2,000 people where this infection can be seen running its course. Columbus, N.M., is located in southern Luna County, about 70 miles west of El Paso, Texas; some 32 miles south of Deming, N.M.; and just across the border from Palomas, Mexico.
And, according to Plumlee — and a recent report by the Associated Press — this high-desert border town has become a haven for narco-traffickers.
Recently, Plumlee says he spent some time in Columbus, on a hill overlooking the small town with a group of Border Patrol agents who had set up surveillance cameras from afar to keep an eye on two adjoining houses in the community.
Plumlee claims the homes were purchased by narco-traffickers, who paid cash. He adds that as he looked on with the Border Patrol, a group of men at the homes were unloading cargo from two trucks parked near the abodes.
Plumlee says the Border Patrol agents said the cargo was a shipment of weapons.
“How do you know,” Plumlee says he asked the Border Patrol agents.
“Because we have it on tape,” one of the Border Patrol agents responded, according to Plumlee.
Plumlee says the Border Patrol agents have reported the incident to ATF. Unfortunately, he adds, Columbus’ local law enforcement doesn’t have the manpower, firepower or willpower to confront the extent of the problem that now exists in the community.

The recent AP a> story backs up Plumlee’s analysis.[/url]

[URL="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090501/ap_on_re_us/us_drug_smugglers__town"]According to that news report, the narco-traffickers have fled across the border into Columbus from Palomas to avoid the pressure of the Mexican Army. Columbus must seem like a safe haven by comparison, given it’s four-man cop shop “has turned over seven times in three years because of scandal or apathy,” according to the AP report.
However, the problems in Luna County (where Columbus is located) are not limited to the blowback from narco-corruption in Mexico.
In 2007, Narco News reported that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) supervisor in New Mexico was alleging that a federally-funded drug task force based in Deming (composed of ICE agents as well as local and state law enforcers) was linked to a disturbing trail of bookkeeping irregularities, multiple mysterious bank accounts and even claims of U.S. law enforcement corruption.
In fact, the ICE supervisor alleged specifically that some $300,000 in federal funds under the control of the Deming task force had mysteriously disappeared.
A subsequent investigation conducted by ICE into the supervisor’s charges did not directly address the missing $300,000. Instead, the report simply states that no evidence was found to support the allegation that the federal funds were “reprogrammed to disguise actual use.”
But it is difficult to dismiss the ICE supervisor’s allegations concerning the $300,000, particularly when considering that the ICE report also confirms that task-force financial records were in disarray, missing or “erased” and that expenditures were not properly documented. Added to that is the fact that the task force’s Deming office was burglarized shortly after the ICE supervisor reported the $300,000 in missing funds.
The ICE investigation also revealed the following:
• The Deming Chief of Police no longer shares information with the task force because the current “task force commander” compromised a source of narcotics-related information and also because the task force does not share information with his office.
• The task force opened five bank accounts for its discretionary funds using the City of Deming tax identification (ID) number without the City’s knowledge or authorization. The accounts were re-designated with the Grand County tax ID when the City of Deming demanded that its number be no longer used.
• The City of Deming withdrew its participation from the Deming task force due to “integrity [alleged corruption] concerns relating to former and current task force commanders. …”
Several New Mexico law enforcement officials linked to the Deming task force have been the targets of past federal corruption investigations, Narco News sources claim. One of those investigations centered on a deputy who allegedly turned up in a wiretap making calls to a Mexican narco-trafficking organization. However, no charges were brought against the targeted law enforcers as a result of the investigations, the sources add.
To date, law enforcement sources tell Narco News, no known criminal investigation has been launched into the activities of the Deming task force as a result of the ICE report findings. In fact, those sources claim the ICE report is now buried away in some drawer at ICE headquarters gathering dust.


[Full coverage of the task-force scandal, as well as a link to the ICE report, can be found at this link.]

Pandemic

Luna County, New Mexico, and the dusty border town of Columbus are far from alone in geography or time in being victims of the drug-war virus.
How else can we explain the fact that former Starr County, Texas, Sheriff Rey Guerra recently pled guilty to a drug-trafficking conspiracy charge?
Guerra was accused of passing information to a narco-trafficking group in exchange for cash payments and other gifts. Seems the good sheriff had a weak spot for steak and shrimp dinners.
And then there’s the long-running, and still unaddressed, House of Death scandal, in which U.S. law enforcers and federal prosecutors allowed one of their informants to participate in a series of brutal murders in 2003 and early 2004 in Juarez, Mexico, in the effort to make a career-boosting drug case.
Plus, there is the reality that U.S. border agents come into contact with the drug-war virus daily, which raises the risk that they will contract the disease. That might explain why, according to a New York Times report, as of last May there were “about 200 open cases pending against law enforcement employees who work the border.” (And those are only the cases that are known or were not ignored due to political calculations.)
The House of Death informant, a former Mexican cop, in a letter he penned from prison (where he now sits fighting the U.S. government’s efforts to deport him to Mexico, back to a certain death at the hands of the drug lords he double crossed) described how those corrupt arrangements work — at least in the case of the compromised U.S. law enforcer who worked for the narco-trafficking cell that employed the informant.
From the informant’s prison missive:
Upon his arrival at work, the [U.S. Customs] inspector would receive his schedule where he would see when he would be at the different stands [at one of the border bridges at Juarez/El Paso] where the cars came through…. And since they switch off every thirty minutes, he could use one of the beepers that were already programmed to type in and send the messages without needing to use an operator or telephone line.
He [the corrupt inspector] sent the schedule to the nephew [a drug smuggler] specifying at what time and on what line he would be working. In that way, he was the first contingency and would send us the schedule, or as we called it “invitation,” since we were the guests.
But none of this is really new, despite the recent escalated attention being paid to the drug war by the mainstream media — at least prior its efforts in helping to spread fear and loathing over the Swine flu virus.
An internal U.S. Customs memo dated Jan. 29, 1990, helps to elucidate the history of this drug-war virus. The memo, written by John Juhasz, the leader of a border-corruption task force in Arizona at the time (dubbed Firestorm) was obtained by Narco News and published in 2004 as part of its Borderline Security series.
From the memo:
At the present time, it is an accepted fact among federal law enforcement agencies and the U.S. Attorney’s Office [Tucson] that law enforcement corruption in the border communities of Arizona has reached a crisis state.
… Current investigative information in this office indicates heavy involvement in the corruption of two Customs employees by an organization in Cochise County (Arizona), which is believed to include law enforcement and court officials. There are strong indications of the same type of activity in Santa Cruz County, which, like Cochise County, is adjacent to the Mexican border.
Other Federal agencies in Arizona implicate the same organizations as being part of the drug smuggling problem.
However, just as in the case of the case of the more recent alleged New Mexico law-enforcement corruption, the Firestorm task force’s investigation was ultimately deep-sixed by higher powers.
The Arizona task force, which was composed of agents from several federal agencies, was shut down abruptly in late 1990.
In early 2002, former U.S. Customs agent and Firestorm task force member Steven Shelly — as well as other sources — advanced information alleging that a former U.S. Senator was a target of the task force.
“The ‘Firestorm’ task force that was shut down overnight, was shut down as a result of one phone call, because the list of suspects included a former United States Senator…,” Shelly alleges. He makes that claim in a letter sent in March 2002 to several U.S. senators and a congressman.
Several other sources familiar with Firestorm’s operations also confirm that the former senator was in the task force’s investigative sights.
The former senator says he knew of the task force, but stresses he was not aware that he was being targeted for investigation. He adds that any such probe would have been politically motivated, not based on any credible evidence.
Shelly says Firestorm’s “target” was former U.S. Senator Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz.— who, at the time of the task force, was still serving in the Senate.
But that is the problem with viruses, after all. You never really know for sure the full extent of who’s been infected or not — or where it might spread next.
Mike Levine, a retired DEA agent and now host of a popular Pacifica Radio program, wrote a best selling book called “Deep Cover” about his experiences with the drug-war virus. In that book, Levine reveals how Edwin Meese, the U.S. Attorney General under President Reagan, blew the cover of a DEA sting operation that had identified corrupt elements of the Mexican military who had agreed to take bribes in order to assure protection for the transport of 15 tons of cocaine through Mexico.
Levine shared his insight into that experience in an e-mail he sent to Narco News:
Back in 1987 (Deep Cover), we "rented" the friggin' Mexican Army with all their US-supplied weapons, to help us smuggle tons of cocaine into the US. We got it on video, sent undercovers to Mexico to watch the Mexican Army clearing our landing fields, gave it all to the Attorney General of the U.S. [Meese] — then he blew our cover, all of this is in a NYTimes best-seller. And what happened?
Right —Nada. Basically you had the Mexican army acting like drug dealers, so now you have drug dealers acting like the Mexican Army.
So I'm trying to understand, What has really changed?
Watch out for that Swine flu, and stay tuned ….

[Tosh Plumlee]

April 24, 2009

Swine Flu in Mexico- Timeline of Events

Introduction
At Veratect, we operate two operations centers based in the United States (one in the Washington, DC area and one in Seattle, WA) that provide animal and human infectious disease event detection and tracking globally. Both operations centers are organizationally modeled after our National Weather Service using a distinct methodology inspired by the natural disaster and meteorology communities. Our analysts handle information in the native vernacular language and have been thoroughly trained in their discipline, which include cultural-specific interpretation of the information. We are currently partnered with 14 organizations that provide us with direct ground observations in 238 countries. We are a multi-source, near-real time event detection and tracking organization with years of experience in this discipline.
March 30
Veratect reported that a 47-year-old city attorney for Cornwall was hospitalized in a coma at Ottawa General Hospital following a recent trip to Mexico. Family members reported the individual voluntarily reported to the hospital after gradually feeling ill upon returning from his trip on 22 March. The source stated that the hospital did not know the cause of illness. The case was reportedly on a respirator and awaiting a blood transfusion, but sources did not provide symptoms or a suggested cause of illness. This information was available in our web portal to all clients, including CDC and multiple US state and local public health authorities, however no one had connected this man’s illness with a potential crisis in Mexico.
We have learned this case tested negative according to Canadian officials. The only value this event would have had would have been to tip someone to take a closer look at where this individual traveled in Mexico, possibly stumbling on reports of 'unusual respiratory disease- we have absolutely no indication anyone did this, or if they did they found anything to prompt closer scrutiny. We certainly didn't.
April 2
Local media source Imagen del Golfo reported that state health officials recorded a 15% increase in disease over an unspecified period in the highland areas of Veracruz, which includes La Gloria. The increase was primarily due to higher levels of upper respiratory disease and gastroenteritis. Specifically, officials noted an increase in pneumonia and bronchial pneumonia cases. Health officials attributed the increase to seasonal climate changes.
I would like to be clear here- we are aware local media sources apparently reported this on April 2nd, but we ourselves did not nor posted it on April 2nd.
April 6
Veratect reported local health officials declared a health alert due to a respiratory disease outbreak in La Gloria, Perote Municipality, Veracruz State, Mexico. Sources characterized the event as a "strange" outbreak of acute respiratory infection, which led to bronchial pneumonia in some pediatric cases. According to a local resident, symptoms included fever, severe cough, and large amounts of phlegm. Health officials recorded 400 cases that sought medical treatment in the last week in La Gloria, which has a population of 3,000; officials indicated that 60% of the town’s population (approximately 1,800 cases) has been affected. No precise timeframe was provided, but sources reported that a local official had been seeking health assistance for the town since February.
Residents claimed that three pediatric cases, all under two years of age, died from the outbreak. However, health officials stated that there was no direct link between the pediatric deaths and the outbreak; they stated the three fatal cases were "isolated" and "not related" to each other.
Residents believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which in turn led to the disease outbreak. According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to "flu." However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms. It was unclear whether health officials had identified a suspected pathogen responsible for this outbreak.
And to be crystal clear, the way we used this information was to simply flag an event as worthy of closer scrutiny and higher awareness, as there was absolutely no proof of true involvement of this company in the outbreak- a proper epidemiological investigation is required to prove such links.
Local health officials had implemented several control measures in response to the outbreak. A health cordon was established around La Gloria. Officials launched a spraying and cleaning operation that targeted the fly suspected to be the disease vector. State health officials also implemented a vaccination campaign against influenza, although sources noted physicians ruled out influenza as the cause of the outbreak. Finally, officials announced an epidemiological investigation that focused on any cases exhibiting symptoms since 10 March.
This information was available in our web portal to all clients, including CDC and multiple US state and local public health authorities.
We do know, after checking our web site logs, that the Pan American Health Organization, the WHO Regional Office of the Americas, accessed this specific report in our system on April 10th and again on April 11th.
April 16
Veratect reported the Oaxaca Health Department (SSO) indicated that an unspecified number of atypical pneumonia cases were detected at the Hospital Civil Aurelio Valdivieso in Reforma, Oaxaca State, Mexico. No information was provided about symptoms or treatment for the cases. NSS Oaxaca reported that rumors were circulating that human coronavirus was spreading at the hospital; sources did not provide any response to these statements from the hospital or health officials.
Laboratory samples were sent to Mexico City for analysis; results were expected to be released sometime next week. According to NSS Oaxaca, health officials had intensified preventive measures aimed at mitigating further spread of the disease. Sources reported that the SSO also implemented a sanitary cordon around the hospital.
This information was pushed to CDC in an email alert notification provided by Veratect on April 16 and April 17:
"16 Apr 2009 4:14 PM GMT Respiratory Disease Detailed Mexico (Reforma, Oaxaca) Reforma: Atypical Pneumonia Cases Reported at Hospital", sent at "April 16, 2009 10:08:06 AM PDT" and again at "April 17, 2009 10:08:06 AM PDT" to CDC and at "April 16, 2009 10:27:13 AM PDT" to the California State Department of Health.
April 20
Veratect was urgently asked to provide access to the VeraSight Global platform on 20 April by a client in the US public health community, and indicated they had received word from their counterparts in Canada that Mexican authorities had requested support. This client speculated whether notification of all southern U.S. border states’ public health authorities should be done and were confused as to why the CDC had not issued an advisory. Veratect contacted the CDC Emergency Operations Center to sensitize them about the situation in Mexico. CDC indicated they were already dealing with the crisis of recently detected H1N1 swine influenza in California and possibly Texas.
April 21
Veratect reported the Oaxaca Health Department (SSO) confirmed two adults died from atypical pneumonia at the Hospital Civil Aurelio Valdivieso in Oaxaca, Oaxaca State, Mexico. One of the cases was a 39-year-old female; the other case was an adult male of unspecified age. After the deaths, the hospital established a quarantine in the emergency room due to initial concerns that avian influenza was responsible for the cases. However, the SSO subsequently stated that neither avian influenza nor coronaviruses, including that which causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), were the source of infection. Additionally, the SSO denied the cases represented an epidemic. According to local sources, the SSO indicated that the atypical pneumonia cases were caused by an unspecified bacterial pathogen and were treatable with antibiotics. Sources indicated a total of 16 additional patients exhibited signs of respiratory infection; none of these patients exhibited complications.
Veratect sources indicated the 39-year-old female was treated at the hospital for five days before dying on 13 April. This case was reportedly immunocompromised; in addition to acute respiratory symptoms, she also had diabetes and diarrhea. The SSO contacted 300 people that had been in contact with the woman; sources stated that between 33-61 contacts exhibited symptoms of respiratory disease, but none showed severe complications. The SSO characterized the incident as an "isolated case;" they noted that over 5,000 cases of pneumonia occur annually in Oaxaca.
Another local source reported the SSO launched surveillance measures in the former residential areas of the two fatal cases and in other targeted geographic areas. No additional information was provided regarding the second fatal case at the hospital.
Veratect reported that the Oaxaca State Congress Permanent Committee on Health had undertaken an investigation into the cases. The committee inspected the Hospital Civil Aurelio Valdivieso on 20 April. The director of the medical school at the University Autónoma "Benito Juárez" de Oaxaca (UABJO), along with other medical academics, publicly requested that national health authorities investigate the cases of atypical pneumonia. No information was provided indicating that national health authorities plan to investigate the matter. The director of the medical school also requested the SSO furnish evidence showing that the cases were negative for avian influenza, SARS, and other severe pathogens; his request was echoed by readers commenting on an online user forum.
Veratect also reported the National Ministry of Health issued a health alert due to a significant increase in influenza cases during the spring season in Mexico. Officials indicated that there have been 14 influenza outbreaks throughout the country. The most heavily affected states are Baja California, Chihuahua, Distrito Federal (Mexico City), Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, and Veracruz. Local case counts were not provided.
Officials stated that 4,167 probable cases of influenza, 313 of which were confirmed, have been reported throughout the country in 2009. Case counts for suspected and confirmed influenza cases have tripled in 2009 as compared to the equivalent time period in 2008. The National Institute of Respiratory Diseases recorded two fatal cases of influenza in 2009, but specific dates and locations were not provided.
Health officials stated they were unsure precisely why the incidence of influenza had increased. However, they believed the increased presence of influenza B, in combination with influenza A, was a contributing factor. In response, officials advised anyone exhibiting influenza symptoms to avoid self-medication and seek medical care immediately. Officials had also enhanced epidemiological surveillance for influenza. Lastly, health officials had focused efforts on providing antiviral medications and influenza vaccinations to the most vulnerable segments of the population. According to the Mexican Ministry of Health, 44.3% of the national population was vaccinated against influenza in 2005-2006.
Veratect sensitized the International Federation of Red Cross who in turn requested broader access be provided to the Pan-American Disaster Response Unit (PADRU). Veratect moved to notify several US state and local public health authorities, providing the caveat the situation in Mexico remained unclear due to pending laboratory results. Veratect reached out to World Health Organization (WHO) operations, informing them the Veratect team was on an alert posture and available for situational awareness support. They indicated they and their subordinate, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) were now aware of the situation but had no further information. Veratect also extended contact to the British Columbia Center for Disease Control and offered assistance in tracking the events in Mexico. All contacts indicated laboratory results were pending.
April 22
Veratect reported the Oaxaca Health Department (SSO) indicated 16 employees at the Hospital Civil Aurelio Valdivieso in Oaxaca, Oaxaca State, Mexico had contracted respiratory disease. However, the SSO denied these cases were connected to the recently identified cases of atypical pneumonia at the hospital. No information was provided indicating how many employees work at the hospital or whether the number of respiratory disease cases was higher than average. The source reported that "fear" persisted among hospital physicians concerning the possible presence of a deadly bacteria or virus circulating in the hospital. One anonymous hospital employee criticized hospital management as "unfair" for not providing clear information regarding the first fatal atypical pneumonia case.
An additional source reported the cause of the atypical pneumonia cases remained unknown; it stated that bacteria or virus could have caused the cases. In contrast, according to an 18 April report, the SSO indicated that the atypical pneumonia cases were caused by an unspecified bacterial pathogen and were treatable with antibiotics. The reason for this discrepancy was unclear at this time.
The Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS), a national health entity, had now joined the SSO in responding to the cases; reports did not indicate the Mexican National Ministry of Health had joined in the response efforts. The IMSS extended the sanitary cordon surrounding the hospital. Patients exhibiting flu-like symptoms would be sent to the hospital’s epidemiology department for further study. IMSS instructed physicians to hospitalize respiratory disease patients immediately if they meet certain standards for severity of symptoms. Lastly, the hospital’s emergency room would remain closed for an additional 15 days so that cleaning and preventive disinfection could be carried out.
Veratect also reported the Mexican Ministry of Health indicated that an "unusual" outbreak of laboratory-confirmed influenza caused five deaths from 17-19 April 2009 in Mexico City, Mexico. The deaths occurred at the following three hospitals: el Hospital de la Secretaría de Salud (2), el Institute Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias (2), and el Hospital Ángeles del Pedregal (1). According to unofficial sources, the fatal case count was higher than that provided by officials. There were currently 120 influenza cases hospitalized throughout Mexico City. National health officials indicated that influenza vaccines were sold out in Mexico City and that they were attempting to acquire additional supplies of the vaccine.
At this point, the Mexican Health Secretary reportedly stated there was an influenza epidemic in Mexico City and throughout the rest of the county. In response to the cases, the official stated health authorities would launch a public awareness and vaccination campaigns. He stated that 400,000 vaccines would be administered, primarily to medical staff; it was unclear whether these efforts would be focused on Mexico City or any other geographic area. Health officials also ordered the provision of special masks, gloves, and gowns for medical personnel that were in contact with influenza cases.
A total of 13 fatal cases of influenza were reported in Mexico City in the past three weeks. However, several other media sources reported that the 13 deaths were recorded since 18 March 2009; the reason for this discrepancy was unclear. Sources reported a total of 20 fatal cases of influenza throughout Mexico over the disputed timeframe. The other cases were located in San Luis Potosí (4), Baja California (2), and Oaxaca (1). The Director of Epidemiology at the National Center for Epidemiological Surveillance and Disease Control characterized the outbreak as "quite unusual."
No information was provided indicating that the strain of influenza itself was unusual. Rather, several sources indicated that it was "unusual" to record this many fatal influenza cases during this time of year. Influenza cases normally peak from October to February, while these cases had occurred during Mexico’s spring season.
Canada announced a national alert for travelers returning from Mexico with respiratory disease, beginning a campaign of public media announcements. Potentially ill contacts were identified returning from Mexico and isolated in Canada. Internet blogs begin to spin up. CDC indicates concern about the events unfolding in Mexico. Veratect sensitizes the US community physician social network managed by Ozmosis.
April 23
Veratect reported the Secretary General of the Oaxaca Ministry of Health Workers Union confirmed that a doctor and a nurse from the Hospital Civil Aurelio Valdivieso in Oaxaca, Oaxaca State, Mexico were under observation for suspected "atypical" pneumonia. This contradicted statements made by the Oaxaca Health Department (SSO) on 22 April that 16 hospital employees contracted respiratory disease, but none of the cases exhibited atypical pneumonia.
The union official stated that a review by the Oaxaca State Board of Medical Arbitration indicated that the hospital faced serious difficulties caused by overcrowding; he stated that overcrowded conditions created a "breeding ground" for the spread of various epidemics. According to the official, the hospital has 120 beds but the number of patients hospitalized had at times surpassed 240.
Other sources reported that the Department of Livestock, Fisheries, Rural Development, and Feed (SAGARPA) declared on 20 April that Oaxaca, Mexico was free of avian influenza. SAGARPA stated that authorities should remain vigilant in monitoring for the disease among birds.
Canadian local health officials stated that a Rouge Valley resident with influenza-like illness was being monitored at Scarborough Centenary Hospital in Scarborough, Ontario. The precaution was being taken in accordance with an alert issued by the Ministry of Health asking hospitals to watch for severe respiratory illnesses in travelers returning from Mexico. Despite the warning, the Ministry had indicated that evidence is not suggestive of a novel pathogen or influenza strain, according to the source. A representative for the Rouge Valley Health System stated that this case is being monitored related to the alert. The source did not specifically indicate symptoms or that the person had traveled to Mexico. No additional information regarding the case, including age or health status, was reported.
The source stated that hospital employees were asking any patients admitted to the hospital if they had recently traveled to Mexico, which according to the source was a popular tourist destination for Durham-region residents.
Additional Canadian sources indicated Southlake Regional Health Centre officials treated a patient with influenza-like illness (ILI) who recently returned from Mexico. The Ministry of Health recently notified Southlake, in addition to health units across the country, that an outbreak of severe respiratory disease was affecting areas of Mexico; ill travelers returning from that region with ILI symptoms were encouraged to be monitored. Sources did not provide any specific information about the case, including age or current treatment status. Information regarding the individual’s travel to Mexico was also not provided, including destinations and duration of time in country.
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) noted that an Ontario resident who returned from Mexico on 22 March experienced severe respiratory illness, but has fully recovered and was not considered connected to the current situation. Veratect recently reported on 30 March that a public official from Cornwall, Ontario was hospitalized with an unknown illness following a trip to Mexico; however, it is unclear if the cases are related, or if this was the case referenced by PHAC officials.
Veratect assesses the situation and notes the following:
Affected areas:
Oaxaca, Distrito Federal, San Luis Potosí, Baja California
Distance to nearest international airport:
• Oaxaca airport, located approximately 150 miles from Reforma, is connected via non-stop air traffic to Houston
• Mexico City (Distrito Federal) airport is connected via non-stop air traffic to many cities in the US, Canada, Europe and Latin America, with the most outbound traffic to Los Angeles, Frankfurt, Houston, Dallas, and Amsterdam
• San Luis Potosí airport is connected via non-stop air traffic to Dallas and Houston
• Mexicali airport in Baja California is connected via non-stop traffic to Los Angeles
• Veracruz airport is connected via non-stop air traffic to Houston

Large mass gatherings:
Semana Santa (April ~April 3 – 12, Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday), which is Mexico’s second largest holiday. Mexico’s population is approximately 90% Catholic, which results in substantial population migration patterns during this time period. For instance, in Ixtapalapa (in Mexico City), one million people visit for Semana Santa. Other well-known sites for the holiday include Pátzcuaro, San Cristobal de las Casas (Chiapas), and Taxco. Veratect notes substantial population migration has just occurred that could facilitate the spread of respiratory disease.

Civil Unrest:
The recent surge in organized crime and drug-related violence in Mexico, including homicides, kidnappings, extortion, and theft, has disproportionately impacted Mexican states along the Pacific Coast and U.S.-Mexico border. This factor may confound situational awareness of respiratory disease in Mexico and contribute to problems in epidemiological investigation and response measures. Baja California is one of five states within this region that currently accounts for more than 75 percent of Mexico's drug-related homicides, and has recorded high levels of drug seizures and police corruption cases. Veracruz, a state with high drug cartel activity in the Gulf of Mexico, has recorded little violence, while the state of Oaxaca to the southwest, recently recorded the assassination of a political party leader. Mexico City, in the center of the country, recently arrested a major drug cartel leader, and recorded few homicides this month. The levels of unrest in Hidalgo, San Luis Potosi, and Tlaxcala, however, are very low, and have not reported a single homicide related to organized crime in the past month.

[Tosh Plumlee]

Time line of report Juarez 0700 May 4 2009 release.

While our Mainstream media is hyping the Flu Epidimic 19 persons killed execution style this weekend in Juarez. ...so much for the American Media covering this event

Three of the people executed were informates to the joint Task Force.

UPDATE" Just received word 11 more were executed over the weekend in southern Mexico. That makes 30 so far this weekend:

No word from CNN, CBS, NBC, FOX MSNBC or ABC. as of noon eastern time. However, breaking news on other matters concerning the flu matter is covered every ten minutes. What gives?



19 persons killed execution style this weekend in Juarez. ...so much for the MEX Army's presence


Este fin de semana cerró como uno de los más violentos del año al registrarse 19 ejecuciones.

En respuesta, las autoridades que conforman la Operación Conjunta Chihuahua (OCCH) implementaron retenes en diferentes vialidades y patrullaron diversas colonias de la ciudad, sin que reportaran la detención de los homicidas.

Hasta el cierre de esta edición se habían cometido 549 homicidios dolosos desde el primero de enero; 26 de las víctimas corresponden al sexo femenino, 29 son elementos de los diferentes cuerpos policiacos y reclusorios, además de los 20 internos del Cereso estatal asesinados.

Otro número importante de restos humanos fue localizado en fosas clandestinas. De acuerdo con el seguimiento periodístico que se lleva de este delito, mayo registra 19 víctimas.

A través de los protocolos de comunicación, la Subprocuraduría de Justicia en la Zona Norte informó que el viernes se registraron 12 crímenes, cinco más el sábado y otros dos durante el transcurso de la madrugada del domingo.

Los asesinatos fueron cometidos con armas calibre 9mm y .380, además en cuatro hechos se utilizaron piedras como instrumento para privar de la vida a igual número de personas.

La jornada violenta del viernes, con un total de 12 víctimas, sólo es superada por los 16 homicidios dolosos registrados el 3 de febrero.

La autoridad estatal informó que el primer caso fue un triple homicidio reportado a las 11:10 horas en el cruce de Salmón y águila. Las víctimas hasta el momento permanecen en calidad de desconocidas.

El segundo caso se reportó a las 13:45 horas en el cruce de Ramón Aranda y viaducto Díaz Ordaz, en la colonia Aldama. Mientras que el tercer evento ocurrió en perjuicio de Floriberto Cruz Miguel, de 19 años, quien murió tras ser agredido en las calles Tampico y Tehuacán, de la colonia Valle Dorado.

El cuarto homicidio fue reportado en las calles Trigo y Papaya, de la colonia El Granjero, a las 17:10 horas; la víctima no está identificada.

El quinto crimen se registró en la carretera a Casas Grandes, a espaldas del fraccionamiento Rincón del Solar. Se desconoce el nombre de la víctima.

Otro triple homicidio fue reportado a las 19:20 horas en el exterior de una vivienda ubicada en las calles Oaxaca y Venado, de la colonia Eco 2000.

Las víctimas fueron identificadas como édgar Miranda Jiménez, de 21 años; Samuel Aguirre Rentaría, de 21 y Ernesto Peña Hernández, de 18 años.

A las 20:00 horas se reportó el deceso del comandante de la Policía Municipal de Praxedis G. Guerrero, Jesús Manuel Holguín Cháirez, de 33 años.

Media hora después se reportó otro crimen en las calles Mauricio Corredor y Cobre, de la colonia Aldama. La víctima, no está identificada.

El sábado se reportaron cinco decesos. La autoridad estatal informó que la primera víctima respondía al nombre de José Coronado Méndez, de 38 años. Los hechos ocurrieron en la colonia Villa Esperanza, a las 3:30 horas.

Dos horas después, la Policía Ministerial recibió el reporte sobre la localización de un vehículo calcinado, en cuyo interior se encontraba una persona del sexo masculino. La víctima no ha sido identificada.El hallazgo ocurrió en las calles Piña y Candelilla, del fraccionamiento ángel Trías.

A las 18:33 horas fue reportado el crimen en contra de Arturo Hernández Sánchez, de 36 años, en la colonia Paso del Norte. La víctima estaba dentro de un vehículo Ford Focus color gris.

Posteriormente fue reportado el asesinado de Carlos López Martínez, de 45 años, en el cruce de Poesía Indígena y Paseo de la Gloria.

En la escena del crimen fueron asegurados 11 elementos balísticos de calibres .380 y 9mm.

Finalmente, la autoridad estatal reportó el asesinato de Erick Puchetas Pío, de 15 años, quien fue agredido cuando se encontraba en el cruce de las calles Elisa Griensen y General Severiano Ceniceros, de la colonia Industrial II.

Y durante las primeras horas del domingo fue asesinado Roberto Carlos Galindo Chaparro, de 18 años, en hechos ocurridos en el cruce de Buenos Aires y Puerto México, de la colonia Industrial.

Los investigadores acudieron al lugar y localizaron el cuerpo de la víctima, quien presentó heridas en el cuerpo producidas por proyectiles de arma de fuego. En la escena del crimen los peritos aseguraron seis elementos balísticos de calibre 9mm.

Una hora después, en el cruce de las calles Caracol y Doctor Coss, de la colonia Nueva Galeana, fue reportado el asesinato de Efrén Silos Díaz, de 28 años.

El total de casos son investigados por elementos de la Unidad Especializa en Investigación de Delitos contra la Vida, que no ha dado a conocer hasta el momento el número exacto de carpetas de investigación judicializadas con el presunto responsable detenido.
*body {background:#FFF;}

note Update:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090504/ap_o...war_mexico



Police find 11 bodies dumped in southern Mexico

• Play Video AP – Shootout leaves 16 dead in Mexico
  

Mon May 4, 1:22 am ET
ACAPULCO, Mexico – Police say they found 11 bodies dumped around a southern Mexican state, including seven wrapped in plastic bags and thrown off a bridge.
Guerrero state police say the bodies of five men and two women were found in a river between the Pacific resort town of Acapulco and the city of Cuernavaca. They were wrapped in bags and dumped off a bridge.
The other four bodies were found in a 600-yard ravine in the Guerrero state town of Pilcaya.
The bodies were all found Sunday. Police said they were too damaged to immediately determine how they were killed. Investigators did not have any suspects or possible motive for the killings.
Mexico's warring drug cartels, however, often leave the bodies of rivals dumped in public.


NOTE: I would like to put a sidebar on this.... I know this is a small Forum and not many read it (except a select few in Langley and DC) However, the apathy of the American people and the attitude of the mainstream media is or has destroyed the very fiber of this nation.

The Drug Cartels have moved across our borders and have set up shop openly in places like Columbus NM and other border towns through out the United States while we set on our thumbs.

Some,but not all, of our politicians are deeply entrenched in these illegal operations through their special interest and their hidden political contributions from sources they had rather not name or expose... in short some are on the take just like some in law enforcement. There are a few good ones left, but their ranks are thinning.

What can you do? Send all the information you can gather and ACT... get the word out to our elected officials and to the media, while there are still some left who wants to protect our way of life and report what they find. Its almost to late... we will be reading soon about drug war killings here in the United States in our major cities. In fact its already happening, but not being reported in some cases.

If you elect to do nothing or pass it along to the other guy to do, then these postings become nothing more than "entertainment" and the tickling of the ears for a very few. And too, you have no right to piss and moan when you loose a friend or love one to the national drug war.

[Tosh Plumlee]

There has been more people executed in Juarez and southern Mexico this week end (May 2-3, 09..., 30 and counting), more than all throughtout the world during this so called 'Pandemic". Over ten thousand people along the border towns from California to southern Texas (over 6000 in Juarez alone) executed this year, (and some reports put the estimates for two years at twenty thousand kidnapped, tortured and murdered) To me that is a real Epidemic.

What gives and for what reasons is the media spreading worldwide panic? Who gives them the PR's to put on the wires for us to hear and read?



----- Forwarded Message ----
[B]From:[/B] XXXX

New report released today:

THE GEOPOLITICS OF PANDEMICS


Word began to flow out of Mexico the weekend before last of well over 150 deaths suspected to have been caused by a new strain of influenza commonly referred to as swine flu. Scientists who examined the flu announced that this was a new strain of Influenza A (H1N1) derived partly from swine flu, partly from human flu and partly from avian flu strains (although there is some question as to whether this remains true). The two bits of information released in succession created a global panic.

This panic had three elements. The first related to the global nature of this disease, given that flus spread easily and modern transportation flows mean containment is impossible. Second, there were concerns (including our own) that this flu would have a high mortality rate. And third, the panic centered on the mere fact that this disease was the flu.

News of this new strain triggered memories of the 1918-1919 flu pandemic, sparking fears that the "Spanish flu" that struck at the end of World War I would be repeated. In addition, the scare over avian flu created a sense of foreboding about influenza -- a sense that a catastrophic outbreak was imminent.

By midweek, the disease was being reported around the world. It became clear that the disease was spreading, and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a Phase 5 pandemic alert. A Phase 5 alert (the last step before a pandemic is actually, officially declared, a step that may be taken within the next couple of days) means that a global pandemic is imminent, and that the virus has proved capable of sustained human-to-human transmission and infecting geographically disparate populations. But this is not a measure of lethality, only communicability, and pandemics are not limited to the deadliest diseases.

'Pandemic,' not 'Duck and Cover'

To the medical mind, the word "pandemic" denotes a disease occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population. The term in no way addresses the underlying seriousness of the disease in the sense of its wider impact on society. The problem is that most people are not physicians. When the WHO convenes a press conference carried by every network in the world, the declaration of a level 5 pandemic connotes global calamity, even as statements from experts -- and governments around the world -- attempt to walk the line between calming public fears and preparing for the worst.

The reason to prepare for the worst was because this was a pandemic with an extremely unclear prognosis, and about which reliable information was in short supply. Indeed, the new strain could mutate into a more lethal form and re-emerge in the fall for the 2009-2010 flu season. There are also concerns about how its victims disproportionately are healthy young adults under 45 years of age -- which was reported in the initial information out of Mexico, and has been reported as an observed factor in the cases that have popped up in the United States. This was part of the 1918 flu pandemic pattern as well. (In contrast, seasonal influenza is most deadly among the elderly and young children with weaker immune systems.)

But as the days wore on last week, the swine flu began to look like little more than ordinary flu. Toward the end of the week, a startling fact began to emerge: While there were more than a hundred deaths in Mexico suspected of being caused by the new strain, only about 20 (a number that has increased slightly after being revised downward earlier last week) have been confirmed as being linked to the new virus. And there has not been a single death from the disease reported anywhere else in the world, save that of a Mexican child transported to the United States for better care. Indeed, even in Mexico, the country's health minister declared the disease to be past its peak May 3. STRATFOR sources involved in examining the strain have also suggested that the initial analysis of the swine flu was in fact in error, and that the swine flu may have originated during a 1998 outbreak in a pig farm in North Carolina. This information reopens the question of what killed the individuals whose deaths were attributed to swine flu.

While little is understood about the specifics of this new strain, influenza in general has a definitive pattern. It is a virus that affects the respiratory system, and particularly the lungs. At its deadliest it can cause secondary infections -- typically bacterial rather than viral -- leading to pneumonia. In the most virulent forms of influenza, it is the speed with which complications strike that drives death rates higher. Additionally, substantively new strains (as swine flu is suspected of being) can be distinct enough from other strains of flu that pre-existing immunity gained from flus of years past does not help fend off the latest variation.

Influenza is not a disease that lingers and then kills people -- save the sick, old and very young, whose immune systems are more easily compromised. Roughly half a million people (largely from these groups) die annually worldwide from more common strains of influenza, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) pegging average American deaths at roughly 36,000 per year.

Swine flu deaths have not risen as would be expected at this point for a highly contagious and lethal new strain of influenza. In most cases, victims have experienced little more than a bad cold, from which they are recovering. And infections outside Mexico so far have not been severe. This distinction of clear cases of death in Mexico and none elsewhere (again, save the one U.S. case) is stark.

Much of what has occurred in the last week regarding the new virus reminds us of the bird flu scare of 2005. Then as now, the commonly held belief was that a deadly strain was about to be let loose on humanity. Then as now, many governments were heightening concerns rather than quelling them. Then as now, STRATFOR saw only a very small chance of the situation becoming problematic.

Ultimately, by the end of last week it had become clear to the global public that "pandemic" could refer to bad colds as well as to plagues wiping out millions.

A Real Crisis

The recent swine flu experience raises the question of how one would attempt to grapple with a genuine high-mortality pandemic with major consequences. The answer divides into two parts: how to control the spread, and how to deploy treatments.

Communicability

The flu virus is widely present in two species other than humans, namely, birds and pigs. The history of the disease is the history of its transmission within and across these three species. It is comparatively easy for the disease to transmit from swine to birds and from swine to humans; the bird-to-human barrier is the most difficult to cross.

Cross-species influenza is of particular concern. In the simplest terms, viruses are able to recombine (e.g., human flu and avian flu can merge into a hybrid flu strain). What comes out can be a flu transmissible to humans, but with a physical form that is distinctly avian -- meaning it fails to alert human immune systems to the intrusion. This can rob the human immune system of the ability to quickly recognize the disease and put up a fight.

New humanly transmissible influenza strains often have been found to originate in places where humans, pigs and/or fowl live in close proximity to each other -- particularly in agricultural areas where animal and human habitation is shared or in which constant, close physical contact takes place.

Agricultural areas of Asia with dense populations, relatively small farms and therefore frequent and prolonged contact between species traditionally have been the areas in which influenza strains have transferred from animals to humans and then mutated into diseases transmissible by casual human contact. Indeed, these areas have been the focus of concern over a potential outbreak of bird flu. This time around, the outbreak began in Mexico (though it is not yet clear where the virus itself originated).

And this is key to understanding this flu. Because it appears relatively mild, it might well have been around for quite awhile -- giving people mild influenza, but not standing out as a new variety until it hit Mexico. The simultaneous discovery of the strain amid a series of deaths (and what may now be in hindsight inflated concerns about its lethality) led to the recent crisis footing.

Any time such threats are recognized, they already are beyond containment. Given travel patterns in the world today, viruses move easily to new locations well before they are identified in the first place they strike. The current virus is a case in point. It appears, although it is far from certain, that it originated in the Veracruz area of Mexico. Within two days of the Mexican government having issued a health alert, it already had spread as far afield as New Zealand. One week on, cases completely unrelated to Mexico have already been confirmed on five continents.

In all probability, this "spread" was less the discovery of new areas of infection than the random discovery of areas that might have been infected for weeks or even months (though the obvious first people to test were those who had recently returned from Mexico with flu symptoms). Given the apparent mildness of the infection, most people would not go to the doctor. And if they did, the doctor would call it generic flu and not even concern himself with its type. What happened last week appears to have been less the spread of a new influenza virus than the "discovery" of places to which it had spread awhile ago.

The problem with the new variety was not that it was so deadly; had it actually been as uniquely deadly as it first appeared to be, there would have been no mistaking its arrival, because hospitals would be overflowing. It was precisely its mildness that sparked the search. But because of expectations established in the wake of the Mexico deaths, the discovery of new cases was disassociated from its impact. Its presence alone caused panic, with schools closing and border closings discussed.

The virus traveled faster than news of the virus. When the news of the virus finally caught up with the virus, the global perception was shaped by a series of deaths suddenly recognized in Mexico (as mentioned, deaths so far not seen elsewhere). But even as the Mexican Health Ministry begins to consider the virus beyond its peak, the potential for mutation and a more virulent strain in the next flu season looms.

Mortality

As mentioned, viruses that spread through casual human contact can be globally established before anyone knows of it. The first sign of a really significant influenza pandemic will not come from the medical community or the WHO; it will come from the fact that people are catching influenza and dying, and are doing so all over the world at the same time. The system established for detecting spreading diseases is hardwired to be behind the curve. This is not because it is inefficient, but because no matter how efficient, it cannot block casual contact -- which, given modern air transportation, spreads diseases globally in a matter of days or even hours.

Therefore, the problem is not the detection of deadly pandemics, simply because they cannot be missed. Rather, the problem is reacting medically to deadly pandemics. One danger is overreacting to every pandemic and thereby breaking the system. (As of this writing, the CDC remained deeply concerned about swine flu, though calm seems to be returning.)

The other danger is not reacting rapidly enough. In the case of influenza, medical steps can be taken. First, there are anti-viral medicines found to be effective against the new strain, and if sufficient stockpiles exist -- which is hardly universally the case, especially in the developing world -- and those stockpiles can be administered early enough, the course of the disease can be mitigated. Second, since most people die from secondary infection in the lungs, antibiotics can be administered. Unlike with the 1918 pandemic, the mortality rate can be dramatically reduced.

The problem here is logistical: The distribution and effective administration of medications is a challenge. Producing enough of the medication is one problem; it takes months to craft, grow and produce a new vaccine, and the flu vaccine is tailored every year to deal with the three most dangerous strains of flu. Another problem is moving the medication to areas where it is needed in an environment that maintains its effectiveness. Equally important is the existence of infrastructure and medical staff capable of diagnosing, administering and supporting patients -- and doing so on a scale never before attempted.

These things will not be done effectively on a global basis. That is inevitable. But influenza, even at the highest death rates ever recorded for the disease, does not threaten human existence as we know it. At its worst, flu will kill a lot of people, but the human race and the international order will survive.

The true threat to humanity, if it ever comes, will not come from influenza. Rather, it will come from a disease spread through casual human contact, but with a higher mortality rate than flu and no clear treatment. While HIV/AIDS boasts an extraordinarily high mortality rate and no cure exists, it at least does not spread through casual contact as influenza does, and so the pace at which it can spread is limited.

Humanity will survive the worst that influenza can throw at it even without intervention. With modern intervention, its effect declines dramatically. But the key problem of pandemics was revealed in this case: The virus spread well before information on it spread. Detection and communication lagged. That did not matter in this case, and it did not matter in the case of HIV/AIDS, because the latter was a disease that did not spread through casual contact. However, should a disease arise that is as deadly as HIV, that spreads through casual contact, about which there is little knowledge and for which there is no cure, the medical capabilities of humanity would be virtually useless.

There are problems to which there are no solutions. Fortunately, these problems may not arise. But if they do, no amount of helpful public service announcements from the CDC and the WHO will make the slightest bit of difference...".

note: In Short? A diversion... to fouces our attention in other directions and not question what is really goin on in Mexico.... and other places... its a Game... and we loose.

[Tosh Plumlee]

Posted: Deep Politics Forum (Current Events) in reference to article which was also posted.


"... There has been more people executed in Juarez and southern Mexico this week end (May 2-3, 09..., 30 and counting), more than all throughout the world during this so called 'Pandemic". Over ten thousand people along the Mexico's border towns from California to southern Texas (over 6000 in Juarez alone) executed this year, (and some reports put the estimates for two years at twenty thousand kidnapped, tortured, and murdered) To me that is a real Epidemic.

What gives and for what reasons is the media spreading worldwide panic? Who gives them the PR's to put on the wires for us to hear and read?...".

Tosh Plumlee (04-04-09)

[Tosh Plumlee]

I was just asked a question by CNN. Following is my reply:

".. When the next flu season comes, do you recommend that we get flu shots; or wait and get shot by the Drug Cartels?/...".

Tosh Plumlee TF-7 with the Mexican Army, Juarez Mexico

[Charles Drago]

Tosh,

Have you been vaccinated against the flu strain?

If so, have you received treatment with drugs otherwise unavailable to civilian populations?

CD

[Tosh Plumlee]

NO. I have refused to be "tagged". I had to sign a release and a whole bunch of forums, of which I read in detail, before I signed them. I will point out that one "sensitive source" from the Mexican Army told me back in the middle of March that school children south of Mexico City were being requiered to be vaccinated. An American health team did the vaccinations. His quote to me was; "...you read between the lines...". I will leave it at that.

I am going to post a few articles that received very little attention as the flu matter took over the medias attention and the border drug war issues were diverted. If you will look closely I think you will see what I mean.

The joint task force was about to release information that the "High Grade" military weapons found in a few undercover operations bust- inside Mexico had came up through Central America and some of those weapons found were from the United States Army, left overs from the Panama war and the Iran-Contra affair. Others were sent to the Mexican Army legally via the Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) agreements to ship arms to foreign countries. These weapons did not come from Pawn Shops or Gun Shows in spite of what ATF and Homeland Security has told the American people.

Following are a few recent article which have been overlooked these past few weeks by CNN, CBS, FOX, MSNBC, ABC, NBC: There were no in depth reporting only a few 'one liners" and sound bites. The only news on some of these articles was from the BBC.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Mexican Army To End Patrols in Juarez Soon

By Mark Stevenson
Associated Press

[size=12]MEXICO CITY — The troubled border city of Ciudad Juarez and the federal government signed an agreement Wednesday to train, recruit and equip enough city police officers to take over from 5,000 army troops now performing security patrols there. [/SIZE]

[size=12]Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said the army presence starting in March has cut the number of homicides there by 95 percent, from an average of 10 per day in February to about four per week at present.

Under the agreement, new police officers will be recruited to bring the force to about 2,500 by September and 3,000 by the end of the year.

"We will have a sufficiently strong police force so that when the Mexican army withdraws from patrolling, the police can ensure the security of Ciudad Juarez," Reyes Ferriz said.

The city currently has 1,200 officers and has lost personnel far faster than it can replace them on what was once a 1,700-person force. More than 900 agents were fired, resigned or retired last year, many after failing psychological, background and other checks as part of a campaign to clean up the department.

The agreement also provides for a new police radio system, cameras and other equipment costing about 350 million pesos ($27 million).

"The radios we have now in Ciudad Juarez are analog models that are easily listened to. The criminals find out what is being said on the radios," Reyes Ferriz said. He said criminals often use the police frequency themselves to threaten officers and officials. Reyes Ferriz added that the "constant" threats he received before the army's arrival have ended. He said he believes many were related to his effort to root out police corruption.

[/SIZE]Brutal drug cartel wars in Mexico have cost more than 10,650 lives since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown against drug traffickers. More than 1,600 people were killed in Ciudad Juarez last year.


Mexican drug cartels have infiltrated colleges and high schools across America

bignews.biz ^| April 24, 2009 | Michael Webster

Posted on Friday, April 24, 2009 10:58:11 PM by Tailgunner Joe
In last years drug bust at the San Diego State University Federal agents and SDSU police culminated a yearlong investigation into drug dealing around campus and found it to be more sophisticated, more pervasive and more dangerous and far reaching than they expected or have seen before.

These arrests coincided with the first anniversary of a female student freshman's cocaine-related death. According to local newspaper reports ninety-six suspects, including 75 SDSU students, have been arrested on drug-related charges as a result of the undercover operation, launched after Jenny Poliakoff, 19, was found dead in her off-campus apartment after a night of celebration.

One of the main suspects in this international drug investigation is illegal alien Omar Castaneda, a gang member from Pomona with ties to the Mexican Tijuana drug cartels, officials said Castaneda, 36, after his arrest he was arraigned in San Diego Superior Court on charges of possession of cocaine for sale. He is suspected of being a major link between drugs flowing into California from Tijuana and sales at SDSU and other California campuses.

The violent Tijuana drug cartel also known as the Arellano-Felix organization (AFO) has a firm and deadly hold on all drug trafficking activities in Baja and San Diego California. Their reach controls drug smuggling in Sinaloa, Jalisco, Michoacan, Chiapas and Baja, and has strong links to San Diego, California. The AFO dispenses an estimated $1 million weekly in bribes to Mexican officials, police and Mexican army officers and maintains its own-well armed, trained, paramilitary security force.

The DEA considers the AFO the most violent and aggressive of the Mexican border cartels. Here is the DEA's background profile on the AFO and its leaders. Click on or google: Dangerous Mexican Cartel Gangs The SDSU Police Department approached the DEA and county narcotics task-force officials for assistance in December of 07, when it became clear that the drug trafficking on campus was widespread and involved Mexican organized crime drug cartels and their gang members and they feared that it far out striped their ability to handle a potentially very complicated international drug trafficking investigation.

“We were coming in contact with more types of narcotics,” SDSU Police Chief John Browning said. “If you're serious about this, you have to go to someone who has the resources to take it to the next level.” As the investigation was unfolding, the campus dealt with another drug-related death. An autopsy showed that Mesa College student Kurt Baker died Feb. 24 at an SDSU fraternity from oxycodone and alcohol poisoning.

“We know there's drug use in college . . . but when you have an organization that's actually based out of a college area, that's a whole different thing,” said Garrison Courtney of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. “You just don't see that.”

Research indicates that lucrative university and high school campuses are fertile markets for drug dealers. Mexican drug cartels have known this for years and are believed to have infiltrated many of America’s school campuses through cartel gang members.

Federal authorities point to the Mexican drug cartels who are ultimately responsible for border violence by having cemented ties to street and prison gangs like Barrio Azteca on the U.S. side. Azteca and other U.S. gangs retail drugs that they get from Mexican cartels and Mexican gangs. Mexican gangs run their own distribution networks in the United States, and they produce most of the methamphetamine used north of the border.

They have even bypassed the Colombians several times to buy cocaine directly from producers in Bolivia, Peru and even Afghanistan. These same gangs often work as cartel surrogates or enforcers on the U.S. side of the border. Intelligence suggests Los Zetas . Click on or google:

They're known as "Los Zetas have hired members of various gangs at different times including, El Paso gang Barrio Azteca, Mexican Mafia, Texas Syndicate, MS-13, and Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos to further their criminal endeavors. Authorities on both sides of the border believe many of these gang members and other surrogates of the powerful Mexican drug cartels have infiltrated and operate openly on many American school campuses particularly in states bordering Mexico including Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

One suspect, Phi Kappa Psi member Michael Montoya, worked as a community-service officer on campus and would have earned a master's degree in homeland security next month. Another student arrested on suspicion of possessing 500 grams of cocaine and two guns was a criminal-justice major. Authorities identified 22 SDSU students as drug dealers who sold to undercover agents. At least 17 others allegedly supplied the drugs. The rest of the suspects apparently bought or possessed illegal drugs.

Authorities said students from seven fraternities were involved in the drug ring, which operated openly across campus. Evidence showed that “most of the members were aware of organized drug dealing occurring from the fraternity houses,” officials said. Drug agents confirmed that “a hierarchy existed for the purposes of selling drugs for money.”

Authorities singled out the Theta Chi fraternity as a hub of cocaine dealing. One alleged dealer, Theta Chi member Kenneth Ciaccio, sent text messages to his “faithful customers” announcing that cocaine sales would be suspended over an upcoming weekend because he and his “associates” planned to be in Las Vegas, authorities said. The same message posted “sale” prices on cocaine if transactions were completed before the dealers left San Diego. Until yesterday, Ciaccio was featured on SDSU's Web site promoting the Compact for Success program, which guarantees certain Sweetwater Union High School District students admission to the university if they maintain a B average.

SDSU President Stephen Weber said that even when campus police decided to ask for help from other authorities, “it wasn't clear that we were going to end up at the point where we were today.” Ramon Mosler, chief of the narcotics division of the District Attorney's Office in San Diego California, said the investigation could have happened on any college campus in America. Mosler said his unit joined in because the university took the unusual step of asking for help.

“Oftentimes administrations don't want us to do this stuff, and that's unfortunate,” Mosler said. “I think it's important to do this every now and then to wake people up. It raises everyone's awareness to the dangers of drugs.” According to the search-warrant affidavit, Thomas Watanapun sold $400 worth of cocaine to undercover agents from a Lexus sedan registered to his father in Los Angeles. Authorities said some of the suspects made little effort to conceal their activities.

Dealers “weren't picky about who they sold to,” Mosler said. Also arraigned was Patrick Hawley, 20, who was arrested on suspicion of armed robbery and selling cocaine near the campus, officials said. According to a 2007 study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, nearly half of the nation's 5.4 million full-time college students abuse drugs or alcohol at least once a month.

Law enforcement officials in San Diego say street gangs here continue to have strong ties to organized crime groups in Tijuana. A gunman killed recently in an attack in Tijuana is believed to belong to both a gang in Barrio Logan and the Arellano Felix Drug Cartel. KPBS Reporter Amy Isackson reported.

For years, Mexican drug trafficking groups have recruited U.S. gang members to do everything from smuggle drugs to murder. Tijuana's Arellano Felix Drug Cartel and a gang from San Diego's Barrio Logan neighborhood go back at least 15 years. Many students enrolled in American schools are believed members of gangs many are now coming from the U.S. Military as they rotate out of the services. Many are veterans who where encouraged to join the U.S Military for combat training by Mexican cartels and gang leaders.

The cartels are confronting police and the army on a regular bases in Mexico and hope that these same tactics will soon pay off and enable them to confront the U.S Police in a much more professional, effective and dangerous ways. Richard Valdemar, a 30-year-veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, travels the country lecturing and teaching police about military-trained gang members. Valdemar and other gang experts say gangs are encouraging members to join the military for training to learn urban warfare and learn the latest weaponry.

The military's current emphasis on urban warfare plays into the street-fighting mentality of gangs, experts say. "When individuals go into the military, they are taught how to use weapons, defensive tactics, and the use of a lot of sophisticated techniques," said LaRae Quy, of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. "They take that back on the streets with them. This is a legitimate concern for law enforcement." Valdemar cites former Camp Pendleton Marine Sgt. Jesse Quintanilla as just one high-profile example.

A military court sentenced Quintanilla to death in 1996 for killing his executive officer and wounding his commanding officer. When interrogators asked Quintanilla why he committed the crimes, Quintanilla said it was for "his brown brothers," according to Valdemar. Quintanilla showed them a tattoo on his chest with the word "Sureno," a reference to a California gang, according to court documents. Army recruiting headquarters in Washington, D.C., dismiss the claims as urban myth. An Army spokesman said army background checks are extensive and weed out gang members.

The ARELLANO-Felix Organization (AFO), often referred to as the Tijuana Cartel, is one of the most powerful and aggressive drug trafficking organizations operating from Mexico; it is undeniably the most violent. More than any other major trafficking organization from Mexico, this organization extends its tentacles directly from high-echelon figures in the law enforcement and judicial systems in Mexico to street-level individuals in United States cities.

The AFO is responsible for the transportation, importation and distribution of multi-ton quantities of cocaine, marijuana, as well as large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine, into the United States from Mexico. The AFO operates primarily in the Mexican states of Sinaloa (their birth place), Jalisco, Michoacan, Chiapas, and Baja California South and North. From Baja, the drugs enter California, the primary point of embarkation into the United States distribution network.

The ARELLANO family, composed of seven brothers and four sisters, inherited the organization from Miguel Angel FELIX-Gallardo upon his incarceration in Mexico in 1989 for his complicity in the murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena. Alberto Benjamin ARELLANO-Felix assumed leadership of the family structured criminal enterprise and provides a businessman's approach to the management of drug trafficking operations.

The AFO also maintains complex communications centers in several major cities in Mexico and the U.S. to conduct electronic espionage and counter surveillance measures against law enforcement entities. The organization employs radio scanners and equipment capable of intercepting both hard line, radio and cellular phones to ensure the security of AFO operations. In addition to technical equipment, the AFO maintains caches of sophisticated automatic weaponry secured from a variety of international sources. Click on or google: Mexican drug cartels and terrorist are recruiting for more fighters to train as soldiers

A Joint Task Force composed of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been established in San Diego, California to target the AFO; the Task Force is investigating AFO operations in southern California and related regional investigations which track drug transportation, distribution and money laundering activities of the AFO throughout the United States. Click on or google: Dangerous Mexican/U.S. Criminal Enterprises Operating Along the Mexican border

[Magda Hassan]

A Day Without Tourists

Tijuana Versus the Plague
By Mike Davis "Since everyone is dumping on Mexico these days, you might as well help me do the real thing."
My friend Marcos Ramirez (aka "ERRE") isn't kidding. He's building a new house in Colonia Libertad, Tijuana's oldest and most surrealistically colorful neighborhood, and needs to dispose of some construction debris. I ride shotgun in his pickup while his younger brother Omar, a poet-artist with eyes like Che Guevara's, sprawls in the backseat.
For once in a lifetime, afternoon traffic in Tijuana is unsnarled and ERRE spurs his Chevy Silverado through the Zona Rio roundabouts, past the giant statue of Father Kino and the utopian sphere of the Cultural Center, until we reach the Avenida Internacional, the long straightaway next to the corrugated steel futility of the border wall.
As the road climbs the mesa, there is a jarring view of landscape disfigured by National Guard bulldozers and the endless churning of terrain by Border Patrol jeeps. But today even the brutalism of Operation Gatekeeper is ameliorated by blue skies and a tickle of a sea breeze. ERRE catches the mood and puts on a Beach Boys CD.
I have a sudden inkling of what he must have been like when he was a 15-year-old outlaw skateboarder from Colonia Libertad, careening suicidally down its rutted slopes. Later, he briefly practiced law, but quickly turned away from its corruption to work for 17 years as a skilled carpenter and homebuilder in the United States.
In 1997, he confounded the Border Patrol by erecting a huge Trojan Horse (two heads, facing in opposite directions) at the San Ysidro frontier. It exactly straddled the international line. Tijuaneses loved it.
Since then he has created similar provocations from Reading, Pennsylvania, to Yunnan, China, attaining the kind artistic renown that usually guarantees studio space in Soho or Coyoacan. But he stubbornly prefers being, as he puts it, a "Libertarian."
The Silverado lurches into a dirt side street somewhere on the proletarian backside of Chapultepec Heights. ERRE pulls up along a fence, honks his horn, and the debris is quickly unloaded by elves in rags. He hands one of them 100 pesos, or $7. (The minimum wage in the sweatshop maquiladoras is only 55 pesos per day.)
The old city dump is closed, the new one too far away, so like most Tijuaneses, ERRE uses the services of the informal economy. Moreover, in the midst of an unprecedented NAFTA recession, a horror-ridden narco-war, and now a much-hyped pandemic, any act that circulates a few pesos amongst "el pueblo" seems conscientious.
We fishtail out of the dirt alley and return to a paved avenue of restaurants, beauty salons, and car-alarm dealers. Schools and public buildings are closed, morning masses have been suspended, and sports events have been cancelled, but stores and street markets remain open and desperate for business. Customers are sparse, though. Half the population seems to have disappeared. Few people, apart from municipal employees and office cleaners, wear surgical masks, but no one seems to begrudge those that do.
"Looks like the Invasion of the Body Snatchers," I say.
"You should have seen Mexico City," ERRE replies. "I was down there for the Zona Maco Art Fair when the flu pandemonium started. At first it was just a big joke. Everyone was decorating their face masks with Salvador Dali mustaches or big teeth like Bugs Bunny. On mine, I wrote 'Ay cabrón, qué gripón traigo!' ['Oh shit, what a terrible flu I've got!']
"Then the famous archeologist Felipe Solis suddenly died. He was the director of the National Anthropology Museum and the previous week had given Obama a tour of Aztec treasures. There were rumors that he had swine flu. [This was subsequently denied by medical authorities.] That chilled the whole scene. People didn't know what to expect. It was like the Camus novel [The Plague]. Best friends were afraid to give each other an abrazo or a kiss on the cheek.
"What scared me was simply the idea of being sick and helpless so far from my family. Here together, familia Ramirez is almost invincible. You can bury my bones in Tijuana."
We turn eastward, crossing the legendary Avenida Revolución, past the curio stores, discos, and long bars -- remnants of the raunchy Tijuana invented by gringo bootleggers and gamblers during the early decades of the twentieth century.
There are no tourists. Nada. Although the only confirmed swine flu cases locally are across the border in San Diego, Tijuana as usual bears the stigma -- the growing fear of all things Mexican even when they originate, like the demand for drugs or the industrialized livestock from which this new flu probably sprung, in the United States.
"Feel lonely, gringo?" ERRE laughs.
To console me, he points out that there are no cops on the streets either.
Three days earlier, drug-cartel gunmen launched simultaneous attacks on police across the city, killing seven in half an hour, one of them in the small station just up the block from the Ramirez family home. Using decoders to break into the police radio frequency, the killers daily taunt the cops, blasting loud narcocorridos and boasting of future assassinations.
"Today all the police are either at the funeral for their comrades or in hiding. The narcos have threatened to raise the death toll to 30 in the next week."
"Why are they so pissed off at the cops?" I ask.
"I think the police confiscated a huge drug cache," younger brother Omar interjects.
We stop at a light. Some desperate squeegee guys without water bottles scuffle over ERRE's windshield. Two soldiers on the corner of Paseo de los Heroes observe the melee with indifference. Masked by black bandanas, they cradle new made-in-Mexico FX-05 assault rifles in their arms.
It is disturbing that the presence of troops should be so reassuring. The Mexican Army has an appalling human-rights record, and some leftists believe that the pandemic emergency has become a mere pretext for the further militarization of daily life -- like shutting down this year's May Day demonstrations.
ERRE shrugs. It is difficult, he explains, to imagine how control of public safety in border cities like Tijuana or Ciudad Juarez can ever be returned to the corrupt, and now terrified, cops. The elites, meanwhile, ensure their own safety by hiring Blackwater-type mercenaries.
Almost on cue, we pass a small convoy of SUVs and what looks like an armored car converted into a bullet-proof limo. Stenciled on the side is the corporate logo of "Panamerican Security de Colombia." (The real Blackwater -- now shamelessly re-branded as "Xe" -- has recently opened a training facility just across from the Tijuana airport on Otay Mesa.)
ERRE yawns. Heavy metal on the streets of Tijuana is no big deal.
By the time we reach Colonia Libertad, it's 4 pm and some bustle is returning to the streets. We park in front of the old family home, across from some chemical tank cars marooned on a branch of the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railroad. The family guard dog, a middle-aged Chihuahua named Momo, barks dutifully from the roof.
ERRE has to rush to take his dad to a doctor's appointment. Señor Ramirez hails from a proud cowboy town in Jalisco that claims to be the birthplace of the mariachi. After traveling around as a movie projectionist in the villages of the Alta, he came to Tijuana and Southern California in the early 1950s. He worked as an extra in Hollywood, on an aircraft assembly line in San Diego, as a cab driver in Tijuana, and now, almost age 80, oversees the family wrought-iron workshop.
The patriarchal home, like Tijuana itself, has been self-built in increments that faithfully graph the family's economic history. The 1990s boom years, when ERRE was a well-paid carpenter in California, are represented by an impressive faux-Victorian wing with dormers, bays, and gables.
I wisecrack about his hallucinatory "gingerbread casa de sueños."
He smiles, then scolds: "You know this is the Tijuana dream, my parents' dream. We never stop building. We're always making room for more people. When I was a kid, do you have any idea of how many cousins and compadres from my father's pueblo stayed here until they could cross to jobs in California? Hey, amigo, this is Ellis Island."
To underscore the point, brother Omar shows me the key prop in the video he has recently completed about the Ramirez family's neighborhood: the "Lady of Libertad."
Omar says it is based on one of French sculptor Frederic Bartholdi's original sketches for the Statue of Liberty -- the famous lady with the lamp standing on the pedestal of an Aztec pyramid. A local artisan has made copies to sell to the tourists, if they ever return.
Will they?
Since 9/11, irrational fear and toxic bigotry have imposed an informal blockade on Baja California's non-maquiladora economy. Now nativists in San Diego are clamoring for the complete closure of the border.
It would be a catastrophe. A Siamese twin might as well saw away the flesh connecting himself to his brother. Both would die in the end.
After teasing ERRE one more time, I head off for dinner with Omar and his wife. The weather is still delightful and we find a cozy Italian restaurant crowded with nonchalant and fearless diners. For a quiet evening, at least, the mask of the red death slips off the face of Tijuana.
Mike Davis is the author most recently of In Praise of Barbarians: Essays Against Empire (Haymarket Books, 2008) and Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb (Verso, 2007). He is currently working on a book about cities, poverty, and global change.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175068/m...ague_years