“Our Border Patrol people are not hospital workers, doctors or nurses. The Democrats bad Immigration Laws, which could be easily fixed, are the problem. Great job by Border Patrol, above and beyond. Many of these illegals (sic) aliens are living far better now than where they came from, and in far safer conditions.”
So wrote President Donald Trump in a July 3 series of tweets—days after Democratic members of the House of Representatives toured two Texas border facilities for would-be immigrants. They described squalid conditions, overcrowded facilities and thinly stretched resources.
One of those inspectors, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said that officers at the El Paso Customs and Border Protection facility told migrant women to drink out of toilets. Another woman said guards woke them at odd hours and called them whores.
Even the Department of Homeland Security proved highly critical, finding:
- Unannounced inspections of Border Patrol facilities confirmed extreme overcrowding.
- Children younger than seven were being held in custody for more than two weeks—far more than the allotted 72 hours.
- They weren’t being provided with soap, toothbrushes or toothpaste.
- Lacking hot meals and ready access to showers and a change of clothes, they slept on concrete floors under then Mylar thermal blankets.
For Trump, however, the solution was easy: “If Illegal Immigrants are unhappy with the conditions in the quickly built or refitted detentions centers, just tell them not to come. All problems solved!”
![]()
Illegal alien families held in cages
Since taking office, Trump has claimed there’s “a crisis at our southern border.” He meant that that the United States was being overwhelmed by hordes of illegal aliens. And, initially, most of the public agreed with him.
But, recently, as a result of the torrent of bad publicity focused on these detention facilities, public opinion has started to change: Yes, there is a crisis at the border—and the fault lies with Trump, not with the would-be migrants.
For Trump, halting illegal immigration is a make-or-break issue. His base—which is the only group of Americans he cares about—has made it clear: Stop the illegals—or be a one-term President.
At the same time, the issue of illegal immigration has not disappeared. In May, Border Patrol agents arrested more than 144,000 migrants. With available holding facilities overwhelmed, news stories soon appeared highlighting brutal conditions therein.
With more bad publicity certain to come in the months leading up to the 2020 Presidential election, Trump will be desperate to make it go away.
So it’s possible he could take an even more drastic step in his all-out war on illegal immigration.
Rather than deport them to countries in Central America—from which they would easily sneak back into the United States—the Federal Government could ship them off to more distant lands.
Like Afghanistan. Or Iraq. Or Syria.
Such a policy change would:
- Close the Mexican revolving door, which keeps illegal immigration flowing; and
- Warn other would-be illegals: “The same fate awaits you.”
- Remove the shipped-out migrants from the prying eyes of American reporters and members of Congress.
Although this might seem a far-fetched proposal, it could be easily carried out by the United States Air Force.
According to its website: “The C-5 Galaxy is one of the largest aircraft in the world and the largest airlifter in the Air Force inventory.
“The C-5 has a greater capacity than any other airlifter. It [can] carry 36 standard pallets and 81 troops simultaneously.
C-5 transport plane
“[It can also carry] any of the Army’s air-transportable combat equipment, including such bulky items as the 74-ton mobile scissors bridge.”
The C-5 Galaxy’s maximum cargo weight: 281,001 pounds
Click here: C-5 A/B/C Galaxy and C-5M Super Galaxy > U.S. Air Force > Fact Sheet Display
Instead of being stuffed with cargo, these planes could be stuffed wall-to-wall with illegal aliens.
The United States Air Force has a proud history of successfully providing America’s soldiers—and allies—with the supplies they need.
From June 24, 1948 to May 12, 1949, only the Berlin Airlift stood between German citizens and starvation.
The Soviet Union had blocked the railway, road, and canal access to the Berlin sectors under allied control. Their goal: Force the western powers to allow the Soviet zone to supply Berlin with food, fuel, and aid.
This would have given the Soviets control over the entire city.
Air forces from the United States, England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa flew over 200,000 flights in one year, dropping more than 4,700 tons of necessities daily to the besieged Berliners.
The success of the Berlin Airlift raised American prestige and embarrassed the Soviets, who lifted the blockade.
![]()
The Berlin Airlift
A similar triumph came during the Yom Kippur War after Egypt and Syria attacked Israel without warning on October 6, 1973.
A Watergate-embattled President Richard Nixon ordered “Operation Nickel Grass” to deliver urgently-needed weapons and supplies to Israel.
For 32 days, the Air Force shipped 22,325 tons of ammunition, artillery, tanks and other supplies. These proved invaluable in saving Israel from destruction.
So the mass deportation of millions of illegal aliens lies within America’s technological capability.
The only uncertainty: Is Trump willing to give that order?
9/11, ABC NEWS, ACADEMI, AFGHANISTAN, ALTERNET, ANDROID, AP, APPLE IOS, BARACK OBAMA, BLACKWATER, BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY, CNN, COFER BLACK, COLD WAR, CONTRACT EMPLOYEES, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, EDWARD SNOWDEN, ENRIQUE PRADO, ERIK PRINCE, FACEBOOK, GEORGE W. BUSH, GREEN BERETS, IRAQ, LEGACY OF ASHES (BOOK), LOCKHEED MARTIN, MERCENARIES, MICROSOFT WINDOWS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, NAVY SEALS, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, NPR, PAUL BREMER, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT RICHER, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SMARTPHONES, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE PENTAGON, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIM WEINER, TIME, TORTURE, TOTAL INTELLIGENCE SOLUTIONS, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE, UNITED STATES ARMY, UPI, USA TODAY, WIKILEAKS, XE SERVICES
WARNING! DOING BUSINESS WITH MERCENARIES CAN BE DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on August 30, 2021 at 12:05 amThe United States had been fighting in Afghanistan for almost 16 years—and between 2001 and 2017 had spent an estimated $714 billion.
Still, there was no end in sight.
Then Erik Prince suggested a remedy: Mercenaries—via his private company, Academi.
For $3.5 billion in taxpayer monies, he claimed that he could vin a victory that had eluded the United States Air Force, Army (including Green Berets) and Navy SEALs.
Erik Prince
By Miller Center [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
In 1997, Prince created Blackwater, a private security company providing support to military and police agencies.
In August, 2003, Blackwater got the first of a series of Federal contracts to deploy its forces in Iraq. For $21 million, it safeguarded Paul Bremer, America’s proconsul running the occupation.
Ultimately, Blackwater got $1 billion to provide security for American officials and soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to human rights organizations, Blackwater abused Iraqis and engaged in torture to obtain information.
In September, 2007, Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians and injured 20 more in a Baghdad traffic circle.
Five guards were charged with murder. Three were convicted in October, 2014, of 14 manslaughter charges and in April 2015 sentenced to 30 years in prison. These sentences were deemed unfair upon appeal and await re-sentencing.
Owing to its highly controversial activities in Iraq, Prince renamed the company Xe Services in 2009 and then Academi in 2011.
By 2018, against opposition by the Pentagon, Prince lobbied President Donald Trump to let Academi privatize the war in Afghanistan.
Ultimately, his company did not become the sole American military force in Afghanistan—despite his sister, Betsy Devos, being the Secretary of Education.
Since the end of the Cold War, the American military and Intelligence communities have grown increasingly dependent on private contractors.
In his 2007 bestseller, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, Tim Weiner writes:
“Patriotism for profit became a $50-billion-a-year business….The [CIA] began contracting out thousands of jobs to fill the perceived void by the budget cuts that began in 1992.
“A CIA officer could file his retirement papers, turn in his blue identification badge, go to work for a much better salary at a military contractor such as Lockheed Martin or Booz Allen Hamilton, then return to the CIA the next day, wearing a green badge….”
Much of the CIA became totally dependent on mercenaries. They appeared to work for the agency, but their loyalty was actually to their private–and higher-paying—companies.
Writes Weiner: “Legions of CIA veterans quit their posts to sell their services to the agency by writing analyses, creating cover for overseas officers, setting up communications networks, and running clandestine operations.”
One such company was Total Intelligence Solutions, founded in 2007 by Cofer Black, who had been the chief of the CIA’s counter-terrorism center on 9/11. His partners were Robert Richer, formerly the associate deputy director of operations at the CIA, and Enrique Prado, who had been Black’s chief of counter-terror operations at the agency.
Future CIA hires followed suit: Serve for five years, win that prized CIA “credential” and sign up with a private security company to enrich yourself.
This situation met with full support from Right-wing “pro-business” members of Congress and President George W. Bush.
They had long championed the private sector as inherently superior to the public one. And they saw no danger that a man dedicated to enriching himself might put greed ahead of safeguarding his country.
But there are dangers to hiring men whose first love is profit. Recent examples include:
But there are others who have offered a timely warning against the use of mercenaries. One of these is Niccolo Machiavelli, the Florentine statesman of the Renaissance.
Niccolo Machiavelli
In The Prince, Machiavelli writes:
“Mercenaries…are useless and dangerous. And if a prince holds on to his state by means of mercenary armies, he will never be stable or secure. For they are disunited, ambitious, without discipline, disloyal. They are brave among friends; among enemies they are cowards.
“They have neither the fear of God nor fidelity to man, and destruction is deferred only as the attack is. For in peace one is robbed by them, and in war by the enemy.
“The cause of this is that they have no love or other motive to keep them in the field beyond a trifling wage, which is not enough to make them ready to die for you.”
Centuries after Machiavelli’s warning, Americans are realizing the bitter truth of it firsthand.
Share this: