Edge of Battle

Presidential Palace.

“This proves without a doubt, my friends, one of two things: either the Mexican government is directly responsible for these attacks, or the Mexican government is unable or unwilling to stop these murderous attacks, which are probably being carried out by followers of the terrorist Comandante Veracruz. It is imperative that the U.S. embassy and all U.S. consulate offices in Mexico be closed immediately and our representatives returned to Washington before there are any more terrorist activities targeting Americans. I encourage all Americans living and working in Mexico to get out as soon as you can as well.

“The morning’s news alerts have been focusing on another horrific crime that occurred in southern California earlier that morning, this time perpetrated by none other than the Mexican Army—yes, you heard me, the Mexican Army,” O’Rourke went on. “Two infantry squads, about fifty men, of Mexican Army regulars and paramilitary border security soldiers attacked an encampment of the American Watchdog Project, which was set up several miles east of the U.S. military border security base near Boulevard, California, called Rampart One. Five men were killed, including one medical doctor from the California Army National Guard. No, I take that back. Five American citizens were slaughtered by the Mexican Army, shot at close range with automatic weapons.

“As I’ve reported many times on this broadcast, the White House has sharply reduced the number of National Guard troops in this area recently in a vain attempt to lessen tensions between the United States and Mexico. The American Watchdog Project, who as you know lost their leader Herman Geitz recently to an unknown assassin while your humble correspondent was on patrol with his team, had set up a camp between Rampart One and the western edge of the Calexico border fence to watch out for illegal immigrants crossing the border here to make up for the loss of National Guard troops deployed there.

“It is true that the Watchdogs had taken a number of illegals into custody, including a pregnant woman. The Mexican government says the attack was in response to this illegal arrest; they say that they had eyewitness evidence that the Mexicans in captivity were being tortured and sexually abused, and they point to the recent disputed incident with the National Guard troops as further evidence of increased violence against migrants. The Mexican government says it did not order the Mexican troops to initiate the attack, but the local commander took it on his own authority to organize and conduct the raid.

“But in all the squawking from the Mexican government and the Hispanic human rights groups about the Watchdogs, complaining that the United States is unlawfully committing acts of atrocity against Mexicans, here’s something you haven’t heard on the news yet about this incident. I spoke with the Imperial County sheriff this morning, and he confirms that the American Watchdog Project members had intercepted a group of illegals crossing the border a few miles west of the Calexico fence. When I asked why they had intercepted the group instead of calling in the National Guard or Border Patrol, as they always do, the sheriff explained that the pregnant woman they had found was in the later stages of labor and was ready to deliver a child. The sheriff’s department had been notified, and a doctor, Army National Guard Captain William Abrams, had been summoned to the scene by the Watchdogs to help deliver the infant. In fact, I have in my possession the recordings from the Imperial County 911 Emergency Call Center and the recordings from the police radio transmissions, giving precise descriptions of the woman and her medical condition, her identity, and the identities of several of the men traveling with her, and I’ll play those recordings for you at the top of the hour, so stayed tuned.

“Bottom line, my friends: the Watchdogs were trying to help this woman, not hurt her. The woman was assisted across the border obviously so she could have her baby born on U.S. soil, which is a very common practice as illegals attempt to circumvent the law and take advantage of our Constitution. But the Mexican Army staged a so-called ‘rescue mission’ and ended up killing five Americans in cold blood. The woman and her child are missing; there has been no word from the Mexican Army or the Mexican government except to condemn the Watchdogs for their actions.

“This falls precisely in line with the highly suspect episode recently where a California National Guard soldier stands accused of raping a female illegal immigrant. Even though the woman’s story about how she came to be in that area and if she was traveling alone or with others has been totally inconsistent and unsupported by any evidence, it is the American government that is being vilified around the world, even before any facts are in. It is frighteningly obvious to me, my friends, that the Mexican government is fabricating these lies in order to incite the Hispanic community to violence against America on both sides of the border, turn world opinion in its favor, and provoke outright war with the United States.

“Yes, folks, I said ‘war,’ and I am not exaggerating here. Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz said in the early nineteenth century that ‘War is the continuation of policy by other means,’ and that is exactly what is happening here today. The Mexican government knows it has absolutely no hope of influencing Congress, the White House, or the American people that illegal immigration is good and should be encouraged, expanded, or at least tolerated, so they have decided to switch tactics and attempt to force America’s lawmakers and policy makers to drive the debate back to the fore by committing acts of devastation, mayhem, and murder against us. This is nothing short of state-sponsored terrorism, my friends, the scourge we have been fighting since the first U.S. airliner was hijacked in 1961, and last year actually declared war against.

“So if this is war being waged against the United States, where is our defense? Where is the vaunted but horrendously expensive Task Force TALON, the high-tech combined FBI and military unit charged with hunting down terrorists wherever they may be found anywhere in the world? We’ve sent TALON to Brazil, Russia, Great Britain, Egypt, and even right here in America—but where are they now?

“Unsubstantiated reports are that one of TALON’s robots had actually been hijacked and used to terrorize the area around Amarillo, Texas just a couple days ago. The government is not commenting at all, but there was some sort of security breach at Amarillo International Airport and possibly another at a government facility I will not mention here because of national security. But all I see is confusion, a lack of leadership, and chaos happening here, folks. It is all very disturbing—very, very disturbing indeed.”

O’Rourke withdrew a slim folder of e-mails, photocopied forms, and notes. He paused for a moment, as if perhaps reconsidering his next move; then, popping more chocolate-covered espresso beans in his mouth, went on: “Let me give you an example of how really screwed up the government’s immigration and border security programs are, ladies and gentlemen. Yesterday my staff received an anonymous e-mail from an individual that was so outrageous, but so factual-sounding, that we thought we’d investigate. Normally I wouldn’t waste my time or my staff’s with such nonsense, but this anonymous message actually had relevant and believable evidence attached to it. It turns out it was not so outrageous, my friends.

“I’m sure you recall the deputy commander of Task Force TALON, Dr. Ariadna Vega, the young woman who helped design and build the incredible manned military robots involved in the hunt for terrorist mastermind Colonel Yegor Zakharov and also involved in setting up the first military security bases along the border. Prompted by this anonymous correspondent, we checked on Dr. Vega’s background, and we have reason to believe that she and her parents are here in the United States illegally. Yes, folks, illegally. Dr. Vega’s father attended the University of Southern California on an educational visa, where he obtained a doctorate degree, but he never left the country when his visa expired. Instead, he apparently sent for his family back in Ensenada, Mexico, where they were smuggled across the border sometime in the mid-1980s.

“But that was not the worst part, my friends, not by a long shot. Now although the Vegas were productive and apparently law-abiding visitors to the United States, they were still here illegally. Miss Ariadna Vega attended USC and several other American universities, obtaining her doctorate degree in engineering, like her father. She was then hired by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory as a computer and electrical engineer, eventually joining the Infantry Transformational BattleLab, one of the government’s most highly classified offices, working on very advanced weapons for future infantry combat soldiers.

“But how, you might ask, does an illegal immigrant get a top-secret security clearance and become the number-two person in a major border security unit? The answer: she falsified her documentation, folks. She took great pains to cover her tracks, all the way from junior high school through college and university. Of course, the state of California does not keep very good records of the citizenship status of its students, arguing that it’s a violation of their constitutional rights and California law, so the government investigators charged with checking background information obviously ran into plenty of stone walls and dead ends when they looked into her past. But those were stone walls partially erected by Miss Vega and her family.

“We have obtained copies of Miss Vega’s Mexican and American birth records through third-hand sources, but have not been able to validate either set of documents’ authenticity, so we have no direct evidence as of yet. Of