HQMC ACKNOWLEDGES JURISDICTION OVER JAILED MARINE YET DOES NOTHING TO SECURE HIS RELEASE - IS THIS THE NEW SOP FOR FUTURE MARINE POW'S: THE 5TH ESTATE DEMANDS THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT IMMEDIATELY RELEASE SGT. TAHMOORESSI ON HUMANITARIAN MEDICAL GROUNDS, ABSENCE OF INTENT; CAMP PENDLETON BOYCOTT OF MEXICO UNDER CONSIDERATION
AGENCIES
05/21/2014
Marine Corps Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi has been
held in a Mexican prison since March 31, when he says he accidentally crossed the border into Mexico with three legally registered firearms in his vehicle.
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USMC Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi |
Having relocated to San Diego only days before, Tahmooressi was on his way to dinner with friends and still had most of his possessions in his car, since he was still looking for a permanent place to live. San Ysidro, where he was meeting his friends for dinner, is only 1.7 miles from the Mexican border.
For those who don’t live near a border and have a hard time understanding how quickly one can accidentally cross it, Blaze Radio host Mike Slater — who can be heard on San Diego’s KFMB on weekdays — drove the route Tahmooressi took, filming the whole thing.
“It all goes so fast,” Slater told Glenn Beck on Monday. “You’re going south on [Interstate 5] and you’re going 75 mph. And then you’re there!”
Slater showed how, after Tahmooressi missed his intended exit, he would’ve had to rapidly cut across five lanes of traffic in order to turn around before the border crossing. Moreover, the sign warning of the last U-turn is small, blue and unlit, Slater added, and Tahmooressi was driving at night.
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Sgt. Tahmooressi with mother Jill |
Tahmooressi was able to speak with the Associated Press
earlier this month, and said he thought that he would be able to explain that he wanted to turn around when he reached the border. A recently released
911 call Tahmooressi made shortly after crossing the border seems to confirm the decorated veteran crossed the border accidentally and was just trying to turn around.
But Mexican police quickly surrounded Tahmooressi and placed him with the general population in La Mesa Penitentiary, one of the most dangerous prisons in Mexico.
After “hit men” threatened to rape and torture him to death, Tahmooressi escaped, but was quickly recaptured. He was then moved to solitary confinement, where his hands and feet were chained to a bed for over thirty days. Tahmooressi has now been transferred to a maximum security facility roughly 40 miles outside of Tijuana. If convicted, he could serve up to 21 years in a Mexican prison for carrying his firearms across the border.
Beck remarked: “He has endured over a month of what any honest individual would describe as torture, both physically and mentally — especially for a guy suffering already from post traumatic stress from the war that you and I asked him to go fight.”
“You’d think the same type of people who complain and file lawsuits when terrorists are forced to listen to loud music at [Guantanamo] would be outraged that one of our own has been chained to his bed for a month!” Beck continued. “Under the current administration’s watch, last year
36,000 convicted criminals were released. … It’d be nice to see our administration fight just as hard for just one Marine to be released as well on the other side.”
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It will be a bloody affair indeed for Mexicans if USMC Veterans have to take action to secure the release of Sgt. Tahmooressi |
Beck said it is crucial that Americans “make some noise” before the hearing on May 29, when Mexican officials will make a statement to the judge handling Tahmooressi’s case.
“Call your congressman. Call your senator. Call anybody that will listen,” Beck urged.
“Maybe you could just tweet a picture of yourself holding one of these,” he added, holding up a
#FreeTahmooressi sign, similar to the viral hashtag
#BringBackOurGirls first lady Michelle Obama tweeted for schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram.
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