Sharyl Attkisson of Full Measure discussed her latest exclusive, U.S. Soldiers Arrested for Allegedly Smuggling Illegal Immigrants Across Texas, with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Stephen K. Bannon Friday morning.
Attkisson said:
U.S. authorities are investigating an illegal immigrant smuggling operation allegedly run by active duty military soldiers out of the Ft. Bliss U.S. Army post in El Paso, Texas. Ft. Bliss is headquarters for El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC), a federal tactical operational intelligence center.
According to sources and documents, two U.S. soldiers, Marco Antonio Nava, Jr., and Joseph Cleveland, were arrested last Saturday by border patrol officers at Falfurrias Texas Border Patrol Station checkpoint, attempting to smuggle two Mexican citizens into the U.S. The Mexicans were riding in the back seat of the car. Upon their arrest, the soldiers, who were not in uniform at the time, informed Border Patrol agents they are part of the 377 TC Company at Ft. Bliss.
Said Attkisson Friday:
I found out that the U.S. government, actually Border Patrol, stopped a couple of guys trying to smuggle in some Mexican citizens about a week ago, and the two guys trying to smuggle them in were active duty soldiers out of Fort Bliss in Texas–a pretty huge deal. Upon their arrest, one of them spoke of other soldiers that are involved in a smuggling ring–a leader there at Fort Bliss that he said is paying them $1,000 – $1,500 each for the runs that they would make.
She also pointed out that Homeland Security has taken over the case but does not seem to be talking about it. “Interestingly, I don’t know why, but Homeland Security took the case, didn’t announce it–pretty big case–hasn’t answered my questions about it. I think it’s kind of baffling.” She added, “This is a good case in terms that they stopped something that may have been going on inside the military. Why won’t they answer questions about it?”
Breitbart News reported on another case in which two soldiers out of Fort Hood were sentenced for human smuggling in May: “Prison Time for U.S. Soldiers Smuggling Aliens While in Uniform.”
As for Attkisson’s latest, she seems to be hinting at a much larger story to come:
On the other hand, I think about the military guys, and they may think, is this a victimless crime? It’s really not illegal to come to this country. The two Mexicans they had been transporting last week had each been removed from the US three times before. And maybe they think, why shouldn’t I make some money on the side doing something the government doesn’t really mind. They don’t mind if the illegal immigrants come here.
I think they know about it. And it’s people inside Border Patrol and inside the military who have long been involved in smuggling drugs, as well as smuggling humans. They’re well aware of it. They don’t talk about it much but it’s well known inside. I’ll be doing a story in the Fall about corruption inside the Border Patrol which is just out of control. There’s so many agents. The cartels place people inside Border Patrol now, smugglers place people inside Border Patrol get them hired there. It’s a big issue.
She went on to castigate both American and world media for their poor reporting on Thursday’s historic Brexit vote. “If the media is this shocked” over last night’s Brexit vote, “that means they aren’t really good listeners, or predictors, or measurers of what’s happening on the ground. That’s kind of basically what they’re admitting,” said Attkisson.
She added:
This is just more evidence of the same trend. Journalists I spoke to said they aren’t allowed to write about this sort of thing. If they write anything that discussed the Brexit, or the exit part of the vote and the sentiment for it, that was, they said, largely censored from the mainstream media. So, maybe it’s no surprise that our media over here was unaware there was so much sentiment on that side. It’s being censored from the news. If you write off the narrative on that topic and others, in that country, just like in this country, they want to drum you out of the mainstream and paint you as controversial. Maybe that’s why people didn’t have the information to understand what was going on.
Attkission then went on to make the point that even American media appear to increasingly be an echo chamber of sorts, with so-called journalists not doing the legwork or critical thinking that the job would normally entail:
I think journalists here, some of them, have a tendency now to listen to one another and kind of believe what they read, rather than do the critical analytical thinking themselves. Rather than understanding, I mean, part of the art is figuring out who to listen to and, based on history and track record and good judgment, whose probably got the best pulse of what’s going on, and also getting out of your own skin with what you hope happens to be able to see what’s really happening. A lot of people kind of hope for one thing and listen to each other, and they ignore what’s really going on.
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
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