On the day Arizona celebrated its Centennial of Statehood, February 14, Senator Sylvia Allen helped launch the next century of wackadoodlism. Allen, a real estate agent from the White Mountains, plays one of the leading roles in Arizona's puppet-show of nonsense. She was the bright light, you may recall, who famously said during a natural resources committee hearing last session that the earth is 6,000 years old. The Senator is obviously not too good with the geology thing, and she has an even flimsier grasp of international affairs.
A senator who wants to create an armed volunteer force that can stop crimes along the Arizona-Mexico border repeated claims Tuesday that terrorist organizations based in the Middle East have formed alliances with drug cartels to the south.
"We are being invaded by criminals who have formed alliances with mid-eastern terrorists who use violence in the most evil of ways to intimidate, control and protect their drug-human smuggling multi-billion dollar business," said Sen. Sylvia Allen, a Republican from Snowflake. Arizona Capitol Times
I missed the invasion. An earlier version of Allen's bill was introduced a few weeks ago, but it turned out Major General Hugo Salazar, the Adjunct General of the Arizona National Guard, who would have been responsible for the new unit,
wasn't too keen on the idea. Nor were the County Sheriffs whose jurisdiction includes the border. So Allen changed the unit's name and placed it under the authority of a Commander to be appointed by the Governor. As it's written now the bill,
SB 1083, will create an armed "Arizona Special Missions Unit" made up of volunteers who will
help secure the border and help local law enforcement pursue, detain and arrest those involved in "cross-border criminal activity." Arizona Republic
For years camouflaged vigilante nutjobs, like
National Socialist JD Ready, have patrolled the desert looking for Mexicans. If SB 1083 passes, Ready and his merry band of nativists can get a state badge, a salary, and even immunity if they happen to do some dumbfuck thing -- like start an international incident. Senator Allen and the yahoos who support her cockamamy scheme, like the Arizona State Defense Force Foundation (sorry, not linking), often point out that 22 other states have militias. "This is more like the Texas Rangers," Allen says. Except one big difference: none of the other state forces is armed, and the Texas Rangers are really part of the state police. Maybe these are the Texas Rangers Allen had in mind when she proposed an Arizona version:
In January 1918 a heavily armed group of Texas Rangers, ranchmen and members a troop of U.S. Cavalry descended upon the tiny community of Porvenir, Texas on the Mexican border in western Presidio County. The Rangers and company rounded up the inhabitants of the village and searched their homes. They then proceeded to gather all the men in Provenir (fifteen Mexican men and boys ranging in age from 16 to 72 years) and march them off into the darkness. A short distance from Porvenir, the men were lined up against a rock bluff and shot to death. Wiki
For years the fearmongers have told us that Mexicans are coming to take our jobs, rape grandma, sell drugs, and leach off our social services. The Obama administration has sent more resources to the border than Bush ever did, and one result is that crossings are down 40 percent. But that's not enough for the goobers; the threat is no longer teenagers who come here to flip burgers. No, now it's international terrorism, in the guise of Hezbollah:
In an earlier committee hearing, Allen specifically mentioned Hezbollah. She also referred to reports that the group is training Mexican drug cartels. Arizona Capitol Times
Sylvia Allen isn't the only one making this claim:
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, asked during a Republican presidential debate in Washington to suggest an important national security issue that isn't getting enough attention, said Islamic terror group Hezbollah is "working throughout Latin America," including Mexico, "which poses a very significant and imminent threat to the United States of America." PolitiFact
Santorum and Perry spouted similar nonsense, and when pressed to provide proof they pointed to a 2011 American Enterprise Institute study titled
"The Mounting Hezbollah Threat in Latin America," whose preamble states:
"Over the last several years Hezbollah and its patrons in Iran have greatly expanded their operations in Latin America to the detriment of inter-American security and U.S. strategic interests. Today, Hezbollah is using the Western Hemisphere as a staging ground, fundraising center, and operational base to wage asymmetric warfare against the United States."
PolitiFact points out, however, that the study offers no proof that Hezbollah is active in Latin America. What amounts to "terrorist activities" for Romney and Sylvia Allen is Hezbollah's fundraising in the region, and much of this dates from the 1980s in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. In fact, the AIE report comes right out and says the donors "do not directly participate in or provide operational support for Hezbollah’s terrorist activity." And when PolitiFact called one of the report's authors he conceded that "references ... made to 'Hezbollah in Mexico' are more speculative and not yet confirmed."
But there's always the potential, right? So Arizona needs an armed force. In case Allen forgot, we already have the US Border Patrol and National Guard on the border, to the tune of nearly $2 billion a year. What the heck is a $1.4 million operation, which is the appropriation for Allen's Special Missions Unit, going to add? Even some Republicans thought her idea foolish:
Others, like Sen. Rich Crandall, a Republican from Mesa, looked at the logistics and remained skeptical about how it would work. "If you were to truly offer live-fire weapons training, you would burn through the $1.4 million in no time at all and have no budget for anything else," Crandall said. Arizona Capitol Times
Oh good, no money for training, just set them loose. The bill passed out of the Appropriations Committee 7-6. Happy birthday, Arizona.