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Migrant perishes in canal, Border Patrol agent injured A Border Patrol agent trying to rescue a drowning migrant was wounded by the migrant's smuggler and shot back at his attacker this afternoon by the American Canal west of Fonseca Drive, Border Patrol officials said. Border Patrol, El Paso police and FBI officials were investigating the case. Preliminary information released by the Border Patrol indicate that the agent spotted a group of undocumented immigrants crossing into the United States when one migrant went into the water and was swept by currents. Officials said the suspected smuggler, who was on the U.S. side of the canal started hurling rocks, hitting the agent on the back of the head, cutting a three-inch-long gash. The agent was later taken to the hospital and his condition is not known. After being hit, the agent shot at the smuggler and missed and the smuggler ran back to Mexico, possibly with another migrant, officials said. Officials have located the drowned migrant and were pulling his body out of the water this afternoon....
Mexico purges top police in battle against corruption Mexico has launched an unprecedented purge of its top police officers as the latest step in its increasingly high-stakes campaign to combat the drugs cartels and end a gruesome wave of narcotics-related violence. Summarily removed from their posts, at least for the time being, are 284 federal police chiefs spread across every state of the country. Each of them will be extensively vetted for corruption and possible ties to the cartels and their ruthless gangs of enforcers. Since taking office in December, Felipe Calderon, Mexico's President, has taken increasingly bold measures to tackle one of his country's most intractable problems - the unabated activities of the drug lords and the corruption within law enforcement that protects them from arrest. It is a crusade that has drawn wide applause from most Mexicans, who are tired of the bloodshed spawned by the drugs trade, as well as from the United States government. However, there is so far no evidence that the assault is slowing the distribution of drugs. Nor has it quieted the violence. Replaced for now by agents who have been extensively screened for their integrity, the suspended officers will be required to take drugs tests and undergo lie-detector tests. Their relatives and friends will be interrogated and their financial assets examined....
Illegal crossings down in New Mexico Illegal crossings on New Mexico's southern border appear to be down since National Guard troops started building barriers and conducting surveillance last year as part of Operation Jump Start. The mission is an effort by President Bush to slow illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border while the U.S. Border Patrol hires and trains more agents. As of the end of May, federal officials said apprehensions of illegal immigrants in the Border Patrol's El Paso sector - which covers part of Texas and all of New Mexico - dropped 43 percent compared to the same time the previous fiscal year. In the Deming area alone, the number of illegal immigrants apprehended by agents plummeted 61 percent compared to the same period last year. The soldiers have completed about nine miles of vehicle barriers along the border since October. Most of it is in the Columbus area. Units are also watching for illegal crossers from the Las Cruces area to the Bootheel in Hidalgo County, which some describe as a remote and desolate area....
Senate takes step away from Real ID The U.S. Senate took a preliminary step on Wednesday toward reining in the controversial Real ID Act, which is scheduled to become America's first federal identification card in a few years. During Wednesday's floor debate over a massive immigration bill, Real ID foes managed to preserve an amendment to prohibit the forthcoming identification card from being used for mandatory employment verification, signaling that the political winds have shifted from when the law was overwhelmingly enacted two years ago. The anti-Real ID amendment is backed by two Montana Democrats, Max Baucus and Jon Tester, who say the digital ID cards represent an unreasonable government intrusion into Americans' private lives. In April, Montana became one of the states that has voted to reject Real ID. "This was a real victory for Montana and the American people," Tester said, after the Senate vote to kill their amendment failed to muster a majority. The unsuccessful vote to table it was 45-52. The Real ID Act says that, starting on May 11, 2008, Americans will need a federally-approved ID card to travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments or take advantage of nearly any government service. States must conduct checks of their citizens' identification papers, and driver's licenses may have to be reissued to comply with Homeland Security requirements. (States that agree in advance to abide by the rules have until 2013 to comply.) The immigration bill (Word document), which is backed by the Bush administration and has drawn the ire of many conservatives, requires employers to demand Real ID cards of new hires starting in 2013. It says that "no driver's license or state identity card may be accepted if it does not comply with the Real ID Act."....
N.H. Governor Signs Law Banning Real ID New Hampshire on Wednesday rejected the federal Real ID Act as tantamount to requiring a national ID card, joining five other states in opposing it. South Carolina, Montana, Washington, Oklahoma and Maine also have rejected the federal act. "Here in New Hampshire, we pride ourselves on being frugal, and here in New Hampshire, we pride ourselves on respecting the privacy of our neighbors," Gov. John Lynch said at the bill signing. The law's supporters say it is needed to prevent terrorists and illegal immigrants from getting fake identification cards. Critics say it is too intrusive, too costly and likely to be abused by identity thieves. The Real ID Act was passed in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It requires all states to bring their driver's licenses under a national standard and to link their record-keeping systems. States must verify identification used to obtain a driver's license, such as birth certificates, Social Security numbers and passports. Driver's licenses not meeting the standard won't be accepted as identification to board an airplane or enter a federal building. New Hampshire's law calls the act "repugnant" to the state and federal constitutions. The law prohibits the state from complying with the act, which sets standards for state-issued driver's licenses....
White House, Cheney's office subpoenaed The Senate subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office Wednesday, demanding documents and elevating the confrontation with President Bush over the administration's warrant-free eavesdropping on Americans. The escalation is part of the Democrats' effort to hold the administration to account for the way it has conducted the war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The subpoenas extend the probe into the private sector, demanding among other things documents on any agreements that telecommunications companies made to cooperate with the surveillance program. The White House contends that its search for would-be terrorists is legal, necessary and effective — pointing out frequently that there have been no further attacks on American soil. Administration officials say they have given classified information — such as details about the eavesdropping program, which is now under court supervision — to the intelligence committees of both houses of Congress....
Agency's Strangeloves altered mind of a girl aged 4 EASILY lost, on page 425, in the mass of the CIA's notorious "Family Jewels" files is a short paragraph outlining "potentially embarrassing Agency activities". "Experiments in influencing human behaviour through the administration of mind- or personality-altering drugs to unwitting subjects." Of all the heinous acts committed by the CIA in the name of national security, these experiments, done on the agency's behalf by prominent psychiatrists on innocent victims - including children as young as four - may be the darkest. "We have no answer to the moral issue," former director Richard Helms infamously said when asked about the nature of the projects. The release of the Family Jewels documents revealed the CIA handsomely funded these real-life Dr Strangeloves and engaged pharmaceutical companies to help its experiments. The nature of the experiments, gathered from government documents and testimony in numerous lawsuits brought against the CIA, is shocking, from testing LSD on children to implanting electrodes in victims' brains to deliberately poisoning people with uranium....