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[Arkeband]

Shane Bauer of Mother Jones went undercover again (and if you missed his first one, he spent time as a prison guard at a private prison - it's a long read, but check it out here.)

This time, he went undercover for a right-wing border militia, and once again it's fascinating and well written.
He also details illegal collusion between Border Patrol agents and these militias.

His new article can be found HERE: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/undercover-border-militia-immigration-bauer

Excerpts:

"How do you tell a Jew from a Slav?" Jaeger says. "You can't. They're both ashes. Hahaha!" Jaeger's parents are German immigrants. He has dual citizenship, and he's conspicuously proud of his heritage. Some guys call him a Nazi, neither approvingly nor disapprovingly, but in a boys-will-be-boys sort of way.

Ghost comes off as an enforcer, but really he is a man of the people. While Fifty Cal sequesters himself in his trailer, Ghost sits around the fire with his men. He doesn't say much about politics, but on his Facebook page he writes that Hillary Clinton is a "bitch" who "needs to hang from a tall tree until dead dead dead." A lot of the guys don't like either party. "Each of 'em is as corrupt as the other nowadays," Fifty Cal says. Jaeger says he'll be voting for Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate. Ghost, however, supports Donald Trump. He tells us he's worried about the day when ISIS integrates with the cartels and starts hopping over the four-foot border fence just south of here. Until Trump is president, Ghost says, we are the wall.

The guys just can't believe how many Muslims there are in the country today. "Saudi fucking Aurora is what it is," Captain Pain says of his hometown in Colorado. "We need to kill more of those motherfuckers. I never seen so many fucking towelheads stateside."

"I remember when the part of Aurora I lived in was just white people," Jaeger says.

Lots of militiamen worry about a UN invasion, but Doc worries the invaders won't actually be wearing blue helmets: They might be undercover. Take the standoff earlier this year, when a bunch of armed patriots occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon to protest the federal government's claim over public lands. Doc says there were police there with tactical gear and M4 rifles who wouldn't tell people what agency they were with. "That ain't the way this country works," Doc says. "A law enforcement officer has to identify himself to you." They might have been UN troops. Or they could have been cartel.

When he first heard of the 3UP border operation, "I thought to myself, if I get a little bit of training, I might get more of them"—the blue helmets—"before they get me. Instead of getting 5 or 6, I might get 10 or 12. Or 20. Who knows? I've learned enough now that I might even get a couple dozen."

Late one night in August 2014, heavily armed 3UP members came upon three men on a ridge near this spot. The militiamen shouted to them in Spanish, ordering them to sit and wait. The men hid behind rocks and announced they were American citizens. They made their way back to their campsite and the militiamen followed. The Border Patrol showed up and found that the men were scientists who had been counting bats in a nearby cave.

"You ever get people flipping out?" I ask.

One guy "was ready to pound my ass," Captain Pain said. "He was ready to just fuckin' destroy me."

"What put him over the line?"

A female member of 3UP was in the room, he says. "I fucking had her by the neck with a Taser. I told him if he didn't tell me something I was gonna light her up. He just looked at me, so I lit her up. That's not working, so I get a cattle prod. Lit her up. Hit her in the calf."

They've gotten some complaints. "People were like, 'What the hell, you're running a torture class?'" Showtime says in a high-pitched, mock-weakling voice. He laughs.

When I asked Fifty Cal to comment on the training, he wrote back, "Stories of SERE are greatly exaggerated. Yes, we have a version of SERE; it's more of a gauge of mental awareness than anything to do with torture."

"Everybody that went through it said it was awesome," Ghost told me. "Nobody got hurt. Nobody died."

After about 30 minutes, Iceman wakes up and looks across the valley. "It's hard to believe that just on the other side of that is Mexico," he says. From here, the border fence is a barely perceptible stitch across the land.

"You ever been there?" I ask.

He turns to me and smiles. "Not legally."

"How'd you get there?"

"Hopped the fence." He was out on an op with someone else and they jumped across. "We're like, 'We're in Mexico, dude.'"

"If we hear shots fired, I want to return fire," he says, shrugging his pack onto his shoulders. He moves in close and looks straight into my eyes, his jaw taut. "If I can slay me a body today, I'll be fucking happy," he says.

Once again, it's a very long but entertaining (yet absolutely terrifying) read.

Build a wall around me if old.

 

[edible_candle]

Just finished reading. Enlightening, if depressing. Hard to believe such groups are allowed to operate they way they do - with the tacit approval and support of the border patrol.

 

[ezekial45]

Shane Bauer deserves the fucking Pulitzer for this and the Prison article.

 

[Arkeband]

Shane Bauer deserves the fucking Pulitzer for this and the Prison article.

I was mildly concerned for his safety after the prison article, but this group seems even more likely to carry out some form of retribution. These guys are clearly mentally unstable and they're just aching to kill human beings.

 

[Violet_0]

the most suprising part for me is that these guys actually fear the UN will invade or are already invading the US

 

[GhostBed]

These people's thirst for violence is truly horrifying.

 

[LucidMomentum]

Militia / PMC / Mercenaries always frighten me.

It's like the US is working with third party contractors that have wildly varying levels of training and vetting for tasks that involve killing people.

That's harrowing, to say the least.

Also what the hell leads someone to have such hatred for other races without any major interaction with them in the first place?

 

[Fenderputty]

Will read later. Not surprised by the snippets though

 

[Ponn]

And conservatives thought this was off-base. No it was right, you are comic book villains.

 

[Morgan Blackhand]

Thanks for posting this op. This is very interesting and well written article.

 

[Burt]

Fascinating read. The facade of deniability that they put on is really interesting. "No crazies and no anarchists."

Yeah, okay bub, sure thing.

CHEM TRAILS

BLUE HAT INVASIONS

BLACK LIVES MATTER IS THE KEY TO MARTIAL LAW AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER

 

[Cybrwzrd]

I wonder if there is a correlation with these groups and large groups of ex-military returning to civilian life? There was also a big push for these during the Clinton years not long after Desert War 1.

Are these guys just dealing with their PTSD by doing this? Not trying to make an excuse for them, but so many of them are ex-military, and talk about their desire to protect and serve America.

So much of what they say sickens me, but the activity itself seems like a coping mechanism for many ex-military who join these groups who have came back from war.

 

[shoplifter]

I'll read this when my paper copy shows up. Spoil it for me though - are any of these people actually 'honest'/'there for the right reasons'? I'm sure there's a bunch of them that are sociopaths, but there *have* to be a few that are closer to normal with good intentions.

 

[Rayis]

Someone should jail these motherfuckers

 

[TAJ]

I'll read this when my paper copy shows up. Spoil it for me though - are any of these people actually 'honest'/'there for the right reasons'? I'm sure there's a bunch of them that are sociopaths, but there *have* to be a few that are closer to normal with good intentions.

Lol, good one.

 

[Mesoian]

Racism is over guys. We have a black president.

Chilling stuff, made all the more scary that the government either doesn't want to deal with them, or colludes with them in order to keep them in a very specific, seemingly but not really manageable space.

Someone should jail these motherfuckers

Think about how inept Chicago is being handled. Now imagine those same people trying to handle Chicago where everyone looks exactly like them but has military gear and are brutally honest about hating them and are more than willing to kill them for nothing.

It's no question why the solution to deal with these nutjobs is to keep them placated, even if that's terrible.

 

[shoplifter]

Lol, good one.

Seriously, there *have* to be at least a few of these guys that are well intentioned (even if they're wrong) and not just 'dudes that want to shoot someone'

 

[Loxley]

The guys just can't believe how many Muslims there are in the country today. "Saudi fucking Aurora is what it is," Captain Pain says of his hometown in Colorado. "We need to kill more of those motherfuckers. I never seen so many fucking towelheads stateside."

Well, if these guys weren't being watched by the FBI before this article, they will be now.

 

[ebullientprism]

Mike says he likes his job. "This is a combat deployment that I get to go home every day and sleep in my own bed. I get all the action, but I don't have to go packing bags."

No its not you fucking lunatic.

I dont have a problem with grown ups playing pretend military. It is however an issue when these nutjobs have guns and live ammo.

"That's what we do here. We're alpha leaders. Even if you don't want to be. You have to be—or you will die."

Yeah from boredom or heart attack. These guys are so pathetic and sad that it is laughable.

 

[mariachi507]

The prison article was aces, in definitely bookmarking this for later.

 

[Man Called Aerodynamics]

It's hilarious to me that their nicknames are Ghost, Iceman, and Fifty Cal. It's literally a macho Call of Duty fantasy brought to infantile life.

 

[preta]

I read the whole thing. These people are psychos.

 

[LucidMomentum]

I dont have a problem with grown ups playing pretend military. It is however an issue when these nutjobs have guns and live ammo.

Yeah this is like LARPing but with actual lives on the line.

It's hilarious to me that their nicknames are Ghost, Iceman, and Fifty Cal. It's literally a macho Call of Duty fantasy brought to infantile life.

Considering all the author had to do to "qualify" was bring his own equipment and like enough Facebook pages, it seems like it's a good ol' boys club more than anything.

But yeah, reading the article now and it's something else. The double standards, the hypocrisy, the statements like this:

"'Cuz he wants to make the world government. He wants to subject the US to international law and submissiveness. UN control. World government control. Just to make the US another satellite nation. Do away with sovereignty."

Like what the fuck does that even mean?

Also lol at the idea of paying up to a grand per "trip" to "patrol" the borders. Some of these people could easily find much more enjoyable hobbies with that kind of budget.

*EDIT*

And there was Forever Enduring, Always Ready (FEAR), a small Georgia militia consisting of active-duty soldiers who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2011, its leader, Isaac Aguigui, asphyxiated his pregnant wife to get her life insurance money. He then spent nearly $90,000 on guns and ammo for the militia. He intended to buy land for training militias in Washington state and to further fanciful plots such as poisoning the state's apple supply, bombing a park, assassinating Obama, and ultimately overthrowing the government. When a teenage friend of Aguigui who was not a FEAR member heard about some of its plans, two militia members shot him and his girlfriend. Aguigui is now serving life in prison.

WHAT THE FUCK.

 

[TAJ]

Seriously, there *have* to be at least a few of these guys that are well intentioned (even if they're wrong) and not just 'dudes that want to shoot someone'

I'm not finished yet, but the article mentions that militias pretty much went dormant at the beginning of the '00s but that the number of groups increased by 8x in the first three years after Obama was elected. It also says that the number of recruits "exploded" after Ferguson.
So yeah... not looking good.

 

[Hale-XF11]

These are the type of people who if they were given free reign, they would basically kill anyone and everyone who is different from them.

 

[Arkeband]

Seriously, there *have* to be at least a few of these guys that are well intentioned (even if they're wrong) and not just 'dudes that want to shoot someone'

What are you really asking, here? Everyone in the article is fully aware of the nature of their hobby - direct or indirectly killing immigrants. They send their recruits through a torture boot camp to condition them.

It's a heavily armed cult, they openly discuss some end-times scenario and one guy jokes about the caste system they already have set up where they'll be the equivalent of Roman nobility and they'll make everyone else farm and forage for them. There is no good intention here - they are basically a confused, infantile, western ISIS.

 

[wenis]

It's hilarious to me that their nicknames are Ghost, Iceman, and Fifty Cal. It's literally a macho Call of Duty fantasy brought to infantile life.

wouldn't be surprised if these dumbasses are just former CoD4 players that took their fantasies too far.

 

[ebullientprism]

These are the type of people who if they were given free reign, they would basically kill anyone and everyone who is different from them.

Nahhhhh.

The guys just can't believe how many Muslims there are in the country today. "Saudi fucking Aurora is what it is," Captain Pain says of his hometown in Colorado. "We need to kill more of those motherfuckers. I never seen so many fucking towelheads stateside."

Well maybe a little bit.

 

[Imperfected]

Late one night in August 2014, heavily armed 3UP members came upon three men on a ridge near this spot. The militiamen shouted to them in Spanish, ordering them to sit and wait. The men hid behind rocks and announced they were American citizens. They made their way back to their campsite and the militiamen followed. The Border Patrol showed up and found that the men were scientists who had been counting bats in a nearby cave.

I'm surprised they tolerated these clearly evolutionist nerds and/or Sesame Street characters.

 

[Palmer_v1]

It's hilarious to me that their nicknames are Ghost, Iceman, and Fifty Cal. It's literally a macho Call of Duty fantasy brought to infantile life.

But they just laughed at me when I told them to call me XxXSephirothXxX. =(

 

[Quotient]

The walmart parking lot scene was most interesting for me. A bunch of white men standing around with assault rifles and the police response was very timid. I couldn't help think what the response would have been if they were black, hispanic etc.

 

[Aurongel]

Love, love, love this guy's work. His piece on private prisons was eye opening.

Will read this in full once I'm out of work.

 

[Theandrin]

Another fantastic piece by Shane. For me the prison story was a little more interesting, but this was still fascinating. It was very interesting to see into their world and the way they think. It's still down right crazy, but it was interesting.

 

[Hubbl3]

The walmart parking lot scene was most interesting for me. A bunch of white men standing around with assault rifles and the police response was very timid. I couldn't help think what the response would have been if they were black, hispanic etc.

You already know:

 

[adg1034]

And don't forget: he was also a prisoner in Iran, so add that to his journalistic accomplishments.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Wasn't there a news article a few months ago about someone in the Navy getting arrested for trying to sell a group like this military grade hardware?


It's really unnerving. These are the kind of people who started Shay's Rebellion and the Whiskey Rebellion. They could cause a lot of damage before being stopped.

 

[shoplifter]

What are you really asking, here? Everyone in the article is fully aware of the nature of their hobby - direct or indirectly killing immigrants. They send their recruits through a torture boot camp to condition them.

It's a heavily armed cult, they openly discuss some end-times scenario and one guy jokes about the caste system they already have set up where they'll be the equivalent of Roman nobility and they'll make everyone else farm and forage for them. There is no good intention here - they are basically a confused, infantile, western ISIS.

So it's worse than I expected. At least in the prison scenario there were a few redeeming people involved.

 

[Jonnax]

Someone asks where a guy called Wolfman is. Rogue says he left today. "He had to go home and take care of some bullshit," Yota says. "Bullshit with an ex and a kid, I'll tell you that. Some drama shit he's gotta go to court on Monday for."

"Shitty ex-wife."

"Most of 'em usually are," Jaeger says.

"And they wonder why bitches get killed," Yota says.

"Hahaha!"

"Seriously. They push and push and push till you can't take it no more. Then the dude ends up fuckin' offing 'em. Then the dude looks like a fuckin' evil-ass person and it's like, dude, you were pushed."

If anyone is surprised at how much support Trump still has even after all the misogynistic things he has said and done. This kind of attitude is really common.

 

[NealMcCauley]

The cajones on that reporter. Damn.

Fascinating article. Loved how the camp segregated into Colorado and Arizona factons that hated one another.

Jaeger, Destroyer, and Spartan sit and play cards under a tree. Jaeger is listening to a song called "Shadow of the Swastika" by a Viking metal band called Týr. "If you listen to the lyrics, they make a very good point," Jaeger says. "They are saying, 'We didn't commit these crimes. Why should we be blamed for it?'"

 

[Sunster]

They're out there playing army make believe.

 

[Hale-XF11]

They're out there playing army make believe.

Which is funny, because if any of them actually did have to face real war combat, they'd probably all shit themselves and cry out for mommy.

 

[btown]

Well this was a disturbing read. These people are psychos.

 

[Formless]

Which is funny, because if any of them actually did have to face real war combat, they'd probably all shit themselves and cry out for mommy.

Some of them are ex military (supposedly)

One of them in the Fusion vid is carrying a katana, lol

 

[DragonSworne]

So these assholes also willing cross the border between Mexico and USA illegally. I wish Mexico had some milita men on the other side to arrest them.

 

[Abraxas]

I would recommend cartel land to anyone who enjoyed this. While it is set mostly south of the border it also looks at a militia in I believe arizona. Plenty of these guys are ex marines or ex army, so they are just some guys sat in a trailer yelling slurs. They have the experience to Track and kill. That said, they always seem like sad people, who lost out in the recession or clear have mental/substance abuse issues that could be solved with proper medical care.

 

[Man Called Aerodynamics]

Which is funny, because if any of them actually did have to face real war combat, they'd probably all shit themselves and cry out for mommy.

The weird thing is though, according to the article a not-insignificant number of these guys are veterans. They do have the experience of being in a real combat zone, following real orders, with real stakes. So you'd think they'd recognize how dumb and fake this pretend version of the military is.

 

[Sunster]

Which is funny, because if any of them actually did have to face real war combat, they'd probably all shit themselves and cry out for mommy.

Thank, God they are there to protect us from the Islamic cartels that they are no doubt doing battle with on a daily basis.

 

[Gentleman Jack]

I'll read this when my paper copy shows up. Spoil it for me though - are any of these people actually 'honest'/'there for the right reasons'? I'm sure there's a bunch of them that are sociopaths, but there *have* to be a few that are closer to normal with good intentions.

No, they're psychopaths who are good at rationalizing their behavior. the journalist is sent on a 3 man 'op' and they find a cache of food, water and clothing because many immigrants die in the desert. His companions destroy it. Later:

He is also angry about how my team handled the backpacks. Iceman should have taken control of the situation and searched the bags without calling it in. "If it's fuckin' drugs, back the fuck away from it. Take pictures and secure the shit. Don't touch it! But if it's fucking food and water? Destroy the shit. Okay? 'Cuz there's a lot of humanitarian groups that drop off food, water, and everything to these fucking bastards who come into our country illegally." Fifty Cal later told me, "We would never deny food and water to an immigrant." He said this cache was clearly meant for a drug cartel, given the "high-dollar items" in the backpacks.

There was candy and canned fish in the backpacks.

 

[PsychoSoldier]

The weird thing is though, according to the article a not-insignificant number of these guys are veterans. They do have the experience of being in a real combat zone, following real orders, with real stakes. So you'd think they'd recognize how dumb and fake this pretend version of the military is.

Maybe some of them either a) like killing or b) are so deeply twisted by their prejudices and their paranoia that they think they're actually doing something.

 

[Angelus Errare]

They're not hateful, racist, sexist people. They're just "mentally ill" (sorry to say but fuck people who put all the bad shit Americans do on "mental illness", like real talk fuck you guys).