Mexican and U.S. authorities were “secretly scrambling” last month to thwart a Mexican drug cartel’s plot to blow up a Texas dam that would have flooded an area with about 4 million inhabitants, according to the Houston Chronicle’s Dane Schiller and James Pinkerton.
Law enforcement officials were reportedly tipped off to a plot when they found one of the handbills that the drug cartel Los Zetas was distributing on the Mexican side of the river, warning residents to clear out ahead of the explosion. Authorities found “small amounts of dynamite near the dam,” the Chronicle said.
Los Zetas wanted to blow up the Falcon dam not to hurt civilians, but to exact revenge on a rival gang called the Gulf Cartel, which smuggles drugs in the area, local authorities said. The gang has also been implicated in armed robberies of Texan fishermen in Lake Falcon, the reservoir behind the dam.
U.S. officials said they had “serious and reliable sources” informing them of the plot, the Chronicle reported. Officers placed hidden cameras on the dam and hid in the brush to watch.
Police Capt. Francisco Garcia of Roma, Texas, told the Chronicle that the traffickers would have needed a tractor-trailer full of dynamite to pull off the explosion.
In a related story, Mexico opens a consular office in California to provide identification to illegals. Nothing to see here people…move along. All the bad guys are in Afghanistan.
#19 You really have no idea how the mind of a latin american works. That shows your supine ignorance and explains a lot about your senseless rants. As the lefty loon you are, you exhibit blind support of self-destructing causes.
#20 You mean Fido?
I want to know what Presidente Calderón has to say about it. I suspect we should not have created a hazard by putting a dam there.
Hey pedro, please share with us the inner workings of the Latin American mind.
“I don’t understand this story. is it to flood 4million people in Mexico or in Texas? I didn’t know there were that many people in Mexico, or in Texas (which would have to be the entire state?)”
(In Hank Hill voice)
That boy ain’t right.
# 9 LDA said, “Terrorism is violence or the threat of violence that is politically motivated. This is a drug gang war.”
I congratulate you on your observation. We toss the word “terrorism” at almost everything.
Of course, from what I read, this misuse is directly attributable to McCullough, not the source material.
McCullough – the story is scary enough without you trying to make it worse.
bobbo, The Don Juan of Partnerless Loving said, on June 4th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
“Gee, all this time I thought Phydeau was a type of bread or the phonetic version of man’s best friend. Never thought of it being indeterminate gender status.”
The gender confusion is understandable given that Phydeau has been Obama’s faithful bitch for years.
#25. So blowing up a dam that can affect millions is not an act of terrorism but blowing up a bus in your particular city is. Regardless of motivation. What the fuck are you talking about?
#27 McCullough said, “What the fuck are you talking about?”
Gee, McCullough. You kiss your mother with that mouth? According to the Webster Online Dictionary (Don’;t expect me to look up all the hard words for you in the future)
: the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion
Now, the article you quoted says, “…blow up the Falcon dam not to hurt civilians, but to exact revenge on a rival gang…” In other words, there was no intent to coerce only to get back at rivals. As stated above, it may have been a plan for mass murder but it would not have been an act of terrorism.
On other matters: # 21 pedro said, Phydeau “…shows your supine ignorance…” Pedro, I agree. Phydeau has no idea how to lay down properly.
Where is the BS meter John?
So let’s say you manage a poor, south Texas county, and you need to build a new dam. But you don’t have any money in the county coffers to pay for it.
How about getting some stupid illegal you catch at the border to “confess” to this plot.
Now that you have created a problem, it is time to sell a solution! Go to Washington DC and tell them that you need a big new concrete dam. Tell them that they have to build it and pay for it.
Return home and watch the money and construction jobs roll in to your county.
If drugs were legal, these cartels would lose 99% of their revenue. Then they wouldn’t have all that dough to buy guns and terrorize people. Mexico tried legalizing, but found themselves under serious pressure from the US government after their feeble attempts (too many mexican politicians on the take). Unplug from the matrix people.
First, and I found this hilariously funny, is the unidentified neutral color in the center of Mexico on the map. What does that color represent?
Areas controlled by the Mexican government.
Second is that nobody so far is even remotely close to the cause of this.
The meme of the US stealing waters from Mexico is not new, but is mostly unknown north of the border. It happens to be true. We take everything(all of the water).
The only shared water source not taken is the Rio Grande, and only because emptying it would make Mexican access to the US much easier.
The cartels are very practical minded. They might see a domestic popularity boost for taking back the water, but they can buy or kill anybody in Mexico so they aren’t traditional political actors. I can’t think of a good reason for them doing this.
Mexico does have a history of idealists who are open to try military conflict. That sort seems like a much more likely source of this action.
Mexico also has a tradition of government provocation used to justify state sanctioned mass murder. They don’t only come here for the opportunity.
Hard to say what is going on, but the US-Mexico relationship is certainly an under-appreciated strategic threat in the US.
Imagine living your entire life in a place where laws could be nullified at will by a variety of state and non-state actors.
You might say, “The US is like that.” No, it isn’t by a mile.
#28–Animby==take it from ME, 99% of the time I go out of my way to be an asshole, I really am being an asshole. I hate it when that happens. Lets take your criticism of Pedro’s use of “supine ignorance.” Pedro, who I assume is Mexican or maybe just South American, who I further assume therefore is of Catholic persuasion. Pedro, raised in the tradition if not the current faith, is using a well know term of art: supine as in intentional as opposed to mere or simple ignorance. Is it “fair” to use this dogmatic term in polite society?
I think so. Words are what we think with. The more words we have, the more thoughts we have, the better we think. The more disciplines we linguistically include in our armamentarium of thought, the better equiped we are to sally forth and cure the poor supine lepers existing at the edges of our society.
It amuses me that Pedro uses the term from his cultural context and in your simple ignorance coming from years of secular training (“distal from the Catholic experience if you will”) choose to make fun of him because he doesn’t follow your equally dogmatic catechism (sic) of specialized language.
Well, I think its amusing. lol. Could it be just me?
# 6 FRAGaLOT, Texas is home to three of the ten most populous cities in the U.S. and has a total population of over twenty-one million. Of course, the area around the lake and dam is not densely populated, but the flood would wash quite a distance down the Rio Grande, perhaps all the way to Brownsville, going through a major agricultural area, more heavily populated on both sides of the river.
My uncle who was a doctor lived and worked not far from the area for a long time. We paid a visit when I was a kid and I remember being very impressed to be walking around in shorts on New Year’s Day! Also, the best grapefruit in the world comes from there.
#23 Ah, I thought you loved blank statements like “lazy Mexicans are the ones that stay home”. Yeah, the good ones are the ones that go and break the law in the US.
Sorry, but I respectfully have to call you moron.
#28 It is amusing that I have to tell you to use a dictionary on a post you made telling someone else to use it. Thx, I love Irony.
Try using it more often, you’ll learn something eventually. If you knew where the word comes, you’d know why it is used in medicine to describe the easiest position a person assumes with their bodies when resting.
#32 “No other colony showed such supine, selfish helplessness in allowing her own border citizens to be mercilessly harried”- Theodore Roosevelt.
I guess Teddy was a wetback too.
I love to teach you new words every now & then dumbbo.
BTW, how apropos to the subject that snippet was, huh?
P.S.: Do you also need help with the word “apropos”?
BTW #28, are you prone to make such blunders too often?
second BTW to #28. The blunder I’m referring to is to fall flat on your face in public.
Post #36 was an addendum to #35. I’m sure Dumbbo will tell us which word here doesn’t “exist” or comes from the catholic-wetback to English dictionary. I guess that happens when you have a pro bono education.
Well Pedro, you good catholic charity is pretty thin these days? What an opportunity to show a little grace.
Maybe next time.
Bobbo #32 -I do love learning new words and their usage. I could be pedantic and say I did not accuse Pedro of misusing the word. I merely made a pun. But that would be a lie. So thank you for your lupine observations. However, Pedro being Pedro, I will not apologize.
Animby–”actually” I was going to comment that even in more stultified English the phrase “supine ignorance” would have an appropriate meaning to me. As you say: supine, to lay down meaning it is not up on all fours, (or all two for the bipeds), it is not “agressive” and ready to attack/defend, it is asleep, down for the count. So–even taking your own more pedantic preference for the words definition, you are still “wrong.”
Words are interesting things. Should they be straight jackets or wings? Or in Pedro’s case, a taco?
Hah, hah. I crack myself up. BTW–I did finally understand your compliment on the swine flu thread. Mindset: a dangerous thing. Pedro: mindset: a dangerous thing.
We always look so much better when we actually try to look better?