Feral Jundi

Friday, September 28, 2012

Law Enforcement: Over 1,286 US Cities Report Presence Of Mexican Cartels

Filed under: Law Enforcement,Mexico,Publications — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 10:48 AM

This is an excellent graphic giving a visual representation of where the cartels are, and a general idea of their activity. If you click on the image, you should be able to get a bigger picture of it and really dig into the data. All of this data was extracted from reports issued by the Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center. The 1,286 number is startling.  No telling how many more cities have reported since 2010? Here is a quote:

The numbers could rise in coming years. The Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center estimates Mexican cartels control distribution of most of the methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana coming into the country, and they’re increasingly producing the drugs themselves.
In 2009 and 2010, the center reported, cartels operated in 1,286 U.S. cities, more than five times the number reported in 2008. The center named only 50 cities in 2006.
Target communities often have an existing Hispanic population and a nearby interstate for ferrying drugs and money to and fro, said author Charles Bowden, whose books on the Mexican drug war include “Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields.”
“I’m not saying Mexicans come here to do crime, but Mexicans who move drugs choose to do it through areas where there are already Mexicans,” he said.

Also, if you are wondering what happened to the DoJ’s National Drug Intelligence Center, it was closed and folded into the DEA recently. But you can still read through their archives here. –Matt

 

Monday, September 26, 2011

Publications: The DoJ National Drug Threat Assessment, 2011

Filed under: Law Enforcement,Mexico,Publications — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 2:52 PM

The National Drug Threat Assessment 2011

Monday, June 27, 2011

Legal News: Justin Cannon Sentenced To 30 Months In Prison

Filed under: Legal News — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 9:57 PM

Of course the family is still in the process of appeals. If you would like to show your disgust with this ruling, by all means contact Senator Carl Levin.  That is what the family is recommending.

As to my thoughts on the matter? I think DOJ wants a win with this one, just because they are getting beaten up in other areas where they have stumbled. These guys have also been on a Xe witch hunt for quite some time, even though the US government has been rewarding Xe with contracts. (an odd way to show your appreciation?) They want MEJA to have some precedent as well so they can say ‘look, contractors can be held accountable’.

I agree that this industry needs accountability, but on the other hand, I hate seeing contractors becoming scapegoats to create that precedent.

These men were in a war zone, they acted out of self preservation, and they ‘interpreted’ the oncoming vehicle as a threat.  That should have ended the case right there, because these men did not act maliciously. They were also firearms instructors and trained military veterans, and yet here we are, punishing these men for their decision in a war zone.

The fear I have here is that cases like this will actually reduce the security posture of security contractors. Because if you ‘fire’ your weapon out of self defense, or defense of your client, that you will be punished or worse, go to jail. Do we want to instill this kind of mindset into the minds of armed security contractors working in highly complex and extremely dangerous war zones? Worse yet, are we setting ourselves up to where even an enemy combatant, or the family of an enemy combatant, could file charges against a security contractor?

These are the things that must be considered as we go down this path of contractor accountability. It applies to military accountability as well, and some have even coined this as ‘lawfare’.

To me, all laws that a nation creates must be geared towards giving it advantage during times of war, and at the same time giving disadvantage to the enemy. Because what sense is it if you lose your country to a stronger enemy, all because of your self-imposed and highly restrictive laws? If MEJA, or whatever laws we create are the path we follow, they must be viewed in this type of legal filter, or we will have lost a strategic and tactical advantage. (and yes, contractors are a strategic asset of a nation, despite what some might say…) –Matt

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, June 27, 2011
Contractor Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Death of Afghan National in Kabul, Afghanistan
Justin Cannon, 29, of Corpus Christi, Texas, was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for his role in shooting and killing an Afghan national while on an unauthorized convoy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on May 5, 2009, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride of the Eastern District of Virginia and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.   U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar also ordered Cannon to serve two years of supervised release following his prison term.

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Monday, January 4, 2010

Legal News: The Real Blackwater Scandal–Prosecutorial Abuse

Filed under: Iraq,Legal News — Tags: , , , , , , , — Matt @ 8:48 AM

The judge calls it “the government’s reckless violation of the defendants’ constitutional rights.” 

*****

   Finally, some push back.  This thing was highly politicized from the beginning, and the DoJ was right in there, thinking of anything they could possible do to get these guys.

   So we take a giant crap on the Marines at Haditha, or the Navy SEALs who gave a terrorist a fat lip, or the Blackwater guards who were fighting for their lives in a firefight in Iraq that resulted in civilian casualties, and yet we release hundreds of detainees from Gitmo because of a lack of evidence during their capture on the battlefield? Pfffft. The enemy is laughing at us. –Matt

Edit: 01/07/2010 – And the Washington Post weighs in with a similar theme. Judge Made The Right Call In Blackwater Case 

——————————————————————

The Real Blackwater Scandal

JANUARY 3, 2010

Another example of prosecutorial abuse in a political case.

No, not as the left would have it, that Blackwater still exists. The scandal is that the Justice Department’s case against five former security guards for the military contractor unraveled late last week in what appears to be another instance of gross prosecutorial misconduct, as abusive Justice lawyers went after an unsympathetic political target.

The indictments—which were thrown out by D.C. District Judge Ricardo Urbina in a derisive and detailed 90-page opinion—stemmed from a 2007 firefight in Baghdad’s Nisour Square that left 14 Iraqis dead and others wounded. The government contends that five Blackwater guards, who were providing tactical support for the State Department after an IED exploded in the vicinity of a meeting with Iraqi officials, went on an unprovoked killing spree against unarmed civilians. The guards maintain that they came under attack by insurgents and were responding in self-defense to a mortal threat.

Judge Urbina dismissed the charges because prosecutors misused sworn statements the guards were compelled to make to investigators after the shooting, under the threat of job loss. This was routine practice under military contracting rules, though the statements could not be used in criminal prosecutions. Promptly after the Nisour incident these statements were also leaked to the media, which ran with the narrative of modern-day Hessians gone berserk.

“In their zeal to bring charges against the defendants in this case,” Judge Urbina ruled, prosecutors had violated Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination by using these compelled statements to formulate their case and ultimately obtain indictments against the guards. The judge calls it “the government’s reckless violation of the defendants’ constitutional rights.”

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