AZMEX Guard 31-1-07

Guard stayed at post in rock attack
Sunday incident is second involving threat to soldiers assisting on
border
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.31.2007
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Armed National Guard soldiers who were attacked with rocks by unknown
assailants Sunday night at an observation post south of Sells took
cover but did not leave their post, Border Patrol officials said
Tuesday.
The incident is the second perilous encounter for a National Guard
entrance-identification team in the past month on the Arizona-Mexico
border. On Jan. 3, a group of men, including at least one carrying an
AK-47, approached four Tennessee Guardsmen at a post east of Sasabe
forcing them to vacate the post and move back. No shots were fired
and nobody was hurt.
No one suffered injuries in the latest encounter either. Two windows
were broken in a vacant, parked National Guard vehicle, said Jesús
Rodriguez, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. Officials aren't
yet sure if the men were in the United States or Mexico when they
threw the rocks, how many there were and if they had any weapons, he
said.
The Arizona National Guard will assign an officer to investigate what
happened as it does with any incident in which its soldiers faced
potential danger, said Maj. Paul Aguirre, a spokesman for the Arizona
National Guard. But it's important keep it in context, he said.
"There was nothing more remarkable than a couple of windows being
broken out," Aguirre said.
Rock throwings are fairly commonplace for Border Patrol agents but
Sunday's assault marked the first time it happened to Guardsmen,
Rodriguez said. They usually occur in places such as Nogales, Douglas
and Naco where steel, landing-mat fences mark the border line. It's
rare for a rock throwing to occur in a remote desert area like the
one where it took place Sunday night, a few hundred feet north of the
border on the Tohono O'odham Reservation south of Sells.
With as many as 80 entrance-identification teams along the border in
visible posts to serve as deterrents, both Aguirre and Rodriguez
agreed the assaults will likely continue.
"I think the longer we are involved in the mission there is a greater
possibility that incidents like this will take place," Aguirre said.
The Guard has been on the border since June. In addition to serving
as additional eyes and ears for the Border Patrol in the entrance-
identification teams, they provide air support; repair vehicles,
fences and roads; erect vehicle barriers; and work in offices and
camera rooms.
There are 2,183 National Guard troops in Arizona as part of the
mission, 492 of whom are Arizona guardsmen, said Maj. Gen. David
Rataczak, the commander of the Arizona National Guard. The two-year
mission is expected to cost $1.2 billion, he said.
The two January encounters have opened the eyes of the Guard
soldiers, Rodriguez said.
"The Guard members now know what's happening," Rodriguez said. "The
alert level is going to be higher now."
● Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or
bmccombs@azstarnet.com.

Border op pt 8

Border News
Guard chief commends soldiers' reactions
Another post, near Sells, attacked Sunday with rocks
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.30.2007
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PHOENIX — The commander of the Arizona National Guard told lawmakers
Monday that the incident between armed men and soldiers near the
border earlier this month was nothing more than a chance encounter.
Maj. Gen. David Rataczak spoke before a House committee the day after
another incident was reported involving National Guard soldiers
southwest of Tucson.
On Sunday night, assailants with rocks attacked a Guard observation
post south of Sells forcing the soldiers, who were armed, to seek
cover and notify Border Patrol agents.
Sunday's incident didn't involve any guns and no one was injured, but
the rocks smashed two windows on a National Guard truck, said Jesús
Rodriguez, a Border Patrol spokesman.
"They moved away for better cover and concealment, to reconsolidate
and to reassess the threat," he said of the soldiers.
The number of assailants and the number of soldiers involved wasn't
released.
Border Patrol agents were unable to find the individuals. It's
believed they returned to Mexico, Rod-riguez said.
Guard officials couldn't be reached for comment on the latest encounter.
The incident was not discussed at Monday's committee hearing in
Phoenix where Rataczak defended the actions of the four Tennessee
Guardsmen in the Jan. 3 incident.
"I cannot overstate how much restraint it takes if you are standing
in the middle of the desert all by yourself and somebody is looking
at you carrying an automatic weapon," he said. "I commend these
officers for not taking a more aggressive posture and for not
creating a potentially international incident."
The Guard is in the middle of a two-year commitment to support the
U.S. Border Patrol as part of President Bush's Operation Jumpstart.
And with as many as 80 observation sites along the Arizona-Mexican
border, the debate surrounding the Guard's role doesn't figure to go
away anytime soon.
"It appears to me that we are tying the hands of the men and women at
the border," said Rep. Warde Nichols, R-Gilbert, committee chairman
who organized the hearing. "They basically have to be fired on to
return fire and that concerns me."
Rataczak spent the afternoon answering questions from members of the
House Homeland Security and Private Property Rights Committee who
grilled him for nearly two hours about what happened during the Jan.
3 encounter near Sasabe, the rules of force and the future of the
Guard on the border.
"It was a chance encounter," said Rataczak. "It was not an attempt to
probe the National Guard to find out what we would do."
Rataczak's details of the incident didn't completely match previous
accounts.
Contrary to a summary of the encounter written by the National Guard
Bureau legislative liaison, Rataczak said the Guardsmen were not
surrounded by armed men and that they aren't sure how many men —
they think between three and five — were in the group and if they
were all armed.
The liaison statement said six to eight armed men surrounded the
soldiers at one point.
The soldiers first saw a man carrying an AK-47 from about 700 yards
away. That man confronted a Guardsman from about 16 yards away, he
said. Neither raised his weapon and no words were exchanged.
Rataczak said the group was heading south when it came upon the post.
"We think they were going south back across the border with money,
didn't want to be confronted, didn't want to get in any kind of
hassle with the National Guard," he said.
The four Guardsmen had infantry training and two had been in Iraq, he
said. National Guard soldiers working the entrance-identification
team sites are given three ammunition magazines each with 30 rounds,
he said.
One aspect of the story that didn't change from the liaison summary
was the Guard's insistence that its men handled the situation
perfectly and that they didn't flee or retreat, but rather
repositioned themselves.
"If you flee a site, to me that's an unplanned action that you do out
of fear, that's the connotation that flee has to me," Rataczak said.
"If you leave a site and go to an alternate location it means I have
a plan if I feel threatened."
The members spent much of the time repeating one basic question, "At
what point can your soldiers defend themselves?"
He declined to get into hypothetical situations but told them the use
of force is on a case-by-case basis, and that they have to trust the
judgment of the highly trained Guardsmen. "They have a loaded M-16,
and if they choose to use it that's their choice."
When questioned about why their post was facing north, he said he,
too, wondered about that but said Border Patrol officials decide the
location and direction of the post.
When asked why the Guardsman didn't try to order the armed man to the
ground, he said the armed man was not aggressive and looked like he
wanted to get out of there.
For some members of the committee, the meeting was largely a waste of
time.
It was an unnecessary meeting organized only for his colleagues to
try to dictate the rules of engagement, which isn't the state's
responsibility, said Rep. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix.
"There really is no question to talk about," he said. "This is not a
state issue, this is a federal issue. They are on a federal mission,
being paid for by the federal government."
There are dozens of National Guard observation teams along the
Mexican border, including east and west of both Nogales and Sasabe
and on the Tohono O'odham Nation. The troops stand guard on hilltops
next to Army tents and serve as extra eyes and ears for the Border
Patrol.
Do you approve of how National Guard troops handled a confrontation
on the border with armed crossers? www.azstarnet.com/border
● Star reporter Dale Quinn contributed to this story. Contact Brady
McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com.

Border op pt 7

Guard tries to reassure lawmakers
By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services
January 30, 2007
The head of the Arizona National Guard on Tuesday told lawmakers that
four soldiers did the right thing when they backed away from their
post earlier this month when confronted by gun-toting border crossers.
Related Links
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Arizona Border Issues

"Our Guardsmen follow the procedures they were told to do," Maj. Gen.
David Rataczak told members of the House Committee on Homeland
Security and Property Rights. "They followed the SOP (standard
operating procedures) to the letter of the law."

Arizona lawmakers called the hearing in response to an incident on
Jan. 3 in which four National Guard troops from Tennessee left a
lookout post at the border after being approached by four to six gunmen.

The soldiers pulled back and contacted Border Patrol agents, who
tracked the armed men back to the border but didn't find them.

Rataczak said the troops had loaded weapons that they could have used
if fired upon. But the rules of engagement set out by the U.S.
Department of Defense prohibit soldiers from chasing or apprehending
border crossers.

Those rules are part of Operation Jump Start, last year's plan by
President Bush to send Guard units to the border as a short-term
stopgap while more Border Patrol officers can be hired.

But Rataczak's explanation provided little comfort to legislators who
questioned him for several hours.

The legislators argued that the nearly 2,200 Guard troops now in
Southern Arizona should be free to apprehend illegal crossers.

"I believe the National Guard are there basically as a window
dressing," said Rep. Warde Nichols, R-Chandler. "They're not able to
do anything."

Nichols said lawmakers voted last year to spend $10 million to put
Arizona Guard troops along the border in a more active role — a bill
that was vetoed by Gov. Janet Napolitano because she said it
infringed on her right as the state Guard's commander in chief.

Nichols said Bush and his administration share the blame.

"They've failed us in this area, too," he said.

While the hearing cannot change the rules of engagement for Operation
Jumpstart, Nichols said they may help renew efforts to have Arizona
Guard soldiers along the border in a more active role.

Rataczak, however, said that would militarize the border.

"We are not at war with Mexico," he said. "They are our friends."

He also said the soldiers did not actually abandon their post, saying
they kept the site — and the equipment there — under scrutiny. And
the general said the intruders never overran the site.

In fact, Rataczak told the legislators that the whole incident has
been overblown, calling it "a chance encounter."

He said the men, who were coming from the north, likely were drug
runners who had delivered their cargo and were headed back into
Mexico with their cash.

Rataczak said they tripped across the Guard site but were not anxious
to confront them, if for no other reason than being apprehended and
then having to explain to the drug lords in Mexico what happened to
the money.