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FYI: Borderlands News, November 5 - 11, 2009 (12 items).  Compiled by Miguel
Juárez.  Additional information about sources available at the end of the
message.



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(1)

"Accused men crossed border 47 times: report; Canadians alleged to be involved
with radical U.S. Islamic group," National Post (f/k/a The Financial Post)
(Canada), November 5, 2009, Thursday, National Edition, CANADA; Pg. A10,
Copyright 2009, National Post, All Rights Reserved.



[Two Canadians facing extradition to the United States for their alleged
involvement in a radical Islamic group crossed the Windsor-Detroit border a
total of 47 times this year, and both have been stopped by U.S. officials at
the border in the past, according to a newly released federal document obtained
by the National Post.  The Attorney-General's application record for
provisional arrest, which includes an affidavit by an RCMP Immigration Task
Force officer as well as U.S. Department of Justice documents, provides insight
into the alleged activities of Yassir Ali Kahn, 30, and Mohammad Al-Sahli, 33,
who face U.S. charges of conspiracy to commit federal crimes in connection with
a Detroitbased radical Sunni group... The two men, who lived around the corner
from one another in Windsor, made headlines last week when news broke that the
FBI had laid charges against 11 members of the group, including Mr. Kahn, Mr.
Al-Sahli and the leader's son, Mujahid Carswell. The three men were considered
fugitives, but it was not long before Mr. Carswell, an American, was arrested
by Canadian authorities in Windsor and deported to the United States. AU. S.
Customs and Border Patrol spokesperson said Mr. Carswell crossed the border
several times each week, and had been questioned by authorities about a
relative believed to have been involved in smuggling narcotics...]





(2)

"At home along a daunting frontier; Few people understand the Mexican border
like Alan Bersin. Now poised to lead Customs, he thinks the terrain can be
tamed," Los Angeles Times, November 6, 2009 Friday, Home Edition, MAIN NEWS;
National Desk; Part A; Pg. 1, Copyright 2009, Los Angeles Times All Rights
Reserved.





[NOGALES, ARIZ.  -  Alan Bersin is back at the border and on the move. On the
third day of a sprint through Texas and Arizona, a law enforcement convoy zooms
into Nogales. Riding in a sport utility vehicle, Bersin scans a dusty landscape
that he knows well: this desert town of 20,000 with its fast-food joints and
discount shops facing the pastel facades and helter-skelter skyline of Nogales,
Mexico, a city of 300,000 just south of the fence...  The border czar has come
to Arizona to assess a smuggling onslaught that generates more arrests and
marijuana seizures than anywhere else on the international line. Smugglers use
cranes to lift drug-laden cars over the fence; unemployed Mexican miners dig
tunnels; cartel pilots fly above the oxygen limit. In Sonora state this summer,
police found a Chevy Suburban containing victims of Mexico's drug war: 11
corpses chopped into pieces... This year, Homeland Security Secretary Janet
Napolitano made him her special border representative based in Washington. In
September, President Obama nominated him for the commissioner post. Customs and
Border Protection, the nation's largest law enforcement agency, has about
60,000 officers guarding the nation's air, land and sea boundaries while trying
to speed the flow of legal commerce...]





(3)

"42,000 deportees hunted; Toronto cops worried as 'staggering' number of
immigrants go on lam from officials," The Toronto Sun, November 6, 2009 Friday,
FINAL EDITION, NEWS; Pg. 8, Copyright 2009 Sun Media Corporation, All Rights
Reserved.



[Almost 42,000 immigrants have gone underground and are being sought on
warrants for deportation -- one quarter of the 160,000 people who are in
different stages of removal from Canada, according to just-released government
documents. There are more surprising numbers: More than half being removed are
from Greater Toronto, the destination of choice for a staggering 60 per cent of
all newcomers to Canada. Toronto Police Association officials said they're
concerned because people facing deportation are desperate and will do anything
to escape arrest.  "We are most concerned for our front-line officers,"
association president Mike McCormack said yesterday. "This raises safety
concerns since these people are desperate and want to avoid compliance...]





(4)

"Is it the world's rudest border? Once, travelling to the U.S. was not a big
deal," National Post (f/k/a The Financial Post) (Canada), November 7, 2009,
Saturday, National Edition, WEEKEND POST: LIFE; Pg. WP4, Copyright 2009,
National Post, All Rights Reserved.



[Those of us in Canada who remember what life used to be like before 9/11 may
still keep in mind that faded slogan, "the longest undefended border in the
world." For many growing up in the West from the late 1900s until recently, the
U.S.-Canadian border didn't exist. One could start a farm or a small business
in Manitoba without much thought to which province or state you were in. If you
went bust, you simply moved the business across the border. That is to say, you
pushed your cart to the other side of the line, assuming you knew where it was.
 After the Second World War, my parents used to take my girlfriends and me to
Grand Forks, N.D., for shopping -- our dollar was solid and the selection in
Grand Forks for adolescent girls, then, was, in my experience, incomparable.
Inevitably, as we approached the U.S. border, my father began to emit his fear
bomb...This easy coming and going ended after 9/11. The tension and confusion
starts at the airport security line. Some airports have "priority lines."  The
question is: Who goes into the priority lines? Those who travel first class on
the airlines?  People in wheelchairs but without their companions? Neither
makes much sense. Terrorists can buy first-class tickets. Why should we give
them priority? And those in wheelchairs have to wait while their companions get
searched in the regular lines...]



(5)

"Dalai Lama caught in the middle as two giants clash over disputed border;
India," The Times (London), November 7, 2009, Saturday, Edition 1; Ireland,
NEWS; Pg. 4. Copyright 2009, Times Newspapers Limited, All Rights Reserved.



[Anyone over the age of 62 in the town of Tawang has a unique claim to fame:
they have lived under four national flags - British, Tibetan, Indian and
Chinese. The tiny outpost in northeastern India repeatedly changed hands in the
chaos that accompanied the birth of Communist China and independent India. The
last time was in 1962, when Chinese troops briefly overran the Himalayan town
and the surrounding area, known today as the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
Today Tawang is once again the focus of a border dispute between the world's
two most populous countries, now both nuclear armed, and competing for
superpower status. The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, will begin a visit
tomorrow to Arunachal; an event that is expected to push relations between
Delhi and Beijing to their lowest level in a decade. He has been here before
but this visit has added significance because China is reasserting its claim to
Arunachal and this year is the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's escape to
India - via Tawang...]



(6)

"Cross-border couple lays down roots," National Post's Financial Post & FP
Investing (Canada) November 7, 2009, Saturday, National Edition, FINANCIAL
POST; Pg. FP10, Copyright 2009, National Post, All Rights Reserved.



[Situation: Couple, she living in Canada, he in U. S, seeks to solve residence
and tax issues

Strategy Analyze tax exposure in both countries, compare costs & benefits.
Solution: A financially efficient solution to the choice of residence This is a
story of two people: He a retired U.S. military officer, she an employee of the
government of Canada. They have two homes --one in the U.S. Midwest, the other
in Quebec. But they want a simpler life, with a single home, a single mortgage
and free of international tax hassles and thorny legal questions about their
residence. The American retired officer, who we'll call Fred, is 59. Having
fought in Vietnam, he went back to school to become a registered nurse. His
companion, a woman we'll call Florence, is 49. She plans to retire in a year
and a half.  "Our objective is to live together, either in the U.S. or in
Canada, and to maintain our savings and add to them before I retire," Florence
explains. "We are concerned that the U.S. and Canada do not recognize each
other's pension plans and we are worried about the impact on our registered
savings of a cross-border move by one of us...]





(7)

"SPECIAL MEXICO ISSUE; But how safe is it to go?" Los Angeles Times, November
8, 2009, Sunday, Home Edition, TRAVEL; Features Desk; Part L; Part L; Pg. 1,
Copyright 2009, Los Angeles Times, All Rights Reserved.



[Mexico's drug war is entering its fourth year. Its H1N1 flu outbreak began
with dozens of deaths and global headlines last spring. This leaves travelers
with at least two reasons to study up before booking that Mexico trip.  But it
doesn't necessarily mean staying home.  Mexico's drug-war death toll reached
more than 9,900 between January 2007 and early October of this year, by the
count of the University of San Diego's Trans-Border Institute. Many of the
deaths have occurred near the U.S. border and far from the resorts and cities
that draw thousands of Americans every year...Still, there has been plenty of
trouble in Mexico, and it continues. On Oct. 16, authorities said they found
nine mutilated bodies in Tlapehuala, a town in the state of Guerrero, and three
more bodies in Acapulco, each accompanied by a threatening note signed "the
boss of bosses." Since Aug. 20, the U.S. State Department has urged Americans
to delay unnecessary travel to parts of the states of Michoacan (capital:
Morelia) and Chihuahua (which includes the cities of Chihuahua and Ciudad
Juarez on the Texas border). Mexican authorities say that in the first half of
2009, more than 1,000 killings took place in Ciudad Juarez... Wherever you go
in Mexico, the U.S. State Department recommends you stay on the beaten path,
carry a working cellphone, tell others where you're going and register to
receive State Department e-mail notifications at
travelregistration.state.gov/ibrs/ui/...]



(8)

"Border guards look for nukes; U.S. completes network of monitors System
scrutinizes vehicles from Canada," The Gazette (Montreal), November 9, 2009,
Monday, Final Edition, NEWS; Pg. A12, Copyright 2009, The Gazette, a division
of CanWest MediaWorks Publication Inc., All Rights Reserved.



[OTTAWA - Every car, truck and passenger entering the United States by land
from Canada is now searched for nuclear weapons.  The last of about 600
northern border radiation detectors has been installed at Trout River, N.Y.,
just south of Elgin, about 90 kilometres southwest of Montreal, completing a
continent-wide shield designed to repel the smuggling of nuclear bombs, dirty
bombs and other malicious nuclear material from Canada.  Most experts believe
there is a low probability that terrorists could muster the technical
sophistication and complex planning needed to pull off a strike on U.S. soil,
yet Osama bin Laden has made it clear that Al-Qa'ida wants to nuke the U.S.
Even a small chance of that happening is one of the great worries of U.S.
political leaders and many security officials. Preventing terrorists from
detonating a nuclear weapon in a major U.S. city is a national security
priority, with more than $3 billion U.S. spent since 2002 on nuclear monitors
at Canadian and Mexican land border crossings and U.S. seaports...]



(9)

"We made the last dash for freedom; 20 YEARS TODAY SINCE BERLIN WALL FELL," The
Sun (England), November 9, 2009, Monday, Edition 1; National Edition, NEWS; Pg.
26, Copyright 2009, NEWS GROUP NEWSPAPERS LTD, All Rights Reserved.



[APRIL 8 1989. The Berlin Wall, and the country that built it, would only exist
for a few more months.  But Bert Greiser and Michael Bachmann didn't know that.
All they knew living in East Germany, which excelled in nothing but shortages,
was that they were sick of it. So on that sunny morning the two pals, both 27,
legged it for freedom in the West... and ran straight into the history books.
On hearing a scream of "HALT" and the crack of gunfire, Bert and Michael
surrendered, becoming the last to ever try to escape the communist country.

For six months later - 20 years ago today - a bloodless revolution swept away
East Germany and the barrier it built to hem in its people... On that morning
they put on their running shoes and got in a taxi to take them near to the
border crossing.  Bert said: "My heart sank when we got near. There seemed to
be more guards on duty than usual."  Between the pair and freedom were at least
a dozen East German border guards armed with "Widowmakers" - semi-automatic
Kalashnikov rifles. There were thigh-high barriers, a 4½ft high steel barrier,
a 12ft high sliding steel gate - and 400ft of open road. Michael said: "I
remember we gave a nod to one another..." And they were off...]





(10)

"Hapless immigrant or terrorist threat? Man caught at the border with 9/11
videos and $900,000," The Globe and Mail (Canada), November 10, 2009, Tuesday,
NATIONAL NEWS; NATIONAL SECURITY; Pg. A1, Copyright 2009, The Globe and Mail, a
division of CTVglobemedia, Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.





[VANCOUVER and TORONTO - He arrived at the Canadian border last month with
plans to move to Canada permanently. But when guards at the Douglas crossing
near Vancouver searched Khaled Nawaya's car, they found nearly a million
dollars in Canadian mint gold coins and paper currency.  Mr. Nawaya's vehicle
was full of security red flags. Border guards found a ring bearing the logo of
Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based Islamist group viewed as a terrorist organization by
Canada. They also uncovered 9/11 videos and a scarf depicting two former U.S.
and Israeli leaders as monkeys. Mr. Nawaya, a Saudi Arabian-born Syrian
citizen, is also a pilot and certified flight instructor with a degree in
aeronautics. He was arrested on the spot on the night of Oct. 6.  Whether he is
a threat to Canadian security or - as his lawyer suggests - a hapless would-be
immigrant who believed he could bring nearly a million dollars across a border,
hasn't been determined...Border guards found $70,000 in cash and about $800,000
in Canadian coins in his vehicle and another $10,000 in his pockets. Government
lawyer Kamal Gill told a detention hearing that Mr. Nawaya was "adamant" that
he had only $10,000. Mr. Nawaya moved to the United States when he was 17...]





(11)

"US hikers will stand trial for espionage, says Iran; Students who crossed
border 'by mistake' could be pawns in nuclear game," The Independent (London),
November 10, 2009, Tuesday, First Edition, WORLD; Pg. 22, Copyright 2009,
Newspaper Publishing PLC, All Rights Reserved.



[IRAN'S JUDICIARY indicated yesterday that three young American trekkers who
apparently blundered into Iran from neighbouring Iraq in July and who have been
in custody since are to be tried for espionage.  The announcement came as
efforts by the international community to nudge Iran into a truce over the
future of its nuclear industry by agreeing to export its stock of low-enriched
uranium for additional processing in third countries looks in danger of
collapsing. After weeks of anxiety about the three Americans, graduates of the
University of California, Berkeley, state radio in Tehran last night quoted the
chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi, saying they "have been accused of
espionage" and that a formal "opinion will be given in the not distant future".
That could mean that charges have been filed, or will be soon.  The families of
the three insist that if they did indeed stray across the border it was only by
accident...]





(12)

"Far out of Africa; Mexico's attitudes about the cultural melting pot provide
context for Anacostia exhibit about race," The Washington Post, November 11,
2009 Wednesday, Suburban Edition, STYLE; Pg. C01, Copyright 2009 The Washington
Post, All Rights Reserved.



[Sometimes you have to look out to see in. An exhibition at the Smithsonian's
Anacostia Community Museum about Africans in Mexico is not about race in
America, or African American identity or what it means to be black in the
United States. But by focusing on the particulars of African existence in
Mexico, it reveals far more universal wisdom about race and identity than so
much of the often rancorous "discussion" of the subject on this side of the
border.  "The African Presence in México: From Yanga to the Present" was first
seen at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago in 2006. Using art from
the colonial era, photographs and contemporary crafts, sculpture and imagery,
the exhibition documents the arrival, disappearance and reappearance of African
identity in Mexico over the past five centuries. Beginning in the early 16th
century, when enslaved Africans were brought on the first missions of discovery
and conquest, it explores how the Spanish (long familiar with interracial
existence given their proximity to Africa) articulated race into categories,
including mulatto (half Spanish, half African), mestizo (half Spanish, half
native) and  14 other permutations...Politically, and ethically, this creation
of a "brown" identity was a complicated and ambiguous project. Having dark skin
or African features was not the automatic ticket to poverty and discrimination
that it was in most of the United States. But there was a cost: the loss of
heritage, history and identity.

Even an idea as seemingly futuristic and idealistic as the "raza cosmica," or
cosmic race, was a double-edged sword. This ideology of identity focused
Mexican history on an epic encounter between the Old (and European) World, and
the New World of indigenous Americans. Introduced by a prominent Mexican
educator and politician in 1925, it offered the idea of a superior and emergent
race, forged from the many identities that came together in places such as
Mexico...]







FYI: Borderlands News is a weekly resource compiled by the H-Borderlands staff.
 It features a sampling of new stories concerning Borderlands issues from
around the world.  In order to comply with Academic Fair Use and copyright
laws, only a summary of the new articles is offered here.  We will not
reproduce articles in whole.



Some stories may be accessed through the news source's website.  Access to the
stories can also be attained through online databases (Lexis-Nexis, ProQuest,
or Dialog) with full-text versions of these and other stories.



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