The Laguna Journal has learned that a special U.S. Military Task Force has been created to protect our southern border with Mexico. Members of this task force is preparing to secure the border by responding with specially trained fast response U.S. Army task force military units. These forces are already in place with the heart of the power being concentrated in El Paso and Southern New Mexico with a far reaching responsibility from East Texas to Southern California. They are being staged and immediately available as emergency "on call" units for use against terrorist threats on the nation's border and local disasters, said Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of United States Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Commander.

The Ft. Bliss 1st Armored Division soldiers, as well as a new missile defense unit that are being created at Fort Bliss. America's first air defense and believed by Jane's Intel Web Report to be the owners of the sky where ever they fly. These F-22 Raptors that are stationed at Holloman Air Force Base will be available to defend homeland security, Renuart said.

Renuart, who visited Joint Task Force-North, which is under his command, declined to discuss any details of threats uncovered along the border with Mexico, but he said many agencies, including JTF-North, have made "it a very difficult border for someone to take advantage of." That would explain why there have been recent reports of U.S. military being seen on the border.

The Raptors and awax aircraft are believed to be secretly patrolling the skies over the southern U.S.Border with Mexico now. Awax aircraft called in to help protect the nation from a terrorist attack from the skies or ground. The army has been seen by lots of locals all along the border at what appears to be patrolling on the ground. U.S. Soldiers have told the Journal that those U.S. Army patrols that are on and near the border are simply on maneuvers practicing for the real thing. However they are immeditly available to augment the thin numbers of National guard units lift weak due to the Iraq war. And will be back-up for the U.S. Border patrol and other local border law enforcement agencies. Border Patrol agents and county sheriff' patrolling the border have been witnessing a serous increase of sighting of what appears to be Mexican army regulars and civilian Los Zetas see: They're known as "Los Zetas

As previously reported in the Journal the federal government acknowledged that the United States-Mexican border region has been experiencing an alarming rise in the level of criminal cartel activity, including drug and human smuggling, which has placed significant additional burdens on Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies.

The U.S. border with Mexico extends nearly 2,000 miles along the southern borders of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. In most areas, the border is located in remote and sparsely populated areas of vast desert and rugged mountain terrain with vast open water of the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific oceans.

The U.S. government admits that the border’s vast length and varied terrain poses significant challenges to U.S. law enforcement efforts to control the entry of individuals and goods into the United States.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the federal agency with primary responsibility to detect and prevent illegal entry into the United States. The latest available data indicates that approximately 11,000 CBP agents patrol the nearly 6,000 miles of international border the United States shares with its neighbors Mexico and Canada.

Dozens of U.S. citizens have been kidnapped, held hostage and killed by their captors in Mexico and many cases remain unsolved. Moreover, new cases of disappearances and kidnap-for-ransom continue to be reported. See: Americans Being Kidnapped, Held and killed in Mexico

In addition to Federal agents, State, sheriff, and local police dept's are expected to help patrol the border areas. In remote areas along the border, many sheriffs’ departments are called upon to address border-related criminal matters and serve as a backstop to CBP operations. In many cases, these local law enforcement agencies do not have the resources necessary to patrol the thousands of square miles of border territory under their respective jurisdiction, leaving the security of the U.S. border vulnerable.

While the Southwest border hosts robust legal commercial activity, the border also is the site of violent criminal enterprises. These enterprises are carried out by organized criminal syndicates of Mexican/American cartels, gangs and international terrorist which include the smuggling of WMD's, drugs, humans, weapons, and cash across the U.S.-Mexico border.

"It is prudent for us to assume that any of these established trafficking routes, whether it's human trafficking or drugs or arms or money, any of those could be used, and so we want to keep our eyes and ears on all of those to ensure that they are not used in that regard," Renuart said. See: New Terrorist Bases South Of The Border

Both the F-22 and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile -- designed to destroy short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles as they re-enter Earth's atmosphere -- are recent additions to the nation's arsenal. A THAAD unit is being created at Fort Bliss.

THAAD "provides extremely reliable terminal phase missile defense, something we need both with our theater commanders across the (world) as well as here at home, if the threats of rogue nations continue to emerge," Renuart said. "We've got to find better ways to integrate that capability into our broader missile defense capability."

The F-22s are being used in North American Aerospace Defense Command, and NORAD, air patrols.

"Most importantly, it (the F-22) is a commitment to the recapitalization of aging forces in our Air Force," Renuart said. "As you know, we are averaging almost 30 years an airframe now, and the F-22 is the best not just air-to-air fighter in the world, but it will bring a great air-to-ground capability."

Possibly the greatest challenge will be to support National Guard and reserve forces feeling the strain of repeated deployments that also have depleted equipment supplies. Guard units respond to natural disasters as well as bridge collapses and other human-caused incidents.

"Our job at NORTHCOM is to ensure that if there's a seam or a gap there that we're thinking of how we could fill that with some other capability out of" the Defense Department, he said. "What that has forced us to do it is think about, 'How do you solve that time/distance problem, even on a short-notice event. And so I have access to capabilities now that I didn't have a year or two ago that I can move very quickly to fill that need.

"For example, if there were something that occurred in the El Paso area that the Texas National Guard might not have a capability immediately available to respond, but Fort Bliss did in an active-duty unit, then I would pull that active-duty unit out and make that available to the state to assist." See: War On Drugs And Terror

Sources:

U.S. Army Joint Task Force-North

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)

U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Holloman Air Force Base

Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of United States Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Commander.

U.S. Soldiers on the ground

El Paso Times