(WMR)—Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords, severely wounded in a shooting by Jared Lee Loughner on January 8, 2011, had one final item of business before resigning her seat to continue her recovery therapy. Giffords introduced to the House of Representatives H.R. 3801, titled the Ultralight Aircraft Smuggling Prevention Act. The bill would increase criminal penalties for those smuggling drugs from Mexico into the United States.
However, in addition to adding ultralight aircraft to the aviation smuggling criminal provisions of Section 1590 of the Tariff Act of 1930, Giffords’ bill adds “conspiracy” to commit drug smuggling by aircraft to the penalty of “intentionally committing” such an act using aircraft.
Giffords’ bill appears to address the conspiracy by certain elements within the federal government, including the CIA and Homeland Security Department, to smuggle drugs and weapons into the United States through special zones created in Arizona under the governorship of now-Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Giffords’s bill also calls for the Defense Department to “leverage” its expertise on Homeland Security, particularly the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to “detect, track, and engage illicit trafficking” across the U.S.-Mexican border.
On December 9, 2011, WMR reported: “A knowledgeable federal government counter-narcotics source in Arizona has revealed to WMR that the shooting on January 8 this year of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and U.S. Judge John Roll in Tucson was planned as a twin assassination of two individuals who threatened to expose a weapons-for-drugs smuggling operation carried out by a covert group working under the aegis of the Central Intelligence Agency and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. In fact, the covert operation dates back to when Napolitano was governor of Arizona. Roll had been Chief Judge of the District of Arizona since 2006.
WMR has also been told that while the U.S.-Mexican border operation oversees the smuggling to Mexican drug cartels of weapons, including fully automatic AK-47s, in return for drugs smuggled across the border, mostly delivered by airplanes that make clandestine drops on pre-approved drop zones or landing strips in Arizona, New Mexico, and west Texas, at night, it is only peripherally connected to the “Fast and Furious” operation. Our source said that there were so many weapons being smuggled across the border that some were dropped, including a new AK-47 that was found in a wash on the Arizona side of the border. When the discoverer of the weapon contacted federal authorities about his find, he was told to keep the weapon since there were so many in the area. The “area” in question is said to be a special zone created by Napolitano when she was governor and that the special operations carried out there involve a number of “former” CIA, Navy SEALS, and other Special Operations personnel.”
Although Giffords was severaly impaired by the attempted assassination that killed her friend and colleague Judge Roll, she appears determined to expose the shadowy network of CIA and Homeland Security operatives who have opened up the U.S.-Mexican border to wanton arms and drug smuggling.
While President Obama embraced Giffords in a much-publicized bear hug on the floor of the House prior to the State of the Union address, the target of her and Roll’s ire, Napolitano, was not present in the House chamber. Napolitano was in Davos, Switzerland for the elitist World Economic Forum. What would have been more interesting than Obama’s hugging Giffords would have been any encounter between the outgoing congresswoman and Napolitano.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2012 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
