THE BORDER REPORT

Strange picture, isn't it? I found it in the files of the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum Library. This bombed-out car marks the first aerial bombing on U.S. soil by a foreign power – 72 years before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. April 1929 – The Americans were watching the Cristero Rebellion across the border in Naco, Sonora, with a jaundiced eye. Because of the revolution, the Americans had built the first border wall in 1919 along Naco, in what's now called Camp Newell*. Five thousand soldiers of the National Guard were put in place to keep the revolution from spilling over. Some things never change. Drinking steadily in Bisbee's Brewery Gulch, pilot Patrick Murphy decided he was going to help the Cristeros by bombing the Mexican Federal Army in Naco, Sonora. He kept a plane in Cananea, the Mexican government kept their own planes on the U.S. side. I've never been able to determine if it was the liquor that did it; but instead of bombing the Mexican troops, Mr. Murphy bombed Naco, Ariz., marking the first aerial bombing the U.S. had ever suffered. The suitcase bombs, packed with three-inch pipes stuffed with dynamite and nails, didn't damage much but did scare hell out of Naco residents. An American motion picture operator was injured; the windows of the Naco Pharmacy, the Phelps Dodge Store, and other businesses were shattered. All in all, a pretty good desmadre from one drunken, revolution-fueled Irishman. The mercenary did it again four days later, this time laying waste to the car in the above photograph (it belonged to a Mexican army general who'd parked it on the American side for safe-keeping). Old Mr. Murphy was finally shot down by the Mexicans but somehow never arrested. Even when the Americans finally nabbed him, they let him go and no charges were ever filed.

Why? Hell, I don't know. A lot of the same mysteries surround us today, six years after the Sept. 11 attacks. I've been watching the Osama bin Laden tapes lately. It's fascinating how the videos are being reported. The one fixation by the national media is how good the man's beard looks. It even came up during a Congressional hearing with top U.S. security officials. Republican Senator Norm Coleman wanted to know if the new look was a signal to al-Qaeda terror cells. But putting aside the man's fashion vanities for the moment, I'd like you to consider this: Osama bin Laden may have had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks. Consider: Bin Laden has never been indicted for the Sept. 11 attacks. $25 million reward or no, when you look at the FBI's wanted posters, bin Laden is wanted for: Murder of U.S. nationals outside the United States; Conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals outside the United States; Attack on a federal facility resulting in death. Under the specific charges, bin Laden "is wanted in connection with the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. These attacks killed over 200 people. In addition, Bin Laden is a suspect in other terrorist attacks throughout the world." I was a little surprised. The FBI and the Department of Justice have never taken a case against him before a grand jury. The only reason the FBI doesn't charge someone is because they don't have enough evidence to do so. For example, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán is wanted on multiple narco-trafficking charges in the U.S. The indictment against him is 20-plus pages long. Same goes for the Arellano-Felix brothers. And nothing against Osama. Did he do it? Been re-reading George Orwell's fantastic allegory, Animal Farm, lately. Orwell's great reading at 3 a.m. when dark thoughts keep you awake. "Snowball! He has been here! I can smell him distinctly!" and at the word "Snowball" all the dogs let out blood-curdling growls and showed their side teeth. The animals were thoroughly frightened. It seemed to them as though Snowball were some kind of invisible influence, pervading the air about them and menacing them with all kinds of dangers. Oddly relevant in my paranoid mind. Still, was it bin Laden who attacked us that day six years ago? Or was it someone more powerful? I don't pretend to understand the manipulations of power in this world. But I do understand federal investigations and right now, our federal investigators don't have enough evidence to say whether Osama bin Laden engineered the Sept. 11 terror attacks. If they did, there would be a massive indictment filed against him. And you can bet that indictment would be very, very public. But there isn't. And somehow, that idea is the scariest of all.

-- Michael Marizco

*Corrected; I had it as Camp Lowell. Thanks to Rebecca Orozco from Cochise College for the correction.