Central hub for Texas police info opens up

Think of it as a central hub allowing law enforcement from across the Lone Star State to fight terror. That's what the new Texas Department of Public Safety Fusion Center will be, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday morning for the new facility got officials of various agencies a step closer to a useful tool in the fight against crime. The idea is to pool intelligence to help prevent terrorist attacks and track organized crime, the like Mexican cartel drug activity. "Every agency has expertise and intelligence analysis. They also have information," said DPS Director Steve McCraw. "By combining that information is the only way you can get an accurate understanding of that threat environment."

Still, critics have called the center a threat to privacy, much like civil liberties groups have protested loudly about the Austin Regional Intelligence Center. The Austin City Council approved using a $150,000 federal grant in August 2009 to run the fusion center, which will allow 10 local law enforcement agencies to share crime information. Critics have said they are worried the information-sharing by law enforcement could lead to personal profiling and undue surveillance. Yet, law enforcement agencies in Travis, Hays and Williamson counties said the goal of the center is to fight organized crime and to track crime trends.

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Why Mexican 'pirates' are targeting US tourists on Falcon Lake

The attack that allegedly killed the missing American tourist David Hartley on Sept. 30 while he was jet-skiing with his wife was not the first such incident on the 60-mile-long body of water straddling the United States and Mexico. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, gunmen armed with AK-47s and AR-15 rifles have attacked US tourists on Lake Falcon in a string of robberies in recent months. Using Argos-type fishing boats, some attackers are dressed as Mexican police, while others have used crude duct-taped signs to disguise their boats as Texas Parks and Wildlife vessels, according to victims' reports.

Since April 30, five incidents of armed robberies or attempted theft have been reported on Falcon Lake: one in April, two in May, and one in August. The fifth ambush allegedly ended in gunfire last week with the possible death of Mr. Hartley. “This is a new situation where [drug-trafficking] groups feel they own public spaces,” says Humberto Palomares, a security expert at the Tamaulipas campus of the Colegio de Frontera Norte (COLEF). Targeting US tourists on an international reservoir is just another sign that the cartels feel more in control of swaths of Mexican territory and don’t have to hide in wait for moments to strike, Mr. Palomares says. Lurking in the night. So dangerous is Lake Falcon, in fact, that Mexican law enforcement refuses to patrol it at night.

Mexican authorities have been searching Falcon Lake since Thursday for the body of Mr. Hartley. Their search is hampered in part by the danger of the lake, says Juan Antonio Jara, a Tamaulipas state prosecutor in the Miguel Aleman municipality office. Once it starts getting dark, he says, police and investigators must return to shore because "it's a high risk area due to [lack of] security." Some report that the bandits attacking tourists and fishermen on Lake Falcon have been brandishing “Z” tattoos, for the ruthless Zetas drug-trafficking group. But questions have emerged over why a well-funded crime syndicate would bother harassing US fishermen for a few hundred dollars, and whether there is only one gang involved. While the Zetas are the most powerful drug cartel in Tamaulipas, the state bordering Falcon Lake, small organizations associated with the Zetas may also be engaging in acts of piracy.

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Agents feared Mexican drug cartel attack on dam

An alleged plot by a Mexican drug cartel to blow up a dam along the Texas border — and unleash billions of gallons of water into a region with millions of civilians — sent American police, federal agents and disaster officials secretly scrambling last month to thwart such an attack, authorities confirmed Wednesday. Whether or not the cartel, which is known to have stolen bulk quantities of gunpowder and dynamite, could have taken down the 5-mile-long Falcon Dam may never be known since the attack never came to pass. It may have been derailed by a stepped-up presence by the Mexican military, which was acting in part on intelligence from the U.S. government, sources said.

The warning, which swung officials into action, was based on what the federal government contends were “serious and reliable sources” and prompted the Department of Homeland Security to sound the alarm to first responders along the South Texas-Mexico border. Mexico's Zeta cartel was planning to destroy the dam not to terrorize civilians, but to get back at its rival and former ally, the Gulf cartel, which controls smuggling routes from the reservoir to the Gulf of Mexico, said Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez, head of the Southwest Border Sheriff's Coalition, as did others familiar with the alleged plot.

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Terror suspect may be headed to Texas through Mexico

A Homeland Security Alert is asking Houston police and Harris County Sheriff’s deputies to keep their eyes open for a potential terrorist. The alert focuses on Mohamed Ali, a suspected member of the terrorist group Al Shabaab. It indicates he may be traveling to the U.S. through Mexico. Al Shabaab is a terrorist group based in Somalia with links to the Somali attacks dramatized in the movie “Blackhawk Down.” A few months ago, the group announced its allegiance to Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. “[Al Shabaab operatives] are certainly a real threat to U.S. security and an increasing threat to U.S. security,” said Rice University Baker Institute Fellow Joan Neuhaus Schaan. Schaan is an expert on Homeland Security and terrorism, and her research is reviewed by the U.S. government, military and civil authorities. She said Al-Shabaab trains extremists and wants to turn Somalia into the next Afghanistan.

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Sheriff To Texas Border Town: 'Arm Yourselves'

Along the border, fears are growing that the escalating drug violence in Mexico will spill into the United States. Last month, a well-known rancher was murdered in southeastern Arizona. Authorities suspect an illegal immigrant did it. The murder prompted governors in New Mexico and Texas to send forces to the border. This week, the Mexican government sent dozens of police and soldiers to the Juarez Valley to restore order. For many on both sides of the border, the fear is very real. Last week, residents held a town-hall meeting in Fort Hancock, Texas — a sleepy agricultural town on the border, about an hour southeast of El Paso, that looks like the bleak set of No Country for Old Men. A couple hundred people crowded into the grade-school gym to hear a chilling message from Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West. "You farmers, I'm telling you right now, arm yourselves," he said. "As they say the old story is, it's better to be tried by 12 than carried by six. Damn it, I don't want to see six people carrying you."

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Two in custody after Fort Worth bomb scare

Southeast Loop 820 and East Rosedale Street in Fort Worth were reopened early Sunday morning after being shut down for five hours overnight. The Fort Worth bomb squad detonated four charges that were found in a pickup truck that spun out on a slick road during a police pursuit. Two people are in custody, and one of them — Kimberly Suzanne Al-Homsi — is well-known to police and federal agents. The Fort Worth bomb squad worked through the evening on the threat. They sent a robot to check a possible explosive device inside the truck. Investigators recovered a toy gun and three pipe-like items containing suspicious material.

It all started in Arlington as a road rage incident in the 1000 block of West Abrams Street, police said. "Someone called to say that there was a person in another vehicle that pointed a weapon at them," said Arlington police spokeswoman Tiara Ellis Richard. "Officers found that vehicle and tried to conduct a stop. That vehicle did not stop, and as a result, the officers conducted a pursuit." The chase continued for 20 minutes. It came to an end when the truck spun out on Rosedale at around 5:30 p.m. Officers took two people into custody: Kimberly Suzanne Al-Homsi, 45, — who is also known as Asma Al-Homsi — and Yasinul Alan Ansari, 18. They reportedly told police there was an "incendiary device" in the vehicle. Al-Homsi was charged with evading arrest, two counts of terroristic threats, and also a prohibited weapons count. Both remained in custody Sunday without bond due to federal holds.

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