CHILL – AT 8:24 A.M. ET:  The U.S. Government yesterday denied that we have any known terrorist threat on the southern border.  Strange.  That's not what the guys who work there say.  Whom do you want to believe?  From CBS: 

Midland County, Texas (CBS HOUSTON) – Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter said that law enforcement agencies along the “wide open” border have received alerts to be on the lookout for terrorists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria crossing into the United States.

Painter, who said he has worked along the border for “about eight years,” stated that alerts have been issued to border law enforcement to be on the lookout for suspicious terrorist activity, specifically involving ISIS cells being smuggled into the United States.

“I received an intelligence report that said that there was ISIS cells that were active in the Juarez area, which is the northern part of the Chihuahua state, and that they were moving around over there, that there was some activity…” Painter told Fox News. The report asked “for the sheriffs along the border to be on the alert, for all law enforcement to be on the alert, and to be on the lookout for these people maybe trying to come across.”

Painter sidestepped any direct knowledge that ISIS, specifically, is along the border, but he reiterated that the border “is wide open.”

“Well I’m saying the border is wide open, there is no control on the border, it’s not shut off,” said Painter. “There’s places along the Rio Grande you can walk across, there’s no water in it. I worked the border for eight years I walked back and forth across the Rio Grande; I was in Mexico, I was on this side. I never got challenged.

COMMENT:  I have no independent knowledge of this, but the sheriff's story sounds entirely logical, despite federal denials.  In fact, for years we've had solid reports of close interaction between Venezuela and Iran.  True, the Islamic State is in conflict with Iran, but there's no reason why it, too, cannot have allies in Latin America.  It would not take much to smuggle terrorists or terrorist devices over our southern border.

The Islamic State is also reported to be very wealthy.  Bribery is a tool.  It's also an old tradition in some Latin American countries.

September 16, 2014